Any weird experiences lately with customers or others for you?

crimsonfalcon07

crimsonfalcon07

Joined
Dec 27, 2010
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I am in the middle of a rather strange experience, for which I'd love some feedback from other makers. Thread's up in Whine and Cheese. I'm wondering what your policies are for exchanges, etc, and if you've had experiences like mine. Note: the person in question is the winner of a free GAW prize, not a paying customer. What experiences have you had?
 
The craziest I ever had was when I gave a $1000 pair of ear rings to a charity for their big auction and raffle. They used them for their main raffle prize ( $20 tickets). The raffle winner came into the store a week later and asked if she could return them and get the $1000 instead. When I told her, "NO", she then asked if she could exchange them for something else, because she had plenty of ear rings. I politely told her ,"No" again. She looked at the cases of fine jewelry, and said, "Well, You don't have anything I want anyway."....and left.
 
That's a good story. I love the "you don't have anything I want anyways" part. That's priceless. I take it no exchanges for you on prizes then, eh?
 
.....I take it no exchanges for you on prizes then, eh? .....

That would open a door you don't want to go through. When you give a prize, it is THAT item they won. Unless the prize is for "A custom knife of your choice/design, then the one they won is the one they get.

As to the "Knife of your design" option, I did that about five years ago. I would donate a custom Sgian Dubh to our Scottish Society's raffle every year. The winner would usually ask if I could modify it by adding some feature to fit his avocation ( like a piper emblem) or his clan ( like a clan crest pommel). I would tell them that I would have to make a new, custom knife to do that. So, I decided to offer a custom Sgian Dubh of value around $400 as the prize. We sell twenty $20 keys for the "Lock Box" raffle ( only one key opens the box and gets the prize inside). The winner was a nice guy, but I had fits trying to pin him down on what he wanted. After six months, I finally made him an ivory handled Sgian Dubh with his clan name engraved down the side. He was quite happy, but I never did that offer again.
 
Seeing we are talking about customers.. I had a guy contact me about a month ago and asked me to make him a bushcrafter. I said sure and asked what he wanted for scales. He said he wanted some spalted maple. I said I didn't have any but my policy on wood (unless I have it on hand ) is buy it and ship it to me and I will build the knife. Well he doesn't like that idea so I ask him if he liked micarta so we go with that seeing I had that on hand. So I build the knife send him so photo's and said he loves the knife and payment will be forthcoming. I said great and now he is gone like the wind.

I have had many handmade knives built for me. NEVER would I even consider not paying for it. It's not about the money so much I'm not getting rich here. I don't know sometimes things come up but geez. At the very least man up and say you don't like it or maybe you don't have the money.. Geez
 
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