this is good customer service??

J

jmorton10

Joined
Apr 5, 2014
Messages
438
I ordered 2 KACK knives back when they first became available to order. They took a lot longer to arrive than I originally expected but no big deal.

What was a big deal was what happened next however. The box arrived damaged (ripped open) & there was only one knife in the box (& the quality on that one is awful, the blade is badly off center & the lock hits the far G10 scale when waved open)

I contacted Emerson & sent them pics of the damaged box. They responded that it was insured, but unfortunately it takes a month to process a claim for loss/theft etc. They told me "we will constantly update you on the status of this..." That irritated me to begin with because I am out $300 & have no knife (that was supposed to be a gift for my son).

I sell a TON of stuff over the internet & if a package of mine arrived at the customers house with missing or damaged contents (this HAS happened to me a few times) I IMMEDIATELY refund the customers money & then straighten out the problem myself. I figure the customer has done his part by paying for the part/parts in full & if they don't arrive in tact it is no fault of theirs.

It has now going on 2 months & I had not heard one thing from Emerson so I emailed them to ask what is going on. Today, I received this reply:

Sir,

We apologize for any miscommunication. We understand your frustration with this situation but as we stated, we will need to file a claim on this package because two knives were sent, but somewhere along the way, one went missing. However, the USPS requires a three month waiting period before a claim can be filed. This is where we are now. Once the three month period is up, we will file a claim and we can move forward with a refund. Luckily, we insure all of our packages so we should have no issues once the claim is filed. Thank you for your patience. We will contact you with more info once we have it.

Geez, thanks a lot. I can't believe they would leave a long time loyal customer hanging like this. I have bought/used/promoted Emerson products for years (& have over 20 in my possession right now). I turned on people over the years to buy Emerson products who had never heard of them & they all became Emerson customers.

I keep reading how Emersons CS is outstanding. All I can figure is this is fan boy posting from posters that have never really had an experience like mine. I will hang on to & continue to use my existing Emerson knives, but I will never buy another one at this point. Live & learn I guess.

~John
 
Sorry to hear that, but it really is not Emersons fault that your knife went missing. That is the fault of USPS. They have their own guidelines and rules. They have to do their own investigation, then after every clears they reimburse EKI.

So what your saying is Emerson refund me my money first and hopefully USPS will reimburse you too? Out of all the knives you've ordered from EKI how many problems have you had before?

Really, look at it without letting your emotions get involved. EKI didn't lose you knife, USPS did. You got a bad knife that shouldn't have gotten though , does it happen? Yes it does. I bought a Roadhouse on the exchange for a very low price, because the scales didn't sit flush around the pivot area. I took it apart and notice a bump at the end of the stop pin. I filled out the warranty service form and sent it in. I had another knife like that that I bought several years ago, EKI fixed. I didn't start a thread saying how EKI should have never let that knife get out and that I'm a huge fan and have supported them for years and they should make me whole again, now! You got a double dose of whammy on your order. Is it possible when the other knife was stolen that your second knife could have been damaged?

After 3 months have passed and EKI has done nothing, then start a thread. Right now the ball is in USPS's court. Just because EKI didn't handle it the way you would have doesn't mean that they are wrong.
I truly hope you get you knives and all your issues settled.
 
So what your saying is Emerson refund me my money first and hopefully USPS will reimburse you too?

I'm not saying that at all. USPS will make the refund to Emerson, not me.. I'm saying, why should I have to wait months for a refund for something that was completely out of my control?? I paid up front in good faith/in full for a product I never received.

I'm saying that Emerson has had my pmt in full since January (over $600) I have only half an order. I'm not the one that insured the delivery, Emerson is & the refund will go to them.

Why should I have to wait for Emerson & USPS to battle it out?? Believe me, it can definitely become a battle. I sent a $600 computer processor to one of my online customers a few years back. USPS lost the package but I figured no big deal as it was fully insured. I found out that was not the case at all. I had to file multiple claims week after week as scumbag USPS tried every way possible to weasel out of paying the claim.

The head postmaster for the whole region just happened to live next door to me at the time, & even after getting him involved it took me 8 months to finally get reimbursed.

It never even occurred to me to leave my customer hanging, out the money & no processor in hand. I refunded his money immediately, it was the right thing to do & it wasn't his fault it never arrived. My business was always known as a top of the line/100% honest dealer (I had 8260 positive reviews on ebay at the time & no negatives.

So for anyone who thinks Emerson is handling this correctly. What if USPS decides the knives where incorrectly packed & denies the claim 3 months from now?? What then, am I just SOL??

I sold a pair of Ohlin premium Harley Davidson shocks earlier this year. They where insured for $1100.00, & shipped in the original Ohlin packaging + I had put that inside ANOTHER brand new box with a layer of styrofoam peanuts to cushion it even further. I shipped the box on January 5th. As far as the packing job, my wife & her brother owned a UPS Store for 25 years & we know how to correctly box up our product to protect it during shipping.

The box went from upstate NY to Dallas Texas, & when it arrived all the packaging was completely destroyed & the box was empty!! It had pretty obviously been cut open & the contents stolen. My customer refused the delivery & notified me what had happened. I offered to refund his money immediately but he is 100% honest & said lets wait a week or so & see if they can track down the "lost items". Then, USPS tried 3 more times to deliver the empty package to him & he refused the package each time. The shocks where never found, I refunded his money a week later & I still have not collected on my claim with USPS although it's been 6 months now.

~John
 
wazu013 said:
This is from the USPS website:

When can I file a claim?

For damaged or missing contents, we recommend filing a claim immediately, but you must file no later than 60 days from the date of mailing.

https://www.usps.com/help/claims.htm#domestic
Click to expand...

So Emerson telling me they can't file the claim for 3 months is BS??

Wow, it goes from bad to worse. Just for good will alone, you would think that Emerson would try to resolve a problem like this ASAP - just so a poster & long time customer like myself would be praising them up/down instead of feeling the need to vent like this.

I certainly know how I would have handled it, but I bend over backwards in my business to keep people happy even if I have to lose a few bucks here & there along the way. My good name/honest business reputation is worth doing almost anything (within reason) to keep a customer happy. I must be doing something right, i've been in business for 27 years.

~John
 
S.T.R. said:
So what your saying is Emerson refund me my money first and hopefully USPS will reimburse you too? Out of all the knives you've ordered from EKI how many problems have you had before?
Click to expand...

If they want to be decent vendors that's EXACTLY what they should do. The OP paid THEM for product which he didn't receive through no fault on his side. That's like when people here want to charge additional money for Insurance. The Insurance only protects the shipper, nothing to do with the recipient. I always say no since regardless of whatever they state in the ad about insurance being on the buyer if the product doesn't make it to me it's still on them legally.

If Emerson wanted to play games like that with me I'd immediately do a charge back or open a ticket with Paypal who WILL get that money back ASAP regardless of whatever goofy procedure Emerson wants.. I'd also send the funky one back and get a full refund on that one too..
 
OilMan said:
If Emerson wanted to play games like that with me I'd immediately do a charge back or open a ticket with Paypal who WILL get that money back ASAP regardless of whatever goofy procedure Emerson wants.. I'd also send the funky one back and get a full refund on that one too..
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am seriously considering a charge-back to my Discover card at this point.

In all the years I have had the card (over 30) I have never had to resort to that but I guess it may come down to that at this point.

~John
 
jmorton10 said:
Yeah, I am seriously considering a charge-back to my Discover card at this point.

In all the years I have had the card (over 30) I have never had to resort to that but I guess it may come down to that at this point.

~John
Click to expand...

This would be your quickest option if it's indeed available.
 
This is very disappointing to read, guess I won't be buying from their site till this is resolved, if at all

Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk
 
Dear Mr. Morton,

I have just been made aware of your situation and we will have an answer for you sometime today.

I totally understand your anger and frustration with the manner in which this was handled. The staff employee has been duly informed that he handled it incorrectly and that the information that he gave you regarding the USPS was incorrect. Believe me, he will not make a similar mistake again.

Like I said, I understand your position and I offer no excuses, only an apology.

I don't know if you are aware that UPS failed to deliver almost $60,000 worth of custom knives to me at the recent BLADE Show. They were lost for almost 2 weeks before being "found" and returned. So I'm well aware that mistakes can be made, sometimes very big ones.

This one cost me 3 months of work and a tremendous loss of personal income. On top of that we had none of our new products that were to debut at the show either.

This resulted in a huge loss of opportunity for the company including magazine coverage, internet articles and interviews, Youtube coverage and innumerable social media marketing opportunities. We estimate the loss of opportunity and resulting sales revenue to the company to be in excess of $150,000. All of this (close to a quarter million dollars) because someone made a mistake.

Do I hate UPS? No. Do I still use UPS? Yes - 30 or 40 packages a day.

I hope that you and all those who come in from the shadows to trash my company realize that we do millions of dollars in business and ship 10's of thousands of knives a year. I am not the devil with horns and a forked tail waiting for chance to screw a customer out of $600.

A mistake - in this case apparently several - were made - nothing more nothing less.

We will make it right despite what all the ones waiting to pile on have to say.

We always do.

Again to you Mr. Morton I offer my sincere apologies. To those who think we would willfully and knowingly screw a friend or any customer for that matter, we'll never be able to change those opinions, I guess.

My Best Regards,

Ernest Emerson
 
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I agreed with the OP, but Mr Emerson said it all, that's good stuff right there. A reason why I continue to buy Emerson.
 
Ernest Emerson said:
Dear Mr. Morton,

I have just been made aware of your situation and we will have an answer for you sometime today.

I totally understand your anger and frustration with the manner in which this was handled. The staff employee has been duly informed that he handled it incorrectly and that the information that he gave you regarding the USPS was incorrect. Believe me, he will not make a similar mistake again.

Like I said, I understand your position and I offer no excuses, only an apology.
Click to expand...

Apology accepted. The phone call I got today from your girl today was all it took to straighten things out & I am very glad it worked out that way. As I told her on the phone, I completely/totally understand shipping problems & the headaches they can cause.

My Wife & I actually owned a UPS Store for a few years (it was my brother-in-laws business for 25 years, he passed away from kidney failure & left us stuck with a business we never wanted).

A lot of business problems/hard feelings etc. would never happen in the first place if there was better communication right from the get-go. Thankyou for stepping up and making this right.

I feel much better about what happened here now, than I did 24 hours ago. That one phone call made all the difference in the world (and was quite an enjoyable call by the way)

~John
 
Good stuff . OP I completely understand your frustration I've had nothing but positive dealing with EKI myself ,they have always been great to me ,I've never had a situation like yours though .

Emerson is having some trouble with usps , I wonder if all these problems are originating from the same post office ?

I am 100% confident with Mr E. On this you will be more than satisfied and sooner rather than later .

Given the chance emerson will do you right ,I hope this doesn't effect you in the future because like I said they have always been really good to me , if it does well I understand ,but I think Mr. E will get you taken care of .
 
How did you get to order two Kacks? Thought it was one per customer...anyways glad the situation can be resolve.
I still pick usps over other carriers.
Good luck to Emerson in getting his insurance money back.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Looks like it was, " Good Customer Service" after all. I had thought about stating that Emerson sells hundreds of knives each day, along with the fact that they do warranty and repair work, so it's easy to lose track of one particular order. But then I would sound like one of those "Fan Boys" you were talking about. Emerson is known for their Customer Service. It's one of the best in the knife industry. Why would they go out of their way to screw someone over for a $600 purchase? Especially now when people love to get on the internet and tell world how they were done wrong.
Was a mistake made? Yes it was.
Did the OWNER of the company step up once he was made aware of the problem?
Yes, he did!
How many other OWNERS, of wichever company would step up and do the same?

Here is a thread I started a while back:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...returned-from-Warranty-All-my-issues-Resolved!

Call me a "Fan Boy" if you wish. All I know is that very few American companies today offer the kind of Customer Service that Emerson does.
Have a Happy Fourth of July everyone!
 
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