Alexander Dietz - worst customer service ever. Still don't have my knife 5 months

Magnumb and Quiet,

Please take your squabble to another thread in the appropriate W&C forum and quit derailing this one.
Thank You.
 
chadridv said:
With all that said, I am not trying to defend the actions of the accused here, and I am certainty not contesting the accusations of the OP, however this thread seems to be falling off the rails here, with all the talk of how "nuts" artists can be, and how we're likely dealing with mental illness here. None of us are psychologists treating this patient.

If we expect professionalism here from the accused, let's keep our evaluation of the situation equally professional and based on facts.
Click to expand...

I was about to say the same.

The side chatter and sniping at each other are going to get this thread shut down. By the chatterers or by me. If I have to go through this thread to remove all the off-topic posts, those posters will hear about it personally.

Focus on the original poster and his problem getting the knife back with the work done right. Commenting on each others comments has already drowned out the real question here. As the pope asked Michelangelo: When will it be finished ???
 
This is in response to the OP's most recent post, not a deviation from it.

magnumb if you're arguing that was acceptable I am glad you are not in business anymore said:
"I probably should not have said I don't know if I'll ever see my knife again, however, it doesn't really matter what I said".[/B]

You "probably" should not have defamed this man....? You "probably" should not have accused him of being a thief....? "It does not really matter what I said"........really? You feel totally vindicated and justified in defaming a person, accusing him of something he has not even shown a propensity for or history of, you then fully expect him to take whatever you dish out for thousands of people to view, you have quite likely caused him to lose some business with your malicious accusations and finally, for the capper of all cappers......you then expect him to treat you as the wonderful human being and customer that you obviously aren't and expect him not to feel any ill will towards you whatsoever...? So yes.....his response was very tame by comparison and it would be thought to be by most anyone's standards given your accusatory, defaming comment right out of the chute, all because of his malicious, psychologically and physically damaging, pain and suffering laden and extremely eggregious crime of not answering a few of your emails.

By your standards and your own words, you should be able to quite freely and without conscience or consequence, falsely accuse any service provider and say absolutely anything you choose to say to him/her that you want and they should then be expected to resume their relationship with you as if nothing had ever happened......all because of a few unanswered emails. Any intelligent person can read your initial post and know full well from your 'attitude' and content of your post that, "it really doesn't matter what I said" means exactly that. It obviously means exactly that or you wouldn't have taken the extra energy and anger to type it. Are we not supposed to take what you post for thousands of viewers to see and accept as truth as what you really meant to say....? I'm betting that English is your first language, so there should be no excuses. No matter how many times you/we/anyone read your intentionally slanderous comment, it remains totally unjustifiable and without any cause to have made such a statement. It plainly says, "screw you and yours, I'm the customer and I'm always right......just do it and since I'm now PO'd 'cuz you didn't pay immediate attention to me and my feelers are hurt, here's a parting shot at your integrity and honesty for thousands of your potential customers to see"!! There's no jury in the US that would not find you 100% liable for your comment, unless of course, one amongst them is a certain fellow 'board member'.

That you say that you "probably" should have not made the slanderous comment really tells the whole story here and that is disturbing, unfortunate and very sad. It's also very telling. You still can't accept the fact that your actions and comments were an intentional and unexcusable defammation of Alex's character, without any regard for how it might affect him, his business and the welfare of his family.

A few emails not responded to (when the project was still 2 weeks from the agreed upon completion date) vs a man's integrity, livelihood and general quality of life. Tough and agonizing choice......for some. For those businessmen and customers that can't seem to differentiate between the two, I propose this: It should now be totally acceptable for any and all of your customers to slander you and potentially negatively impact your business and livelihood, without any recourse whatsover or the ability to file slander lawsuits against that customer, because as the OP's post and others members here have clearly stated, that's what real businessmen should accept as part of just doing business and customers should not feel nor face any responsibility, nor remorse, for accusing said real businessmen of anything they may feel like accusing them of. No accusations need be justified nor questioned, but instead be immediately accepted as the truth, because as was the case here, more than a few believe that the customer is always right...........not sometimes, not once in awhile, not every blue moon, Haley's Comet or Hell freezin' over........always.

Since this is about just a few emails not being responded to in a matter of days (again.....2 weeks prior to the agreed upon completion date), let's make it open season against all service providers in regards to free slander, character assasination and self serving accusations for all customers to be able to be engage in after 3 emails haven't been responded to by their service provider.......when your order is still 2 weeks away from the proposed completion date. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? This is exactly what the OP has essentially said and indicated throughout this thread........that such behavior and defammation should be totally acceptable, only because he is the customer, and that he remains steadfast in this belief since his very first post. No apologizes, no remorse whatsoever........just a 'probably'.

I wish that it were more obvious as to which one that you 'probably' felt was truly more important when all is said and done, but that's as clear as mud.....at best.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
There has been developments to the story.

Talked to Alex the past few days, he did apologize for the delay and wishes that it had never happened.

However, he messed up the material he was using for my scales. Crap happens, I completely understand. Then we switched scales to a blue/silver twill and he made a mistake on that as well and there wasn't enough to complete the job.

So he ordered some material to have by Monday. So we're doing red/silver/black lava flow, carbon backspacer, and acid washed blade. Should come out really well on my tanto 583.
12835085804_9f0c2f24ce_o.jpg
[/QUOTE]

They should look awesome . I would be pretty stoked as well. Personally I think they would look sweet on a 581.
 
I had looked at having some work done and backed out. I can say that as a small business owner there are MANY alarm bells that go off when looking at this from a distance. Most recently watching a shop video where there is a shelf with who knows how many knives waiting to be "pimped" and the way that he talks about the wait reflects that this person really doesn't seem to care about "customer service." It seems unfortunate and I can say that his work seems amazing and he probably bit off more than he could chew. However many new self employed people just don't have the ability to manage all aspects that it takes.
 
Think if somebody robbed his shop or something - you think there are $5,000 worth of knives there?? $10,000?? (I haven't seen the video, so I'm kinda asking you) How would he ever pay that back if he can't complete the smallest job for a client? He really should take a hard look at his situation, and send all the knives back that he hasn't taken money on, and find a way to complete the rest of them. He'll be in the same shape Gareth Bull is in now soon if he keeps it up; spent all the money he took upfront and not even have enough money to buy material to complete the smallest bit of the massive lot of work he owes. I don't know how the clients handled payment, but if it wasn't pay up front he needs to consider sending some knives back with an apology - and if he has already taken payment, he needs to get all that work done before it crushes him. This thread has the same promise as the Gareth Bull Thread, we'll never know the extent of the people that he has taken knives and money from :thumbdn:
 
http://youtu.be/rq8LuxLUKoI

The knives in boxes on a shelf are right at 14:00.

Many people I have seen come and go in self employment. I personally would not spend any money on work orders for my business until the job was complete and back to the customer with final approval. It's sometimes hard to start a new business that way but it is the right way to do business and is lacking in younger people. And yes I am 35 and opened my own business at 20 and was very successful. Just closed due to not wanting to grow bigger than a 1 person operation.
 
Alright guys I finally was able to reset my password there were some weird issues even after reset but i managed to finally figured it out.
Seeing this thread really puts me down but i knew it would happen sooner or later.
it seems there are a mix of people commenting here on the thread some customers some not.
i know there is alot of mixed opinions here so im just going to be public on whats been going on with dietzknives.
A majority of my customers know what has been going on and have been very understanding and i appreciate it .
over the past 5+ months iv been though quite alot and it hasn't been easy managing what was going on so here we go.
Come august i was speeding though orders however i was behind due to a injury on the job but it was manageable.
i had been struggling with my marriage with my wife of 5 years (im 24) and it seemed to be going well up untill a certain point. It was my wifes birthday and i had caught her in the act of commiting suicide.. i did not know what to do so i called the police long story short she ended up in a adult psychiatric ward in portland. I visited her every day at visiting hours untill discharge nearly 2 weeks later from the event. soon after being released she admitted to cheating on me with another man for over a month. it is the most terrible heartbreaking event that i have lived through so far. there are some other issues involving her infidelity that i will choose to leave out. it was at this time where i was planning to buy a shop and relocate as i wasnt living at my house with the main shop anymore , leaving me out of a shop completely for a little over a month. being a Christian that i am i wanted to find forgiveness and try and work things out despite the things that had happened. through counselling and much more we decided to try and work things out and to be honest things are going better then they ever have (present day).now about my communication errors i was unable to log into my main business email due to it getting hacked multiple times in the middle of this leaving me unable to respond to questions and inquires.After a few hours of being on hold and being consistently disconnected i was able to retrieve my email back. i tried emailing as many people as i could explaining whats going on, there were alot of missing emails and to this day it is still quirky with me not being able to receive emails and sending important stuff to spam . iv created a new email dietzknives@gmail.com and check it weekly as it doesnt get much traffic i will be checking it daily after this post however. i apologize to all of you who have been waiting and i can promise you i will deliver the work it will just take time. I am currently working mon through friday on orders to try and clean house and hope to be completely done in 3 months time . i haven't taken an order for over 3 months now to help alleviate the issue however to pay these heavy psych ward bills i am needing to shell out a few custom blades a month to make ends meet. If there is one thing i did do right it was invest more than half my scale earnings into supplies and tools to keep me running on a very low budget as i am not making much at the moment . i appreciate all you guys you support and understand i am a good guy whos had a very bad 2013, i wish to surprise you with my work as i take pride in my fit and attention to detail .again you can reach me at dietzknives@gmail.com. please don't pm me as notifications are sent to my quirky yahoo address and are easily missed. i apologize for any punctuation errors and jumble sentences writing isn't my strong side.
hope this helps clear things up and im looking forward to getting everyone happy,

sincerely
Alexander Dietz
 
And yes i have a shelf for orders it just happens to be larger than most due to my surge in popularity in summer of 2013 . doesn't mean that im forgetting about them i see them every day as a walk in the shop and they are dwindling down slowly as i make up for mistakes and mishaps .
 
Well Good for you coming on and trying to get this mess straightened out. I stopped down here and read this thread and just thought here we go again. Another Knifemaker/Craftsman bites the dust . Life can be tricky and if you are true to your word people will soon forget . You just have to work extremely hard in this business to make it work. unfortunately you owe a lot of people money and or services and that are not going to go away. Not to tell you how to run your business but five days a week just is not going to cut it. One additional day a week will cut down your back orders to about two months. That's another month quicker to freedom. Just my thoughts. Good luck
 
Marko3 said:
Well Good for you coming on and trying to get this mess straightened out. I stopped down here and read this thread and just thought here we go again. Another Knifemaker/Craftsman bites the dust . Life can be tricky and if you are true to your word people will soon forget . You just have to work extremely hard in this business to make it work. unfortunately you owe a lot of people money and or services and that are not going to go away. Not to tell you how to run your business but five days a week just is not going to cut it. One additional day a week will cut down your back orders to about two months. That's another month quicker to freedom. Just my thoughts. Good luck
Click to expand...
i think your right marko appreciate the advice and kind words
 
I'm sorry to hear of your challenges the last 1/2 year or so, but I hope that you'll soon be able to regroup, move forward and that your business and personal life will soon become a source of pleasure, joy and pride.

Given your circumstances, resolve and your honesty here since now that you have the technical capability and the time to respond.....it would seem that you now have a much better chance, than many, at regaining your footing once again, with most members now understanding and realizing the obviously challenging and unenviable position you found yourself, gaining others confidence, trust and their support and moving on with your life as you had likely always intended.

My best to you..........
 
Last edited:
Another thing that could help in the future for orders is a website or even use of Instagram type postings that keep a current list of projects and that way people can just look at the site to know current wait/build times. It really would not take much time to update and in the long run would really end up saving time as to email inquiries about people's knives would be cut significantly. Keep moving forward and God bless.
 
Alex - I hope that everything personally works out for you. I understand things happen. I have nothing personally against you. Just wish at some point the communication lines would have been clearer about what was going on and I wasn't left in the dark.

I agree with Marko, as much as it sucks owning a small business sometimes you have to work 6-7 days a week. It's not so much managing a business as it is a lifestyle, as crazy as that may sound.

I look forward to my tracking number today so we can get this all behind us.
 
grownstar said:
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.
Click to expand...

Best post of the whole thread.
 
I don't have a dog or a knife in this fight but I have followed this thread from beginning to end. Alexander, I hope 2014 is a much better year for you than 2013.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top