Review Before you order @ Blade HQ

Have you had problems with Blade HQ?

  • Yes. But they resolved them appropriately.

    Votes: 30 14.0%

  • Yes. And they didn’t seem to care.

    Votes: 27 12.6%

  • No. They’ve been great.

    Votes: 157 73.4%
  • Total voters
    214
Squid61 said:
I don't deal with eBay, Craig's List or PayPal. Since the survey is posted in a negative thread for BladeHQ I'd say 86% is pretty darned good.
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Well since you're ignorant, 86% on eBay is absolutely abysmal and no giant store worth their salt drops below 99.6% if they can. Not sure what the beef is with convenience, but Craigslist is entirely unrelated to paypal or ebay.

Blade hq has had a lot of negative threads lately, so thats pretty telling. And what does the site gain by supporting the largest knife forum on the web? Gee, not sure.
 
elde66 said:
All web vendors are supposed to be charging sales tax now, FYI. Google it.

Nope. In my state there is a monetary $ threshold. Any seller whose sales fall below the threshold are not obliged to charge sales tax. That's why most smaller online knife sellers have an actual 8.25% advantage here in my state. Google it. :)
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While my response wasn't directed to you, but instead to the member I quoted, and since you replied to me (a quote would have been nice so I would have seen it sooner), I'll say that while true, most of these vendor tax thresholds (or number of transactions, whichever it may be) are not terribly high. So even many "small" online vendors still have to charge sales tax to most states. Maybe your state has a higher threshold than others? Good for you if so, but I guess we'll never know since apparently you won't tell us what state you're in (and block your profile so nobody can even try to find out).

Squid61 said:
Just a question; what does a marketer such as BladeHQ get in return for supporting this Forum? I don't see a heading like the knife makers get where they can post.
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They get exposure and favor from the largest and most influential gathering of knife aficionados in the entire world! Also, there's actually an entire for sale by dealers section for them... ;)
 
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SpyderPhreak said:
While my response wasn't directed to you, but instead to the member I quoted, and since you replied to me (a quote would have been nice so I would have seen it sooner), I'll say that while true, most of these vendor tax thresholds (or number of transactions, whichever it may be) are not terribly high. So even many "small" online vendors still have to charge sales tax to most states. Maybe your state has a higher threshold than others? Good for you if so, but I guess we'll never know since apparently you won't tell us what state you're in (and block your profile so nobody can even try to find out).


They get exposure and favor from the largest and most influential gathering of knife aficionados in the entire world! Also, there's actually an entire for sale by dealers section for them... ;)
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Great looking dog! Sorry I don't conform to your set of personal rules. Guess that's what "ignore" is all about. Done.
 
Something to remember is that BladeHQ's feedback isn't the same as the feedback we have here on Bladeforums. Not every BladeHQ customer, let alone a majority of them, is leaving feedback, especially on a separate site. The sample here is definitely biased - most customers for retail stores make their purchase and never look back to leave any kind of feedback at all. People who are unhappy with BladeHQ are much more likely to seek out a way to express their disdain than satisfied customers are.
 
Squid61 said:
Probably going to ruffle some feather, oh well. The survey says that over 86% of the customers from here either had no issue with BladeHQ or the issue was resolved satisfactorily, so what's all the slamming about? Just a question; what does a marketer such as BladeHQ get in return for supporting this Forum? I don't see a heading like the knife makers get where they can post.
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For me, it is simply a cumulative situation. My opinion is their videos have become gimmicky at best but as I said, I've actually seen them not actually understand the knife they're talking about.

Then there's been a significant uptick in BladeHQ BladeHQ complaints here. One might argue it is a volume thing but I doubt that. I don't see Knife Center, DLT, etc. having so many reported issues. And everyone is dealing with the madness of 2020 so while we all understand that aspect, it isn't sufficient to justify what I see as poor customer service/response. Is the owner in the warehouse slinging boxes or jumping on the computer and answering emails? Also, didn't they expand and open an east coast warehouse a couple years ago so they could ship faster?

Then they allow their dealer membership here to expire. I don't know if supporting vendors reap a lot of rewards being here but surely they do get some. I don't know what the cost is, but it can't be much more than the margin on a few knife sales and without question, supporting vendors generate sales here. I would think enough to far and away pay for the membership several times over. It also gives them direct access to thousands of knife folks and just shows a level of support of the community. If they don't want to show that loyalty or commitment to me, why should I show any to them?

And then, I recently learned of their sister site that sells garbage knives often made by companies that actively clone the models of makers I respect. I'm not okay with that.

I've bought numerous knives from BladeHQ BladeHQ but I doubt I'll be buying any more from them. CollectorKnives and DLT Trading will be my go-to from now on.

I don't disparage anyone who wants to buy from them, I'm simply explaining why I won't be.
 
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I might be wrong, I watched a knife review on YouTube last night in which an American reviewer living in Germany described the expense he has in buying knives from America and a very trashy Case traditional knife but the real issue was that this knife came from BladeHQ, had apparently been returned by a customer, restocked without inspection and resold to this reviewer who tore both Case and BladeHQ apart.

While it appeared to me that this thread is excessively down on BladeHQ, I have now seen corroborating evidence from an unrelated source that convinces me I should perhaps buy elsewhere.
 
SpyderPhreak said:
While my response wasn't directed to you, but instead to the member I quoted, and since you replied to me (a quote would have been nice so I would have seen it sooner), I'll say that while true, most of these vendor tax thresholds (or number of transactions, whichever it may be) are not terribly high. So even many "small" online vendors still have to charge sales tax to most states. Maybe your state has a higher threshold than others? Good for you if so, but I guess we'll never know since apparently you won't tell us what state you're in (and block your profile so nobody can even try to find out).


They get exposure and favor from the largest and most influential gathering of knife aficionados in the entire world! Also, there's actually an entire for sale by dealers section for them... ;)
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I had not associated a For Sale By Dealers slot as a place where dealers could comment and respond to comments, to me it means exactly what it says, a place to sell stuff. In addition, as big as this forum is it represents a mere fraction of knife buyers in the US never mind the world.
 
DrRollinstein said:
Well since you're ignorant, 86% on eBay is absolutely abysmal and no giant store worth their salt drops below 99.6% if they can. Not sure what the beef is with convenience, but Craigslist is entirely unrelated to paypal or ebay.

Blade hq has had a lot of negative threads lately, so thats pretty telling. And what does the site gain by supporting the largest knife forum on the web? Gee, not sure.
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Ignorant! Really. I'm 76 with a whole lot more worldly experience and education than you will likely ever attain. I understand how these Social Media sites pile on after a negative post is presented so I don't ever trust a single source on the internet as valid. I'm also quite capable of making decisions about who I will deal with over the internet, especially when those dealings involve private data so don't even think about lecturing me about PayPal, Craig's List or eBay.
 
This is a subforum for members to express opinions - "good, bad and ugly." By the nature of the human animal, opinions vary, as do experiences. If the opinions and experiences of others offend you per se, perhaps you would be happier staying away.
 
Squid61 said:
Ignorant! Really. I'm 76 with a whole lot more worldly experience and education than you will likely ever attain. I understand how these Social Media sites pile on after a negative post is presented so I don't ever trust a single source on the internet as valid. I'm also quite capable of making decisions about who I will deal with over the internet, especially when those dealings involve private data so don't even think about lecturing me about PayPal, Craig's List or eBay.
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Ignorance is lack of knowledge. You're clearly ignorant on ebay and how feedback works. Nothing to be ashamed of, glad to help you out.
 
elde66 said:
Great looking dog! Sorry I don't conform to your set of personal rules. Guess that's what "ignore" is all about. Done.
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lol... Wow man, wound a little tight there? o_O You're going to do well here. (IGNORED!!! :rolleyes:)

Eli Chaps said:
For me, it is simply a cumulative situation. My opinion is their videos have become gimmicky at best but as I said, I've actually seen them not actually understand the knife they're talking about.

Then there's been a significant uptick in BladeHQ BladeHQ complaints here. One might argue it is a volume thing but I doubt that. I don't see Knife Center, DLT, etc. having so many reported issues. And everyone is dealing with the madness of 2020 so while we all understand that aspect, it isn't sufficient to justify what I see as poor customer service/response. Is the owner in the warehouse slinging boxes or jumping on the computer and answering emails? Also, didn't they expand and open an east coast warehouse a couple years ago so they could ship faster?

Then they allow their dealer membership here to expire. I don't know if supporting vendors reap a lot of rewards being here but surely they do get some. I don't know what the cost is, but it can't be much more than the margin on a few knife sales and without question, supporting vendors generate sales here. I would think enough to far and away pay for the membership several times over. It also gives them direct access to thousands of knife folks and just shows a level of support of the community. If they don't want to show that loyalty or commitment to me, why should I show any to them?

And then, I recently learned of their sister site that sells garbage knives often made by companies that actively clone the models of makers I respect. I'm not okay with that.

I've bought numerous knives from BladeHQ BladeHQ but I doubt I'll be buying any more from them. CollectorKnives and DLT Trading will be my go-to from now on.

I don't disparage anyone who wants to buy from them, I'm simply explaining why I won't be.
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Yeah, something doesn't seem right at BHQ. I will definitely think twice before ordering from them again.

Squid61 said:
I had not associated a For Sale By Dealers slot as a place where dealers could comment and respond to comments, to me it means exactly what it says, a place to sell stuff. In addition, as big as this forum is it represents a mere fraction of knife buyers in the US never mind the world.
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That for sale area is but one perk of having representation here.

If it weren't for the exposure places like this get these retailers, I don't think certain exclusives would be selling out in mere seconds like they do. And while you're likely correct that our membership represents a mere fraction of the knife-buying public, most of those other folks are likely perfectly happy with their walmart and gas station knives. They'd think we're stupid for buying anything over $20, and plain crazy for anything near $200+. They likely would never believe that anyone would spend $300-$1,000 on a pocketknife. :eek: THAT is the difference.
 
This thread has been very enlightening and I appreciate all of the feedback that has been provided. A few of you have mentioned that this year has presented some unique challenges and want to give us the benefit of the doubt. While I definitely appreciate that level of understanding; it's no excuse for us missing this situation that started 3 weeks ago.

In regards to 99cuts and their situation: While it does seem the initial response from our agent was correct in that his order may have "slipped through the cracks" but it looks like it still hasn't been shipped out and 2 months is one hell of a crack. This kind of occurrence is absolutely unacceptable to any customer and for that we apologize. I went ahead and personally packed up the customers package today and got it shipped out to him. 99cuts We also want to make this situation right by you so go ahead and check your direct messages and we can speak further about how we can make this up to you.

To risk stating the obvious, this year has been tough for us. Here at Blade HQ we encountered some unique challenges especially since many of our fundamental operations have to be done in office. For our employee's we have taken many steps to ensure we can continue those operations safely. Obviously COVID has impacted our ability to operate efficiently, but also, we have had some breakdowns in communication between our internal teams as employees have worked from home.

These circumstances are not unique to us, but I wanted to at least provide a background to explain that we have been shorthanded for much of the year. This led to a few failures on our end: long hold times, unresolved concerns, and (maybe most critically) delays in shipping and shipping mistakes. Those of you who have been around for a while has probably seen several posts on Good, Bad, and Ugly of someone experiencing an issue from us related to something listed above.

This community is the most important thing to us and I want to tell you what our plans are to make significant changes that will allow us to serve you better. The chaos of the issues I've mentioned have brought some fundamental issues in our systems and processes to the surface; so we're going to fix them.

For shipping. We've tried implementing methods of refining our shipping procedures. Getting items into and out of the warehouse faster, using packaging that's easier to handle, and creating specialized roles in both our Order Fulfillment and Warehouse team. This has had led to some significant improvements in efficiency but not enough to meet our communities generous demand. We've also been limited in increasing our shipping crew size since we've met the capacity of our building. We've heard the complaints so we've been coordinating a significant expansion of our Virginia warehouse that is now in its final stages. This new warehouse is exponentially larger our headquarters here in Utah which will allow us implement the same systems on a much larger scale. This expansion will allow us to meet customer expectations and increase capacity as we continue to grow.

Similarly, I am taking measures to ensure that Customer Service team members have the tools and capacity they need to be successful. Customer Service deals with almost all instances of customers reaching out to us and to an extent, this includes Blade Forums. This would include keeping updated on the Forums and notifying management of posts of interest. Now, as the Customer Service Manager myself, I will still check the Forums several times a week as will the respective managers of Marketing, Products, and even the CEO as we believe that on Blade Forums exists the core of the knife community. The role I described in the Customer Service team simply allows us to ensure that there are always enough eyes on the Forums so that we don't miss anything.

As those of you following this post can likely tell, this ragtag system has failed. As the Customer Service Manager I take responsibility for this. Similar to our warehouse and shipping team, Customer Service is also moving and adding many team members in our Virginia complex. While managing the factors involved in this transition over the last few weeks I've lost focus on my main priority: you guys. Learning from this, I will be taking action within my team to create new procedures that ensures all channels of communication with our customers are met with equal priority.

Now just speaking personally here: I consider myself a big member of the knife community and I spent a lot of time on the Forums before working at Blade HQ. This community values integrity and from my own experience working with many people, old and new, at Blade HQ; I believe we have that in spades. With everything that has been discussed on this thread I felt you all deserved an explanation and I wanted to be as transparent as possible. If anyone has any questions about what kind of action we are taking to ensure that we meet our customers expectations feel free to message us directly.

Seth L.
Customer Service Manager
Blade HQ
 
I have a question Seth L: Does your organization plan on renewing it's Bladeforums membership that expired in February? What's the old adage: Actions speak louder than words.
 
SpyderPhreak said:
All web vendors are supposed to be charging sales tax now, FYI. Google it.
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And that's the problem..people think all states automatically charge a sales tax on any sale over the internet from a different state but that's not how it works..every state has minimum thresholds for charging internet sales tax..the lone exception being Kansas..in my home state(Tenessee)the minimum threshold was $500,000(prior to Oct 1 2020)and therein lies my one issue with BHQ..they automatically tried to charge a sales tax but they will never convince me they ever made $500,000 in sales to this one state in one year..that's a metric crap ton of knives.

Like you said..Google it..OK: https://www.avalara.com/us/en/learn/guides/state-by-state-guide-economic-nexus-laws.html

Alabama: Sales/transactions threshold: $250,000

Alaska: Sales/transactions threshold:
$100,000 or 200 transactions

Ete Etc.
 
While I appreciate the time taken to respond and to finally right the original wrong, I remain skeptical. I say this because someone was logging on with the BladeHQ BladeHQ account during this and there were no immediate answers or, to my knowledge at least, a private communication to the OP. If the BF community is so important, why didn't you contact him on one of those occasions?

I do hope improvements are made and people are satisfied with their purchases in the future. I have numerous knives from you folks and until recently you were my default shop for the broader knife market. But for all the reasons I've already mentioned, not the least of which is your sister site, I personally will still be moving on.
 
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