What is with A.G. Russel?

Thomason said:
The doctor consigned the knife to AG to get rid of it because he was embarrassed he had ordered a knife with a turquoise colored PLASTIC handle.

McClung denied he made the knife because he is embarrassed he ever made a knife with a turquoise colored PLASTIC handle.

:D
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You left out the truly embarassing word.:D

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
A Great Guarantee

We guarantee total satisfaction. You, the customer, decide what satisfaction is. You decide how long you are entitled to be satisfied.

If you buy a knife and don't use it for ten years and when you do use it you want to return it, do so. If you think that a knife should provide good service for ten years and it only does so for seven years, tell us so. You are in charge of our guarantee.

Does anyone pick up one of our knives in a flea market or pawn shop and send it to us saying, give me a new knife for this? Yes, two or three a year do this. They misunderstand our guarantee, they are not our customer. The customer obviously felt that the knife had served its purpose and traded or sold it to somebody else.

Sears and Wal-Mart once had guarantees as strong as ours, but abuse forced them to change. We have an advantage over them. Our customers are not the general public, they are people who like fine knives and are for some reason, special. We have the greatest, most trustworthy customers in the world. We can afford the worlds strongest guarantee.

A. G. Russell
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Posted above is the AG Russell Gaurantee / Warranty copied directly from his web site. Looks pretty good to me and just about bullet proof for the customer.

Do most custom knife makers along with dealers.... [be they internet, mail order catalog, retail, or a combination of all or some of the above]...... require any kind of proof of purchase for a return or warranty.

IF, they do is there a time limit?

It seems AG Russell has no real time limit....... which is truly amasing to me..... :thumbup:

Do you require proof of purchase Mr. Russell??
 
teacher said:
A Great Guarantee

We guarantee total satisfaction. You, the customer, decide what satisfaction is. You decide how long you are entitled to be satisfied.

If you buy a knife and don't use it for ten years and when you do use it you want to return it, do so. If you think that a knife should provide good service for ten years and it only does so for seven years, tell us so. You are in charge of our guarantee.

Does anyone pick up one of our knives in a flea market or pawn shop and send it to us saying, give me a new knife for this? Yes, two or three a year do this. They misunderstand our guarantee, they are not our customer. The customer obviously felt that the knife had served its purpose and traded or sold it to somebody else.

Sears and Wal-Mart once had guarantees as strong as ours, but abuse forced them to change. We have an advantage over them. Our customers are not the general public, they are people who like fine knives and are for some reason, special. We have the greatest, most trustworthy customers in the world. We can afford the worlds strongest guarantee.

A. G. Russell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted above is the AG Russell Gaurantee / Warranty copied directly from his web site. Looks pretty good to me and just about bullet proof for the customer.

Do most custom knife makers along with dealers.... [be they internet, mail order catalog, retail, or a combination of all or some of the above]...... require any kind of proof of purchase for a return or warranty.

IF, they do is there a time limit?

It seems AG Russell has no real time limit....... which is truly amasing to me..... :thumbup:

Do you require proof of purchase Mr. Russell??
Click to expand...


This guarantee has worked for so many years because of two things.

1. Every transaction is recorded on the customers computer file.

2. The quality of our customers. We get so little abuse we can afford this guarantee. You only have to read this thread to know how great our customers are.

Early in this business my lawyers warned that the government might make me post a huge bond to back up what he considered a silly guarantee. Fortunatly that never happened and is now unlikely.
 
sunnyd said:
This speaks volumes in my opinion of who AG is and whom he has always been.
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This has little if anything to do with the current question.

Mr. Russell, I spoke with Kevin today about this.

He wonders where you may have gotten the false notions that

A) he would charge you a thousand dollars to authenticate this rather than the well-known $150 he charges ANYONE for this service - please provide your reason for your saying this. An email, for example.

B) he would destroy a counterfeit knife rather than preserve it as evidence of counterfeiting - you asked about that first-year law student question earlier. Again, pls provide your evidence of this as well.

C) he would quite frankly deny it was his if in fact it was, since this would only add good stock to his name and reputation as a collectible knifemaker. C'mon - think about it - knife sells for $10,000 (your price at one time on the Cutting Edge) - what's that do for his current work in terms of making it more desireable?

For the record, I've had one very minor off-center episode with your client service department. I had a spyderco which developed a wobble and I wanted to return it for another about a year after I bought it, circa 1992 or so. The young gal was dubious about this, and without flat-out denying this, the implications in her conversation with me were clear that she would not.

That's HARDLY going to crank me up 15 years later. I chalked it up and went on. I have not thought about it until you asked. Big deal, it happens. It's not going to get me up in a tizzy over a knife like this.

So if you could, and I'm pleased that we are being gentlemen over this, please address the above. I think it's fair you have an opportunity to re-examine your motives for calling him a liar. Again, I state openly that if I am wrong here, I will not only post an apology here, as well as any other knife-related forum I am an active member of, I will call you and offer a proper apology "face to face" (sic).

EDIT - if any of you wish to go read this in it's first public form, the URL is here

Tactical Forums AG Russell and Teal ATAK

Note the timestamps in this thread which indicate when this knife may well have been made, as well as the reasons WHY it is not what it is held out to be.

If someone is unable to read this, I may try to copy and paste it here, but it is a full thread over a page long.

I also add this for posterity AG Russell is unhappy about fake AGR/ Randall -
 
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And AG has to provide proof to you Parker because?????????

No one else (very very few if any) seems to have any doubt whatsoever with the statements made by AG. Why would the man engage in a pissing contest with you or McLung?

Starting to smell just like a dead horse.......................
 
wolfmann601 said:
And AG has to provide proof to you Parker because?????????

No one else (very very few if any) seems to have any doubt whatsoever with the statements made by AG. Why would the man engage in a pissing contest with you or McLung?

Starting to smell just like a dead horse.......................
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Wolfy, you don't need a good memory if you tell the truth.

On the other hand, this is how Mick and Duane got hoisted - keep the fib going until it is out of hand. I do NOT want to see this happen to Mr. Russell - his client seems entirely full of scat and why ride that train?

It's a long way from Dead, Wolf.
 
Parker said:
On the other hand, this is how Mick and Duane got hoisted - keep the fib going until it is out of hand. I do NOT want to see this happen to Mr. Russell - his client seems entirely full of scat and why ride that train?
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It takes a particular kind of person to draw parallels between what you've brought into this thread and what Strider and Dwyer got outed for. I'm not sure that this is the proper forum to describe that person but, well, he certainly is... particular.
 
I've been informed I was incorrect in saying Scott Fowler aka Allan Blade was once an employee of Mad Dog's -- seems he was "an independent piece-work contractor" but never an employee. I don't want to be spreading misinformation....

The way I remember it Fowler claimed to have been an equal partner, claimed to have invented everything including the kydex holster, helicopter, sliced bread, etc., but all his ideas were stolen.... Of course his credibility is zero.

Just to set the record straight....
 
It sure appears that this Mad Dog knives is to be avoided like the plague. Looks like dealing with those people is like rolling loaded dice. The deck is stacked in their favor, or so it seems.
 
wolfmann601 said:
And AG has to provide proof to you Parker because?????????

No one else (very very few if any) seems to have any doubt whatsoever with the statements made by AG. Why would the man engage in a pissing contest with you or McLung?

Starting to smell just like a dead horse.......................
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+1. This thread started as an issue of pricing, and evolved into what most here felt about A.G.'s customer service.

I respect the fact that Parker has brought up a good point, but why here, and not in a separate thread? Why turn this into a roast of a man who's been selling knives and creating great relationships with customers for decades? This whole thing has devolved into a "one side vs. the other" situation, that no one is going to win. :grumpy:

thx - cpr
 
No way Allen Blade invented the Helicopter, I did!!

Yes sir Parker I agree; the truth is the easiest to remember and the simplest to speak.

But here and now it appears we have two sides of the story with both sides standing strong on their positions but maybe, just maybe they are both the truth...

Maybe we can get back to AG's prices as the other matter is thread drift very far to the North.
But in any event, AG has a ton of die hard supporters and this did not change that or really matter much to them anyway....................
 
orca8589 said:
+1. This thread started as an issue of pricing, and evolved into what most here felt about A.G.'s customer service.

I respect the fact that Parker has brought up a good point, but why here, and not in a separate thread? Why turn this into a roast of a man who's been selling knives and creating great relationships with customers for decades? This whole thing has devolved into a "one side vs. the other" situation, that no one is going to win. :grumpy:

thx - cpr
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Well, the 15 page feel-good Mr Russell was getting unfortunately overlooked some pretty pertinent issues.

Why NOT in the same thread, really?

If you want to talk about relationships, let's look at an entire picture - here's a guy who is entirely respected, yet at the same time, he has offered for sale, for over a year, a falsely marketed knife and has priced it over $3000 currently.

Tell me whom among the "true believers" would not be screaming bloody murder if you bought a $3000 knife from ANYONE which turned out to be fraudulently marked?

How about if you discovered that the seller, even if it was on a consignment basis, had been informed of the fraudulent knife over a YEAR ago and he still sold it to you?

I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that since this is up on the Cutting Edge web page, that it is still for sale.

I can also say WITH CERTAINTY that Mr Russell and Co have LONG been aware of the dubious history of this knife. It's still offered for sale for a few thousand dollars.

Think about THAT for a moment, gents. Try it out. Put it on and walk around in it. Supposing YOU bought it, and forget it is a Mad Dog and this is AG Russell. Call it Maker A and Seller/ Purveyor B. You'd be fucking PISSED. You'd be thinking about your money, spent on a fake, a forgery.

So I still ask, and will continue to ask, and if you are genuinely too obtuse then by all means ignore the question, WHY is it still being offered as something which it is not?

John, if you want to discuss NSN's, email Kevin about it. NSN's are not hard to get - if you want, you and I can get one for an official bag of gravel. For what it's worth, it was not profitable to wait 90 days or so to get paid for work completed. Kevin has an excellent relationship with the SEAL community.

As for the remark regarding Mick and Duane, it started, I am sure without a lot of conscious thought, as a small tale. It got out of hand. Bad Things ensued.

This started out as a straight inquiry. A relationship was sought. A question was asked, and the answer was No, This is not real. It is a fake. The seeker was not happy obviously and this has gone on a while. Now it is public knowledge that this has gone on, and I still wonder Why?
 
wolfmann601 said:
Maybe we can get back to AG's prices
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I don't know, didn't we beat that into the ground already? I think the thread was about over with when Parker showed up, so he didn't really derail anything. If anybody still wants to whine about A.G.'s prices of course he still can....

While I'm here, I may have been all wrong in my assumption that the knife was made by Fowler. Maybe it really is an early Mad Dog. It certainly isn't an ATAK, though, so the inscription on it must have been added by someone else.
 
Cougar Allen said:
You just have to separate out what we actually know from assumptions we might make. The Doctor said that years ago he spoke to someone on the phone that he believed to be McClung. That much seems to be a fact -- the Doctor said that.

You ask was he lying? I don't see any evidence that he was lying when he said that.
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Over the phone or in person Kevin sounds EXACTLY like you'd expect him to from his posts and behavior online. EXACTLY.
 
Cougar Allen said:
I don't know, didn't we beat that into the ground already? I think the thread was about over with when Parker showed up, so he didn't really derail anything. If anybody still wants to whine about A.G.'s prices of course he still can....

While I'm here, I may have been all wrong in my assumption that the knife was made by Fowler. Maybe it really is an early Mad Dog. It certainly isn't an ATAK, though, so the inscription on it must have been added by someone else.
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It may no0t be an ATAK, but the doctor sure as hell did not marke it, nor did he send it off to some stranger to forge a marking on it, he bought it from mad dog and returned the un-marked knife to mad dog to mark and got it back from mad dobg.

This is not some fly-by-night kid, this is a serious collector who has spent many thousands oif dollars with me and Lord knows how many more with the knife making community.

I don't care if mcclung employeed fowler or allowed his so called independent contracter to answer his phones. Personally I think mcclung is a pityful businessman and in fact a poor excuse for a man. He treats his customer like shit and the little support he has gotten here has been way too much.

Now PLEASE, can we get to what matters. Parker, did we send you a new knife or not? If not, then I have serious problem and need your help. Please give me your address email will do. My private email is agr@agr3.com and tell me what sort of knife will fulfill our guarantee to you.

You have done your friend no good here and are not likely to. Please help me settle the problem you have raised for me. This is A. G. Russell using my computer not some independent contractor I havel allowed in my shop.
 
this is as fascinating as a well crafted thriller.
it says as much about the posters as it does about AGR and his business.
Succintly: if you are basically a happy positive person, generally satisfied with your lot in life, meaning satisfied with yourself, then, when you stumble across the AGR business, you're gunna have fun, feel good, get support if needed, feel even better. man, life is good; everybodies happy.
BUT, if you are more on the unhappy side, life sucks, those bastards in business are always out ta screw ya, gotta shop around for the best deal, those f'ers are gunna never get the better of me, no way ! and then you stumble across the AGR business. what ! this dork wants 20% more; F*** him man !
and ya feel just a bit less unhappy for a couple of minutes 'cause ya out-smarted "da man".
or like attracts like
on another note: yesterday i picked up a lovely wool vest courtesy of AGR. man, am i happy !!
roland
 
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