So this is something that's been going on for about 3 months now, and I think I've been more than patient and nothing has come from it. I bought an Umnumzaan from TheBladeMaster on December 24. He described it as "all original parts included," and being in "excellent condition." When I asked further if there were any scratches, marks, etc, he said that there were only a couple "micro scratches on the pivot." When I got the knife, it was missing the cloth and wrench that I thought would have counted as "original parts," the titanium sandblasting was visibly worn smooth, the pivot looked like it had been messed with with pliers, and some of the screws were stripped (that's the way it came, I had another CRK wrench handy and carefully tried to open them, but they were damaged already).
I decided I could just send it in to CRK to get it refurbished. The sandblasting I'd be fine with paying for, but I thought that since the knife wasn't as described, the seller should cover some of it or take the knife back. I asked for a $20 partial refund, and he replied: "Ok, that reasonable. Give me a few days." Then he must have changed his mind, because he started ignoring all emails and messages I sent him, even though I could see he logged in regularly. Finally, he emailed me: "Don't have $ in my account. I was not planning on having to give you $ back. I recently purchased a knife that had stripped screws. I left a good feedback and charged it to the game." I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I thought I'd give him a little more time. It looks like he's made a few sales and purchases since then, so I don't think he was being entirely honest about not being able to send the money over. Nothing came of that, so finally yesterday I gave him an ultimatum to right the situation by today or I'd alert other members about his shenanigans. His response was this:
"I don't care about bladeforums anymore (notice im not even a gold member anymore) because of members like you who look for ridiculous things to extort people and get cash back. If i see a thread opened on me by you all I will do is go straight on and and leave you a bad feedback. Im tired of buying knives and putting them in the safe and reselling them at the same or cheaper prices with out touching them to find the person i sold the used knife to finds so minor problem and demands $ back. If you stop emailing me and walk away you can save both of out feedback score. Cheers."
I do think that unlike the commitment he made to help me fix up the knife, he will go through on his threat to leave negative feedback, and my reputation will suffer. But I think that part of what makes this site great is that the members and moderators actively strive to make this forum safe for other knife enthusiasts, and I feel like I'd be ducking my responsibility as a member here if I didn't warn others about this guy. Bladeforums is a community that seems to promote honesty and discourage bad character, and that's helped me to avoid people like this so far. I guess I got unlucky this time, so I'd like to see to it that others don't have the same experience. I've bought a decent number of knives on this forum, and I've never had a problem with anyone else. Most users go to great lengths to describe flaws I probably wouldn't have even noticed. Furthermore, if this was a cheap knife I wouldn't care as much. But TheBladeMaster was selling a high-end knife with less care than most here sell their Sanrenmus. And since this particular knife has been my grail for a while, I really wanted it to be as he described it.
Long story short, stay away from this guy. He doesn't sell things as described, he ignores communication, and he doesn't honor agreements.
I decided I could just send it in to CRK to get it refurbished. The sandblasting I'd be fine with paying for, but I thought that since the knife wasn't as described, the seller should cover some of it or take the knife back. I asked for a $20 partial refund, and he replied: "Ok, that reasonable. Give me a few days." Then he must have changed his mind, because he started ignoring all emails and messages I sent him, even though I could see he logged in regularly. Finally, he emailed me: "Don't have $ in my account. I was not planning on having to give you $ back. I recently purchased a knife that had stripped screws. I left a good feedback and charged it to the game." I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I thought I'd give him a little more time. It looks like he's made a few sales and purchases since then, so I don't think he was being entirely honest about not being able to send the money over. Nothing came of that, so finally yesterday I gave him an ultimatum to right the situation by today or I'd alert other members about his shenanigans. His response was this:
"I don't care about bladeforums anymore (notice im not even a gold member anymore) because of members like you who look for ridiculous things to extort people and get cash back. If i see a thread opened on me by you all I will do is go straight on and and leave you a bad feedback. Im tired of buying knives and putting them in the safe and reselling them at the same or cheaper prices with out touching them to find the person i sold the used knife to finds so minor problem and demands $ back. If you stop emailing me and walk away you can save both of out feedback score. Cheers."
I do think that unlike the commitment he made to help me fix up the knife, he will go through on his threat to leave negative feedback, and my reputation will suffer. But I think that part of what makes this site great is that the members and moderators actively strive to make this forum safe for other knife enthusiasts, and I feel like I'd be ducking my responsibility as a member here if I didn't warn others about this guy. Bladeforums is a community that seems to promote honesty and discourage bad character, and that's helped me to avoid people like this so far. I guess I got unlucky this time, so I'd like to see to it that others don't have the same experience. I've bought a decent number of knives on this forum, and I've never had a problem with anyone else. Most users go to great lengths to describe flaws I probably wouldn't have even noticed. Furthermore, if this was a cheap knife I wouldn't care as much. But TheBladeMaster was selling a high-end knife with less care than most here sell their Sanrenmus. And since this particular knife has been my grail for a while, I really wanted it to be as he described it.
Long story short, stay away from this guy. He doesn't sell things as described, he ignores communication, and he doesn't honor agreements.
I'm over this, just wanted to make sure the same thing didn't happen to someone else.