- Joined
- Jul 4, 2001
- Messages
- 602
:grumpy: On May 27 2009 a knifemaker who goes by the name of mstephen put a knife up for sale on the bladeforums at 10:38pm. At 11:44pm that same night I said I would take it and sent him an e-mail to ask if he would ship to Canada. On May 28 I received an e-mail saying what the cost would be with shipping, I then sent him the money with paypal and asked that the knife be shipped with U.S.P.S., he then posted sold in the fixed blade for sale sub forum.
On June 10th after not receiving any notification from him about confirmation of mailing nor even that he has received the money I paypaled him. I sent an e-mail to his yahoo email account letting him know that the knife had not arrived as of yet and could he please send me conformation that it had been shipped and to provide me with a tracking number if he had one, I recieved no responce so the next day I sent him a PM on the U.S.N. since he also posts there asking him to check his e-mail for my message.
As of June 12th I still had not heard back from this knifemaker in question. I began to think my previous messages were not effective in reaching him, it was at this time that I decided to go back to the origonal 'fixed blade for sale' thread,
(http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=648496)
and posted a request for confermation that my knife had been mailed out to me. Later that afternoon I aquired a secondary e-mail for the said knifemaker, I then sent a email to that account requesting conformation that the knife had been indeed mailed, in that e-mail I stated that I know it is called 'Snail-mail' for a reason and that I was not expecting the said item to arrive on my doorstep within a few days of purchase but due to his lack of communication I was being led to believe that the knife that I bought was not sent to me when I had paid for it.
Here is a copy of the email i sent
From: lee brooks <brooksknives@shaw.ca>
To: mjeffo@mass.rr.com; damlan42@yahoo.com
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 4:10:13 PM
Subject: knife info
on may 28, 2009. i purchased the bumblebee neck knife that you had for sale on the blade forums.
i sent you an e-mail asking whether or not you would ship to canada, you agreed and set the price of $85.00 US.
the last and only other communication from you has been SOLD on the blade forums web site.
it is now June 12, 2009. i have sent you an e-mail at your yahoo account, I have sent you a pm through the usual suspects network, as well as a post in the original for sale post requesting confromation of the mailing of said item.
i fully understand that there is a reason the postal service is called snail-mail and i don't actually expect them on my doorstep in a few days, but it would be appreciated if you could at least send me confirmation that you have at least mailed it too me. As it stands i am left wondering if it was even mailed.
if you could please respond promptly to this matter i would appreciate it.
lee brooks
It was later that evening(June 12th) that I finally received his first and only responce to my multipule requests for confirmation of mailing 15 days after paying for said knife. In this e-mail mstephen finally gave me the tracking number I had requested. I then went to the U.S. postal service website to find out the location of my package. It was at this time that I found out that mstephen had not even dropped off my knife at his local post office until June 12, 2009, at 12:13 pm.
I wholely understand that if a person is busy it may take 2 or 3 days to take a package to the post office but as far as I'm concerned 15 days is unacceptable for a knife that is already made and was put up for immediate sale. The fact that this man could not or would not respond to my requests for mailing comfirmation leads me to believe that if I had not been consistant in my endevors he may have never mailed out the knife that I had paid for.
june 17 2009 update
The knife arrived today it is a very nice knife for the money the edge is hair popping sharp and the
wrap on the handle is wrapped nice and tight and gives a very good grip to hold it was packed in bubble wrap and taped tight so it would not recieve any damage in shippment.
however i did have to pay more for taxes and customs fees than i should have. I payed 75$plus shipping on this knife and on the customs form the knife maker put a 200$ value on the knife
so i paid almost double on the fees i do not see how or why he would say it is worth almost 3 times what i payed for. sounds to me like he was inflating the value for insurance purposes. So if the package was lost he would get back more the purchase cost. While i can understand maybe 150$ value that way if the knife was lost he would not be out and then neither would i, but where does the extra 50$ come from unless I am missing something that is common practice.
Even though i have not had the knife long enough to give a proper examination, I can however speak of his business practices. Due to the way mstephen handeled his side of this transaction it is my opinion that anyone who deals with this man should proceed with caution, as he does not communicate with his customers and seems to have a problem mailing his product promptly.
If mstephen wishes to come into this post so he can try to show legitamate justification for the 15 day delay in this matter please do so, as I would be looking forward to hearing the reasons for this delay.
Lee Brooks
On June 10th after not receiving any notification from him about confirmation of mailing nor even that he has received the money I paypaled him. I sent an e-mail to his yahoo email account letting him know that the knife had not arrived as of yet and could he please send me conformation that it had been shipped and to provide me with a tracking number if he had one, I recieved no responce so the next day I sent him a PM on the U.S.N. since he also posts there asking him to check his e-mail for my message.
As of June 12th I still had not heard back from this knifemaker in question. I began to think my previous messages were not effective in reaching him, it was at this time that I decided to go back to the origonal 'fixed blade for sale' thread,
(http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=648496)
and posted a request for confermation that my knife had been mailed out to me. Later that afternoon I aquired a secondary e-mail for the said knifemaker, I then sent a email to that account requesting conformation that the knife had been indeed mailed, in that e-mail I stated that I know it is called 'Snail-mail' for a reason and that I was not expecting the said item to arrive on my doorstep within a few days of purchase but due to his lack of communication I was being led to believe that the knife that I bought was not sent to me when I had paid for it.
Here is a copy of the email i sent
From: lee brooks <brooksknives@shaw.ca>
To: mjeffo@mass.rr.com; damlan42@yahoo.com
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 4:10:13 PM
Subject: knife info
on may 28, 2009. i purchased the bumblebee neck knife that you had for sale on the blade forums.
i sent you an e-mail asking whether or not you would ship to canada, you agreed and set the price of $85.00 US.
the last and only other communication from you has been SOLD on the blade forums web site.
it is now June 12, 2009. i have sent you an e-mail at your yahoo account, I have sent you a pm through the usual suspects network, as well as a post in the original for sale post requesting confromation of the mailing of said item.
i fully understand that there is a reason the postal service is called snail-mail and i don't actually expect them on my doorstep in a few days, but it would be appreciated if you could at least send me confirmation that you have at least mailed it too me. As it stands i am left wondering if it was even mailed.
if you could please respond promptly to this matter i would appreciate it.
lee brooks
It was later that evening(June 12th) that I finally received his first and only responce to my multipule requests for confirmation of mailing 15 days after paying for said knife. In this e-mail mstephen finally gave me the tracking number I had requested. I then went to the U.S. postal service website to find out the location of my package. It was at this time that I found out that mstephen had not even dropped off my knife at his local post office until June 12, 2009, at 12:13 pm.
I wholely understand that if a person is busy it may take 2 or 3 days to take a package to the post office but as far as I'm concerned 15 days is unacceptable for a knife that is already made and was put up for immediate sale. The fact that this man could not or would not respond to my requests for mailing comfirmation leads me to believe that if I had not been consistant in my endevors he may have never mailed out the knife that I had paid for.
june 17 2009 update
The knife arrived today it is a very nice knife for the money the edge is hair popping sharp and the
wrap on the handle is wrapped nice and tight and gives a very good grip to hold it was packed in bubble wrap and taped tight so it would not recieve any damage in shippment.
however i did have to pay more for taxes and customs fees than i should have. I payed 75$plus shipping on this knife and on the customs form the knife maker put a 200$ value on the knife
so i paid almost double on the fees i do not see how or why he would say it is worth almost 3 times what i payed for. sounds to me like he was inflating the value for insurance purposes. So if the package was lost he would get back more the purchase cost. While i can understand maybe 150$ value that way if the knife was lost he would not be out and then neither would i, but where does the extra 50$ come from unless I am missing something that is common practice.
Even though i have not had the knife long enough to give a proper examination, I can however speak of his business practices. Due to the way mstephen handeled his side of this transaction it is my opinion that anyone who deals with this man should proceed with caution, as he does not communicate with his customers and seems to have a problem mailing his product promptly.
If mstephen wishes to come into this post so he can try to show legitamate justification for the 15 day delay in this matter please do so, as I would be looking forward to hearing the reasons for this delay.
Lee Brooks
