Help with contacting Roger Linger

Roger, it is okay to contact someone and ask for the money when you are starting their knife. That way the payment should get to you around the same time that the knife is being finished. However, it appears that cleaner145 and Stepa were asked to send the final payment half a year or more ago, and still do not have their knives. I wouldn't think that it should have taken you that long to complete their knives. Also, it appears that you have not contacted either of these two customers in that time. It should not be up to them to have to figure out how to get in contact with you.

Once again, I will reiterate, communication is one of the most important parts of any business deal. It only takes a couple of minutes to type out an email explaining why things are delayed, and it keeps the other person in the deal from being in the dark. It doesn't matter how busy you are, there is no excuse for not keeping in touch with your customers. They have trusted you with a lot of money and deserve to be kept informed.

Roger, your work knives are top notch, but if you don't communicate with your customers, you won't be in the knifemaking business long. That kind of treatment of customers gets around, and can ruin a promising business.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
Once again, I will reiterate, communication is one of the most important parts of any business deal..
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YES!
Most all the problems that knife makers have with people start out with this lack of good communication.

When a guy sends a knife maker a few hunderd bucks he has every right to expect the knifemaker to keep him up to date as to how the work is going...(it takes a whole 10 seconds to do)

Now back in the old days of land-line phones and the post office it was easy to get lost in the work and not learn someone was asking questions.
But today, with cell phones and the internet there is NO REASON why a knife maker should get into trouble from a someone who just wants to know how things are going?

Also, I have seen the same silly reasons given by too many knife makers for not answering email; "Oh I have a new address" or "I have a new conputer"
But the truth is that such reasons just are not good enough to allow a person who has already sent in money to not get answers to their emails.
The moment you get a new email address the good knife maker should contact all the people on his list and update them,,,takes a whole 20 seconds to do!

If a maker gets a new computer, then the first thing that maker should do is bring all the address lists up to date...again, that takes just seconds to do.

The Golden Rule should always be in the back of every knife makers mind when it comes to staying in contact with the very same people that drive the knife market.

As for what I believe will be the idea that many top knife makers turn to in the future?
Webcams.

I think that with the growing YouTube generation of makers getting more busy, that soon we may start to see webcams set up so that a person at home can watch the knife maker make his knife.
 
Whoa...this is nuts...

Roger, what part of I want my money back is unclear to you? I was promised a knife that was paid for in full almost a year ago. There is no knife and as far as I am concerned there will never be one. I am not going to pull out and just give you the $380 dollars. Do you think I print them in my garage? Wrong.

As far as using netzero email, I did that, I used yahoo e-mail too. I am not going to write any more e-mails to you - it is a waste of my time, you ignore them.

You had no problem with being a “one man operation” when you cashed my money orders. As far as I am concerned, you shouldn’t have one with returning the funds you owe for products that were never delivered.

I am not buying anymore of the "I work slow" crap. I just don't care. I didn't set the deadlines in the first place. You did. I didn't come up with excuses when I was asked to pay. I paid. You're more than 7 months late and it is not acceptible.

All I want now is a full refund.
 
I don't post in these threads very often but Linger's "I do not give refunds" just plain sucks. Here's another loser of a knifemaker taking peoples money and then hanging them out. I will say the excuses get more creative!

Stepa, I hope you've got copies of your M.O.s and you go to the authorities and file a claim.

No reason for anyone else to order a knife from this guy.

Win
 
rlinger said:
I do not give refunds.
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so you tell a customer his knife is finished, take his money, don't ship the knife and then refuse to give a refund after over 6 months of waiting PAST the date you said the knife was done?

that sure sounds like "beating people" out of their money to me.


I also note that nowhere in your post did you address cleaner's or stepa's specific issues. Mr. Linger, by all accounts you make an exceptional knife but that counts for next to nothing when you treat your customers like crap.
 
Win Heger said:
Linger's "I do not give refunds" just plain sucks.
Here's another loser of a knifemaker
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Thats right on the money!....

The guy seems to post on this forum on lots of topics, and if he truly is as bad a person as his actions seem to clearly show, then it's time his actions came to everyone's attention on such topics!....
 
Roger, do you think you are justified in not giving a refund when you tell someone to send you money for their knife, and then you don't have it to the customer 6 months or more later? Do you think it is okay to keep your customers money until you are ready to make their knives, no matter how long that might take? Do you tell your customers that even after you get their money that they may be waiting 6 months or more for their knives?
 
Based upon his one post in this thread I am starting to believe that Mr. Linger feels he does not need to justify himself to any of us. Of course, this is true for people like mysef and others whom are not his customers. But for his jilted customers, two of which he did not even address directly in this thread, I would say that he damn sure owes them a justification for his actions andan apology for the delay.

And then he needs to make everything right, as soon as possible and not just make some vague claim that "all knives paid for are in progress and have been and will be complete and delivered.". Thats nice and all but it does nothing for the two paying customers in this thread who were under the impression that, after sending final payment, Mr. Linger would actually send them what they paid for in a timely fashion. Or at least communicate otherwise.
 
Just my opinion, but that's at least breach of contract and maybe just plain theivery. I'd suggest just sending a note to the "local to Roger" police.
 
No knifemaker worth his salt asks for full payment up front. None. If the knives are good, there is no problem finding a buyer with little effort if another customer backs out.

Caveat Emptor.
 
And another thing.
I have been on this forum since day one and have been buying handmade knives for 20 years. I have been involved in knife industry in one way or another for almost 15 years.

I have seen many makers like "Roger Linger" come and go. Anyone remember Lynn Griffith? Dale Reif? and many, many more. Many more.

Bladeforums made you Roger Linger. Without these forums-this online community, you would be just another unknown grinder setting up at local gunshows working a "real" job.

You, like many other makers came here, put out a shingle and the 80,000 members have been footing your bills. It seems easy to some to be a one-man show, but I know it is not. It takes talent, work ethic and most of all integrity.

In return for a plethora of orders and several years backlog apparently, you have shit on the membership here-the very people who made you, who turned you into a "real" knifemaker. You have become yet another speedbump on the road we know as bladeforums. You have an opportunity to rectify this mess. Stop taking orders. Stop taking deposits. Start making knives. Show some integrity. Save your career.

Pretty simple.

My 2cents. I am getting tired of these threads where knifemakers who were unknowns prior to coming here are all of a sudden holier than thou after a few orders from us "little people" come in the door.
 
Anthony Lombardo said:
And another thing.
I have been on this forum since day one and have been buying handmade knives for 20 years. I have been involved in knife industry in one way or another for almost 15 years.

I have seen many makers like "Roger Linger" come and go. Anyone remember Lynn Griffith? Dale Reif? and many, many more. Many more.

Bladeforums made you Roger Linger. Without these forums-this online community, you would be just another unknown grinder setting up at local gunshows working a "real" job.

You, like many other makers came here, put out a shingle and the 80,000 members have been footing your bills. It seems easy to some to be a one-man show, but I know it is not. It takes talent, work ethic and most of all integrity.

In return for a plethora of orders and several years backlog apparently, you have shit on the membership here-the very people who made you, who turned you into a "real" knifemaker. You have become yet another speedbump on the road we know as bladeforums. You have an opportunity to rectify this mess. Stop taking orders. Stop taking deposits. Start making knives. Show some integrity. Save your career.

Pretty simple.

My 2cents. I am getting tired of these threads where knifemakers who were unknowns prior to coming here are all of a sudden holier than thou after a few orders from us "little people" come in the door.
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dam straight
 
:thumbup: for Anthony Lombardo. This whole thing stinks and its got absolutely nothing to do with the customers.
 
Gentlemen,
I appreciate your support. Hopefully your words will put some sense into the head of an individual who’s communication skills or lack thereof are threatening the only source of income he has.

Moderators,
Can you turn this thread into a sticky? I am not trying to retaliate, this isn’t the first mishap of Mr. Linger and I believe other members deserve to know about his inability to deliver on paid orders.
 
Even if this thread doesn't make it to sticky status, I believe that it will stay near the top until there is a resolution to the situations that have been presented here.
 
All I can do that is correct to do is get the knives finished and delivered and that is what I will do. This thread or any thread has no bearing on me doing that. I deliver. No one has been taken by me. This is my last word about it here, on this thread. Except that I believe Mr. Roughedges should whip the fire out of his eyes and read my post again and more carefully. Never have I told someone his knife was finished and then did not ship it after payment received. I think that's a bit far fetched Mr. Roughedges.

rlinger
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rlinger said:
Never have I told someone his knife was finished and then did not ship it after payment received. I think that's a bit far fetched Mr. Roughedges.

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No fire in my eyes, Mr. Linger. Its possible I misunderstood but it seems to me that, after making full payment, your customers had a reasonable expectation of recieving what they ordered regardless of any misunderstanding on my part.

Since you opened the door to direct communication with me, Mr. Linger, I do have one further question:

You stated that you have had some customers pull out for "impatience" with you and then went on to state that you do not give (interesting choice of words on your part) refunds. Also, you state that you require full payment up front.

So my question is this. How in the world is an "impatient" customer supposed to pull out once you have all of his money and refuse to "give" him a refund?

Riddle me that, Mr. Linger.
 
rlinger said:
All I can do that is correct to do is get the knives finished and delivered and that is what I will do.

rlinger
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Roger,

Who gave you this idea of what's correct to do at this point? Sounds to me like you're in denial and are making a unilateral decision based on your own rationalization of your behavior.

A normal course of action would be to:
  • Offer an apology
  • Offer an explanation
  • Offer options to resolve the conflict

One option would be to set a new deadline for those interested and inform them of progress on weekly basis. Doing so would have given you the opportunity to regain their trust.

The second option would be to refund the money to those no longer interested in your products. This would allow other potential customers to see that while you over promise and under deliver there is a sense of business ethics in you and that they will not be merely scammed out of their hard-earned money.

While biased, I believe that this would be the best approach to resolve the conflict at hand. I ask forum members to correct me if something I am saying is unreasonable in any way.

In any case, I am anxiously awaiting your response to the following question:

When should I expect to have back the money that you owe me?
 
There is more to it than just getting the knife to the customer at some point after they have paid. Are the customers told that after they have paid that they may still be waiting over half a year to get their knives? If the customer is informed at the time of payment that they may still be waiting another 6 months or more to get a knife, then that is one thing. If they are not being told, then that is total BS. If Roger is asking for payment without informing the customer of this then in my opinion he is an incredibly poor business person that thinks only of himself and getting paid, and doesn't think twice about the concerns of the people that supply at least a part of his income. No matter how good the knives are, if I know a maker operates like that, I would never, ever purchasing from him/her. I will also inform everyone that I know is looking for a knife from that maker of the way he/she treats customers.
 
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