Bad News - Derespina strikes again and it keeps getting better - Buyers Beware!!

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Animus31

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This will be my first post and I found a similar post not too long ago with the exact same details. I contacted Richard Derespina about purchasing one of his knives back in July 2015 and he quoted about 2 to 3 months and requested that I pay in full upfront. I had previously bought a knife from him and had no issues so I figured sure why not I trust him, big mistake. Here is the history.


richard derespina <derespinaknives@yahoo.com>
7/11/15

to me
Thanks Adrian, but I stopped taking orders in January. 2 year wait list is too long for most. All I will have available right now are a Model 3 and an Enso. Let me know if either of those interest you.

Thanks!
Rich


richard derespina <derespinaknives@yahoo.com>
7/12/15

to me
Hi Adrian,
So after we communicated I went through my stock and guess what?.... I do have an extra 4XL. It would take about 2 to 3 months since it's partially done. So if you want it, it's yours. The total cost shipped priority and insured is $525. You can choose between black, black & od, Camo, black and orange or Black and gray handles. Let me know asap. If you're ready to go ahead please make payment to derespinaknives@yahoo.com and in the Comments section please detail your order like so:
Model 4xl with (color) handles with(without?) back edge serrations

To which I jumped at the chance and paid in full. 4 months later got this:

On Nov 4, 2015 10:57 AM, "richard derespina" <derespinaknives@yahoo.com> wrote:
I will ship end of this week. I have about 130 knives to ship this week which will include your Model 11. The Model 4 will follow soon. Sorry for the delay.

Thanks
Rich

Then 3 months later This:

richard derespina <derespinaknives@yahoo.com>
Feb 11, 2016

to
Hi All,
This is a long overdue update on the current work load. Some of you are past due and some of you are soon to be due for your knives. Currently I enjoy a lot of popularity. However, as a one man operation and full time Father I am often backed up. Such is the case right now. I have delivered approximately 100 knives since December, yet I have several hundred more to plow through. I deeply appreciate your patience and understanding. Having such great customers is truly humbling as I know how lucky I am.

There was a time when I could more easily respond to each and every one of you individually. Sadly, that is changing and I must start doing more mass emails like this to address everyone equally. I get too many emails from old, current and potential customers every day. This becomes too much communication, typing, etc and that takes me away from work. Taking me away from work, only delays the delivery times further. One of the reasons why on my website I had to specify that ETA's changed based on a myriad of factors.

Without completed knives in hand, I will keep doing these mass emails. When your orders are completed or near completion you will receive communication from me individually. As well as a picture of your knife.

Please continue to be patient and bear with me. I promise to deliver although I am late. As well, no one is forgotten in the hustle and bustle of my work. There are a handful of you that will be addressed ASAP after this email, separately to discuss finalization of your work and any other issues pending.

For those of you who missed out on the first Production run of the Model 10, there will be another run starting this Spring. I am awaiting the delivery estimates now. Initially they were set for mid Spring to early Summer, but this may change plus or minus one month or so. These will again be in D2 steel, with Black and OD G10 handle choices. Black Kydex and teklock belt clips. A great and reasonably priced package. Thanks to those of you who were able to purchase and help sell out the lot. I will be doing another Pre Order list once I have an ETA on the entire run. Watch the Derespina Knives facebook page and my website for updates on the Pre Order list.

Thank you again for your continued patience, you have my utmost gratitude. I hope you've had a great start to the New Year!

Sincerely,
Rich Derespina

Notice the dates. We are now in October almost November still nothing. I paid $525 full in good faith and got jacked. I have been sending repeated emails to this man since last year July to this current date. I have already contacted PayPal but they say they cannot do anything because its more than 6 months. I am fed up and want a full refund. The other post on the forums is almost word for word. Oh I have a spare pay full price and then he disappears. This is the other post with the same bad info on him --
Bad - Where in the world is Richard Derespina? Let the buyer beware.
 
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Wow, that stinks. Looks like another maker to the ignore list. Hope you get something from him at some point.
 
Within just a few hours of posting here Derespina broke his almost 2 month silence. This was his reply which seemed to be in response to my request.


richard derespina
12:31 PM (1 hour ago)

to
Good day Gentlemen!
I wanted to let you all know that I received your communications regarding your back orders. As some of you know, your knives are still in the process of being completed. All are ground, heat treated and awaiting finishing, handles and kydex. Some have already been completed are near completion. However, I must reiterate several points. Firstly that I am one man, who does every last nit of the work by himself without any help whatsoever. This makes the process long. It often is preferable in custom knives, because the more machinery, automation and assistance one gets, the less of a hand made knife you have from that particular artist. In this case, me. This doesn't mean I am not sorry and remorseful for the delays that have occurred. Some of which couldn't be prevented and were the result of me trying too hard to speed through these processes. Still others were a matter of supply delays, equipment failure, etc. All of which I have attempted to remedy and have for the most part. The greatest issue being my full time Fatherhood of 2 kids, while trying to bang out all those back ordered blades. Add to all that, a pending move that sort of took us by surprise. We hadn't expected to move but an opportunity arose and we are currently looking for a new place to set up. We remain where we are for now and will remain in the State of PA but are looking about 40 minutes south of here.

I understand these are all excuses and those suck, especially when you're invested in and waiting for your knives. I do really understand and you have every right to be upset about these delays. Which is why all ETA's are approximated. With that, a small few have asked for Refunds. As expressly stated on my site, there are NO refunds. In part because your deposit money goes toward your materials which are purchased at the time or shortly after you order. The deposit secures those materials and your place in line.
As much of a hassle it may be for you, it has also been a hassle for me in the past before I took deposits with customers ordering willy nilly and disappearing when the knives were completed.

If you would like your money back, I will be glad to list your knives on my site for sale when they're done. I will not keep them in my possession however. I will offer free advertising only. Any contact from customers wishing to buy your knives, will be forwarded to you from me. At which point you can handle all transactions with those customers. You will have the knives in your possession and can coordinate with them regarding payment and shipping. This way, you get all your money back(shipping fees etc) and can do it in a more expedient fashion.

As you can imagine, in order for me to make a living at this, I must work every day as much as humanly possible, while also juggling Dad duties to a 8 & 9 year old.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
Rich

PS, I'm sorry I am unable to respond to each and every individual. That is also time consuming, which means time out of the shop and that equates to lower productivity. Since you're a handful of people with the same issues and requests, I found it wise to address all equally at the same time. Please do not take that personally, it's just time management.


In short he outright lied saying my knife was a spare elongates the time frame with issues and excuses then refuses to refund even when he is in the wrong.
 
Rouse said:
Find an address and go to his house ...............
Click to expand...

That would be a bad idea, regardless.

I have seen him talking about completing back orders on Facebook. Have you tried to contact him there? I only know him from forums, here and another forum in Joisey.
 
I am amazed at how guys like this can demand payment up front to the tune of $500 or so and then take hundreds of orders stretching to over a year's delivery, or even two years. That is a lot of money to hold in advance.
I have made certain leather products for the past 11 years that are in pretty high demand. I make only a dozen pieces each week and will take no more orders than I can make and ship in a week. I would not be able to sleep with a backlog like that. Yes, some customers miss out and I turn away a lot but to do otherwise and take funds for undetermined deliveries is absurd. I cannot see how makers can do this and customers accept such long dates.

Sent from my LGMS769 using Tapatalk
 
Heirphoto said:
I am amazed at how guys like this can demand payment up front to the tune of $500 or so and then take hundreds of orders stretching to over a year's delivery, or even two years. That is a lot of money to hold in advance.
I have made certain leather products for the past 11 years that are in pretty high demand. I make only a dozen pieces each week and will take no more orders than I can make and ship in a week. I would not be able to sleep with a backlog like that. Yes, some customers miss out and I turn away a lot but to do otherwise and take funds for undetermined deliveries is absurd. I cannot see how makers can do this and customers accept such long dates.

Sent from my LGMS769 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yup!!!
I have a small HVAC business for the last 30 years and I operate the same way. When the temp goes passed 95* all hell breaks loose. It is impossible to keep up and rather than take deposits and string people along, I refuse the work. It is tough, but impossible to have a happy customer!
I do not advertise, everything is word of mouth. Bad news travels at the speed of light......I'd rather be able to sleep at night.
Joe
 
@Animus31

As you probably know from my thread, he did almost the EXACT same thing to me. Told me my knives were spares, that I would have them in two weeks, and it took him a year to send them, and I think only even then because of my persistent pestering of him. He finally emailed me and sent me my knives like ONE DAY after I posted a thread here.

One of the knives he sent unfinished (without specified serrations), which he was really apologetic about and said it would take him "two minutes" to correct. I didn't believe him but also felt it was unacceptable I pay for an unfinished product, so I sent it back. Now 17 months waiting on a karambit he said was a "spare" (i.e., extra, already made).

Sorry dude. This guy is bad news. And he sends 130 knives a week? That sounds completely fabricated. If true, he would send over 6000 knives a year, which means he's probably accepting orders on double that. At an average cost of $500, that would amount to about $6 million a year in orders. Hmm....I *think* he's lying.

Anyway, I hope you get your order. I know it sucks waiting indefinitely. Been there. The good news is you'll *probably* get your order, eventually.

Side note - I didn't get the mass email he sent you, despite my knife being incomplete, paid for, extremely overdue, and in his hands. Which probably means my knife is rock bottom priority for him. Maybe in his mind, since he sent me 1/2 of my order a year late, he did his duty and can move on.

BTW, the whole "no refunds" thing is a scam. When I paid for my knives his website said nothing about no refunds. He added that sometime later and retroactively applied it to my order. He never told me "no refunds whatsoever" or anything like that until I requested one like six months after my knives were promised finished.

@Heirphoto, Palonej - The way you both operate is how a professional operates. Richard Derespina at best has the mentality of an irresponsible third grader (the dog ate my homework!), and at worst may be a selective scammer. He operates like a con artist. The only difference is he'll probably deliver...eventually. It might take him another year or two, but the man cut his finger, give him a break!
 
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Animus31 said:
Within just a few hours of posting here Derespina broke his almost 2 month silence. This was his reply which seemed to be in response to my request.


richard derespina
12:31 PM (1 hour ago)

to
Good day Gentlemen!
I wanted to let you all know that I received your communications regarding your back orders. As some of you know, your knives are still in the process of being completed. All are ground, heat treated and awaiting finishing, handles and kydex. Some have already been completed are near completion. However, I must reiterate several points. Firstly that I am one man, who does every last nit of the work by himself without any help whatsoever. This makes the process long. It often is preferable in custom knives, because the more machinery, automation and assistance one gets, the less of a hand made knife you have from that particular artist. In this case, me. This doesn't mean I am not sorry and remorseful for the delays that have occurred. Some of which couldn't be prevented and were the result of me trying too hard to speed through these processes. Still others were a matter of supply delays, equipment failure, etc. All of which I have attempted to remedy and have for the most part. The greatest issue being my full time Fatherhood of 2 kids, while trying to bang out all those back ordered blades. Add to all that, a pending move that sort of took us by surprise. We hadn't expected to move but an opportunity arose and we are currently looking for a new place to set up. We remain where we are for now and will remain in the State of PA but are looking about 40 minutes south of here.

I understand these are all excuses and those suck, especially when you're invested in and waiting for your knives. I do really understand and you have every right to be upset about these delays. Which is why all ETA's are approximated. With that, a small few have asked for Refunds. As expressly stated on my site, there are NO refunds. In part because your deposit money goes toward your materials which are purchased at the time or shortly after you order. The deposit secures those materials and your place in line.
As much of a hassle it may be for you, it has also been a hassle for me in the past before I took deposits with customers ordering willy nilly and disappearing when the knives were completed.

If you would like your money back, I will be glad to list your knives on my site for sale when they're done. I will not keep them in my possession however. I will offer free advertising only. Any contact from customers wishing to buy your knives, will be forwarded to you from me. At which point you can handle all transactions with those customers. You will have the knives in your possession and can coordinate with them regarding payment and shipping. This way, you get all your money back(shipping fees etc) and can do it in a more expedient fashion.

As you can imagine, in order for me to make a living at this, I must work every day as much as humanly possible, while also juggling Dad duties to a 8 & 9 year old.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
Rich

PS, I'm sorry I am unable to respond to each and every individual. That is also time consuming, which means time out of the shop and that equates to lower productivity. Since you're a handful of people with the same issues and requests, I found it wise to address all equally at the same time. Please do not take that personally, it's just time management.


In short he outright lied saying my knife was a spare elongates the time frame with issues and excuses then refuses to refund even when he is in the wrong.
Click to expand...

this whole email he sent out is complete nonsense. id hope y'all would get your money back, but he already pretty much admitted he has no money. so be it...good luck to y'all.
 
jbmonkey said:
this whole email he sent out is complete nonsense. id hope y'all would get your money back, but he already pretty much admitted he has no money. so be it...good luck to y'all.
Click to expand...
And I'm not even on the mass email list anymore!

I just noticed the part about him moving. I wonder if this is where he cuts and runs with all the advance payments and the Ponzi scheme collapses.
 
Shai Hulud said:
@Animus31

As you probably know from my thread, he did almost the EXACT same thing to me. Told me my knives were spares, that I would have them in two weeks, and it took him a year to send them, and I think only even then because of my persistent pestering of him. He finally emailed me and sent me my knives like ONE DAY after I posted a thread here.

One of the knives he sent unfinished (without specified serrations), which he was really apologetic about and said it would take him "two minutes" to correct. I didn't believe him but also felt it was unacceptable I pay for an unfinished product, so I sent it back. Now 17 months waiting on a karambit he said was a "spare" (i.e., extra, already made).

Sorry dude. This guy is bad news. And he sends 130 knives a week? That sounds completely fabricated. If true, he would send over 6000 knives a year, which means he's probably accepting orders on double that. At an average cost of $500, that would amount to about $6 million a year in orders. Hmm....I *think* he's lying.

Anyway, I hope you get your order. I know it sucks waiting indefinitely. Been there. The good news is you'll *probably* get your order, eventually.

Side note - I didn't get the mass email he sent you, despite my knife being incomplete, paid for, extremely overdue, and in his hands. Which probably means my knife is rock bottom priority for him. Maybe in his mind, since he sent me 1/2 of my order a year late, he did his duty and can move on.

BTW, the whole "no refunds" thing is a scam. When I paid for my knives his website said nothing about no refunds. He added that sometime later and retroactively applied it to my order. He never told me "no refunds whatsoever" or anything like that until I requested one like six months after my knives were promised finished.

@Heirphoto, Palonej - The way you both operate is how a professional operates. Richard Derespina at best has the mentality of an irresponsible third grader (the dog ate my homework!), and at worst may be a selective scammer. He operates like a con artist. The only difference is he'll probably deliver...eventually. It might take him another year or two, but the man cut his finger, give him a break!
Click to expand...

Math says that unless he spends an hour or less per knife he is left with less than 40 hours of free time a week outside of knife making, and something is telling me a full time father doesn't only take 40 hours a week for child care and sleep.
 
Just wanted to say I am another Derespina knife customer...paid for my knife in 2015 and was told 4-8 months. Now it's almost June 2017 and he has stopped emailing me and responding to messages entirely. I cannot reach him no matter what I do, no matter what I say he will not respond. I have never dealt with a salesman like this in my life and have previously bought custom knives---so I figured I knew what I was getting into. Not here trying to say bad things about a person I don't know - but I am very frustrated and worried that my order has been forgotten entirely.
 
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You folks need to get him on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/derespina.knives

This nonsense about going to his house, that is the fastest way to end up in jail for being a complete and total moron, or getting yourself injured and possibly killed. After reading this thread and looking at his page, it would seem that this guy bites off way more than he can chew and has an all around bad business model. He is not the first maker to do this.

However, if you look at the really successful makers, they make 1, 2, or 10 knives and sell them as they are. They have the item in hand, ready to ship as soon as payment is received. Now, at some point you have to understand the risks involved in giving a stranger money for an item that does not exist yet. You might not get burned, but it can happen to anyone that just throws caution to the wind carelessly.
 
Interesting - I think I see my knife there. Sold it to refund me; but failed to actually do the refund part.
 
RevDevil said:
You folks need to get him on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/derespina.knives

This nonsense about going to his house, that is the fastest way to end up in jail for being a complete and total moron, or getting yourself injured and possibly killed. After reading this thread and looking at his page, it would seem that this guy bites off way more than he can chew and has an all around bad business model. He is not the first maker to do this.

However, if you look at the really successful makers, they make 1, 2, or 10 knives and sell them as they are. They have the item in hand, ready to ship as soon as payment is received. Now, at some point you have to understand the risks involved in giving a stranger money for an item that does not exist yet. You might not get burned, but it can happen to anyone that just throws caution to the wind carelessly.
Click to expand...
JUNE 19th EDIT: Richard finally ended up getting back to me about my knife. At least he comes through in the end...
 
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RevDevil said:
You folks need to get him on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/derespina.knives

This nonsense about going to his house, that is the fastest way to end up in jail for being a complete and total moron, or getting yourself injured and possibly killed. After reading this thread and looking at his page, it would seem that this guy bites off way more than he can chew and has an all around bad business model. He is not the first maker to do this.

However, if you look at the really successful makers, they make 1, 2, or 10 knives and sell them as they are. They have the item in hand, ready to ship as soon as payment is received. Now, at some point you have to understand the risks involved in giving a stranger money for an item that does not exist yet. You might not get burned, but it can happen to anyone that just throws caution to the wind carelessly.
Click to expand...
I agree about the foolishness of initiating a confrontation that can turn violent, and get innocent bystanders hurt at the same time. The cheapest, safest, and most legal way to put pressure on them is right here through bladeforums. While you may not get your knife or money back, the controversial knifemaker will surely be losing customers and money, at some point in the future. Increasing public awareness, is almost like a legal way to take some money right out of their pockets.
Hopefully some of these guys will take Revs advice, and only accept payment for the knives that they can readily produce.
 
I personally have been waiting since 2014 and I was emailed last week that he will have my 4 blades done this coming next week so I think maybe he was going through a rough patch and is back at it but il keep the post updated plus I'm a glass half full kinda guy lol
 
swordmaster0813 said:
I personally have been waiting since 2014 and I was emailed last week that he will have my 4 blades done this coming next week so I think maybe he was going through a rough patch and is back at it but il keep the post updated plus I'm a glass half full kinda guy lol
Click to expand...

Ignorance is not bliss. Be hopeful all you want, but be realistic too.
 
I agree wholeheartedly I'm just responding to a post calm down lol keeping it updated that he did message me and he said next week they would be ready to ship if they weren't he may have put it off weeks or months or just not gotten back to me at all
 
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