Steer Clear of Knife Outlet!

Status
Not open for further replies.
SavageSmurf said:
Wouldn't do business with them just based on this post. There are so many places to buy gear, why waste time with a dealer that sells out of stock knives, and gives customers an attitude? Thanks for posting, OP.
Click to expand...

Don't feel too bad smurf. The out of stock knife is shipping to another customer tomrrow. Best of luck to you to.
 
Kampfjaeger said:
Knowing Wolfmann601, I'm willing to go with his assessment. Perhaps Fred had a bad day. I do have to say that I'm curious though. A number of people here felt it was inappropriate for me to air my grievance here in this particular forum. I'm curious as to what the line is that must be crossed. My interaction was with Fred the owner - not an employee. I was treated badly when I gave no cause. It is my understanding that this forum is to give compliments and complaints regarding transactions so we can learn who to trust or avoid.
Click to expand...

I think you stated the facts accurately. Many people decided to give Fred a break some did not. I see no problem posting an experience you had with a purchase as long as it is accurate. That is what a free society and economy is all about.

As a buyer if I am shopping for a knife online I expect the following:

Current inventory status to be correct. If not prompt notification, corrective action and option to cancel order initiated by the company. This did not happen and saw no indication that any changes would be made so I will not support this company or others that behave similarly.

I thank you for your post. Being a paying dealer does not excuse poor business practice. He is paying for access to all members of this forum. Think of how differently this could have gone.
 
Knife Outlet said:
Sorry guys. None of you were privy to the conversation and, unlike him, I'm not going to share my side of it. I don't apologize for writing what I meant and I don't have any intention to change what I said. There was nothing wrong with my customer service. He just didn't like what he heard. I didn't like what I heard either. Best of luck to all of you.
Click to expand...
I like this. It made me recall a line from some Van Zant (tangent: got an uncle who used to party with them boys and their brother Ronnie back before the crash) song.

Regarding selling out of stock items, if they are expected in stock or the purveyor stays in communication, I have no problem with it. On the other hand, my lady has had an order on hold with another site, one that is infamous in certain small circles for this sort of thing, for several months with nothing more in the way of CS than canned responses. That is bad, short turn around times on shipping currently OOS items is not.
 
That is the first time I've ever seen any dealer respond so quickly. I must give him credit for that!!
 
Knife Outlet said:
Sorry guys. None of you were privy to the conversation and, unlike him, I'm not going to share my side of it. I don't apologize for writing what I meant and I don't have any intention to change what I said. There was nothing wrong with my customer service. He just didn't like what he heard. I didn't like what I heard either. Best of luck to all of you.
Click to expand...

:thumbup:

There's such a thing as a bad customer the same as there is bad customer service out there. It's quite reasonable (to me, at least) for something to take a few days to ship when not dealing with a massive company the likes of Amazon - regardless of it being in stock or not. The service industry has switched to the term "guest" over "customer" since from a CS perspective you're supposed to treat everyone, not just the paying folks, like special flowers. Ridiculous. Having reasonable expectations in regards to goods and services is the least that can be asked of customers. Indignant outrage is the battle cry of our entitled society. Fred, keep on keeping on.
 
Guy's it is OK to be in a hurry. My advice though, is to let the dealer know when you need something if you are in a hurry. Most people consider it normal to receive an order within a week. If there is a rush required, let the dealer know. He can either make it happen or tell you that he can't. I'm sure your favorite dealer doesn't mind cancelling an order. It happens often enough. But there is no point in calling a dealer back to badger him after you have already requested and received a cancellation.

Dealers aren't in the business of beating up on customers for no reason. Good manners work in both directions. You will get what you need more often if you take a moment to communicate what you need. The best customer service happens when there is good communication.
 
Ok... You were unnecessarily rude and are unrepentant. Fine. I'll never buy anything from you.

That was simple.

For the life of me I have no idea why you hung up on me and then became peevish when I called back requesting the confirmation of cancellation. And just to correct you on your point about me badgering you... The way things happened went like this: I called asking for a tracking number. You said that when you shipped the knife on Friday I would get the tracking number. I asked why you didn't ship already and you told me that you didn't have them in stock yet (a fact that you neglected to mention anywhere on your site). I then said OK... I'd like to cancel my order please. You snapped out, "fine." and then you hung up on me.

I called you back once and my tone was polite. I have no idea of the size of your company or anything else about it. But I do know that when you hung up on me you didn't ask me for an invoice number or any identifying information by which one could reasonably expect a business to access your order and handle it according to the needs of the situation. I requested that you please send me a confirmation email regarding the cancellation of my order and you said that no you wouldn't. I asked why not and you said it was because it was just more work for you. You said that there was no point in sending me an email as we both already knew the transaction was cancelled because you said it was. When I stated that I was not willing to accept that as an official notification you angrily asked me if I was calling you a liar. At which point I informed you that I would make a point of letting folks know about the shabbiness of your treatment of me on Bladeforums. At that you paused and then asked when I needed the knife by. I stated that I had hoped it would arrived by this weekend. At this point you started telling me that I was being unreasonable to expect some kind of special treatment.

Believe you me... I was far from put out by the knife delivery issue. I went to your site because you had the best price. I already knew that I had several other options to shop from that would get me the knife by the time i was hoping to get it. I did end up spending about $27 more dollars than if I bought from you, but no big deal. This was an extremely minor inconvenience.

What concerned me was the fact that an unreasonable and hostile person had my credit card information and was refusing to provide me with any documentation that our transaction was cancelled.

At no point in time was I discourteous or unreasonable. All I wanted was an email receipt of cancellation. From the moment that I requested my order to be cancelled you went out of your way to be surly. So in this instance, Fred, I hardly think you are the one to be advising me that courtesy is a two way street as you made an effort of showing me absolutely none. And anyone who would accept just a verbal assurance (even a pleasant one) while being denied anything in writing that the credit card transaction was cancelled is either a friend of yours or a fool.
 
Last edited:
Boy-That-Escalated-Quickly-Anchorman_zps7d2170ea.gif~original
 
The OP is not acting "entitled" to ask for transparency and thoroughness. If anything, Knife Outlet is acting entitled by saying his way is good enough and the customer should bugger off if they don't like it (as in I own the business and am entitled to behave how I want). Considering you held his credit card info, why was it not OK to simply send him the requested email? And then to come here and complain about a lack of communication is distasteful on your part. He communicated what he needed, something written rather than verbal, and you treated him poorly for it. You could have written the email in the time it took you to disagree on the phone but now we have this steaming pile of mess.

Frankly, it's a freaking joke to run an internet business and then complain about follow-up emails "making more work."
 
Last edited:
i not only consider it normal to receive my order in a week ,I expect it. and as a customer I demand it.

but again, I make sure its in stock. some places just list the product and theres really no way to tell if something is in stock.thats why I shop at places that you know the item is in stock on the item page.
for example, next to the price it says either in stock or not. or there is a counter that lets you know how many is in stock. those are what I like.
 
Had Knife Outlet (Fred) just allowed this thread to slowly die on the vine and not posted at all they would definitely be in a better place right now image wise. Sometimes silence is golden.
 
There are only 3, maybe 4 online vendors that I always deal with, and in all cases, if a knife is out of stock, it's plainly stated on the web site, or as in the case of Knifeworks, for example, I get a email response and a phone call within minutes of placing an order for a knife that they (Knifeworks) discovers they don't have in stock, and they inform me of the stock status, and what I would like to do. The nice thing is that at all of these 4 dealers who I do business with, my credit card never gets charged until they actually give me a shipping notice with tracking number. The dealer in question here gives me more than enough reason to just stay away. While on the one hand the dealer does not want to tell his side of the story, he had no problem with vilifying the OP. The best communication is taking the time and spending a bit of money insuring your web site is up to date. The perception that knives are in stock when they actually are not is an issue with many dealers, but never the four I deal with. Want to skimp on the extras where there is an auto update feature of stock on hand, then expect more complaints such as this one.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top