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Bad Steven Ketchen <spketch> MIA: Overbooked? Off the grid? Lost his phone? What's up?

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PeteyTwoPointOne

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It REALLY pains me to start this thread, but truth be known, I probably should have took action before now.

Let me begin by saying I own / owned 10 customized Spydercos that Steve has worked his magic on. He's a top drawer craftsman...absolutely stellar. All my interactions with him up till the past year have been friendly, timely, and professional.

But...nearly a year ago <August 2016> I had Steve purchase some custom handle material for me when it came available for $60. We had good comms. back & forth settling on which models would best take advantage of the beautiful stock. December of '16 work <supposedly> commenced on 3 knives.

I had a few intermittent emails from Steve mostly consisting of him giving excuses for not starting work on my handles yet after promising me a quick turnaround. I'm a patient guy and I counted Steve a friend-- as much as you can be a friend over the internet-- and I was understanding and NEVER dogged him about keeping me waiting or breaking his self-imposed promised deadlines.

Then fast forward of March of this year. After ABSOLUTE crickets from him for 3 months, I contacted him and told him that I was getting a little concerned if he was ok and I even informed him of some brothers here <BF> and over at SpydercoForums who were asking me about him. Well, he went into some personal stuff I'm not gonna mention without his permission...so I told him I understood and knock out my handles when he got clear of this issue.

Well, toward the end of March he asks for payment in advance on the work and gives me a personal reason why he's asking...Steve had NEVER asked for $$$ in advance from me. I PayPal'ed him $410 <G&S>.

Since then he's emailed me back TWICE...once with a promise that he would gift me a knife <a custom Millie I had previously asked him to SELL to me> for being so patient, and a second email with a promise that he FINALLY was gonna wrap up the work on ONE KNIFE of the 3 I sent to him for handle jobs. He promised that for the weekend following June 14, 2017. Needless to say, I have not been gifted a Military <I didn't ask for a gratuity> nor have I gotten the SINGLE knife that was promised.

Fast forward to today. ABSOLUTELY no contact from Steven since June. I have emailed him <he previously said he quit trying to keep up with emails> and texted him. Has he lost his phone? Yah, right. :rolleyes:

Today I opened a case with PayPal on the $410 for services-- that were supposed to be-- rendered. The $60 for the Kirinite was nearly a year old...don't know if that's actionable anymore. But he owes me that, too. Plus he still has in his possession a Dodo of mine-- that we decided not to work on. A Tatanka, Police, and a Chaparral of mine is still in his custody also awaiting the work we contracted on.

I treated Steve well...never hounding him or blowing up his phone. I always paid the very day he requested his fees. Heck, I even sent him spare material like ironwood and g10 when I sent a job along to him just because I felt like gifting him a little.

But I've talked with a few of my brothers here and over and Spyderco and I've found out that he's still crafting handles and has, IN FACT, let a number of customers jump line ahead of me and delivered completed custom jobs. Something I don't appreciate ONE DAMN BIT considering he played on my sympathies that he was going thru some personal trials and he had cut way back on his workload.

So....in closing...at the very least I've been mislead by someone I've treated quite well...not cool. :thumbsdown:

And at the worst...I can't even go there :(...

But I should have known-- because the only WIP pics I ever got were of the material itself with an outline drawn on it.

And that brings us here to this thread, something I've lost a lot of sleep over even considering...
 
Oh man Peter that sucks the big one brother.
Just got a HUGE knot in my stomach.
I e mailed him bout a month ago because I was very concerned. He let me in on some of the personal stuff and told me he was starting up again in Aug.
I had no idea he was holding out on anyone. Shit.
I'll e mail him the link to your thread.
Thank you for posting this, as I was sending him a Brous T4 I wanted him to dress up.
Damn.
Joe
 
Sent the link to him Pete and will keep you informed if he responds.
I have been recommending him to everyone who asks.
Shit
Joe
 
Wow, this is really bad news to hear of this. Sorry that this happened to you. Hopefully whatever is going on will get rectified immediately when he sees this thread. My fingers are crossed.
 
My Millie is still with Steve. In April of this year I discovered the blade was resting on the backspacer, the knife having been pimped by Steve about 6 months prior. I sent it in to Steve. In late May, he told me the lock side scale was broken. He said he had enough of the same material to make another scale, and he wouldn't charge me. The scale seemed fine to me when I sent it to him. He never said how it broke- did it come to him this way or did it happen on dissasembly or reassembly? So around mid June I tried to contact to check progress.

Now, you can see in his thread where it got GBU'ish between him and I, as it seemed difficult to get in contact with Steve. When he did contact me, he gave me his cell number. We missed each other on the first round of calls, but we did connect through text. Steve explained there were orders in front of mine which took priority, and the earliest he could have my knife repaired was sometime in August. Wasn't overjoyed that I was being put on the back burner, but it was either that or have him send the knife back with a broken scale. I gave Steve the benefit of the doubt, edited my posts in his thread, and basically have been hoping for the best. Steve said he will check in with me first week of August. I have sent him a text today, no reply as of yet.

I also hope nothing bad has happened to Steve or kin, and I really hope to see my Millie again. I will keep everyone updated on my progress, good or bad. Here is a pic of the Millie in question, next to the Chokwe Steve did for me:
image.jpeg View attachment 742521
 
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I meant to post this here earlier because I thought Steve might read it here as this is the most current thread about knives he still has.

@spketch I hate to see a situation like this continue to go further south because of no communication and not being honest, no I don't wanna say honest because I believe his intent isn't to keep anyone's knife or rip anyone off. I believe he ran into hard times for whatever reasons and believe me I know how problems can quickly spiral outta control but that's still no reason to leave customers guessing as to what the status of their knives are.

The longer he waits the worse it'll get, I always feel better when I'm being proactive instead of reactive. Steve, don't let the past work you've done all be for naught. You can still be profitable here on BFC. Let this continue in this direction and the members will speak with their dollars and I've rarely seen a Bad in the GB&U recover after more than a page. People will just add to it but it is possible to recover, the members here are very forgiving as long as you're up front and able to be reached, unfortunately this is not turning out to be the case here.

Make it all right or explain why it's not moving forward these folks are really understanding till they start to feel like they've been taken advantage of, I hope you can still recover from this. For the sake of the member's knives you still have and the sake of your business and reputation, both are hard to get back once you've lost them and I hope you don't lose anymore of either.

Edited for spellin' ;)
 
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Hope this gets resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved. Sucks to hear this, OP.
 
Suddenly, I'm very glad I didn't have his address readily available & was too lazy to ask for it. I had contacted him about two small jobs...he said they'd be no problem (told me he wouldn't charge me for either, as they really were small/simple fixes; but i planned on sending payment anyway) - but he was absolutely swamped at the time. He requested that I send the knives to arrive the last week of July. I would have been sick reading this if he'd had my LCC in his possession.
Very sorry to read of your current experience, PTPO. I hope it gets resolved to your satisfaction ASAP.
 
Thanks fellas...it was truly out of respect and past GREAT business with Steve that I've waited this long to take it to the streets. And doing that only after trying by every means possible to get him to respond to me. :thumbsdown:

But when I found out from some of my friends here & there that he was still taking on work-- it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Funny thing...I got a text message an hour back...it was Steve. My only wonder is: was it this thread or the PayPal inquiry that made him surface? Either answer just isn't acceptable, however...no one should have to be shamed into communicating with a contracted customer.

I'd really like to have him knock out my commission before the PayPal clock stops ticking...but it's so close...I've waited to the last possible moment to give him a chance to pony up and do the right thing. I'm gonna have to contact PayPal directly and speak with a supervisor to see exactly what my options are at this point. This is uncharted territory for me...absolutely everyone I've b/s/t with here has been straight up ACES...now I gotta deal with this mess.:mad:

Thanks again for all your posts...and I think @T.Erdelyi offers some wise advice moving forward to hear from Steve here. I'd like a public promise to be made whole on our contracted services with a definite <soon> endate-- no more, no less.
 
Peter, as you go forward, keep in mind that you have a huge positive rating here. That is not to say that what is going on for you is ok by any stretch because it is not. I only mention it because you have a crapload of positive transactions here, and few here have been as successful as you have in getting to where you are now. Hopefully this will turn out positive for both you and Steve, but if it does not, don't lose sight of how many positive transactions you have had here in the past 3 years. For all of us, it's not a question of "if", but rather "when" will we be the one on the receiving end of a bad deal. Stay positive!
 
No response as of yet Pete.
Steve has ALWAYS gotten back to me very quickly. He has done a lot of work for me and I have been thrilled with all he has done.
Can't count how many times I have recommended him to fellow members.
I would be sick to my stomach to see Steve go down the Shepard hole.
Please Steve, if you're reading this, suck it up and get your ass in this thread. There are some of the most genuine people here and will understand what's going on......what no one will ever forgive is gou going dark.
Come on brother.......I'm rooting for you.....IF you tighten Peter up immediately.
Joe
 
We all want to see him move forward even if it's one piece at a time he'll start to make progress, the work will get done and the members will notice. This will be considered a hiccup that he was able to overcome and the business will continue unabated.

People talk and his work is not just show here where he get a steady stream of income but his other avenues for revenue too. The knife community is a small community and news travels fast, especially bad new and bad reviews. There are many people who are chiming in to this GB&U thread, cf1969 is just another example of someone who spoke volumes of his work and now has also had to resort to a wait and see attitude.

Steven, fix what you have the material to fix, what you still need to get or can't afford, (which technically shouldn't be anything as you've said before you had the materials or you've had some prepay for. If you need help, it takes a lot to ask but I'm sure if you did the great minds here could figure out a way to help or even donate scale material if the have leftovers as many do. Don't forget about the guys like cf1969 and the others who are being patient too, keep communicating, even if it's an update on this tread once a week, hey it seemed to work for Survive. Like I said, these folks are very forgiving if they can see a change in the direction you're going.

It's still not too late, at the very least send back the knives and work out a payback plan for the money you owe and a schedule with the members who are willing to still wait. If you're transparent and you get all the principals involved with working out some type of plan to resolve it all, i'd be willing to bet before this time next year you'll be caught up and taking orders that you can fulfill again. Knowing most of these knife knuts here you'd wind up with more work because even through adversity they see you can work it out keeping everyone happy. Well most of them anyway. :)
 
Thanks again for the support you guys show.

I'm proud of my iTrader rating but 2 things about that:
#1. I view that score primarily as a mutualistic score. That is, I've
been treated as well, or better than, I've treated others.
#2. Even if a brother's iTrader score was in the red, they deserve better
treatment than what Steve's served me with this year.

T.Erdelyi is spot on nailing my sentiments exactly.:):thumbsup:

To Steve:
1. I want my 4 knives and my $470
-or-
2. I want my jobs to be finished up to spec. *ASAP

*Just in case the *ASAP seems like an unreasonable request to you-- remember that you've let others jump line ahead of my jobs even though you've had the CTek & Ironwood in hand since December 2016. PLUS, I honored your request of prepayment the SAME DAMN DAY you asked for it.

In addition, it'd be a welcomed gesture if you'd surface here in this thread and put everyone at ease. If you want a shot at me continuing to send jobs your way-- well, it depends on how you handle this.
 
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No response as of yet Pete.
Steve has ALWAYS gotten back to me very quickly. He has done a lot of work for me and I have been thrilled with all he has done.
Can't count how many times I have recommended him to fellow members.
I would be sick to my stomach to see Steve go down the Shepard hole.
Please Steve, if you're reading this, suck it up and get your ass in this thread. There are some of the most genuine people here and will understand what's going on......what no one will ever forgive is gou going dark.
Come on brother.......I'm rooting for you.....IF you tighten Peter up immediately.
Joe

He claims he's working around the clock and when he's not working he's involved with childcare. I'm sympathetic to that and bought in to it, but now I know he's been taking on more orders-- after he told me he was scaling back.

Fool me once....you know the rest....;)

So, now my thinking is: If you're so busy with your 2nd and 3rd jobs, how do you find time to bang out other commissions while you keep me circling the airstrip when you've already got everything you need <including my $$$> to finish me up?
 
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This really sucks man hope you are made right hate to such great artists go silent never a good sign
 
This really sucks man hope you are made right hate to such great artists go silent never a good sign

Thanks, Yeah man, it sucks big time...

It's only the first day of this thread so there's a bit of time for him to step up. Steve's texted me and says he's at work....we'll wait and see.
 
Right on hope he makes you and I'm sure others right he is very skilled would be a shame over 500ish dollars to ruin a reputation
 
We will wait and see Pete, but I'm really hoping he knows the clock is ticking on the window he has to pull himself out of this mess.
He just has to suck it up and get some words down in this thread.
Never would have thought I'd see his name in a thread like this.
Joe

Thanks, Yeah man, it sucks big time...

It's only the first day of this thread so there's a bit of time for him to step up. Steve's texted me and says he's at work....we'll wait and see.
 
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