Knifecenter of the internet

[Joe Cop]

I have been holding this off for a month now, but it still bothers me. I ordered an Emerson La Griffe from knifecenter of the internet. Upon recieving it, I inspected it closely. tried it with the sheath a couple of times, and decided I was not crazy about the knife.
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I sent the knife back and asked for credit. I soon received a box via UPS. Much to my surprise, it was the La Griffe. I had sent a letter back with it stating my dismay with the knife. Hand written on the letter was a response: " This knife has been used. We do not accept returns on used knives".

The only thing I did with the knife was take it out of the sheath and replace it a couple of times. One thing I did not like was that there were some minor scratches on the black-ti coating when I recieved the knife, and that the few times I removed and reinserted the knife into the sheath it caused more minor scratches. I did not even do as much as cut butter with this thing.

I had purchased an Emerson Commander through Knifecenter,and have made some major purchases through other dealers such as a Large tanto Sebenza ,Wood inlay Sebenza, Camillus Talon, etc., in the last couple of months. i.e. I have, and will continue to, spend a good deal of money on my hobby. I feel that Knifecenter is willing to trade $49.99 for my future business, and I will never order from them again. I am very dissapointed. I accepted defeat on this matter, cord wrapped the handle on the LaGriffe, and have tried to enjoy this knife. I just can't help feeling I was wronged. Please correct me If I'm out of place here.

I will however, continue to do business with Northwest Cutlery,The Knife Shop,Chris Reeve Knives, and with John at Cumberland Knives, whom I have had very good experience with.

Regards,
Joe





[This message has been edited by Joe Cop (edited 09-05-2000).]

 

[PsychRN]

Sorry to hear that Knifecenter of the Internet is willing to trade your future business with you for $50, but I'm not entirely suprised...
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000910.html

I think the thing is that KCI is getting too big for its britches and FORGETTING what made them grow in the first place. I did, finally, get the correct order from them but it took them lots of time and they were rude, and unresponsive to e-mail and telephone calls too. BAD Knifecenter, bad...bad.

 

[mpayne]

Sorry to hear about that also....The thing about the LaGriffe, once you remove it once from the sheath, it is scarred as they scar easily......, but that does not make it "used". But geesh, it would not be worth loosing a customer over it......

 

[narruc1]

I have to agree with Parenoid! I think they are getting too big, and don't know how to handle that. I remember when they knew me by name there, and their web page was easy to follow. I'm glade to see that they have been doing well, but at the same time they have lost the most important thing that has brought them so far... They have lost their rapport with their customers.

After reading this thread, I have made up my mind not to buy from them anymore also.

------------------
BC... For those who fought for it, Freedom has a flavor the protected will never know... Semper Fi

 

[Hkorn]

Hello to all and I am sorry if anyone has had a less than perfect buying experience from my Knifecenter business. I feel the need to reply here and hope you forgive the long windedness.

Sending back a knife to a customer which we deem as used is a very difficult call to make and we do it very seldom. This is not the first time it has brought a complaint. It is, however, a call that we have to make from time to time. If any of you were sitting in this situation, you would also have to make the decision. Do we make an unconditional guarantee like ag russell or draw the line somewhere and where is that line drawn? Whoever is on the other side of the line will be unhappy and maybe we call it wrong. But a decision has to be made, nonetheless.
Well, we do what we can to make the whole thing work as well as we can. We devote a lot of time to putting up new items and getting good descriptions of them for you and making the site work better for you. Our prices may not be the lowest, but they are fair and I think we have the best selection anywhere. I also think our web site is still the easiest to use and the most informative. As the myriad of new sites pop up almost daily, we have used that fact to urge us to make our site better and our service better. Although there are incidents of miss-shipments, long backorders and mistakes, the vast majority of orders are shipped out immediately and arrive within days to you. A phone call to us brings up your order immediately so we can tell you where it is and you can track it on line 24 hours a day – with just the information we e-mail back to you when you order. Quite honestly, I am amazed by the level of service we can and do give.
As to the rudeness, I apologize. It is something that I work hard to tackle and I will wince sometimes when I hear a rude remark from someone here. I try to keep the phone calls going to those that handle them best, but it just is not always possible with a small business. There’s only a few of us here and we definitely keep the computer guys off the phone.
Good news, though, I have 2 very nice young ladies starting here within the next few weeks. At first, of course, the complaint will be that they don’t know the merchandise, but they will learn fast and, hopefully, be more pleasant to speak with than yours truly.
That’s my reply. I hope that you all use us occasionally for information even if you buy elsewhere. We will continue to work hard for you and to give you the best in service as well as an informative web site.

 

[Joe Cop]

Hkorn, thank you for your response. I stewed over this matter for over a month before posting my complaint, so you can see that this decision did not come easy for me either. I probably made the markings on the knife sound worse than they were calling them "scratches" Minor scuffs are a more appropriate term. This does not change the fact that I returned the knife in essentially the same condition as I recieved it, and instead of recieving credit, the knife was returned to me and deemed "used"
Even Mr. Mike Payne, who deals in knives, has pointed out that it is the nature of the black coating to be marred as soon as it is placed in the sheath.

The knife cost me $49.95 to purchase. I believe that the 3 day shipping cost an additional $7.00, and it cost me approximately $6.00 to send it back. I spent $62.95 on a knife that I am not happy with. This may seem like a small amount, but it will definitely be a factor when I consider my next online purchase.

Believe me, I'm not some joker just looking to start trouble. I'm not even trying to get a refund , as I have actually cut things with this knife since I got it back, thus making it actually "used". I'm just trying to bring this matter to your, and any other interested parties, attention. I'm genuinely sorry that it came to this. I had been very happy with service from your company up to this point, and had been looking forward to future business with you.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Hkorn]

As I said, I had to make a call. Sometimes I'm right and sometimes I'm wrong. If I was wrong, then I apologize. I don't blame you for taking your business elsewhere. I probably would, too. If you want to give us another chance I can offer free shipping or something like that, but, when you run a business you have to make the decisions as best you can.
Thanks for the consideration and civility.