BEWARE- ripoff knife store in San Francisco "We Be Knives"

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jimrb

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A store called "We Be Knives" in San Francisco, on Pier 39, is a unethical ripoff joint. The manager is an honest man, but the owner, Phil, is NOT.
My inlaws bought me a Spyderco Rescue II from him for 135$, and gave it to me as a gift. I found it not suitable for my needs, and took it back to exchange it (not for a refund). He told me that he sells that knife for 100$, and when I upgraded he ripped me off for the $35 my inlaws had paid in addition.
The manager there told me, when I caught wind of this, that they sold the knife for $135 (without telling him what the owner had done). I had to get my inlaws credit card co. involved to get them their money back, and in the mean time Phil the owner had ripped me off on a *used* Kershaw Ken Onion.
I spoke to Kershaw and they told me that they had problems with his unethical business practices in the past, and that they were considering cutting him off (so to speak) from their line as he has a record of this sort of thing.
DO NOT BUY from "We Be Knives" in San Francisco CA. Their markup is way over reccomended, and they take advantage of trusting consumers.
Kershaw may very well verify this if you call them.
They did for me.
A word to the wise.
Jim
 
Jim, welcome to BladeForums. And thanks for the heads up about an unethical dealer (a few other choice but unprintable words also come to mind). I just hate it when folks take advantage of the trust of others.

The Good Bad and Ugly forum in the exchange section of BF.com is where this sort of post is supposed to be made. I'm going to move your thread there. It will be locked (but readable) here in the community forum. But new comments will have to be posted in the GBU forum.

Again, welcome to Bladeforums and thanks for the community service announcement.

Paracelsus
 
Ouch! An LEO buddy of mine recently returned from a vacation in San Fran, and told me all about this cool knife store called WeBe Knives. I checked out their website, webeknives.com and found that it's simply a cover page, not an online catalog. It may have email contact info, if anyone's interested...
 
The location of the shop 'We be Knives' on Pier 39 is just a HUGE tourist trap, lots of small shops with HIGH rent!And high shop turnover. The only customers will be tourists that they can charge the MAX and NEVER expect to see again. Not a place locals really go.
 
Yeah but w/Edge Of the World closing/moving and the demise of the SF Gun Exchange there are zero brick and mortar knife purveyors in the bay area w/any kind of selection. Actually I take that back, Triple Aught Design is a quality purveyor in Oakland but I'm not sure its a place you actually go to as opposed to ordering off their web site.
Patrick you have the Bay Area all to yourself.
 
Originally posted by booshank:
Yeah but w/Edge Of the World closing/moving and the demise of the SF Gun Exchange there are zero brick and mortar knife purveyors in the bay area w/any kind of selection.
Click to expand...

What's the scoop on Edge of the World closing/moving? Any chance they're going to be having a big sale?



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Dave

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of More Knives
 
Dave; Edge of the World closed 5/15 and will reopen next mo.? over by you, in Brentwood.
 
Yup...We Be Knives is a nice place to look, but not buy...I know of a few knife shops on Polk Street and Columbus Ave, but neither carries the lates and greatest. Seems there is no place left in the greater Bay Area to walk into and purchase edgy stuff...

--dan
 
Jim,

Thanks for posting this. I went knife shopping in the City today. Browsed through the junk in Chinatown, checked out a nearly empty (of knives) store on Columbus, and went to We Be Knives. It was nice to get to handle a lot of the knives I usually only get to see online or in catalogs. But, because I had read your post, I didn't buy anything, and hadn't planned on it. I just went to look. Maybe on the off chance that they read this they will think twice before ripping off a knife knut.

Together we cut,
Divided we get cut.

Jason

BTW If any good stores do open up in the Bay Area post it somewhere.


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"I have often laughed at the weaklings who call themselves kind because they have no claws"

- Zarathustra
 
The largest selection of knives in the Bay Area has always been in Castello's Guns in the Willow Glen area of San Jose.

It's a little hole in the wall shop in a wierd location that has the best selection of production knives I've ever seen, more than WBK, SFGE & EOTW combined. There is even a pretty good selection of hard to find & discontinued items.

Dealing with Joe Castello, the owner is worth the trip alone. He's a real character and a genuine knife guy. I brought Allen Elishewitz in one day & we all had a blast.

The prices are marked at retail, but you have to go in and haggle and wheel & deal. That's half the fun. Joe knows the value of his knives and will end up giving you a fair deal. In fact, he even took a couple of my knives from my collection in on trade.

If you get a chance to check it out, it will be worth the trip.

Stay sharp,

Jim

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Jim O'Young
www.speed-techknives.com
Home of the Speed Tech "SYNERGY" (tm)
1999-2000 BLADE Magazine "Most Innovative American Design"

 
It's a shame that this old thread from 1999 continues to point to one of the best knife shops in the SF Bay Area. A young guy who used to work at WeBeKnives bought it a couple of years ago and has poured his heart and soul into the shop. It has the best selection of blades in the area including some of the latest models from ZT and Spyderco and nice collection of customs. There is no better place to go if you want to actually handle and compare knives.

As far as pricing goes, these guys are right in line with every other shop I have visited in the last 10 years and I am one of those guys who visits every shop. Sure, you may be able to save a few bucks if you buy online, but I don't have a big issue with spending just a little bit more for actual live customer service and I am very much in favor of supporting one the few remaining independent retail knife stores in the US.

Seriously...a post from 15 years ago does not accurately reflect the business today.
 
NRollandSF said:
It's a shame that this old thread from 1999 continues to point to one of the best knife shops in the SF Bay Area. A young guy who used to work at WeBeKnives bought it a couple of years ago and has poured his heart and soul into the shop. It has the best selection of blades in the area including some of the latest models from ZT and Spyderco and nice collection of customs. There is no better place to go if you want to actually handle and compare knives.

As far as pricing goes, these guys are right in line with every other shop I have visited in the last 10 years and I am one of those guys who visits every shop. Sure, you may be able to save a few bucks if you buy online, but I don't have a big issue with spending just a little bit more for actual live customer service and I am very much in favor of supporting one the few remaining independent retail knife stores in the US.

Seriously...a post from 15 years ago does not accurately reflect the business today.
Click to expand...

Next time I'm in the area I'll check it out.
 
You realize that you're the one that bumped up a 14-year-old thread to be seen. Also if the information you say is correct and it's under new ownership then this thread is no longer relevant.
 
Same as it ever was imho.

I'm just forturnate that in the last 14 years Galen opened Town Cutler here. Otherwise I'd rather wait for shipping than deal with those guys.
 
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