BestKnives, don't buy from them!

C

Chris Meyer

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I recommend that you not attempt to do business with an internet company that calls itself BestKnives. The do not stock what the advertise, do not deliver in a timely fashion, and their customer service is non-existent. :thumbdn:

I ordered a set of Spyderco diamond stones from BestKnives on 05/09/07. The cost, with shipping, was $65.39, and the order was supposed to be delivered in 2 to 3 days via USPS Priority Mail.

On 05/13/07 I received an email from BestKnives saying that my order would ship in two to three weeks. I wasn't happy, but at least they hadn't charged my credit card yet.

When I still had not receive my order by 06/25/07, I sent an email to the company canceling my order.

I did not hear from BestKnives again until 04/15/08, when the sharpening stones unexpectedly showed up on my doorstep and a charge for them appeared on my credit card.

I had long since obtained the stones from a reputable company, so I no longer wanted or needed the ones from BestKnives. Therefore, I attempted to phone the company using the various "Customer Service" numbers they list on their website. Apparently, these numbers are ficticious, as every time I called, the phones just rang and rang. Checking BestKnives' merchant rating on Yahoo!, I discovered that many other people have encountered this same problem.

I contested the charge with my credit card company, and sent BestKnives two emails asking them how they would like me to dispose of their sharpening stones. I promptly received emails from a "Mike I" asking that I ship the stones back to his Florida address. (These are the only two emails BestKnives ever replied to.)

I sent the sharpening stones back to BestKnives via Priority Mail. I enclosed a note asking them to refund my $65.39 plus the $6.65 that it cost me to ship the stones (total $72.04).

The USPS delivered the stones to BestKnives on 04/30/08. When I still had not received my refund a week later, I sent two follow up emails to "Mike I". Finally, on 05/09/08 I received a partial refund from BestKnives. However,they only refunded $57.95 to my credit card. Looking at their website, it appears that they are refusing to pay for the return shipping an have deducted a "restocking fee" for an order I had canceled ten months earlier! I will now have to try to recover the $14.54 that BestKnives still owes me by going through my credit card company.

My experience with the company ironically calling itself BestKnives has been quite unpleasant (and expensive). I recommend that my fellow forumites avoid them like the plague and not place any orders.

As an aside, I noticed that if you check BestKnives merchant rating on Yahoo!, they get a rating of four and one-half stars (out of a possible five stars). However, if you look at the individual ratings, BestKnives has an awful lot of bad ratings, especially in the "delivery" and "customer service" categories. I don't know if Yahoo! is purposely skewing the ratings, or whether BestKnives was better in the past, but the individual and overall ratings don't seem to mesh.
 
I'm a little surprised the CC co. didn't just give you the credit and you get to keep the stones. You canceled the order. In some states the recipient is allowed to keep merchandise that was not ordered; sounds like this was no longer ordered at the time of delivery. Make you pay for their error, ugh!

BTW I had a similar experience with diamond sharpening rods. Better ending though. The rods never came and the card was never charged......and I never purchased elsewhere. Service and communication were rotten or non-existent.

Sorry it's been such a pain!
 
The package arrived via USPS Priority Mail. I opened it because I had no idea what it contained. The return address was something like "BK Fulfillment Center". Looking at the links that Thomas posted, I guess I should have just kept the stones.

Unfortunately for me, I kind of screwed myself by placing the initial order using my Visa debit card as a credit card. Although the banks try to make you believe that the cards can be used interchangeably as a credit card or a debit card, that does not seem to be the case. I've discovered that you don't have the same protections with a debit card as you do with a credit card. Therefore, I had to contact my local bank (which issued the card) to try to resolve the matter. They are the ones that told me to return the stones. While a credit card company can apparently deduct the funds from the seller's account, I am being led to believe that the bank cannot do the same thing. I'll have to wait and see if they can recover my $14.54.

I hope everyone will learn from my stupid mistake; use only an actual credit card for on-line purchases and avoid doing business with BestKnives.
 
In the interest of fairness, I want to let everyone know that I finally received a reply email from "Mike I" (after I emailed him that I was going to give him negative feedback on Yahoo! and on the forums.) His reply says "We did NOT charge you a restocking fee. We refunded the full puirchase [sic] price." However, he makes no mention of the fact that I am currently out $14.54 (which is apparently for shipping both ways) because of his mistake.
 
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Ya know, I wish the interweb thingie would fall down on shysters' heads, like this guy. I know it must be a PIA kind of business to try and run, but that is what he signed up for. He still owes you money. Stay on him; he's a crook till he pays you every cent he owes you.
all da best,
rats...
 
Good for you for trying to get your $15 back.

You deserve the full amount back, even if they paid you a dollar less. Especially from such a company.
 
I wish I had done alittle research on this website called best knives before I had tried to order something from them or as I have read from Mike. I am out almost 300 bucks and even had my order shipped UPS so I could track my order. And like all of you I have called, emailed and even faxed this crook. Now he has gone and done it by the end of the week he is going to be investigated by the BBB and CitiBank is also gonna do the same. Unless he gets off his arse and some miracle happens and my knife shows up at my door.:mad::grumpy::thumbdn:

I have already talked to the authorities and he is being watched by them all in due time this man will get whats coming too him.

(yeah Keith) I placed an order a week ago and had it shipped by ups 3 day select. I wanted it shipped this way so I could have a tracking number plus I wanted it pretty fast and guaranteed and insured. The money was taken out of my account automaticly. I email bestknives early monday morning to see what the status of my order was since the link to best knives status has not updated. There was an auto email that was immediately sent back that said that it will ship in 2 to 3 days. I also tried calling all the number to get some answers and even faxed this person as of yesterday. I have been unsuccessful in contacting the owner of bestknives all week. their phone just rings and rings. And they have not even bothered to contact me as they have my home and cell number my email and fax also. As of now the status is the same. The item has not been shipped. If I had known it was going to be this much trouble I would have just paid full price at tops knives. I'm trying to give this person the benefit of the doubt but from what I have read all over the net about best knives it doesn't look good. The only thing I have going for me is that I did do ups shipping although I am out almost 300$. During my research on the web I have found that best knives has used 3 different towns address's and four different phone numbers and yes I have called them all. When I went to the link to check my shipment status there was another fax number that wasn't even bestknives. I faxed it and some guy call me at home wanting to know what was this fax about. Said he has had this number for over a year and has recieved about 5 different faxes with no clue what it was about.

I will keep ya'll posted on what happens I hope and pray this is just a big misunderstanding. I just want my knife so I can use it for work I'm a bounty hunter.
 
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jackbnimble, could you please explain in more detail what happened? When did you place your order? Was your order shipped and lost, or never shipped at all?
 
Thats scary stuff, Ive been ripped off before on the internet and it left me feeling terrible. I hope everything works out for you guys scammed by best knives, I wouldve probably eaten the $14-, just to avoid the hassle. Although Im glad to hear you're going after them for it.
 
Hi,

Count me among the many victims of BestKnives.

I ordered a Chris Reeve Project II on June 22nd, to be shipped USPS priority (1 - 2 day service). I received a shipment confirmation on June 23rd. I waited a week, but never received the shipment. From that day on, I have tried to contact BestKnives nearly every day via email and telephone. The customer service phone number is always busy, no matter when you dial. It seems that there isn't anyone on the other end reading email, and they certainly never bother to reply. Three days ago, I gave them one more day to contact me before I would get in touch with my bank to reverse the charge. No response.

I contacted my bank today. They've given me a temporary credit and will be researching the claim for the next 90 days.

Given what I've seen on this forum, this company either needs to get its act together, or they need to be shut down.
 
Wow. I've bought half a dozen knives from BestKnives and I never had an issue.
Sorry to see them go downhill.
In all fairness I haven't ordered from them in quite some time as I usually pick stuff up from New Graham or 1sks these days.
 
I just ordered a replacement sharpmaker stone from them. Their price was good, and the shipping was fast too.:thumbup: Sorry to see so many people having problems with them.
 
After a couple of months, it seems that the bank came down on my side with respect to the dispute with Best Knives. I received final word from them last week. On the same day, Mike from Best Knives finally sent me an email stating that he'd sent the knife, and that he was upset because my bank charge back cost him the price of shipping the item. He'd charged my credit card again, and was apparently planning to send the knife again.

I told him not to send the knife, and that if he did, I would refuse it and initiate another dispute with the bank. The only reply I received was a single line email, "Thanks."

Later that same day, someone used my credit card to sign up for several very expensive overseas porn sites. The timing is too perfect to be coincidental, in my opinion. It seems that Mike decided to seek revenge by committing credit card fraud. This was a big mistake, though, and will likely result in criminal charges from my bank.

I buy a lot of stuff online. This is the worst experience I've ever had, hands down. I can't warn strongly enough against doing business with Best Knives.
 
adamrossbarker said:
I told him not to send the knife, and that if he did, I would refuse it and initiate another dispute with the bank. The only reply I received was a single line email, "Thanks."

Later that same day, someone used my credit card to sign up for several very expensive overseas porn sites. The timing is too perfect to be coincidental, in my opinion. It seems that Mike decided to seek revenge by committing credit card fraud. This was a big mistake, though, and will likely result in criminal charges from my bank.
Click to expand...

When you have absolute proof that it was Mike that did it, that would be the time to post something like that. If you decide you would like to edit that out, I will do the same.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
When you have absolute proof that it was Mike that did it, that would be the time to post something like that. If you decide you would like to edit that out, I will do the same.
Click to expand...

Yeah, something more along the lines of:
Later that same day, someone used my credit card to sign up for several very expensive overseas porn sites. While I have no proof that Mike did this in order to seek revenge, the timing is certainly coincidental, and suspicious to me. If he did this, it would have likely been a big mistake as (if caught) it will likely result in criminal charges from my bank.
Click to expand...
Of course we all get a little over-zealous at times and post stuph we later regret or wish to revise. :D
all da best,
rats...
 
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