Chris Williams knife tried to rip me off for $5,150

This guy is something else.
I'd love to know how he sleeps at night. Watched the first vid.....$400 for that knife??
He's actually robbing people without a gun.
Wow!
Thank you Damage, for coming here and sharing with us, and I have prayed for your daughter.
Joe
 
Damage109 said:
I placed 4 separate orders with Chris Williams knife company for my wife's Christmas gifts last year, these were custom/special order.

The first order was placed on 8/31/2016, the second was on 9/6, the third was 9/29 and I'd need to look at my documentation for the date of the last order. The first three orders were placed using one credit card while the last order was with another card. The first order consisted of one knife, the second was two knives, the third was three knives and a carving set while the last order was two knives.

The first knife was a "Damascus" abalone knife and it arrived and it looked like total crap. The blade was cloudy and dull and looked nothing like any of the knives in his pictures. At that point I figured maybe it was a one off and I'd wait for the 2nd order to come in and see what those knives looked like before making any decisions.

I gave the knife to my wife even though it was before Christmas but I didn't tell her how I felt about it because we have other custom Damascus knives from other knife makers. She used the knife and she complained that the knife had a dull blade and rusted every time she washed it by hand.

The 2nd order arrived on 10/29 and I was equally disappointed, my wife and I at that point started to question the quality of the knives right away. Her focus was on the rusting and dull blade issue but I couldn't help but feel like the Damascus blade was fake. I remembered on the knife making shows seeing the bands of Damascus pattern flowing through the whole blade including the spine/back of the blade so I went and grabbed one of my William Henry blades and compared the blades to one another. The Chris Williams knives didn't have the Damascus pattern on the spine and were polished. The William Henry blade is really smooth to the touch while the Chris Williams blade was abrasive and had almost a pitted feel. It seems like an acid etching.

By this time my wife was already searching the internet and found this forum among others. We did as much research as we could and on December 6th I cancelled my 2 existing orders which totaled $5,150. Chris Williams wanted an answer and I told him I was unhappy about his customer service but was even more disappointed with the quality of the knives. He told me he would not refund my money in full as he had time invested in time and materials. I felt like he was a fraud, a liar and a scam artist so I decided to dispute the charges since I never received those orders. He sent me an email telling me that he was going to fight the disputes and that we were immoral/unethical people and ethical people didn't conduct business that way. He told me that the universe has a way of dealing with people like me.

Both credit card companies sided in his favor because he was producing tracking order numbers for the first two orders that he did send to me. This went on until April 18th of this month and the whole time he sent harassing emails to me from December to April. I contacted the main credit card company at the beginning of April and asked for a supervisor. I explained that I kept being charged the money for these knives that I had not received and that he was using tracking numbers from a previous order and she came up with the idea of disputing every single charge for the sake of forcing him to produce all three tracking order numbers for that particular credit card company.

Once he was informed that all three of those orders were disputed he sent me harrassing emails telling me that I was breaking the law and that I was the biggest scam artist in the world and he was going to make me pay. He said he was going to contact his powerful friends and he threatened to have my business investigated. We exchanged a couple emails but he decided to proceed to call me an idiot, a pussy and he asked for my address so he could come to my house and kick my ass. He threatened my business and sent me an email with my business address and phone number. He then found my address from his ups documents and told me he had friends everywhere and he was going to send them to get me. There were other things said between the two of us but there's too much to mention.

At that point I filed an incident report with the police and I took them every page of all of our email exchanges. The officer advised I get a restraining order against him but I decided not to, this was April 18th. April 19th he decides to call me up and call me a piece of shit etc. so I went to court and was granted a temporary restraining order. I received a letter today from one of the credit card companies stating they have closed the dispute in my favor while the other card company called me and stated the same and I'm expecting a letter from them. I have a court date on May 3rd to determine whether I will be granted a permanent restraint order.

I have made clear in this post which statements are opinions and which statement are facts. I can't say for sure the Damascus isn't real as I'm not a professional, but everything else is fact and I have paperwork that proves everything I have stated here to be true. I am willing to post any and all of it here as proof to back up my claims.

We have also filed a complaint with the bbb that will not be disputed and will be available to the public once his opportunity to respond expires. Once the bbb complaint becomes public information I will post the link to it. We have also contacted every local news station in his area and are in communications with them currently, hopefully we will be able to share our story with the media and be able to post it to YouTube as well.

I have also sent communications to a knife maker I have dealt with in the past to see if I can have these knives examined with the intentions of filling a lawsuit. Hopefully my story will expose this man so that he won't be able to harm anymore innocent people.
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^ To be honest, I began reading your OP a few days ago, but like many others here, I didn't finish it (I hope you don't mind that I tried breaking it up for you (although I'm sure not perfectly).

I then clicked on this thread again this morning to view any updates; I also watched the very interesting YouTube video you made and posted. Your video kind of drew me in and got me to read this thread starting at the end and working back to the OP.

It's obvious that you're a very busy person. Between your business and your daughter (sending prayers your way), :) you have a full plate and then some...so for you to invest so much of your valuable time exposing this con/scammer, I for one, greatly appreciate it! :thumbsup:

The type of threats that were made by Chris Williams, to you, along with the crazy way this sociopath went about delivering them...speaks volumes as to his character, or lack thereof.

As for his so called custom made knives: just from the look at a few of your pictures, they look like crap!!! :poop: FWIW: BladeForums needs to bring back that green emoticon, Spark- the one with that hand that moves back and forth furiously! :D

It's no wonder, scammer's like Chris Williams aren't selling here on BladeForums. They'd be exposed immediately...so they go on other types of social media, where they can control their pages and delete any and all negative information like this, from making it out to the mainstream public.

Fortunately, there is a BladeForums, and more importantly, this sub-forum. The Good, Bad and the Ugly sub-forum educates the knife World regarding criminals like Chris Williams, like no other! :thumbsup:

I appreciate you having the courage to take on this piece of crap, head-on, and share your story here. And I was very relieved to learn that the credit card companies did finally rule in your favor. :thumbsup:

Best of luck, Big D! I hope we see both your and your wife spend a little more of your valuable time around this place.

Please take the time to check out some of the very talented custom knife makers, who help support the number 1 knife forum:

http://www.bladeforums.com/categories/knifemakers-market-knives-more-for-sale.767/
 
KELAMA said:
^ To be honest, I began reading your OP a few days ago, but like many others here, I didn't finish it (I hope you don't mind that I tried breaking it up for you (although I'm sure not perfectly).

I then clicked on this thread again this morning to view any updates; I also watched the very interesting YouTube video you made and posted. Your video kind of drew me in and got me to read this thread starting at the end and working back to the OP.

It's obvious that you're a very busy person. Between your business and your daughter (sending prayers your way), :) you have a full plate and then some...so for you to invest so much of your valuable time exposing this con/scammer, I for one, greatly appreciate it! :thumbsup:

The type of threats that were made by Chris Williams, to you, along with the crazy way this sociopath went about delivering them...speaks volumes as to his character, or lack thereof.

As for his so called custom made knives: just from the look at a few of your pictures, they look like crap!!! :poop: FWIW: BladeForums needs to bring back that green emoticon, Spark- the one with that hand that moves back and forth furiously! :D

It's no wonder, scammer's like Chris Williams aren't selling here on BladeForums. They'd be exposed immediately...so they go on other types of social media, where they can control their pages and delete any and all negative information like this, from making it out to the mainstream public.

Fortunately, there is a BladeForums, and more importantly, this sub-forum. The Good, Bad and the Ugly sub-forum educates the knife World regarding criminals like Chris Williams, like no other! :thumbsup:

I appreciate you having the courage to take on this piece of crap, head-on, and share your story here. And I was very relieved to learn that the credit card companies did finally rule in your favor. :thumbsup:

Best of luck, Big D! I hope we see both your and your wife spend a little more of your valuable time around this place.

Please take the time to check out some of the very talented custom knife makers, who help support the number 1 knife forum:

http://www.bladeforums.com/categories/knifemakers-market-knives-more-for-sale.767/
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I'm sorry about that first post, I was absolutely exhausted... I think it was around two in the morning and I had to wait until I was finished with work to write that. It was just a massive regurgitation.
 
If it was just a crappy knife, then I would say caveat emptor. IMO a decent person would issue a refund, but we all know how some folks operate their businesses.

But the pictures you posted show defective merchandise IMO. It also appears that he has misrepresented (way beyond usual "puffery") the nature of these knives, how they are made, etc.

Looks like fraud to me. JMHO.
 
I love the real estate video,it shows that the "manufacturing" of a "well-known national knife company" is done out of a two car garage, and "warehousing and order fulfillment" is done out of a much larger Morton-style building. Of course it is, when you slap 99% of your knives together from pre-made parts and Jantz blade blanks, you only need the small building for "manufacturing", the big building obviously being full of re-branded (ganzos, etc) knives he's ordered from China ready to ship. That's probably why his "customs" cost so much, you're making him walk the 25 extra feet to the garage and grind out some nicer handle scales and run the buffer for a better polish.
Let me clarify that I am in no way saying that a craftsperson cannot make a $500 custom in a small workspace, it's just amusing how in this particular case the buildings and descriptions are so confirming of what everyone already knows.
 
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JJHollowman said:
I love the real estate video,it shows that the "manufacturing" of a "well-known national knife company" is done out of a two car garage, and "warehousing and order fulfillment" is done out of a much larger Morton-style building. Of course it is, when you slap 99% of your knives together from pre-made parts and Jantz blade blanks, you only need the small building for "manufacturing", the big building obviously being full of re-branded (ganzos, etc) knives he's ordered from China. That's probably why his "customs" cost so much, you're making him walk the 25 extra feet to the garage and grind out some nicer handle scales and run the buffer for a better polish.
Let me clarify that I am in no way saying that a craftsperson cannot make a $500 custom in a small workspace, it's just amusing how in this particular case the buildings and descriptions are so confirming of what everyone already knows.
Click to expand...

It's usually the little things that trip up the bad guys.

There was a motorcycle saddle maker who routinely ripped off dozens if not hundreds of his customers, one of the things that myself and a few others pointed out about his claims were the sheer number of seats and recovering jobs he'd claimed to have done. According to his website he would have to have been making something like 2 seats every hour for 20 hours per day, 7 days per week for years to make the numbers he claimed he had made. It was a lot of nonsense. He's out of business and is now on the receiving end of much needed legal actions.

I have no doubt what the future holds for Mr. Williams and his alleged knife company.
 
http://www.coolhunting.com/design/williams-knife-company

To me it seems like these aren't really articles, it seems like he's just paying for advertisements. While I was waiting for our orders to ship I was on his Facebook and instagram everyday looking at his pictures and I noticed he seemed to travel a lot. It was mentioned somewhere that he made claims to the amount of knives he was producing. The fact that he travels and plays as much as he does supports the theory he isn't the one making these knives. I'm not a knifemaker but we do have some understanding of the time, energy and commitment that goes into making just one custom knife. I want to thank everyone here and would like to say something great has come out of this.

We are now apart of the real knife community and we have been looking at some of the amazing pieces being built. We also feel like we have been accepted and welcomed by your wonderful community. Thank you all!
 
Welcome! I know I speak for everyone here when I say we are sorry for your disappointing introduction into the world of knife collecting. I hope thay moving forward everything will be a positive experience for you that will leave you feeling excited and satisfied with this fulfilling hobby.

By the way, that he does not make these knives himself is not a theory, it is fact. Apparently he admitted in another thread that he doesn't do everything himself. He wouldn't admit outright that he was buying blade blanks. He also is remarketing Chinese Ganzo folders as his own "custom designed folders" and selling these 20$ knives for 200$.
 
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Damage109 said:
I want to thank everyone here and would like to say something great has come out of this.

We are now apart of the real knife community and we have been looking at some of the amazing pieces being built. We also feel like we have been accepted and welcomed by your wonderful community. Thank you all!
Click to expand...


^ Excellent! Now you and your wife have found a place, where both of you can safely enjoy this passion/hobby. :thumbsup: Wishing you smooth sailing moving forward, D.
 
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Welcome, Damage109 :) . 5K goes pretty quickly once hooked on BladeForums. I am already up to 1K on knives and knife-specific accessories this month which follows 1K the month before. And I have yet to get started on replacing my MAC Pro kitchen knives with custom pieces (looking mostly at Carter Cutlery). Even so, my expenditure pales in comparison to some of the big dogs here. At least now you will obtain greater value for your money. See you around!
 
I don't believe he is banned.

Honestly he needs to be banned from this mortal coil.
 
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