I placed 4 separate orders with Chris Williams knife company for my wife's Christmas gifts last year, these were custom/special order. The first order was placed on 8/31/2016, the second was on 9/6, the third was 9/29 and I'd need to look at my documentation for the date of the last order. The first three orders were placed using one credit card while the last order was with another card. The first order consisted of one knife, the second was two knives, the third was three knives and a carving set while the last order was two knives. The first knife was a "Damascus" abalone knife and it arrived and it looked like total crap. The blade was cloudy and dull and looked nothing like any of the knives in his pictures. At that point I figured maybe it was a one off and I'd wait for the 2nd order to come in and see what those knives looked like before making any decisions. I gave the knife to my wife even though it was before Christmas but I didn't tell her how I felt about it because we have other custom Damascus knives from other knife makers. She used the knife and she complained that the knife had a dull blade and rusted every time she washed it by hand. The 2nd order arrived on 10/29 and I was equally disappointed, my wife and I at that point started to question the quality of the knives right away. Her focus was on the rusting and dull blade issue but I couldn't help but feel like the Damascus blade was fake. I remembered on the knife making shows seeing the bands of Damascus pattern flowing through the whole blade including the spine/back of the blade so I went and grabbed one of my William Henry blades and compared the blades to one another. The Chris Williams knives didn't have the Damascus pattern on the spine and were polished. The William Henry blade is really smooth to the touch while the Chris Williams blade was abrasive and had almost a pitted feel. It seems like an acid etching. By that time my wife was already searching the internet and found this forum among others. We did as much research as we could and on December 6th I cancelled my 2 existing orders which totaled $5,150. Chris Williams wanted an answer and I told him I was unhappy about his customer service but was even more disappointed with the quality of the knives. He told me he would not refund my money in full as he had time invested in time and materials. I felt like he was a fraud, a liar and a scam artist so I decided to dispute the charges since I never received those orders. He sent me an email telling me that he was going to fight the disputes and that we were immoral/unethical people and ethical people didn't conduct business that way. He told me that the universe has a way of dealing with people like me. Both credit card companies sided in his favor because he was producing tracking order numbers for the first two orders that he did send to me. This went on until April 18th of this month and the whole time he sent harassing emails to me from December to April. I contacted the main credit card company at the beginning of April and asked for a supervisor. I explained that I kept being charged the money for these knives that I had not received and that he was using tracking numbers from a previous order and she came up with the idea of disputing every single charge for the sake of forcing him to produce all three tracking order numbers for that particular credit card company. Once he was informed that all three of those orders were disputed he sent me harrassing emails telling me that I was breaking the law and that I was the biggest scam artist in the world and he was going to make me pay. He said he was going to contact his powerful friends and he threatened to have my business investigated. We exchanged a couple emails but he decided to proceed to call me an idiot, a pussy and he asked for my address so he could come to my house and kick my ass. He threatened my business and sent me an email with my business address and phone number. He then found my address from his ups documents and told me he had friends everywhere and he was going to send them to get me. There were other things said between the two of us but there's too much to mention. At that point I filed an incident report with the police and I took them every page of all of our email exchanges. The officer advised I get a restraining order against him but I decided not to, this was April 18th. April 19th he decides to call me up and call me a piece of shit etc. so I went to court and was granted a temporary restraining order. I received a letter today from one of the credit card companies stating they have closed the dispute in my favor while the other card company called me and stated the same and I'm expecting a letter from them. I have a court date on May 3rd to determine whether I will be granted a permanent restraint order. I have made clear in this post which statements are opinions and which statement are facts. I can't say for sure the Damascus isn't real as I'm not a professional, but everything else is fact and I have paperwork that proves everything I have stated here to be true. I am willing to post any and all of it here as proof to back up my claims. We have also filed a complaint with the bbb that will not be disputed and will be available to the public once his opportunity to respond expires. Once the bbb complaint becomes public information I will post the link to it. We have also contacted every local news station in his area and are in communications with them currently, hopefully we will be able to share our story with the media and be able to post it to YouTube as well. I have also sent communications to a knife maker I have dealt with in the past to see if I can have these knives examined with the intentions of filling a lawsuit. Hopefully my story will expose this man so that he won't be able to harm anymore innocent people.
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Chris Williams knife tried to rip me off for $5,150
- Thread starter Damage109
- Start date
Paragraphs would make that a lot easier to read (I couldn't get through it). Sorry this happened to you but a little research goes a long way especially when that amount of money and importance is involved. When putting "Chris Williams knife company" into google, there is enough on the first page to let me know not to deal with him or his "custom" knives. Hope you get everything resolved.
This is the same guy thats been selling ganzo's $15 knaf for $150+
dude, search who you do business with. this guys been scamming for many many years.
i dont feel sorry for you at all. just searching "Chris Williams" on this forum alone brings up his scam's.
dude, search who you do business with. this guys been scamming for many many years.
i dont feel sorry for you at all. just searching "Chris Williams" on this forum alone brings up his scam's.
Wow, this is a bummer to read. I know it's too late for this case, but for future reference there are several red flags just looking at Mr. Williams's site. The first thing I noticed was that he doesn't mention blade steels anywhere that I can see. Most makers either mention it in the description of the individual knives or, if they specialize in one particular type of steel, they'll mention it in their About section. In this case there's no talk of steel anywhere.
Secondly, he lists retailers but none of them are knife dealers. They seem to be mostly outfitters and other general outdoor gear type stores. I wouldn't expect those types of places to sell many $500+ knives. This isn't a smoking gun, but it's a question mark in my mind.
Like I said, it's too late for this case, but maybe something to think about for future purchases. I hope that everything works out as it should. Good luck.
Secondly, he lists retailers but none of them are knife dealers. They seem to be mostly outfitters and other general outdoor gear type stores. I wouldn't expect those types of places to sell many $500+ knives. This isn't a smoking gun, but it's a question mark in my mind.
Like I said, it's too late for this case, but maybe something to think about for future purchases. I hope that everything works out as it should. Good luck.
I don't know where you live, but if you had a couple of vicious hounds, protecting your family, a variety of arms that you practiced with, and were efficient with, and of course your state concealed carry permit, you could avoid the whole court drama, and restrain the guy yourself. If he continues to threaten you or your family, learn about his family and his vulnerabilities. Chances are, that he is all full of bluff, just like he is full of lies. He would be stupid to let his ass get dragged through the court system. He's just setting himself up to get barred from doing business out of the state of South Carolina. His tax returns must also be a smoking gun, another reason for him to stop being so aggressive. Tax fraud is the common denominator that all con artists share.
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If someone threatens to cause you bodily harm and the situation is ongoing you need to report it, you need to do everything you can to document these events. A protection order is not there to prevent harm, it's there to protect you after the fact. if someone shows up at your house to cause you harm and you defend yourself you might still wind up in court to defend yourself. If this man comes here to cause me harm and I hurt him in the process of defending myself I have records showing I tried to deescalate the situation in a way that a rational, responsible adult would. I now have evidence proving I had a reason to fear before this event even takes place... My tail is covered. I'm a man, and when men have disputes we solve them like a strong, rational, intelligent man would, by using my brain first and foremost. Causing someone harm is last result and no rational, stable man would threaten another man over these types of issues. I have an office with employees and a separate home address as well. I can't be at both places at the same time. If I had to defend myself at this point I would feel confident going into court. If you have a concealed carry you might want to think about this because if you ever wind up in court you will be scrutinized heavily regardless.
That is all good advice, violence should be the last option. Very few people can afford a security team 24/7, or stay in a state of constant alert. You have good reason to make a public record. Sorry about being overly graphic, but I get angry about people who are threatening bodily harm to others, and sometimes think about the worse case scenario.
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Damage109, you definitely got scammed and RIPPED OFF on those knives, there is no question about it. Hopefully, this will be a lesson to do more research before buying $500-1000 knives on the internet from some website that looks and talks good.
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The Amazing Virginian
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2010
- Messages
- 9,848
Tough crowd.
Anyway, thanks to the OP for adding to the resume here for this particular knife vendor.
Anyway, thanks to the OP for adding to the resume here for this particular knife vendor.
Wow I'm sorry you had to go through this but I have to say it's great to finally see someone speak out who's actually dealt with them. I'm glad you seem to be coming out on top from this hassle but it still seems to be quite the hassle. For the longest time I've only read things from people about Williams Knife Co that was just observations. From kit knives to re branded Ganzo folders... I've been dying to hear from an actual customer on just how big a piece of shit these people are. Thank you for confirming! Again, sorry you had to deal with that but I'm glad it seems to be getting taken care of for you.
Stay safe and thanks for letting everyone know!
Stay safe and thanks for letting everyone know!
I'm sure other people have had bad experiences with him and are too embarrassed to speak up, no matter how bad I might look I've done nothing wrong or unethical. I will fight this with everything I can and I will use all options expose this man. I didn't come here to complain or look for pity, I came here to tell the truth and share any victory for those who have been done wrong by him. Understand this man gives all knifemakers a bad name and hopefully I can make the knife community proud by defeating him.
braillediver
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2007
- Messages
- 2,969
Could you post pictures of the questionable Damascus?