Nice little experience just now with CS's online ordering

Some good news. I ordered a couple of knives on December 6. Credit card charged on December 7. Emailed on December 14 inquiring about the status of the order. Never got a response.

About an hour ago Fedex dropped off a box :thumbsup:

Using a knife to open a box of knives :)
Cold Steel 1.JPG Cold Steel 2.JPG

I obviously haven't used either one yet, but based on my initial inspection, I'm quite pleased with these :thumbsup::thumbsup:

The shipping is kind of strange, but then so is everything this year. The order confirmation stated shipping as USPS and the box has a USPS tracking number. The enclosed packing slip lists Fedex as the shipper and Fedex delivered it. Since I was expecting it to be delivered by USPS, I was quite surprised when Fedex dropped it off at 8:30 A.M. this morning. Fedex never delivers to me before 11:00 A.M. and usually its more like 6:00 P.M.

Anyway, a pleasant way to start the day :) Those of you with outstanding orders are probably going to be ok.
 
I sent a comment to the customer service at what I believe is Cold Steel now expressing my displeasure with their lack of service. I had been trying for nine days to place an order. The website kept telling me I have to talk to a representative. I tried the call back feature but never got the return call. I even wasted my only day off on hold only to be hung up on several times after a few seconds after an hour on hold. Now I find people who have managed to get an order placed have been charged with no response from the company. I have been buying and collecting Cold Steel since I got married, now some 39 years. They should change the name to No Steel. I'm sorry to hear LT is out of it. I always had great service when he was running things.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
Yeah, I don't get why the USPS being backed up in Indy is the linchpin for the Cold Steel house of cards. All USPS facilities are backed up. The fact that the story mentions one in Indianapolis might be due to the fact that it being reported by a news outlet out of....Indianapolis. My great state may be known as "The Crossroads of America", but that doesn't mean that everything shipping across the country goes through Indy. Hell, most of my orders actually overshoot me in southern Indiana, end up in Louisville,KY, and just back track this way in about a day since it's faster.
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From the article
When 13News first contacted the U.S. Postal Service last week, a spokeswoman said "The Postal Service is not commenting on local situations."
She did, however, send a USPS statement that said "The Postal Service has experienced a considerable increase in package volume…We apologize for the inconvenience of late arriving packages and are working to minimize the impact to our customers."
A few days later, the U.S. Postal Service issued a much more sweeping warning on its website. That alert says "USPS is experiencing unprecedented volume increases and limited employee availability due to the impacts of COVID-19."
Click to expand...
 
mbkr said:
Some good news. I ordered a couple of knives on December 6. Credit card charged on December 7. Emailed on December 14 inquiring about the status of the order. Never got a response.

About an hour ago Fedex dropped off a box :thumbsup:

Using a knife to open a box of knives :)
View attachment 1476272 View attachment 1476273

I obviously haven't used either one yet, but based on my initial inspection, I'm quite pleased with these :thumbsup::thumbsup:

The shipping is kind of strange, but then so is everything this year. The order confirmation stated shipping as USPS and the box has a USPS tracking number. The enclosed packing slip lists Fedex as the shipper and Fedex delivered it. Since I was expecting it to be delivered by USPS, I was quite surprised when Fedex dropped it off at 8:30 A.M. this morning. Fedex never delivers to me before 11:00 A.M. and usually its more like 6:00 P.M.

Anyway, a pleasant way to start the day :) Those of you with outstanding orders are probably going to be ok.
Click to expand...

I placed my order on December 9th and received it this morning from TX via FedEx with the USPS labels. Probably a good thing it wasn't through the mail, since I have another knife sitting at a nearby USPS distribution center for almost a week now.
 
mwhich50 said:
I ordered a Scout from KnifeCenter. They sent me an email a week later:"Manufacturer Delay". Whatever. Knifecenter will at least wait until the product actually comes, before they put the charge on my credit card.

I ordered a Shanghai Warrior on the 9th from Cold Steel Inc. Of course they put the charge on my card the next day. The order is still "pending". No emails.
I have been listening to shitty, customer service, hold music for at least 20 min....
30 min....40min.....60min.... I give up.
I'll bet $1000 no one is staffing the "Cold Steel Customer Service" line. Idiots!
After this, I'm done with Cold Steel Inc. It's not worth the hassle anymore.
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Honestly given that the company has been sold and is in the middle of restructuring, why would anyone buy direct from them? I recently bought a Shanghai Shadow and a drop forged push dagger from Knifecenter and both came in on time with only minor delays on the push dagger, but that was with USPS and still I did get my knife after the delays. I got mine during the big sale that Knifecenter had on Cold Steel knives. Even had the sale of Cold Steel not happened, I still would've bought from a dealer like knifecenter anyhow given the high markup on Cold Steel knives on their site.

Arvind
 
Arvind said:
Honestly given that the company has been sold and is in the middle of restructuring, why would anyone buy direct from them? I recently bought a Shanghai Shadow and a drop forged push dagger from Knifecenter and both came in on time with only minor delays on the push dagger, but that was with USPS and still I did get my knife after the delays. I got mine during the big sale that Knifecenter had on Cold Steel knives. Even had the sale of Cold Steel not happened, I still would've bought from a dealer like knifecenter anyhow given the high markup on Cold Steel knives on their site.

Arvind
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I agree, but there were some deals on the CS site that were better than I found elsewhere, as well as some special offerings like factory seconds. In a handful of instances the CS prices on certain models were the lowest I found. The most recent CS web store prices seem to be mostly full MSRP...
 
The knives I ordered had never been priced that low that I'm aware of.
2 of them were just a little more than what 1 usually costs.
Too tempting for me pass on at the time.
 
Arvind said:
Honestly given that the company has been sold and is in the middle of restructuring, why would anyone buy direct from them? I recently bought a Shanghai Shadow and a drop forged push dagger from Knifecenter and both came in on time with only minor delays on the push dagger, but that was with USPS and still I did get my knife after the delays. I got mine during the big sale that Knifecenter had on Cold Steel knives. Even had the sale of Cold Steel not happened, I still would've bought from a dealer like knifecenter anyhow given the high markup on Cold Steel knives on their site.

Arvind
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The knives I ordered from the website were priced as cheap as anywhere else and had free shipping. Everywhere else, I would have had to pay shipping or added some more stuff to the order.
 
Arvind said:
Honestly given that the company has been sold and is in the middle of restructuring, why would anyone buy direct from them? I recently bought a Shanghai Shadow and a drop forged push dagger from Knifecenter and both came in on time with only minor delays on the push dagger, but that was with USPS and still I did get my knife after the delays. I got mine during the big sale that Knifecenter had on Cold Steel knives. Even had the sale of Cold Steel not happened, I still would've bought from a dealer like knifecenter anyhow given the high markup on Cold Steel knives on their site.

Arvind
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I won't give them a 'pass' because they are "restructuring". What they are doing is really shitty.

I had never seen the Shanghai Warrior on sale.
My only problems are that Cold Steel charged me before the shipped it, and I can't talk to anyone at Cold Steel.
 
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mbkr said:
Some good news. I ordered a couple of knives on December 6. Credit card charged on December 7. Emailed on December 14 inquiring about the status of the order. Never got a response.

About an hour ago Fedex dropped off a box :thumbsup:

Using a knife to open a box of knives :)
View attachment 1476272 View attachment 1476273

I obviously haven't used either one yet, but based on my initial inspection, I'm quite pleased with these :thumbsup::thumbsup:

The shipping is kind of strange, but then so is everything this year. The order confirmation stated shipping as USPS and the box has a USPS tracking number. The enclosed packing slip lists Fedex as the shipper and Fedex delivered it. Since I was expecting it to be delivered by USPS, I was quite surprised when Fedex dropped it off at 8:30 A.M. this morning. Fedex never delivers to me before 11:00 A.M. and usually its more like 6:00 P.M.

Anyway, a pleasant way to start the day :) Those of you with outstanding orders are probably going to be ok.
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Very cool. Great information. I ordered a CBN too. Now there's at least some hope. Thanks!
 
Scott Deibler said:
I placed my order on December 9th and received it this morning from TX via FedEx with the USPS labels. Probably a good thing it wasn't through the mail, since I have another knife sitting at a nearby USPS distribution center for almost a week now.
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Ah! There is hope after all! Thanks!
 
Arvind said:
Honestly given that the company has been sold and is in the middle of restructuring, why would anyone buy direct from them? I recently bought a Shanghai Shadow and a drop forged push dagger from Knifecenter and both came in on time with only minor delays on the push dagger, but that was with USPS and still I did get my knife after the delays. I got mine during the big sale that Knifecenter had on Cold Steel knives. Even had the sale of Cold Steel not happened, I still would've bought from a dealer like knifecenter anyhow given the high markup on Cold Steel knives on their site.

Arvind
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Why WOULDN'T one buy direct from a manufacturer, even if the manufacturer had just been sold?

CS's direct prices on some models were the best going. Free shipping too, no minimum.
 
Chris_Texas said:
I'm sure they will get themselves sorted, but they are off to a poor start. I have even seen complaints on non-knife forums of Cold Steel's lack of shipping or response.
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I think that's a healthy perspective.

The bitter condemnations of CS and LCT immediately after the sale was announced was pure bull manure. Simply put, none of the complainers had the information to pass judgement, one way or the other.

Now we do have a bit of actual performance information during a fairly tough time -- transition/pandemic/Christmas, we can comment with some accuracy. Not too shiny thus far, but CS does seem to be digging itself out. We'll just have to wait and see.
 
SanLuisObispo said:
Why WOULDN'T one buy direct from a manufacturer, even if the manufacturer had just been sold?

CS's direct prices on some models were the best going. Free shipping too, no minimum.
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Reason: when a company's customer service will not respond to emails, or answer their telephone and neither will the holding company:
why would any one risk a couple of dollars for a total loss??
 
mattallamerican said:
I am still waiting
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Same here. I wonder how CS ships? I don't see anything from them on my USPS Informed Delivery page either. I only live about 120 miles from CS's former HQ, which is about 35 miles (in my direction) from the huge USPS Regional Center we share.

Knowing the USPS, I hope they don't route my CS shipments through Boston... ;)
 
oldmanwilly said:
I placed an order on Dec. 2nd and was immediately charged and sent an invoice. No correspondence since then, so I called CS' old customer service line and found it was disconnected. I then called the GSM customer service number and was put on hold for 30 minutes. I opted for a call-back which arrived after a few hours of waiting and decided to cancel my order and get a refund. The rep on the phone took down my name and hung up but the refund has not gone through for more than a week. At this point I wager I have a 50/50 shot of either receiving the refund or the knives in the mail but no clue when either will arrive.
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Following up from my last post, a package arrived from GSM without warning containing the order I previously cancelled (a Drop Forged Survivalist and a Drop Forged Bowie). I never got a refund or any further correspondence regarding my order. My wife was NOT enthused to watch me unbox 2 new bowies in the midst of an expensive time of year, so I suppose my only complaint at this point was that GSM didn't notify me and give me a chance to intercept the package. Clear violation of the knife-bro code.
 
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