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Alexander Dietz - worst customer service ever. Still don't have my knife 5 months
- Thread starter besthaticouldo
- Start date
Artist can have mental health issues. Its what makes a lot of them creative geniuses yet socially not capable of being very good communicators. This also makes them less than good business people. Probably why a lot of artist put their work in galleries. To deal with the public and put on a business face can be dam near impossible. I read it on the forum all the time. Its a shame a guy with so much talent would behave this way. I have heard people say if I had his talent or his brain I would be succesful. Yea right. You would be in the same boat. There are artistic and talented people who can manage to be descent if not right great at business, but I assure you it comes at some price. So I would just suggest when you are dealing with someone who is very talented and you want them to do work for you. Try and understand. They aren't trying to be bad at business. It may just be part of the curse that comes with being what you like about them.
So next time someone says there is no excuse. Well there actually might be.
being critical of them will get you no where but frustrated. They still need business but they dam near starve sometimes trying to deal.
Just my 2 cents on why artistically talented people might seem like they don't give a crap.
James
So next time someone says there is no excuse. Well there actually might be.
being critical of them will get you no where but frustrated. They still need business but they dam near starve sometimes trying to deal.
Just my 2 cents on why artistically talented people might seem like they don't give a crap.
James
My post dealt with the OP's accusation, not with Alex's business practices nor justifying them. And no........the first volley (and the most premature and unjustifiable one) came from the OP, unless you're reading into it something not there. So, your opening statement is self serving, wrong and unjustifiable.
If anyone, be it a customer or otherwise, inferred that you were potentially a 'thief' (especially when there was still a full 2 weeks left before the stated completion date), would you just suck it up without responding in some way? Hell, you can't even discern the intent of my post enough to not get all worked up and then respond hastily in a self serving rant. Seems your fuse is fairly short, if there at all.
You show me where I advocate for Alex to continue with the way he has dealt with this particular situation. In fact, I state clearly that my post had all to do with the inference of 'thievery', nothing else. That's what, "My comments don't go to Alex's business practices" and "Alex certainly could have kept you in the loop better" and "I hope that Alex comes through for you ASAP" is all about. You also show me where I am wrong in assuming that each and everyone of us would simply roll over and take such a comment as, "frankly, wondering if I'll ever see my knife again right now" without taking that as a accusatory and blatantly provocative statement. Given your above post, I'm absolutely sure that you wouldn't, nor would I expect you to, nor anyone else for that matter. That would also include Alex.....wouldn't it...? So yes......given that the OP voluntarily made that statement, "Alex's response was very, very tame considering.........".
You can try to justify the OP's premature and accusatory statement any way you'd like, change the words around or whatever, but they still come out as 'fightin' words' when all is said and done. That was the intent of my post and if you can't comprehend that, even though the above examples I've offered should be clear enough even for you, then your eyes are totally useless.......friend.
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2013
- Messages
- 33
There was no fighting words.
10 days before I got a response, I guess you glanced over the fact it was my 3rd email to him asking status. All of which had gone ignored. Seems a little suspect that he was fast to respond when he wanted me to pay but not when he was doing the work. So it was 100% justifiable. His response was not tame, it should have never ever gotten to that point.
10 days, think about that. 3 emails had been ignored. 3. THREE. The first one never should have been ignored.
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2011
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- 1,941
In a perfect world, every knife maker/modifier would be able to enlist the help of someone with a business management degree. Unfortunately the reality is that these people probably do not make nearly enough money to be paying someone else a salary, and the only way to make more money is to keep taking in orders, which perpetuates this whole vicious cycle. As a whole, the "full time knife modifier" thing seems to be pretty much unsustainable. I don't think we've seen anyone do this for more than a few years before imploding/quitting/making their own knives.
The easiest thing would probably be for Alex to give up on everyone's orders, return their money and knives, and start fresh making only his own knives (which is his intention). It would be a much quicker end to this headache for everyone, although I suppose a bit less agreeable. Cuz damn, I really wanted that Po' Boy Roadhouse
besthaticando, it may be the best he can do too. I envy Alex can put himself out there like he does with his talent. He probably needs help managing his business, but i am not making excuses for him. I don't know of him at all. Just from this thread. Some artist are braggarts and they open themselves up to criticism. other stay in their shells and never hear any praises. they can seem very stubborn but its self preservation. To them.
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2013
- Messages
- 33
I hear ya loud and clear. That is definitely a perspective I've never thought of. Very interesting.
There has definitely been more contact from him in the past 2 days than in a long while. Hoping to have my knife back soon.
In a perfect world, every knife maker/modifier would be able to enlist the help of someone with a business management degree. Unfortunately the reality is that these people probably do not make nearly enough money to be paying someone else a salary, and the only way to make more money is to keep taking in orders, which perpetuates this whole vicious cycle. As a whole, the "full time knife modifier" thing seems to be pretty much unsustainable. I don't think we've seen anyone do this for more than a few years before imploding/quitting/making their own knives.
The easiest thing would probably be for Alex to give up on everyone's orders, return their money and knives, and start fresh making only his own knives (which is his intention). It would be a much quicker end to this headache for everyone, although I suppose a bit less agreeable. Cuz damn, I really wanted that Po' Boy Roadhouse
I would agree, it takes money to get help and that adds pressure. Some artist can't handle pressure. Even with a gun to their head. They may rather take the bullet.
You're completely and inarguably wrong here, and it's clear to me that you're either Alex, or a friend of his in here defending him. The fact is, your attempts at passing judgement on a guy who wanted to know:
1. where his knife's at
2. where his money went
are flat out wrong. For one thing, what you talking about "first volley"? Can you even read? OP's "first volley" were the two polite emails requesting an update that Alex ignored. It is irrelevant whether you agree or not. Alex is supposed to be a businessman, and he showed his rear end, and poor business acumen in his responses to the OP. You mistakenly act like people should just be super polite, and I'm here to say that people like you are part of why people like Alex continue to get away with poor business practices. Also, please don't attempt to condescend to me, and start implying that I "can't comprehend that". I clearly have a much clearer picture of this situation than you do, the issue here is that you're obviously biased on Alex's behalf, and I'm biased on my fellow board member's behalf. That is crystal clear.
People like you that pretend to outrage over things that have nothing to do with them amuse me to no end. You claim that I went on a self-serving rant...which is exactly what your first response in this thread was. "Oh, the outrage! That's inexcusable! Your response was super rude! You should have prostrated yourself and politely begged Alex to respond to your emails, please sir, may I have another? Or my knife back? Please?"
Absurd.
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If your job is answering e-mails, yeah it's important for you to attend to e-mails, but comparing whatever you're doing that you get 350 e-mails a day (44 e-mails an hour??) to what a sole proprietor does is apples and oranges. When your primary means of correspondence with customers is e-mail and the work cycle is several months, and a client sends 3 e-mails in 10 days with the last one taking a clear jab at the guy's integrity before you even get a chance to respond to the first one, yes that is a bit excessive. It's shows a lack of confidence in their ability to manage their time unless the matter is urgent, and who is to say that if it was urgent you wouldn't have gotten a response immediately? Everyone runs their business differently, and there are a lot of people that put a low priority on status e-mails, and work them at designated times, but answer new business inquiries and address work that is on the table in a more timely manner. Your first e-mail no doubt showed up in his inbox, and you don't have any proof that he wouldn't have answered that 1 e-mail in the same timeframe he responded to 3 - except that he was quicker to respond to new business inquiries previously.
Nobody is defending this guy's actions in taking your money and not performing the promised work, and missing a half dozen deadlines - but you might want to consider that more than one person is telling you that your initial response was questionable in this context, and leads people to believe that you might not be a model customer. It's clear now he lacks integrity, but it wasn't that clear initially.
As for giving the seller a pass because "Artists might have mental health issues or coping problems", that is worse than citing "personal issues". I don't know where you guys come up with some of this stuff. It's the seller's responsibility to produce the products he took money for in the timeframe he quoted. If he's unable to deal with the public then it's his burden to enlist help or quit advertising services that require public contact. You see this on the forums all the time because the barrier for entry into this industry is low, and when there is a low barrier of entry it doesn't take as much integrity to build up enough business to create a facade of a good reputation. People that have the ability to produce (you have to make yourself work when you own a business, nobody else will do it for you) will thrive, and people that are lazy or just want to get by will end up as one of these feedback threads. It has more to do with the fact that he's not producing product than how he deals with the public. If he did the work he agreed on he wouldn't have to deal with the public.
Quiet ,
Alex is obviously not the best businessman , I doubt he would argue that he is. Nobody that is providing a service wants to create difficulties for themselves. That would be stupid. There are people with talent you could show them a million dollars and it won't change their practices. Not everyone is created out of the same mold. I hate to say the greatest artist because I think that would infer they could manage other apsects. I will say the greatest talents are sometimes NUTS
Alex is not hear to defend himself and I imagine he has a defense. Which may only work for him. Its may be who he is. Criticizing him may get the opposite results. Even if its justifiable critique. Its frustrating to people who don't understand.
look in the capitalistic scheme of things. Alex will pay for his practices. I hope he finds his path of least resistance with the most gain. heck he is trying its just not perfect. That perfection seems to be in the work he does. force him to do otherwise may get bad results. Literally bad things to help cope. Since his abilities to escape aren't available anymore.
OK I am done. I am only speaking for myself and not anyone else. I know how a screwed up mind works. It isn't pretty.
Alex is obviously not the best businessman , I doubt he would argue that he is. Nobody that is providing a service wants to create difficulties for themselves. That would be stupid. There are people with talent you could show them a million dollars and it won't change their practices. Not everyone is created out of the same mold. I hate to say the greatest artist because I think that would infer they could manage other apsects. I will say the greatest talents are sometimes NUTS
Alex is not hear to defend himself and I imagine he has a defense. Which may only work for him. Its may be who he is. Criticizing him may get the opposite results. Even if its justifiable critique. Its frustrating to people who don't understand.
look in the capitalistic scheme of things. Alex will pay for his practices. I hope he finds his path of least resistance with the most gain. heck he is trying its just not perfect. That perfection seems to be in the work he does. force him to do otherwise may get bad results. Literally bad things to help cope. Since his abilities to escape aren't available anymore.
OK I am done. I am only speaking for myself and not anyone else. I know how a screwed up mind works. It isn't pretty.
You do make some good points in the second half of your post, but I don't understand the mindset that OP was wrong for saying what he said in his third email. It doesn't matter if you're a knife-maker, a guy who bakes cakes, or a roofer. If a customer sends you an email, you hear a ding on your smart phone, you have two choices. You can answer it right then, even a one sentence response "We're two weeks out, done soon." That takes three or four seconds to type on a phone keyboard and you hit send. OR, you take an hour each night to devote to emails. THEN you answer a customer's first response. THAT is the issue. There is no defense here. This isn't the early 1990's where no one was using email, so people still sent letters with stamps on 'em, or tried to call and leave messages. In today's business world, EVERYONE uses email, and if you are running a business (no matter what it is), then you should expect to have to respond in a timely fashion when customers reach out to you by email. Period. No excuses.
Plenty of people have been burned in doing business online in the past. Hell, if you've bought or sold on Ebay for any length of time, it's almost a guarantee that that's happened. So, why are we blaming the OP for what is really a statement made in frustration, and making a big friggin' deal about "OMG YOU CALLED HIM A THIEF!" Look at the timeline, OP states that he tried to email twice, and both were ignored. That is crap. If you are a businessperson, it should be an expectation on your part that you have email to deal with, and people expect a timely answer. Therefore, there is no defense on Alex's behalf that makes any sense.
Brother, I hear ya. I do. But let me just say, I'm not a psychologist. So, I'm not going to have an opinion about Alex's mental state, or whether him being an artist makes him sensitive, or whatever. I think all that is BS, if I'm being honest. What I CAN speak to: I'm a buyer, a seller, and in my professional life, an information security professional who is Held Accountable. As far as I'm concerned, any attack on the OP (unless he's lying, and things didn't happen exactly as he says they did, with the timeline) is merely that person not Holding Alex Accountable.
The tone? The idea that the OP deserved that BS response because oooohhhhh noooooo, he insinuated that Alex was a thief, it's all nonsense. If you ignore multiple attempts at contact that could have been resolved with a one sentence response that would have taken you three seconds to make, then the customer (in this case, the OP) is absolutely within his rights to feel like there might be something hinky involved. OP says that Alex told him that this job would take Alex one day. So, why were months going by and delivery dates being blown through? Oh, he had personal problems. Ok, but then he's also posting up vids of him having a good time instead of working? That's crap.
Anyway, hey, I'll check back to see if Alex comes in to defend himself. I'm not a hypocrite, if he comes in and posts up some proof that the OP has lied to us, I'll join magnumb on the "Let's hate on the OP" bandwagon. But until then, I've only got posted up emails and an explanation of a situation where a seller showed his poor business acumen to a customer, and in the process showed that he's actually a jerkbag.
Locutus D'Borg
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2012
- Messages
- 5,212
A number of knife pimpers are suddenly becoming knife-makers because it is a higher status profession. And they are ignoring pending pimp jobs to promote their new custom knife making business. My impression is that they aren't great business people, although they may be very creative and manually skilled. But business is about integrity and communication and customer service. Good luck to the OP.
I agree Alex business practices suck.( I shouldn't say his business practices suck. I don't know this first hand) No matter what the excuse. If he falls under my idea of an artist suffering from a mental problem , then the only answer is to seek help or suffer the consequences. We do have a choice, just sometimes jumping off a bridge seems easier than facing your fears. You may not get it but. "What we know is a drop , what we don't know is an ocean" Isaac Newton. There are NO Know It Alls.
Alex if the shoe doesn't fit, please don't wear it. I am speaking , from my own experience. I am a crappy business man. I don't even own a watch. I use a timer if I need to keep time.
Alex if the shoe doesn't fit, please don't wear it. I am speaking , from my own experience. I am a crappy business man. I don't even own a watch. I use a timer if I need to keep time.
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What? Not trying to start anything, but the guy's a knife pimp, not the next Rembrandt. In all seriousness, if Alex has no problem taking the cash then he should have no problem getting the work done. This includes responding to status emails. Y'all know as well as I do that waiting for our knives is the hardest part.
bestthaticouldo, sorry to hear about this whole debacle. I sincerely hope this gets taken care of asap, and that you're happy with the work you paid for.