Can one say it is SERVICE at all? Who will buy a knife from Darrel Ralph now...

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vininull said:
OK guys,
I received a mail from D.Ralph with apologies and a promise to send a new knife (+ money? as I understood from his post here).
So I am sending him my shipping address and will show you all the unboxing video and thoughts on a new knife when it arrives.

Alex
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Hopefully it ends well. Perhaps this new knife can undergo one of your HARD USE TESTS! :D
 
I'm a bit confused at the sudden change of tone, from refusing to speak outside of email to public apologies?
 
vininull said:
WHAAAT??? Not that's an impudent LIE!
Aren't you be able to came up with something smarter than blow upon your own customer?
Previous post you say that you'll take care of me and next post you post this delirium about foul language???
Do you have any proof to your words? You just don't...
Because I DO! I do have a proof for everything that said and SHOWN in my video:
- I have all the emails which evidences your behavior and customer disregard (you CC'd to every one of them. Never heard uh?)
- I have your ridiculous proposal to keep silence about my experience with you
- And the most important I have a video of your product which is "speaks for itself"

Now you showed the real face - Well Done Mr.Ralph!

P.S. I can't believe that this is happening....
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You forgot how DR completely ignored this post by the customer though. Kinda seems like a change of heart in customer service. Extremely weird to begin with, obviously not to mention the shady proposal...
 
"some" Folks in business do and say things sometimes in order to save their business.
Is the change of heart sincere or a business ploy; only time will tell.........
 
Thomas Linton said:
The best that can be said is that Mr. Ralph can be driven to do the right thing.


Inaccurate and premature, at best.

'Driven' is past tense and either you have knowledge that all others don't and aren't sharing it with us or you are simply making an assumption based on what......wishful thinking? DR's window of opportunity to do the right thing has long since left the station. That began the day DR was in receipt of the returned knife from the OP and subsequently ended when this thread started.

DR, at a minimum, should now find himself well embedded into the 'making up for severely and unjustifiably inconveinencing the OP throughout this entire transaction, making the OP more than whole and satisfied, giving serious reconsideration to current documents and deals that are both dishonest and slimy, at best........thing.

DR, long ago, quite intentionally chose to pass on doing the right.......thing.
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Lesson learned: One single wrong move can completely destroy a long building reputation and it may take even longer to rebuild it.
 
I used to sit and listen when my parents had friends over. Dad and the guys would talk business, and they were all in very different businesses. They all focused on the same goal, though: keep the customer satisfied. Yeah, not always possible, but you can always try. Who knows, as long as you stay cooperative, they may think it over and come back later to work something out.
 
Karda said:
My usage of the word almost was a simple nod to the fact that you never can tell....each and every situation is different.
In my experience if a customer is too demanding,insulting or telling you how to manufacture or run your business, it is best....especially if money has exchanged hands to politely decline the sale/order, refund the customer and part ways before the situation can be made worse by either party in the myriad of ways a deal can go south. Reacting to poor behavior with poor behavior is never a good thing. With that said there are those people, sometimes customers, that can rub the wrong way and some are never satisfied, those should also be treated as above.

My warning for "fixing posts" was nothing more than a warning to everyone to step back and not make the problem worse by poor behaviors.

Do we all.....everyone included possibly get pushed too far and react poorly at times? There isn't a person here, myself included....with the possible exception of Mr. Benyamin ;) who hasn't.... do we deserve the chance to right the wrong? Probably. Multiple chances?...possibly....up to a point.

I am not going to lie and not say that, considering that some of this has happened before. The gunhammer fiasco. The money order sent for product not received.... The non disclosure agreement :barf: .....that I did not consider discussing with my fellow moderators about the closing of the DDR forum. I'm not going to say that it could not happen in the future should these things continue to be a problem and efforts are not made to rectify these past problems....

I can only state that If it were my business and name being brought up in this manner, that I would be doing everything possible to ensure that my representatives would be acting not only in my best interests, but in those of my customers and to insure that any product made by and endorsed by my standards lives up to them wholly to the best of my abilities. Those acting on my behalf for manufacture, quality control and customer service would be obligated to act in the same manner. If I value my business and my customer, you can bet things will be set and done right, if I have to personally oversee every inch and transaction.. no matter how many shows, personal appearances, whathaveyou that I have to miss. I do not need to ask the opinions of other to know what is right. I was brought up by my parents to know the value of personal integrity, honesty, forthrightness and manners. I expect it also from those with whom I associate and with those with whom I do business.

Do I expect perfection? Hardly. We are all human, all fallible....but I do expect and appreciate the effort.

I will also state that to expect a manufacturer, such as Mr. Ralph, to personally grind, mill, sharpen....etc every part, parcel, whatnot of every knife in his shop is fantasy. There are plenty of others who work the same way. There is no possible way for one person to do all this work and produce product that will even touch a fraction of demand. Those that do personally touch every facet of their work are few, their pieces command an astounding premium (talking thousands of $ here) and their wait times can sometimes be counted in years, not months.

Communication is key and paramount. Your paid customer is your living. An old adage learned right here on the forum goes....a paid for knife is the hardest one to make. Your customer has entrusted you with a goal, to be who you say you are and do what you say you can and what you will do. If you promise updates, do them promptly as scheduled. If you promise pics, provide them as agreed. As I've already stated, under promise and over deliver and you can almost never go wrong. Integrity is not what you do when everyone is looking.... it is what you do when no one is looking.

Sorry for the rant folks... I started this post after getting home from spending time with dear family members and driving 500+ miles from 8am-11pm with only a couple hours in a standing, non moving position. I hope my points a clear and understandable.
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These issues have plagued DDR Knives, you're right about that. I'm glad to see that Mr. Ralph is doing what he can to make it right with this gentleman - it appears that he was shafted indeed and he deserves to be compensated.

Maybe I'll be next to get my a) refund for b) forum knife from Darrel. It seems as though he's trying to turn over a new leaf and not screw people anymore. :rolleyes:

My point is, how many times do these horror stories have to come out until enough is enough? It's highly personalized, I guess...but I won't give a cent to that company ever again. I'm already out a few hundred without delivery of a product, and a big "oh well, sorry" explanation.
 
First, let me say this: I hate having to watch 1+ hours of videos to figure out what's going on with a topic.

Second, I agree with the previous poster in many regards: the buyer has some legitimate complaints, and some issues are reaching. For a $1200 knife, the edge should be perfect. It should be centered. Grinds symmetrical, etc. Me personally, I'd have signed the knife with a magic marker, signed it with acid to etch it, or put a signature into a CAD file and engraved it on.

Third, I'm having some problems understanding the chain of events here. From what I gather, the guy bought a knife, returned it, got another, and says that one is messed up too? I'm having difficulty buying that. I know personally that any time I have a return issue because of a screw up or defective or problem purchase, I make sure that the replacement doesn't have issues before it goes out, and I find it especially hard to believe that a $1200 purchase isn't going to get an inspection before going out the door.

Fourth, what sort of "testing" was done on the knife? This was mentioned a couple times during the video, but I wasn't paying close attention.

Fifth, the knife was sold at a $500 loss? WTF. This raises a red flag for me, a large one. If the knife is broken, defective, or otherwise unsatisfactory it needs to go back to the maker or manufacturer until it's right, or until a refund is issued. Period. Posting videos about how unhappy you are and then not giving them a chance to make it right is weird. How are they suppressed to improve or correct on issues if they can't see what's wrong?

Sixth, Darrel sending the customer a $600 knife on top of being savaged on this is above and beyond customer service. Especially if this guy cussed out his manager.

harkamus said:
The manufacturers pay to have their space on bladeforums.com.
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This is wrong, full stop. The manufacturers don't pay a dime to be on here. I don't know how this rumor started or why it keeps repeating, but we provide these forums at no cost to the manufacturers so they can interact with their customers. I haven't received a dollar from Benchmade, Emerson, Darrel, Chris Reeve, KaBar or any of the others. Full disclosure: several manufacturers have provided merch for giveaways or membership drives, but this was not asked for, nor done on a quid pro quo basis.
 
Spark said:
First, let me say this: I hate having to watch 1+ hours of videos to figure out what's going on with a topic.

Second, I agree with the previous poster in many regards: the buyer has some legitimate complaints, and some issues are reaching. For a $1200 knife, the edge should be perfect. It should be centered. Grinds symmetrical, etc. Me personally, I'd have signed the knife with a magic marker, signed it with acid to etch it, or put a signature into a CAD file and engraved it on.

Third, I'm having some problems understanding the chain of events here. From what I gather, the guy bought a knife, returned it, got another, and says that one is messed up too? I'm having difficulty buying that. I know personally that any time I have a return issue because of a screw up or defective or problem purchase, I make sure that the replacement doesn't have issues before it goes out, and I find it especially hard to believe that a $1200 purchase isn't going to get an inspection before going out the door.

Fourth, what sort of "testing" was done on the knife? This was mentioned a couple times during the video, but I wasn't paying close attention.

Fifth, the knife was sold at a $500 loss? WTF. This raises a red flag for me, a large one. If the knife is broken, defective, or otherwise unsatisfactory it needs to go back to the maker or manufacturer until it's right, or until a refund is issued. Period. Posting videos about how unhappy you are and then not giving them a chance to make it right is weird. How are they suppressed to improve or correct on issues if they can't see what's wrong?

Sixth, Darrel sending the customer a $600 knife on top of being savaged on this is above and beyond customer service. Especially if this guy cussed out his manager.



This is wrong, full stop. The manufacturers don't pay a dime to be on here. I don't know how this rumor started or why it keeps repeating, but we provide these forums at no cost to the manufacturers so they can interact with their customers. I haven't received a dollar from Benchmade, Emerson, Darrel, Chris Reeve, KaBar or any of the others. Full disclosure: several manufacturers have provided merch for giveaways or membership drives, but this was not asked for, nor done on a quid pro quo basis.
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Wolf1524 said:
Spark atleast please watch the video before you comment...
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Yep, this thread in a nutshell alright.
 
Thomas Linton said:
Well, that took some effort to find fault, but congrats.
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Your initial statement was just a timely and almost perfect lead-in to what seems to be happening in this thread as of late, not a concerted effort to find fault personally with you as an individual, as a fellow member. That same statement made by anyone else would have resulted in the same response from me.

DR certainly deserves the opportunity to attempt to salvage his reputation, his future and potential income, etc., but IMHO, he has clearly shown that he very much prefers to engage in 'damage control' only when publicly 'called out', as opposed to providing '100% customer satisfaction' as promised, when not under such scrutiny.

A reread of my post should clarify that.
 
I will chime in that selling the knife was on the buyer and should of went back to DR in exchange for the new knife. If any extra money should of been added it should only be enough cover the extra shipping costs resulted from the multiple exchanges.
 
Well, just a couple of comments and observations.

This should show all the value of Bladeforums beyond just the simple enjoyment of conversation about knives. It doesn't seem that DR had much interest in his commitment to customer service until this boiled up in front of such a large audience. While it seems that BF applied no pressure to DR to resolve this issue, this type of direct contact with other folks that would spend several hundred dollars has to be a targeted segment of his targeted clientele. No one wants to be exposed in front of an audience for bad behavior, poor product, and then real pettiness. (Really...? REALLY? A no tattling agreement?)

If any of you guys really want to see the close tolerances a custom knife can be made to on a repeatable basis, go to the traditional subforum here and take a look at some of the custom work there. Incredible, to say the least.

And Sharpe95, while you are complaining about mods and your treatment, you have no idea how lucky you are to still be here. Mods are people too and they have their opinion. And good days and bad days. While I don't post much here, I do read a lot. Some moderators are a great deal less tolerant than Karda has been on this thread.

I can say that in a lot of cases your language and choice of same along with your presentation directly aimed at some of the moderators would have either gotten you to your last warning, or outright banned. Karda has shown patience with you like I haven't seen him do in a while, but more even beyond that. In the subforum I frequent, you would have certainly been banned after your first, pointed rant.

On that particular forum, I had infractions issued for posting a picture incorrectly (apology NOT accepted by the mod), posting a link to another site to show a knife because I couldn't figure out how to post a pic, and another for linking to a non BF registered vendor. Never did I argue, sass, or be disrespectful in any way to them, and I corrected my errors as soon as I was told. That didn't make the infractions go away. For those mistakes, I was a step away from being banned.

Karda and the other mods have a difficult job to do sometimes, and I cannot personally imagine how time consuming it is for them. That being said, certainly their patience with you will run out. If you keep poking the dog, no doubt you will get bit.

Robert
 
Why in the world would the buyer trust DDR a third time?? What the buyer did with his knife (the 2nd shady one) is not relevant to this situation really.
The reason he posted here was that DDR did nothing to resolve his problems. I wouldn't want a knife from anyone who put me through a pile like that either.

How does a $1200 custom knife leave someone's shop with bad grind lines, off center, blade play, etc? How does it happen twice?
Who really even made the knives in question? Was it really Darrel or a flunky in his shop?

Doesn't sound to me like D even had a hand in making the knives ...... he certainly never explained that part. Would be nice if he could chime in on how his operation really works.
 
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