Roger Linger stole my payment for WSK

Y

Yshimo

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Oct 24, 2004
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I was not planning to post this, but since Roger Linger is not responding to any of my emails, I have decided to put this message.
I have paid him $150 deposit for WSK back in Nov 7th 2004. I ordered the knife to be made with dark brown leather sheath. In the beginning he told me that the knife would be ready by Feb 2005. However, My knife was finally ready in Jun 2005 ( I did not argue about that). However, he sent me the picture of the knife with black sheath, which was obviously not what I 've asked for. I asked him to have my sheath remade to match my order. He said he would have to send the knife back to Mr.Briggs ? the sheath maker, and he asked me to pay the full payment for the knife at that point of time. I did not pay him full but, I paid him additional payment of $215( he did not argue about this ). I was going to pay him the rest, which is about $150 when the knife and the sheath was ready to ship. From Jun 2005 up until now, he has only given me a single message back in Aug, and after that he has been refusing to reply to all of my emails. He used to be a very nice gentle person, but right after I asked him to have my sheath remade and paid him the additional $215, he has changed. $365 might be not much money but it is still what I have paid as a customer. I have paid him the total of $365 for nothing and waited for almost one year.
I have had enough with this guy, and I want my money back by November 1st. If he does not. I am going to report this to

WV Nitro Police Department
(304) 755-0777


20th & 2nd Ave
Nitro, WV 25143
 
Thank you Shappa. At least caught some attention. I just reposted to
"the good,bad and ugly" forum.
 
I just wanted to chime in a bit here for the sake of perspective.

Roger is a one man band, he is absolutely swamped with orders for a PITA knife to grind and cut saw teeth into. He just moved house and every hour he lost doing this he has lost away from the workshop.
I know that he works very late into the night and usually just leaves the answer machine on his phone. I guess after working non stop all day and most of the night he doesnt much feel like answering email and is probably thinking about some ice-cream & Z's.
Getting Internet may be a PITA too, I know he was on dial up at the last place. Whenever I speak to him on the phone regarding orders he is always hesitant to give ETA's for knives and prefers to use a season date rather than a month.

The sheath was a screw up, no two ways about it but hey, mistakes happen.

All I'm asking is that you give him the benefit of doubt as he has a lot of friends on this site and those of you that have spoken to him know him not to be a B.S Merchant.

Its frustrating I know, but you didnt exactly order a cookie cutter model.
 
Thank you so much for some more information about Mr.Linger.
However, not giving customer a simple clue like( I have moved, busy, etc ) is just something I can not understand. He suddenly stopped contacting me back without giving me any clue. If I was his long time friend, or known him so well for long time, then I might think he is busy or etc. When he was busy and gave me late reply, he used to tell me about what's up. Like I said, I ordered him about a year ago, my knife was supposed to be done in Feb, but it wasn't, and I was never upset about that delay. I really appreciate shappa and Temper providing me information about him, but I still haven't received a single word from Mr.Linger.
 
Yshimo said:
However, not giving customer a simple clue like( I have moved, busy, etc ) is just something I can not understand.
Click to expand...

I hear you and totally agree. Roger dropped the ball on this one and should make more of an effort to communicate.

I tried to get hold of some Devin Thomas damascus for a customer the other week. I emailed twice, and phoned twice, on the second call I actually got to speak to him. I thanked him for his time, wrote an email the very second that I put the phone down and I never heard back from him. Some guys seem to think that Clint Eastwood says too much :)

Top and bottom, you have to deal with their personality too if you want them to make something for you. I'm kind of chatty and will babble for a while before getting to the subject at hand. Different strokes, I don't particularly like it as I like to get a feel for people first, but what can you do.

FYI I ordered a SCK from Roger, it took about 4 months longer than I thought it would to receive.
 
Some excellent knife-makers are not the Harvard Business School's ideals of running a business. (Then again, others go so far beyond doing the merely ethical that it's a wonder. :) )

Waiting for custom knives to show up is an old game. If you haven't played, you're new, as was everyone once upon a time.

If it's a popular maker and you don't want it, someone else will.

You have every right to be unhappy. Some businesses are very poor at communication. I've been there. :mad:

We need to be careful about acusing others of crimes on a public forum. For example, the word "stole" is inapplicable here - literally (legally) and practically. When you give someone money for work and the work is not done, your remedy is civil, not criminal, unless you can prove (The burden of proof is on you.) that the other guy never intended to perform the work. If you cannot prove that fact, you are answerable in a civil suit for damages for defamation. In most states, the guy you defamed will not even have to prove actual injury to reputation. Due to the nature of your false statement (an acusation of criminal activity in the conduct of his business), injury is presumed and the jury can go directly to awarding punitive damages.
 
What I think Tom is saying is that you might want to amend/edit your first post in this thread. But I have no dog in this fight. I'd have taken teh black sheath and then had another made in dark brown. Meanwhile I'd have had the knife.

I have a couple custom knives though and patience is definitely a virtue. I usually buy mine after the original customer refuses delivery. I get them quick via priority mail while the original customer fumes and waits a little longer.
 
IMHO, If Mr. Linger is that swamped and over-worked, then he should have never taken the money.
In fact, he should probably stop taking orders until he is caught up on the ones he already has.

I also think he was wrong to ask for the full payment after having to correct the sheath mistake.

Allen.
 
Without reading this entire thread I will only say this much at this time: I have today emailed with an explaination. I stand responsible for the one who got the sheath color wrong and had I not the knife would have been in his hands long ago. That part of it is my fault. It is also true that I have allowed myself to fall behind in my email correspondence.

Roger
 
OK Roger, the color of the sheath being black rather than brown was all your fault, you are human and made an honest request in your order of the sheath...so you didn't ship.

Send the guy back his "so far" deposits and sell the knife to someone who won't "dis" you when he gets a burr up his " wahzoo".

I just sent a knife to a client...if he likes it, he can send me a check for the entire purchase price...if not he is requested to send it back at his shipping expense.....some fellow knifemakers think I'm foolish to send out a knife without a deposit or the fiull check....I don't care....99.9% of my clients have been great to deal with on that basis....that other .1% is a learning experience I don't care about any more.... and won't ever take an order from again (0.1% is a total of 1 fellow).
I hope I never do business with a fellow who thinks he owns your "*ss" for $365.00.....

There are too many fine folks out there who are FINE customers to get this type of treatment....if it isn't just between the client and the maker anymore, he doesn't deserve you as a maker and you don't deserve him as a client.....Life is too Short"

Peace to You,
 
Everyone. I finally received an email from Mr.Linger today. He did explain to me about what went wrong briefly. He did apologized to me about not contacting me back about update as well. Now I am so relieved. Thank you so much once again for all the good members of this board. Please accept my apology for using the word "stole " when I started this Thread. I thought it was stolen, but I do not feel that way any more.
 
John R. Fraps said:
OK Roger, the color of the sheath being black rather than brown was all your fault, you are human and made an honest request in your order of the sheath...so you didn't ship.

Send the guy back his "so far" deposits and sell the knife to someone who won't "dis" you when he gets a burr up his " wahzoo".

I just sent a knife to a client...if he likes it, he can send me a check for the entire purchase price...if not he is requested to send it back at his shipping expense.....some fellow knifemakers think I'm foolish to send out a knife without a deposit or the fiull check....I don't care....99.9% of my clients have been great to deal with on that basis....that other .1% is a learning experience I don't care about any more.... and won't ever take an order from again (0.1% is a total of 1 fellow).
I hope I never do business with a fellow who thinks he owns your "*ss" for $365.00.....

There are too many fine folks out there who are FINE customers to get this type of treatment....if it isn't just between the client and the maker anymore, he doesn't deserve you as a maker and you don't deserve him as a client.....Life is too Short"

Peace to You,
Click to expand...

imho ya really cant expect folks to just wait/wait/wait with no communication after monies have exchanged hands, most folks arent anywhere near that patiant, especially with no communication.

sure he coulda titled the thread diff (and not made 2 of them) but ya cant blame people for getting antsy, especially in this day and age, too many bad things happen.
 
Hey, Roger is a stand up guy, and respected by many, many of us here at BF. I think that if you are making a purchase from a custom maker or any other type of purchase then you don't need to involve all of BF. This guy will get his knife and the correct sheath to go with it I'm sure. Roger, as well as most of the makers here at BF are "ONE MAN BANDS". So things happen sometimes that put them behind a little. And since Roger has been making the WSK he has been double busy it sounds like. If any of you out there want a custom made then Rogers your guy. Hes the one I will continue to go to for my custom knife needs!!!



P.S.

Roger my WSK is still going strong.
Its AWSOME!!!

Jeff
 
I hope that some good press in this months Blade Magazine will more than compensate for any undeserved knocks Roger has taken here.
 
John R. Fraps said:
Send the guy back his "so far" deposits and sell the knife to someone who won't "dis" you when he gets a burr up his " wahzoo".

I just sent a knife to a client...if he likes it, he can send me a check for the entire purchase price...if not he is requested to send it back at his shipping expense.....some fellow knifemakers think I'm foolish to send out a knife without a deposit or the fiull check....I don't care....99.9% of my clients have been great to deal with on that basis....that other .1% is a learning experience I don't care about any more.... and won't ever take an order from again (0.1% is a total of 1 fellow).
I hope I never do business with a fellow who thinks he owns your "*ss" for $365.00.....

There are too many fine folks out there who are FINE customers to get this type of treatment....if it isn't just between the client and the maker anymore, he doesn't deserve you as a maker and you don't deserve him as a client.....Life is too Short"

Peace to You,
Click to expand...

I have waited for over 2 years for a knife many times. I also think you have good business ethiks. however, I find your attitude towards this dissatisfied customer disturbing. This customer was in the right not the wrong. Don't accept money and not maintain contact with someone. Not good business.
 
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