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HTM Knives....the ugly

Bld522... Maybe your right, and HTM knives are the greatest knife ever made... I wouldn't know because they took my money and gave me a great big sack of nothing. I didn't even get a gratuitous f-you.

However I did take Neuron's suggestion and sent Mr. Ralph an email... At this point in time I am extremely dubious of what will come of all this, but if HTM does anything to make things right, I will certainly be the first to report it. But ain't gonna hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

/dusty
 
I sent the 190.00 (charged 180.00 for the knife deposit, 10.00 for the shipping) for the for a forum knife... Never heard from again them after receiving my original invoice. I've sent a couple of follow up emails asking where my forum knife was and never even got a reply... I will never do anything with HTM ever again, apparently they could care less about customers once they have your money.

My sales order was dated 8-15-2012 and the SO Number from Stephanie Williams @ HTM was 177JL (cc'ed to dralph2@earthlink.net), I was slated to get serial #16 of the forum knife.... they took my deposit money and then NOTHING... Darrel Ralph is nothing less than a thief. Don't waste your money on an HTM knife, even if they actually send you something it won't be worth any more than the cardboard box it is shipped with.

Scurvy, at least you got something for your money... albeit a substandard knife, I got NOTHING.


/dusty

Did you try reaching them via phone? Say what you will about the quality issues -- and goodness knows I'm sympathetic on that front as I said above -- but this seems like a situation where, for whatever reason, they simply weren't receiving your emails.

I've sent you a PM with contact info for Darrel. You can also reply back to me with your contact info if you want, and I'll pass it along to Darrel and have him give you a call instead (on Monday, most likely).

So, HTM has his money and ignores it? Since 8-15-2012? Never mind if his emails came through or not, sounds like HTM has big problems to me. (besides your email is not received you get a notice it wasn't) You don't just take someone's money for a product and forget about it. I've been interested in the line in the past, but after reading all these threads have no interest at all. If a company can take a payment deliver nothing then try to blame the buyer, after that long shows they have big problems.
 
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Dealers still carrying their product is not a sign that they are doing something right. It's just a sign that they still have product. If you just go with the feed back in this thread alone, there is clearly an issue that is disproportionate to the amount of knives they produce. The fact that they can get it right on occasion as I said before just makes it even more indicative of poor management.
 
Or alternatively, HTM gets it right more often than they get it wrong and you don't hear much from HTM customers like me who have nothing to complain about.

This much is certain. Taking money and refusing to either deliver product or give the money back is BS . . . pure and simple. If that's what's going on here, then I'll say what I've said before. Take it to Darrell the way Dusty did. Then if Darrell doesn't respond, I'd agree that HTM belongs in the Hall of Shame. But based on the few interactions I've had with Darrell, failure to respond isn't the way he rolls. So I'd suggest we just all take a deep breath and give him a little time to look into what's going on here. I'd be willing to bet that before this is all over, Darrell will make it right.
 
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Getting right more than wrong is completely irrelevant.

If they only got it wrong once but handled it like this they would be unworthy of a customers money. I gave this company plenty of opportunity to make it right. No need for a deep breath here. Darrel shouldn't have to get involved to make it good. Look at my history here. I don't whine and I only post when I have something to say.

Glad you had a great experience but know that it is completely possible that one day you'll be in the same boat.
 
Nothing one person does to another comes as any surprise to me, Molexey. As a dear friend of mine once said, "put your faith in God, Bruce. People will always let you down." I've strived to accept his philosophy. But it's still refreshing from time to time to see integrity and justice prevail. Will that happen this time? I'd say that remains to be seen . . .
 
So, HTM has his money and ignores it? Since 8-15-2012? Never mind if his emails came through or not, sounds like HTM has big problems to me. (besides your email is not received you get a notice it wasn't) You don't just take someone's money for a product and forget about it. I've been interested in the line in the past, but after reading all these threads have no interest at all. If a company can take a payment deliver nothing then try to blame the buyer, after that long shows they have big problems.
HTM undoubtedly tried to contact him when the forum knife was finished and the balance was due just like they did with every other person who had signed up and given them a deposit and contact info. I have no idea why in this one case they weren't able to reach him -- again, I don't work for HTM -- and also agree completely that it's on the company to follow up through all avenues possible. Specifically, in this particular case, I wish they had simply contacted me or another of the mods and said "hey, there's this guy who put down a deposit who we haven't been able reach by phone/email, can you get in touch with him through the forums?"

Dusty replied to my PM to say that he emailed Darrel, and I've also apprised Darrel of the situation via email. So as long and inexcusably overdue as it is, the issue should be taken care of on Monday when Darrel and Lacey (the person at DDR/HTM who handles the administrative/billing side of things) are back in the office.
 
As promised here is the update... After several back and forth email exchanges, Mr. Ralph let me know this afternoon that he was dropping me a refund check in the mail. He also let me know that in the future HTM will be incorporating a system to make sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again. For what it is worth, both Mr. Ralph and Lacey were very courteous and cordial throughout working through this issue. I'm still not sure where things went wrong, but the bottom line is that HTM did make things right for me by issuing a refund.

/dusty
 
No surprise there, dusty. Darrell Ralph is a class act. :thumbup: I'm glad everything worked out to your satisfaction. :)
 
BLD522... I think your right, after my interactions with both Mr. Ralph and Lacey, I don't believe there was even an ounce of ill intent... basically some type of human error happened and when given the opportunity HTM took care of their customer. I said some harsh things earlier in this thread, and frankly I was wrong.

/dusty
 
That's good to hear.

I also received a call from Darrel today. In a couple of days I should have my problem solved in a completely satisfactory way. I'll follow up here when I do. I have to commend Darrel on his professionalism. There was no indication of hard feelings in spite of all the Hell I raised on several threads. All I sensed was a sincere desire to make it right and get HTM back on track. I didn't mention Lacey earlier in this thread as I did not want to associate her with any of the negativity. My experience with her was very positive.
 
I strongly believe it is because Darrel is not properly involved with his company. I know for a fact that Darrel is a stand up guy who does care about his customers. So, I just can't see him being as involved with HTM as he should be if this is the way his company is treating their customers.

I gave this company plenty of opportunity to make it right. No need for a deep breath here. Darrel shouldn't have to get involved to make it good.

I also received a call from Darrel today. In a couple of days I should have my problem solved in a completely satisfactory way. I'll follow up here when I do. I have to commend Darrel on his professionalism. There was no indication of hard feelings in spite of all the Hell I raised on several threads. All I sensed was a sincere desire to make it right and get HTM back on track. I didn't mention Lacey earlier in this thread as I did not want to associate her with any of the negativity. My experience with her was very positive.

See, I TOLD YOU.

As soon as Darrel got involved everything turned out fine. That's what HTM needs to succeed again. Darrel just needs to keep his company close and be on top of everything that happens.

I'm glad he made this right. Darrel is good man, who genuinely cares about anyone who carries a knife with his name on it. :thumbup:
 
I was absolutely considering one of their knives prior to reading this thread. I would not buy anything from them now on principle!! I completely agree with your above statement, so I went with a Akribis from Spartan Blades! I'm happy with my decision. Thanks again for the info!!!
 
It's funny to me how the guy can let the terrible customer service and quality control go with out saying a word. He will go months without dealing with it or saying anything about it..... Yet he always manages to post advertisements about the new garbage he is going to send out to unsuspecting buyers. Why is this guy not in the hall of shame?
 
It's funny to me how the guy can let the terrible customer service and quality control go with out saying a word. He will go months without dealing with it or saying anything about it..... Yet he always manages to post advertisements about the new garbage he is going to send out to unsuspecting buyers. Why is this guy not in the hall of shame?

I have often wondered the same thing. For example, there was a member here with a problem with a knife and he wasn't happy. So DDR jumped in the thread and posted some pics for new products, the thread was basically turned into a an ad. One of these, "I'll just place this right here" moments. Anyone that has a drop of common sense researches their purchases, even a little especially while making their final decisions. There are a lot of people that clearly have much more money than sense and buy stuff first and ask questions later. I really have no sympathy for carelessness of that type. I don't think anyone needs our help in pointing out obvious issues. I'll also say that Lacey has been great, I can only imagine how needlessly difficult her job is made by these situations.
 
As promised here is the update... After several back and forth email exchanges, Mr. Ralph let me know this afternoon that he was dropping me a refund check in the mail. He also let me know that in the future HTM will be incorporating a system to make sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again. For what it is worth, both Mr. Ralph and Lacey were very courteous and cordial throughout working through this issue. I'm still not sure where things went wrong, but the bottom line is that HTM did make things right for me by issuing a refund.

/dusty

BLD522... I think your right, after my interactions with both Mr. Ralph and Lacey, I don't believe there was even an ounce of ill intent... basically some type of human error happened and when given the opportunity HTM took care of their customer. I said some harsh things earlier in this thread, and frankly I was wrong.

/dusty

That's good to hear.

I also received a call from Darrel today. In a couple of days I should have my problem solved in a completely satisfactory way. I'll follow up here when I do. I have to commend Darrel on his professionalism. There was no indication of hard feelings in spite of all the Hell I raised on several threads. All I sensed was a sincere desire to make it right and get HTM back on track. I didn't mention Lacey earlier in this thread as I did not want to associate her with any of the negativity. My experience with her was very positive.
Really glad to hear this, guys. Thanks for the updates.
 
I have often wondered the same thing. For example, there was a member here with a problem with a knife and he wasn't happy. So DDR jumped in the thread and posted some pics for new products, the thread was basically turned into a an ad. One of these, "I'll just place this right here" moments.

I remember seeing that. A blinding example of "you just don't get it."
 
Well one last update.. As promised, I received my refund check today in the mail, I also received a seperate envelope that had a personal letter from Mr. Ralph and a little something extra... I don't know what more any individual or any company could do to make things right. I know that some will say that these sort of issues shouldn't happen in the first place, but HTM is a small company being run by human beings and they seem to have suffered through dealing with both growing pains and human mistakes. As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Ralph is an honorable man that stands behind both his product and his company.

/dusty
 
dustyzz, nice to hear it all worked out.As I am on the boat,purchased a HTM 5.5 a few years ago from one the dealers here, that happened a few problems.
 
Well to try and make this thread a bit more positive, I will mention that I actually had a fantastic experience with their warranty service. I had an assisted Gunhammer develop lock rock in just a few hours of ownership, so I sent it back and within two weeks I had a new Maxx Glide Gunhammer. The quality of the product in the first place may have been a bit questionable but I was nothing but satisfied with the returned product, which besides some lock stick functioned flawlessly.
 
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