The Disappearance of Trouble Blades (Tim Bakonyi and Jessica Bakonyi)

VA Knife Addict

VA Knife Addict

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One of the knives that really got me into custom knives was the Debt Collector from Trouble Blades.

I watched all of Tim Bakonyi's YouTube videos, every related knife review video I could find, and looked everywhere on the secondary market for one. After a year of being unsuccessful obtaining one I felt like I hit the lottery when I was finally able to order one directly from Trouble Blades.

There are two Instagram profiles for the company, @troubleblades which is Tim's page, and @troublebladesgirl which is his wife Jessica's page.

Part of my obsession with the Debt Collector had me pretty much stalking their pages hoping to finally get one. While at work one evening in February of 2015 (in a secure operations center with no access to personal emails or my cell phone) the IG account @troublebladesgirl posted that the first five people to email them had the right to purchase one of the first five all titanium Debt Collectors which were currently being finished and would be available within a couple of months.

I ran out to my car and sent them an email as fast as possible. After a while without a response I inquired as to whether I was quick enough. I told her that due to my job I would not be able to monitor that email account, and I wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be a request for payment that I would miss and thus lose out on getting one of my grails.

She responded that I was the sixth person and that she would let me know if any of the five did not pay quick enough. She then added that she was so swamped with inquiries that she took the post down so that people would stop asking about getting a knife.

I thanked her and figured that that was it for this chance. A few minutes later she responded that they discussed it and would make one for me and just make six instead of five. I was beyond ecstatic and profusely thanked her and Tim. She then asked for the details I wanted and advised me that I would need to send a 50% deposit of $475 to their PayPal right away to secure my spot.

I did exactly that within minutes. As the months went by I found it odd that I had heard nothing, but I didn't want to come across as a problem customer so I kept my mouth shut.

About six months ago I noticed that they had almost no activity on their Instagram pages since around the time that they took my money. I noticed that there was an "apology" post on the @troublebladesgirl account where they gave a bunch of excuses for why they hadn't been fulfilling orders and explained that they were getting everything fixed. They told people who had already sent them money that they were the priority and to reach out to them and they would let us all know what was going on and give a timetable of when our orders would be completed.

I commented on the post that I was one of those customers in question. I also sent them a Instagram Direct Message, responded to my email chain where the purchase was made, and sent messages through their website. They did not respond to any of those messages.

I have since sent at least 50 messages to them through all of the above mentioned avenues with zero responses to any of them. They have not posted anything on IG this year and have not answered anyone's questions on their previous posts asking what is going on.

I recently found out from someone who has seen some of my public comments on Trouble Blades' Instagram pages that they made a Debt Collector for someone on IG that has a build date of 01/16. So this whole time that they are ignoring dozens and dozens of my messages that I am sending through different channels they are still as recently as January still making knives.

Anybody have an intel on what is going on? Have they folded up shop and made off with my money? Anyone else in this same boat?

From the comments on their Instagram "apology" it seemed like there were others in the same position as me. Any help from this incredible community (especially my good friend Pittknife) would be greatly appreciated.
 
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I was thinking the same Sosa, especially with her taking the post down right after putting it up. I was thinking that they may have known they were done for and could have told 100 people that they were one of the 5 (or 6 as they told me) and walked with tens of thousands of dollars in stolen cash. Its too long to file a claim Cap, I think PayPal is 180 days. It just sucks because they were a known commodity amongst people I knew or trusted in the community which made me less apprehensive to do cash up front. As a civil servant I can tell you that I don't have $475 that I can just throw away so it definitely hurts in the wallet.
 
Terrible shame.... im glad i canceled my order when they first came out with mini mofos. I spoke directly to Tim on the phone who was a nice enough guy to say he was fitting me in on a run of them and would make an extra for me. It would have given me about a 3 month wait time. I patiently waited 3 months past the month i was given and spoke to Jessica on the phone who was also very kind. I was told there was no record of my order and that they could put me on their list which was over a year wait. I declined. This was 2013-2014 (december-february was my lead time initially promised)

Plain and simple its an operation that tried to get too big too quick and failed. Glad i never sent them any of my money
 
VA Knife Addict said:
One of the knives that really got me into custom knives was the Debt Collector from Trouble Blades.

I watched all of Tim Bakonyi's YouTube videos, every related knife review video I could find, and looked everywhere on the secondary market for one. After a year of being unsuccessful obtaining one I felt like I hit the lottery when I was finally able to order one directly from Trouble Blades.

There are two Instagram profiles for the company, @troubleblades which is Tim's page, and @troublebladesgirl which is his wife Jessica's page.

Part of my obsession with the Debt Collector had me pretty much stalking their pages hoping to finally get one. While at work one evening in February of 2015 (in a secure operations center with no access to personal emails or my cell phone) the IG account @troublebladesgirl posted that the first five people to email them had the right to purchase one of the first five all titanium Debt Collectors which were currently being finished and would be available within a couple of months.

I ran out to my car and sent them an email as fast as possible. After a while without a response I inquired as to whether I was quick enough. I told her that due to my job I would not be able to monitor that email account, and I wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be a request for payment that I would miss and thus lose out on getting one of my grails.

She responded that I was the sixth person and that she would let me know if any of the five did not pay quick enough. She then added that she was so swamped with inquiries that she took the post down so that people would stop asking about getting a knife.

I thanked her and figured that that was it for this chance. A few minutes later she responded that they discussed it and would make one for me and just make six instead of five. I was beyond ecstatic and profusely thanked her and Tim. She then asked for the details I wanted and advised me that I would need to send a 50% deposit of $475 to their PayPal right away to secure my spot.

I did exactly that within minutes. As the months went by I found it odd that I had heard nothing, but I didn't want to come across as a problem customer so I kept my mouth shut.

About six months ago I noticed that they had almost no activity on their Instagram pages since around the time that they took my money. I noticed that there was an "apology" post on the @troublebladesgirl account where they gave a bunch of excuses for why they hadn't been fulfilling orders and explained that they were getting everything fixed. They told people who had already sent them money that they were the priority and to reach out to them and they would let us all know what was going on and give a timetable of when our orders would be completed.

I commented on the post that I was one of those customers in question. I also sent them a Instagram Direct Message, responded to my email chain where the purchase was made, and sent messages through their website. They did not respond to any of those messages.

I have since sent at least 50 messages to them through all of the above mentioned avenues with zero responses to any of them. They have not posted anything on IG this year and have not answered anyone's questions on their previous posts asking what is going on.

I recently found out from someone who has seen some of my public comments on Trouble Blades' Instagram pages that they made a Debt Collector for someone on IG that has a build date of 01/16. So this whole time that they are ignoring dozens and dozens of my messages that I am sending through different channels they are still as recently as January still making knives.

Anybody have an intel on what is going on? Have they folded up shop and made off with my money? Anyone else in this same boat?

From the comments on their Instagram "apology" it seemed like there were others in the same position as me. Any help from this incredible community (especially my good friend Pittknife) would be greatly appreciated.
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Sorry to hear of your problems - I had to parse this out a little to read it...

I hope you get some satisfaction, that is really poor to give you the "special extra knife" and then disappear.

best

mqqn
 
From the looks and what I can find out they literally just took some orders and the next day disappeared. There are others out there but I think these people bank on them staying quiet.

Please if anyone has any info come forward and help out VA Knife Addict.

We can't keep letting companies like Trouble bladeworks & Nocturnal knives steal from people, come back apologize and do it again.
 
Thanks Mikey! Its nice having you in my corner. Going back over Jess' most recent post it appears that the IG user @farb3yond is in the same boat as me. I know there have to be more people affected by this. I love how in responding to someone she said "we won't answer wait times at all until this mill is up and running 100% and unless u were one of the few we took deposits from" and then proceeds to ignore those of us who already paid.
 
Tim and Jessica had a partner in Trouble Blades. The partner was actively involved behind the scenes. They were making and delivering lots of knives.

Unfortunately the partner passed away. Since then they have been struggling to reorganize.

Chuck
 
Understood Chuck. And thanks for adding that detail to the story. I had heard that, but based upon their behavior since I didn't know if it was a fact. That piece of information was part of why I didn't harass them for many months. I was trying to be a good guy and give them time after they posted about the death. What changed my stance was the complete disrespect in ignoring paid customers who had completely legitimate concerns. I have heard amazing things about your company and have quite a few knives/tools made out of your materials (raw.1981 on IG) and I can say with damn near 100% certainty that there is zero chance you'd behave this way under the same circumstances. When they make a conscious decision to ignore people who they've entered into a financial agreement with almost immediately after they collected the money there is no acceptable excuse. If the business partner was the driving force behind making the knives I would understand why I may not get my knife. What I wouldn't understand is why they wouldn't have refunded my money at that point. Or at least had the common courtesy of replying to one of the 50 or so messages I've sent.
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
Tim and Jessica had a partner in Trouble Blades. The partner was actively involved behind the scenes. They were making and delivering lots of knives.

Unfortunately the partner passed away. Since then they have been struggling to reorganize.

Chuck
Click to expand...

So this partner was the knifemaker or the person who knew how to make knives and run the business and these other two were the marketing folks?
 
"Tim Bakonyi grew up in a small town in Alberta, Canada, where the rugged terrain of the Rocky Mountains served as his childhood playground. His passion for the outdoors sparked a love of knives from a young age. As Tim grew, his interest in blades grew with him, and his tastes became more refined with experience – leading him to purchase more expensive knives to combat a growing dissatisfaction with quality, materials, and features. This growing disdain and dissatisfaction for mass produced knives led Tim to explore and study blade design and modification techniques, which he applied to his growing collection. It is this passion and drive that led Tim to fully apply himself, learning the ins and outs of blade-smithing, networking with industry contacts, and building Trouble Bladeworks from the ground up."
 
My intent was not to excuse Tim and Jessica not contacting customers. I thought people should know the background of why Trouble Blades suddenly had problems.

Chuck
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
My intent was not to excuse Tim and Jessica not contacting customers. I thought people should know the background of why Trouble Blades suddenly had problems.

Chuck
Click to expand...

i am just confused on your explanation and what it means....not trying to stir the pot by any means. If youd like to elaborate further or to make it clearer id appreciate it. If not, so be it.
 
Popsickle said:
Sounds like more of a financial backer
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Yeah i initailly thought that as well, but the way it was written implied behind the scenes and making and turning knives made me think he was the maker and businessday to day manager and the other two were marketing, the face, sales....

Course its hard to interpret properly such little info...but i guess all that matters is a key player or the key player is gone and the two left cant figure out how to get it back on track. Hopefully they will.
 
jbmonkey said:
i am just confused on your explanation and what it means....not trying to stir the pot by any means. If youd like to elaborate further or to make it clearer id appreciate it.
Click to expand...
I used to speak to Tim frequently. One day he told me his business partner had passed away and they (Tim & Jessica) were trying to continue making knives. I haven't spoken to Tim in a little more than a year.

Tim was making knives, Jessica was focusing on marketing and the partner was working in the background. I hope they come through this and get going again.

Chuck
 
If you ever do hear from them Chuck I pray you mention this thread. I don't know any other way that they'll know that people are finally letting their dirty laundry be known to the community. For the life of me I can't figure out why they made the apology post on IG if they were just going to ignore everyone and continue to behave the same way in the future. The investigator in me says it was to pull in more unsuspecting people to infuse more cash so they could keep robbing Peter to pay Paul. But again, a freaking response would have done wonders for me. Hell, I was so excited about finally getting a Debt Collector I would have waited a hell of a lot longer had they just kept communicating past the day they got my money.
 
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