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Bad Dan Koster of Koster Knives takes your money then disappears.

J

JKC88

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Aug 23, 2008
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I ordered my knife over 4 years ago. No response to emails over the years and only recently when I asked for a refund did Mr. Koster reply that he didn't give refunds, I just have to wait, try to sell my spot or just walk away. What a jerk. I still have all the emails from 4 years ago when he estimated delivery in 6 to 12 months. There a list out there of all the orders he took years ago (over 800 according to him) and he claims he's still working on the list yet I don't think anything has been delivered for over a year. Meantime he is takes large orders from dealers and even did a Kickstarter project and committed to another batch of knives (six months past due and none of them have been delivered yet). I understand that things happen and delivery dates get pushed back but this guy has taken thousands of dollars from customers and instead of delivering their knives he's off signing up more suckers on Kickstarter.
 
I almost ordered something a while back when his forum was semi-active. Realized the only activity was from people waiting for knives they'd ordered years previously.
 
this isnt the first time ive read about this with mr. koster.......seems to be a somewhat consistent deal. 4 years is a crazy long time..could have a randall in hand almost.
 
I had a problem like this with Dan several years ago, as did a bunch of other people. When I was eventually able to get in touch with him, he seemed genuinely surprised that there a problem. I think that, at least back then, he was not being malicious but was just operating in a different time/space continuum from his customers and never communicating. Eventually, everyone received their knives. I think it spanned something like 15 months. But not four years.

A little communication goes a long, long way to ease things.

Not defending him, because the facts you describe are not defensible. Just relaying my own experience.
 
I wonder if anyone ever has received a knife from him in say the last two years ? I would like to know if the knife that he did deliver was of good quality or rushed . 800 knives outstanding is a pretty significant amount of steel alone . I do recall a couple years back when he would post from time to time that he takes no money up front anymore and he is working as hard as he can and that he does his work in batches . Good luck
 
Oh PLEASE. :rolleyes: This is ridiculous. I don't claim to know the best course of action for the people who have $ in, but thank you OP for keeping any idiots who think they will get anything from him in the near years to come from sending any more $. :thumbsup: There seems to be so much of this kind of thing in the last couple of years. :(
 
I was one of the buyers who got caught up in one of his previous cycle of backorders. I was eventually able to get a knife out of him at the Blade Show.
It was not what I had ordered, was poorly ground and it came with a joke of a sheath but I figured a bird in the hand.......I sold it immediately, counted myself lucky and moved on.
 
Steven65 said:
I was one of the buyers who got caught up in one of his previous cycle of backorders. I was eventually able to get a knife out of him at the Blade Show.
It was not what I had ordered, was poorly ground and it came with a joke of a sheath but I figured a bird in the hand.......I sold it immediately, counted myself lucky and moved on.
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So you had to, proverbially, back him into a corner, in person to get a knife from him?

That is reprehensible.
 
I remember thinking Koster had some nice looking designs in the past, but had no idea about these issues until now, what a shame.

Thankfully I didn't order anything myself. I can't imagine having my money held ransom for 4yrs and will certainly never pay up front for a knife that hasn't been built yet after reading this and similar horror stories here.
 
4 Years! That's just Ignorant!
Then to give the customer no real option other than walk or sell ur place in line?
Was any proposal signed or email that gives delivery estimates? Did u pay all up front?
 
Just noticed he's got lots of knives available for sale currently at DLT trading. He had the time to run a kickstarter on a folder that was set to deliver in Feb 2017. I wonder if those backers got the folders? It seems that like so many of these threads he's got a lot of time to do side projects and make moderately large orders of knives for resellers and very little time to fulfill orders for folks who have already paid and been waiting for years.
 
inkynate said:
I remember thinking Koster had some nice looking designs in the past, but had no idea about these issues until now, what a shame.

Thankfully I didn't order anything myself. I can't imagine having my money held ransom for 4yrs and will certainly never pay up front for a knife that hasn't been built yet after reading this and similar horror stories here.
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I am right there with you. A while back, I was thinking the same thing, but then I started to research his name, and my want stopped there...

I am curious if legal action can be brought against him, since he is making knives for those other than the folks that have paid, and has given no recourse to those that are out of funds.

From the sounds of it, between here and kickstarter alone, there should be over a few grand that he has taken.
 
Maybe you guys are rich but I would never pay full up front for a knife that has not been made. As a matter of fact, that extendes to any commodity. Doesnt matter who yhe maker is. Once the money is in their possession, people do not have much urge to produce the goods to sell (to earn the money).
 
sharp_edge said:
Maybe you guys are rich but I would never pay full up front for a knife that has not been made. As a matter of fact, that extendes to any commodity. Doesnt matter who yhe maker is. Once the money is in their possession, people do not have much urge to produce the goods to sell (to earn the money).
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I agree. Same goes with deposits. The only exception is paying up front for exotic (and expensive) handle materials. Any knifemaker worth their salt knows that if the customer backs out, they can easily still sell the knife to someone else. And they all need to have knives to bring to the knife shows they attend as well. They won't be "stuck" with it!
 
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