I don't get it.

Triton

Triton

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2000
Messages
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So I noticed over in the GB&U that a maker who has proven... shall we say less then reliable in the past is back in business selling knives like hotcakes. In another thread there a dealer who also has some reliability issues has people stepping up to defend him. Neither of these are isolated events. Time and again I've seen makers and dealers who are unreliable, not quite right in the head or just out and out swindlers surfacing being exposed, pilloried and in a few years showing up again invariably with passionate defenders to let us know that this time it will be all okay. Then the cycle repeats.

I don't get it. Why does this happen? I've got some ideas.

1) People really want to think the best of someone, everyone wants to give them a second chance. People are unwilling to face the idea that some people are just dishonest crooks.

2) People don't want to admit that they have been had. They have ego involved. There is no way that someone could have ripped them off. They are far to smart, personable and darned good looking for that to happen.

3) They have been conned. They believe the conman over everyone else that tries to warn them after all the con man is such a nice guy.

What say you?
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
You can't fix stupid.
Click to expand...

:thumbup: Yup. You just can't.

As my grandfather would say - "you get what you ask for." If you don't heed the warnings, and you so business with said swindler, well . . . "you get what you ask for."

thx - cpr
 
Or as our dearly departed president Dub said:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
 
Not everyone is stupid.

Let's just say that everyone has had an individual experience with knifemaker or salesman. Some people did get their knife(s) and/or got excellent service, so they want to share that to counter-balance a negative posting.

I have also seen my share of "bashing" of a knifemaker/salesperson before the facts are known or a reasonable amount of time has passed. Too often a newb posts negative info on a well-regarded person here because he/she didn't get a response in a quick-enough manner (even a few days). Sometimes a knifemaker has just gotten sick, had a family emergency, Reserves commitments, or even been away at Blade and hadn't had a chance to check emails to respond.

I think it fair if somebody wants to chime in their positive experience, other times, if you handle a disagreement civilly, you will better-likely get your issue handled faster than if someone goes and slams a knifemaker's name all over the internet.

This isn't to deny the fact that there are more than a few thieves and fraudsters sharing the internet.
 
It the case of certain makers, it's mild greed. Allan Blade, Livesay, etc all produce knives quality-wise far above their price point. All is good, till they start screwing people over.

Maker pops back up, starts making knives again...... Sure people want to forgive, but they also want good cheap knives.

Sometimes it don't work out.
 
Triton said:
I don't get it. Why does this happen? I've got some ideas.

1) People really want to think the best of someone, everyone wants to give them a second chance. People are unwilling to face the idea that some people are just dishonest crooks.

2) People don't want to admit that they have been had. They have ego involved. There is no way that someone could have ripped them off. They are far to smart, personable and darned good looking for that to happen.

3) They have been conned. They believe the conman over everyone else that tries to warn them after all the con man is such a nice guy.

What say you?
Click to expand...

That plus the people protecting the con man only had one or two transactions which might have been OK. They don't know about the others who have been scammed.

Also, people don't like to admit they made a mistake.

There is a seller of mfg knives who charges more that many other places easily found on the internet. I pointed this out once and the response was the seller and the wife were good people and friendly. I thought if they were friends of mine they wouldn't charge me inflated prices.
 
:) I think the "You can't fix stupid" comment is the best, but there are other good reasons here as well.
 
abcdef said:
Or as our dearly departed president Dub said:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Click to expand...

Removed, sorry my levity was misconstrued as politics. :o I now realize it's not the place for it.
 
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Challenged people are everywhere.

Just like those myopic folks who can not follow rules and bring politics into a knife discussion forum there are those who would rather order knives from questionable makers rather than work with the vast majority who would not do anything to harm the most important asset they have which is integrity.
 
P.S. any more politics brought into this thread will receive infractions for trolling rather than warnings.
 
It is possible that folks want to expect the best from one another. And I agree with some of the other ideas expressed here.

But I think that you need to remember that many folks that buy knives, computers, gun parts, tools or anything else on the web may not know exactly where they need to go to research the vendor. And there is a timing issue as well.

If there is a maker/vendor that resurfaces after a year or so in a forum (remember, there are forums on every subject known to man) after making a mess out of their business, there won't be any negative posts for the purchaser to see. In fact, if it has been a while, there may actually be positive posts in recent threads of positive transactions that draw a person to a certain maker/vendor. Other long time forum members, either with short memories or willing to give someone the benefit of a doubt will remain silent on the forum hoping for the best. Then the cycle starts again, as the maker/vendor has a new customer.

Sometimes it works out and people learn from their mistakes in company building, and sometimes it doesn't. Building a company isn't easy.

And it gets tricky to filter the mountain of information available on the net. Piss someone off on one forum/site, and if they hammer long and loud at every opportunity, the forumites will take a distinct negative bend away from a person or company. It seems that the negative posters have a lot more time than the positive guys do. There is always a dog piling effect after a period of time on any forums, and if someone really likes or hates a company or maker, then after a while it seems the site does as well.

Case in point would be that there are a couple of manufacturers that are despised here that are viewed as perfectly fine on two other larger forums. So if you come here and search for a certain knife/company, you will get negatives out the wazoo. If you go to another site, they will be fine with the same knife company and recommend them and their products without reservation.

On the other hand, IF folks are buying from vendors that have a lot of negative bangs on this site and then complaining about it here, bad form. That's dumb. They should learn how to use this site. There sheer volume of the archives is what made me go from a lurker to a member.

As always, just my 0.02.

Robert
 
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