Beware of R.W.Clark, previous owner of Period Customs

D

Dew

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I would like to warn fellow forumites that there is a person named Ronald W. Clark who used to be the owner of Period Customs and I have his last address as

1200 S.Sunburst Way # C
Anahiem, CA 92806

I have pending issue with this person. We have signed a contract in 1996 stating that he must deliver 2 katanas to me within 240 days. For the past few years I have unsuccessfully tried to ask for either the swords or for him to refund my deposit of $1185.20 and 2 blank sword blades ($522.00 value). (I have the details below.)

Recently there is someone posted as R.W. Clark from Anahiem, CA in the For Sale Maker forum. I do not know at this time whether he is the same person I'm looking for. My warning applies only to Ronald W. Clark, the previous owner of Period Customs who owes me money/swords.

In 1996 I was interested in acquiring some good katanas for my sword training class. A few people in rec.knives suggested that I bought blank swords from Bob Engnath and had the custom fittings done afterwards. I purchased one 28" blade ($252.00) and one 30" blade ($270.00) from Bob. Another person in the newsgroup and Bob himself recommended a shop called Period Customs for the rest of the job. I contacted the owner of Period Customs, Mr. Ronald W. Clark, and agreed on a contract drafted by Mr. Clark (a photocopy can be seen in the .PDF file at the end of this post). To summarize, Mr. Clark asked me to provide the 2 blank swords and a total of $1693.00, which must be paid in the following time schedule

First Payment $677.20 ; Start of contract
Second Payment $507.90 ; 120 days after first payment
Final Payment $507.90 ; 120 days after 2nd payment

Everything seemed to work fine in the beginning. Mr. Clark charged my VISA for the first payment of $677.20 on December 12,1996. Four month later he sent a notice that the second payment was due, so I authorized him to charge the same VISA on April 13, 1997 for the amount of $507.90 (I keep all these statements). After receiving the two payments in full and on time, Mr. Clark became more difficult to reach. I heard nothing from him when the swords were supposed to be due. The contract stated I would receive a progress update every 30 days. There was no such report sent to me. Mr. Clark did not reply my emails. Once his wife Tonya Clark came forward to reply an email with some excuse that Mr. Clark was experiencing some serious problem (she did not explain much, and the problem had nothing to do with me).

It has been more than 4 years now. For the last 2 years I have not heard anything from Mr. Ronald W. Clark. He did not reply my letters. I see no sign that he could accomplish anything stated in the contract. I have asked Mr. Ronald W. Clark repeatedly to either finish the swords, or refund the two payments and my two katana blades, with no response. I am losing all my patience and am considering contacting my financial institution to see whether they could help. I appreciate any advice from fellow forumites. Is there anything else I could do? Can I forward this to any agency in CA? Is there any knife related associations that can help protect customers from such an irresponsible maker?

Thank you all for reading.

Dew.

Photocopy of contract (620KB)(Need Acrobat reader)



[This message has been edited by Dew (edited 05-06-2001).]
 
Mr. Clark in For Sale Maker Forum has identified himself as the same person. I will allow him his last chance of deliver or refund at the end of this year, as he stated there. I hope he will not do this to any othe person ever again.

Dew.
 
Dew -- Am not trying to be facetious, but is your nickname Job?

I think you displayed far more patience and effort to workt things out properly than I can believe. I'm awful short in those departments too much of the time.

Good luck in finally getting your swords!


------------------
Asi es la vida

Bugs
 
Thanks Bugs3x. Do you think I need another nickname? I thought Dew was easy enough.
smile.gif


Just to inform you all I have made my final decision to ask Mr.Ronald W. Clark to return all my deposits and the two unfinished swords to me immediately. I have emailed him the request. By the end of this month if I do not receive refund/blades I will send this story to my financial insitution and to the California Knife Association, and to any place else as you may suggest. Thank you all for not leaving a desperate comrade fighting alone.

Take Care,
Dew.
 
I have already responded to the claims made by Dew (Varodom Toochinda) in one of my for sale postings. But will go through this again.

Almost everything Mr. Toochinda states is true. I F**Ked up and have no problem saying so. As stated by Dew, I had a VERY good reputation. Bob was my mentor and I studied under him for many years. Bob would not have recommended me had he not had faith in my work.

Dew, when he signed the contract knew I was not a full time knife maker. I was a part time maker and a full time LEO. Everything was going very well for the first 4 months of the job. But, as Dew states a problem came up. I was severly injured in the line of duty and was unable to work for quite some time. I did contact Dew, and FULLY explained what had happened. At that time I offered to cancell the job, but Dew said it was not a big deal and to finish it when I could. Several other customers decided to cancell and I returned all their money. This however emptied both the companies and my personal accounts (much work and funds had already been put in on their work). Quite some time did pass before my next contact with Dew. By this time I had to BQ Period Customs. Dew was informed that the work was progressing, but with the loss of all working capital, I was having to do other work to pay for the completion of the job. He again was very kind and stated that he had alot going on in his life (possible changing of schools due to student visa or something like that) and might even be returning to his homeland. We had several other contacts. During this whole time Dew was a perfect customer. Some time later I e-mailed Dew to update him (an e-mail he states he did not recieve and I have no reason to doubt him). I never recieved any word back. After quite a while, and several e-mail later, I assumed he had returned home or that someting bad had occured to him. I stopped work on his job and sat and waited for any word. About a month ago I recieved a letter requesting his job be done by the end of the year. So a resumed work on his swords. Now he is demanding his blades and money back. I have no problem with this. I am sending his blades back to him today. However I do not have the funds to repay all his monies at once.

I am pissed beyond belief that I am being portrayed as a theif or a con artist. I have never tried to ditch out on this job or this customer. Even though the law says that I can, because the company BQed. I am a stand up person and am willing to take care of this problem. I have even gone as far as to not take any "special" jobs on. I never want this to happen again. This is an unfortunate situation, but one I am taking care of.

If people do not want to purchase my knives because of this, that is something I will have to live with. But I truely hope that they are shown more understading when problems strikes close to them!

R.W.Clark
 
Even though you distorted it a bit, I don't want this to deteriorate into a bittering personal attack. From my account, what really happened 2-3 years ago was I was angry that you did not keep the promises in the contract (I take everything I sign seriously). You did NOT reply my email. It was your wife Tonya Clark who came forward explaining your problems and made me feel I might be too harsh to you. So I decided to ease off and even apologized to you for my harsh words. Only at that time you replied and said some convincing words that you were gonna make every effort to finish it as soon as you could. In my record that time was the last time I heard from you (approx 2 years ago). After your wife sent a global email notifying your address change, I did not receive any other email from you. Fellow forumites who bought and sold knives with me during the past 2 years could confirm I always respond to their emails. So why wouldn't I respond to yours when it concerns a thousand bucks I have with you? It could be possible that I could miss one email or it got lost in Cyberspace. But several attempts as you said, no way.

Even if for some unexplanable reason you could not reach me via email, then not even try any snail mail? instead of simply sitting there and assumed "Oh Yeah something bad had occured to him" ?

I am so fed up and really want this to end so let us get to the point. Just return my blades/money ASAP as requested because you have NO rights to keep them. Then we go our separate ways OK?

Dew.



[This message has been edited by Dew (edited 05-07-2001).]
 
I have offered to Paypal Dew $600 today and the rest by the end of the month depending on this months sales.

As I have said, I have no problem taking care of this issue.

R.W.Clark
 
I have received $600 from R.W. Clark via Paypal. I can give Mr.Clark some reasonable grace period for the rest.

Dew.
 
RW, take this post however you want, but I will give you a little clue about the knife community. I know you are a maker but obviously are a little short on knowledge about how this big extended family works.

Now, it is apparent that you screwed up in a major way, and you seem to be very aware of that fact now. When anybody be it a maker, collector or customer or whatever screws another over, we will find out and the results can be quite severe as you have no doubt realized. Giving one the shaft will not be tolerated.

Now, on the other hand there is a bright side. You will soon find that even though you goofed, you are not automatically finished in the world of knives. It seems that you both have come to an understanding that will work for both sides. Assuming that you come through with your part of the solution and continue from this point on to fly right I think you will be fine. I have been around these various forums for years, and I have observed one certain thing over and over again. That is knife people are some of the most forgiving and generous folks you will ever meet. As long as you make a serious effort to make good on your promises then knifeknuts will be more than happy to forgive and welcome you here. I have seen peole, collectors and makers alike come in here and the first thing they do is screw up beyond all reason. The ones that make a serious change and stand up like a man to fix their mistakes are now upstanding memebers of this community and get along just fine. As I said, knifeknuts DO NOT like to see eachother screwed, but correct yourself and those same knifeknuts will welcome you with open arms.

Something to think about.



------------------
Richard Todd - Digital knife photography
icq 61363141
My WebSite
Do your site a favor, get quality digital images!!!
New photos added!!!
 
At this point I am satisfied with the prompt partial refund from Ron Clark, despite his tough financial situation. He has made me believe he will continue to make every effort to pay for the rest as promised.

Ron also generously offered one of his utility knives at no cost as a compensation and insisted me to receive it as it would make him feel better. With his financial circumstance as stated, however, I feel it inappropriate for me to accept the knife at this time since Ron would need every sale to support his family, so I have to decline. I did ask Ron for his catalog and when his situation improves I may be interested in ordering from him and he should give me some discount.
smile.gif


I was acting out of anger and am now terribly sorry for any unnecessary offensive remarksI made to Ron. The reason this sword project did not work out might come from
communication problem than anything else. There is no reason to doubt Ron's craftmanship. The good thing is we now decide to shake hands, forget the past and continue our lives in the knifenut community in a peaceful and friendly manner as it should be.

Dew.



[This message has been edited by Dew (edited 05-08-2001).]
 
From following this thread I think Dew hit the nail on the head when he said communication was the problem. I don't know where the communication broke down, and it doesn't really matter. Communication is always a two way street.

I would like to add that it appears to me that R.W. Clark was not trying to rip Dew off. If he was, he would not have registered on this well known forum under his own name.

I will also say that it is not uncommon in this field for orders to be late (sometimes very late), especially for part time people. This is not an excuse for Mr. Clark. I have heard story after story (some of them on these forums) about people waiting ages for their order. Anybody on the waiting list for an Emerson custom? (That is not meant as a flame, only to point out that some of the best known, full time makers are known to make people wait and wait.) The two things here that make this situation worse than others is that a contract was signed stating a specific time frame, and all the money had already been paid.

I, too, am glad that this seems to be working out well. The knife community is small and there is already enough feuding and bitterness.

Best of luck to both parties involved,
Paul
 
Dew and I have come to very pleasant terms
smile.gif
. Dews a great guy a I feel badly that it came down to what it did. But its over, Dew and I are polite and civil (I hope friends).

And yes Dew, Just say the word and you will have a BIG discount
wink.gif
.

OK guys, now buy my knives so I can finish paying Dew back
biggrin.gif
.

Thanks all
R.W.Clark
 
I still don't get it. How could it possibly take 5 years to assemble and finish two swords?
I am happy you guys have settled things. Although the knifenut community is quick to jump on a mistake, they're just as quick to forgive and move on.

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Take care!! Michael
jesus.jpg


Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!
http://hometown.aol.com/l6steel/cooperknives.html
Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms!!!
 
It is good to see that things have worked out as well as they have.

R.W., I would not hold this against you, but I would also not send you a deposit if I wanted you to make me a knife. It would have to be full payment when the knife was ready to ship. Maybe if overtime I heard that you were living up to your obligations, and supplying knives that had deposits on them, I would consider changing this requirement.

I like what I have seen of your work and you never know what the future will bring.

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Keith

AKTI Member #A001338

[This message has been edited by Keith Montgomery (edited 05-08-2001).]
 
I do not take deposits any longer. Not just because of this. I had another customer who wanted two swept hilt rapiers. 36" Jim Hrisoulas forged blades and full double cages. He wanted them under three pounds each and had a list of spec he wanted them to meet. I told him it was impossible. He agreed to my design changes. In the end I ended up remaking both hilts three times, before I told him to take a hike. I lost my shirt and the swords almost found a new home in his rump.

If someone wants a special request on one of my regular models say a Model 3. If I think it will sell if he backs out. Then I just make it. I let him know when its done, if he buys fine, if not I just put it on the open market.

R.W.Clark
 
I just purchased an unspeakably beautiful knife from Mr. Clark through this forum.

While I am quite new to this electronic commerce business, I am not new to my understanding of human nature.

I've seen excellent comments within this site on tactics, survival and techniques. I've never seen such a nightmare as you guys are creating in this forum. If you have an opinion, email Mr. Clark. A public execution went out in the last century. Even then, it wasn't exposed to the world on the internet. You guys should be ashamed.

I have been in the knife business for almost 40 years. When we have a problem with a maker or dealer, we stop buying. When the problem is with a buyer, we stop selling. I have never heard an unkind word spoken in public against a maker, much less in writing.

I bought the knife because I saw something in the Makers Forum picture that spoke to me about the care taken to create it. Little did I realize that the dovetailed bolsters, the liner, the pinning and the tang tapering would be better than I get from anyone else at this price. Anyone. For that I thank Mr. Clark and this website.

I do not, however, see beauty here.

Your comments are here for all to see and for all time. Frankly, I'm disappointed.

If you wish to write about my comments, email ME, please. This thread should end.

"Cat who sit on hot stove will not sit on hot stove again. Will not sit on cold stove either" - Anon.

[This message has been edited by Boris (edited 05-19-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Boris (edited 05-19-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Boris (edited 05-19-2001).]
 
Hey Boris, guess what? They had settled the whole matter, nobody had posted on this thread for 11 days and it had dropped down off the page, YOU are the one who brought it back up to the top.
As you can see if you actually read the content, they tried to have email correspondence over time but it hadn't worked out. In the end, I think they both came out looking ok with the way they worked it out.
You may not like it, but this particular forum(Good,Bad, and Ugly) is exactly for this type of thing. Using the way you suggested, if I get ripped off(and I am not saying Mr Clark tried to rip him off, this is just an example) and don't tell my BF friends, then there's a chance it could happen to others by the same person. By posting of a problem here both sides have a chance to air their views and work it out. But when you have a problem like you stated in your post and just stop buying, that leaves the door open for others to run into the same problem. This is the age of communication.
For the record, I think Mr Clark came out of this very respectfully as to the way he responded and I would not have a problem buying a knife from him, and I also think his work is very good.
In case you don't know since you say you are new to computers, as new posts are posted the old ones just slide down and off the page. Chances are this one would have been on it's way to being forgotten if you hadn't posted in it and brought it back to life.
Thanks,
Dave Abramson
 
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