Alexander Dietz (Update - RESOLVED)

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J_Roc

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Alexander Dietz

I ordered a titanium backspacer for a Spyderco Military from him in August 2013.

We had good communication while we were discussing what could be made, style, etc. I sent payment; so far so good. At the time I think his thread said 3 month wait time.

I dropped him a line in November but did not get a reply. I waited a month then sent another email, again no reply. I waited another month (January now) and sent an email, still nothing. Please note that all of these emails had a friendly "tone" - simply checking in to see if he had an ETA, would it be ready for Christmas by any chance.

Thread here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...es-Backspacers-Anodizing-and-more!(PIC-HEAVY)!

I see that his thread now references some personal issues, etc.

I can understand that life has its ups and downs, but I also think a simple email would avoid this type of situation, or if he knows that he will be unable to fulfill his orders then return the money and move on.
 
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Now that one of his designs is being picked up by Böker, maybe he doesn't have time for small fish anymore. Just my two cents, I do hope you get your money back.
 
It is another pimper - Geoff aka Tuffthumbz - whose knife got picked up by Boker. The WarToad. However, Dietz is also making custom knives now, and is no longer taking pimp orders as I understand it.

Myker said:
Now that one of his designs is being picked up by Böker, maybe he doesn't have time for small fish anymore. Just my two cents, I do hope you get your money back.
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I am in the same boat.

Details: Early July 2013, sent a Boker Kwaiken to get the flipper mod. Nothing super special, just the flipper mod. Alex states it would take 10 days. I paid and sent it in. Now, 7 months later, not a peep heard from him. Stopped responding to emails around September.

I understand that he is starting knife-making and all. But the "pimp" job I paid him for would take what... 30 minutes to do with the right tools and experience? That is the reason I sent it to him in the first place. And he is so busy that he can't do that? Can't make it 10 days? Ok, take your time I am in no rush. I was understanding, until I saw this:

[video=youtube;rq8LuxLUKoI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq8LuxLUKoI[/video]

go to about the 14:00 mark of him showing off his shop. It looks like he has a entire shelf full of boxes of knives that were sent to him to be worked on. And he complains that people are bothering him about getting the knives done. Looks to me like he took money for pimp jobs, and used it to upgrade his shop and move onward to knife-making. Are his pimp job customers forgotten?

The real shame here is that his custom knives actually look really nice. But this little ordeal has left a sore taste in my mouth, and I am sure I am not alone.

Bad form, Alex, bad form.
 
Seems like a common trend for pimpers to bite off more than they can chew... And then just ignore their customers...
 
I am more or less in the same boat with both Alex and Ryan Vaughn of RV Bladeworks, although I find myself giving much more of the benefit of the doubt to Alex just based on the quality of his work. I purchased a knife off of instagram from Alex back in October which included some modifications on a second knife from my own collection. Payed immediately and sent my knife to him, with a projected time of a "few weeks" after he moved into his new shop. He did not mail the knife I bought until 12/30/13, which I have now received. There's still no word on my other knife that is being modified, only that he is behind on work. Last I heard from him was when I emailed him on 12/16/13 and he still did not have a projected date for its completion.

I have tried as hard as possible to keep quiet about this, as I am sure the end product is going to be well worth the wait, but at the same time how much can we let people get away with stuff like this? It honestly seems like the same story with every knife modifier now. Posting videos of shop tours and custom knives that you're working on when you have a tremendous backlog of customer's knives just seems like a slap in the face. I truly wonder what these "full time" modifiers do from 9-5 on monday through friday. I swear they could knock out at least 50% of their workload in one week if they just devoted their time only to those customer's knives. I'm afraid that in making the transition from knife modifier to knife maker, most of these people are ruining their reputation in the process.
 
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This seems to becoming more and more of the tread.
I will turn business down until I get caught up. I try my best to treat others the way I want to be treated.

Sucks that some of you guys are missing your knives for over 7 months. Kinda ridiculous.

Hope you at least get your property back.
 
I've dealt with Alex before quite awhile back, before he got a knifemaker membership and was as popular as he was now. I had him completely pimp out a benchmade 755 mpr and it took about 3 months or so if I remember correctly. His work was good and communication great. Of course that is only my experience and its evident that many people do not share the same experience of mine.

Personally, I would think that if your work became high in demand, set up quotas where you only take X amount of orders on this give time or time period until you can do so again. As opposed to accepting most orders people send someone.
 
Wow man that video gets me annoyed seeing that huge pile of peoples knives going un touched. Im about 7.5 months into a pimp job from another maker(ryan vaughn) and I know its complete he sent me pics but he just keeps putting off shipping it out. I dont get how they can act so nice in their emails/texts and then turn around and treat people like dirt that doesnt matter in the slightest. Makers like these are incredibly frustrating and they seem to forget we are the one who paid their bills for months and months.
 
I sent Alexander a PM with a link to this thread.
 
Well, seems that I am not alone...

The GREAT back and forth communication up until the point of money sent, then radio silence certainly does not help with appearances!

Even though I am past the 45 day PayPal dispute window I still opened a case...at least to log it.
 
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Blade-fiend said:
Wow man that video gets me annoyed seeing that huge pile of peoples knives going un touched. Im about 7.5 months into a pimp job from another maker(ryan vaughn) and I know its complete he sent me pics but he just keeps putting off shipping it out. I dont get how they can act so nice in their emails/texts and then turn around and treat people like dirt that doesnt matter in the slightest. Makers like these are incredibly frustrating and they seem to forget we are the one who paid their bills for months and months.
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I will never understand why so many finished knives sit around without being shipped out. What is difficult about putting something in a box and then dropping it in a mailbox? Ryan promised to mail my unfinished knife back to me on the 9th, still nothing. But that problem already has its own thread.
 
As much as I hate to be part of this thread Ive got an issue with Alex as well. Late September sent Alex good chunk of change for a custom ti scale. He said we was doing one for another customer so it wouldn't take that long. Communication was great at first but now I have not heard anything from him since the middle of October. At this point don't care about the scale just want my money back. Hopefully Alex can get this all straightened out and make good on his word.
 
I am waiting on a scale from him but I have actually received emails every time I inquire. His dates keep moving but at least I have heard from him. Waiting since August. Just adding my experience.
 
rycen said:
I sent Alexander a PM with a link to this thread.
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I received an email from Alexander yesterday (thanks rycen) with a lengthy and detailed explanation. It certainly sounds like Alexander had an upside down horseshoe nailed to his wall for the last few months.

He offered to make my backspacer or send a refund, I said I would just like to get my money back - I received my refund immediately! :)

He did mention that he will be contacting others that have posted in this thread to sort things out with everyone.

At this point I do take him at his word and I think this situation was an unfortunate set of circumstances. He told me that his email became compromised, which explains the lack of replies from my emails. He also said he lost his BF account info and has been unable to logon. (He has not been on the forums in months so it seems to add up).

For the others that have posted, I would be willing to bet that it gets sorted right away.
 
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Glad, he has gotten in touch with someone. I've tried emailing him multiple times just for an update. Sounds, like we all have the same story though. Before you pay he is very open and responds to ever email. As soon as he has your money and knife he goes silent. My para-military 2 has been with him since August 8th, 2013 and I have heard anything out of alex since it arrived. I'm starting to feel ripped off like everyone else.
 
J_Roc said:
I received an email from Alexander yesterday (thanks rycen) with a lengthy and detailed explanation. It certainly sounds like Alexander had an upside down horseshoe nailed to his wall for the last few months.

He offered to make my backspacer or send a refund, I said I would just like to get my money back - I received my refund immediately! :)

He did mention that he will be contacting others that have posted in this thread to sort things out with everyone.

At this point I do take him at his word and I think this situation was an unfortunate set of circumstances. He told me that his email became compromised, which explains the lack of replies from my emails. He also said he lost his BF account info and has been unable to logon. (He has not been on the forums in months so it seems to add up).

For the others that have posted, I would be willing to bet that it gets sorted right away.
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I sent Alex a link to this thread and he told me the same thing he told J_Roc. His Yahoo e-mail has been compromised and he hasn't been able to log on to BladeForums. He said his G-mail works fine. Here is the address: dietzknives@gmail.com
 
Recovering a lost forum password, or a password for any website that requires login authentication, there is a "Forgot Password?" Link on every login page. All it takes the willingness to look at it for 2 seconds, or he can contact Spark for help.
 
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