Sails Marine- too good to be true?

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I stumbled across a company on the web called Sails Marine selling the Titanium Military for $177 and they claim to have 20 in stock. Forgive me for being cynical but I find this just a little hard to swallow.

Anybody ever had any dealings with them?
 
If you google them for reviews it seems they get rave reviews for there prices and products, but appear to lack in custom service and shipping time.
 
Interesting that their name should come up. I just found them as well while looking for the lowest price on another knife. Never heard of them before.
 
They are about a half hour away from me, Maybe I'll take a ride there this weekend and check them out.
I came across them a few months ago while searching for the best price on a Fallkniven A1.
 
Every time I do a Google search for lowest price shopping on a lot of the knives I look for, they come up. As soon as I click the link, they show it as out of stock or backordered. After about the 20th time, I just stopped clicking. If you found an in stock item, maybe give them a quick call first to confirm? Couldn't hurt. Good luck! Great price if they've got 'em!
 
I did a little more digging. The 'owner' of Sails Marine, according to their website, is Bravo Digital, which has a (3bed/3bath) residence as its address http://mailing-services.localpedia.info/CT-connecticut/Monroe/Bravo-Digital/1038193074831/8.htm

Searching Connecticut's database of businesses (every type: corporations, llcs, partnerships) here http://www.concord-sots.ct.gov/CONCORD/index.jsp shows nothing for either Sails Marine or Bravo Digital. It appears neither are actual business entities, just names.

edit: This is the only personal name I could find tied to that address, but it is tied to the same phone number as Bravo Digital.
ZIMMERMAN, ALEXANDER 105 HILLSIDE LN, MONROE, CT 06468 Alexander Zimmerman 203-220-8915

You have to wonder how truthful the customer service page of Sails Marine is, if it's just one guy or one family: "We work literally 24/7/365"
 
I've ordered from them just before Xmas with no issues and I'm located in Canada. I have only ordered once so it could be a one off. Had them ship it first class and arrival was probably 2 weeks, which is pretty good.
 
Their terms of service make them sound like an absolute pleasure to deal with. Some excerpts:


Risk of Loss

All items purchased from Sails Marine are made pursuant to a shipment contract. This means that the risk of loss and title for such items pass to you upon our delivery to the carrier. Sails Marine is not responsible for lost or stolen orders upon our delivery to the carrier. Sails Marine uses trackable online delivery services for all domestic and some international orders.

Unjustified Credit Card Chargebacks

If you as a card holder did not authorize the purchase, we will work with you and your credit card issuer to ensure the situation is resolved properly. However we will charge a $35 penalty fee for every unjustified credit card chargeback against our company - as well as all attempted chargebacks that we are able to reverse by defending our case. We will also report all unjustified chargebacks to ChargeBackProtection.org, thereby banning you from placing orders with any business that uses ChargeBackProtection.org. Examples of unjustified chargebacks are: When any customer issues an unjustified or proved misleading complaint, a customer starts an unwarranted dispute with his credit card company, a customer disputes legitimate charge in error, a customer refuses to pay, a customer ships the product without going through the RMA process and starts a dispute, a customer disregards any of our site policies after agreeing to them, a customer initiates a chargeback when they have already been refunded, and etc. In the event that a chargeback is placed on a purchase, we reserve the right to report the incident for inclusion in a chargeback abuser database. The information reported will include full name, email, order date, order amount, IP address, full address and phone number.

My credit card company offers a feature where you can generate a one-time use number for individual purchases that can't be stolen and reused by a different company. I was thinking of generating a number and giving them a try, but after reading these terms and the posts above I think I will pass. Saving a couple of bucks isn't worth the probable hassle.

About them popping up in search results: there's a company called Ambient Weather that sells (duh) weather instruments. Some years ago they always popped up in searches for Benchmade and maybe Spyderco knives but I never found any in stock. Now there aren't any knives on their site at all. I wonder if they ever sold a single knife? It seems like a lot of these small internet companies are just individuals running internet storefronts for 2-3 warehouses somewhere.
 
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The descriptions of this company reminded me of another thread from a little over a year ago.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/834775-ammoclip-com-SCAMMERS

They both have little evidence of there being a legitimate "business" behind the internet front and those ridiculous policies about service and chargebacks. I think it's a far better idea to pay more for the knife from a place you know and that has solid service after the sale. Whatever you'd save at checkout buying from this Sails Marine place probably wouldn't be worth if things went sideways on the deal.
 
The Lowest Price isn't always the Best Deal.

This pretty much says it all. That said as a small business owner you would not believe how many people are out to screw you. Businesses, dealers, consumers, suppliers... I have had members of all groups not pay, over charge, short ship, charge back after I know the product was received or its just slow clearing customs, etc... It makes one very eager to have lots of conditions and disclaimers, particularly if you are running on a small budget in your evenings and weekends.

The business however has a satisfaction guaranteed, lifetime guarantee on our products. If they fail we want them back along with the details of how so we can make them better.
 
There is a $30 knife that I'm going to order from them. If they do well on that, I will order a more expensive knife. If they mess it up I will never use them agian. At least I will be out only $30.
 
I ordered a blue spyderco tenacious and received it within a week. Great price and decent communication. I had to email them to ask about my order, but they responded in a day.
 
I ordered a fuel container for an alcohol stove. Complete nightmare. Sounds like a guy working out of his garage, and not doing a very good job of it. Ruined my family's vacation as we couldn't cook on a stove with no fuel. Worst part of it, he kept promising it would arrive "tomorrow" "tomorrow" - but he never sent it overnight.

They have no customer service - try calling their number - just takes you to a box with no operator.

Really bad experience.
 
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