Bad Smoky Mountain Knife Works

Mick Boardman

Mick Boardman

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Joined
Jul 15, 2020
Messages
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Absolutely no help today from customer service, the testy girl on the phone offered to cancel my order and “ you will get a refund is 7-10 days”. I wanted to added to my order I placed yesterday. I did call the showroom yesterday and was told to call CS this morning before my order shipped. Woman today was rather testy with me and said I needed to make another order and pay another shipping charge. No chance of getting the $40 micarta scales tossed in with my BK9. That was not customer service I received today, it was corporate service, she served the seller, not the buyer. They have fast shipping and great prices, but are lacking in the CS department.
 
Customer service can just be cogs in a machine. You basically changed your mind on an order you already place and this would require them to pump the brakes on their shipping process (which I assume strives to be same-day). Sounds like cancelling the order and placing a new one all under one shipping charge is the logical choice. Why is that an issue? What you asked them to do might be difficult for them (modifying existing orders due to ship). This whole story could be akin to telling a carpenter how to swing their hammer.

SMKW isn’t a “bad” business, I’ve never had issues getting returns for items, etc. Sounds to me like you should’ve just let the girl cancel the order and make a new one with the new product added.
 
I have found that such practices are not unusual. FWIW.

Doesn't help you or make it better.

Some companies will eat the additional shipping charge, some won't. Some will find the original shipment and go to the trouble of adding something to it. (A not inconsiderable problem for a large operation.)

I don't think I'd excoriate SMKW over it...though I have only dealt with them a couple of times over the decades.
 
Buck Foe Jiden said:
Customer service can just be cogs in a machine. You basically changed your mind on an order you already place and this would require them to pump the brakes on their shipping process (which I assume strives to be same-day). Sounds like cancelling the order and placing a new one all under one shipping charge is the logical choice. Why is that an issue? What you asked them to do might be difficult for them (modifying existing orders due to ship). This whole story could be akin to telling a carpenter how to swing their hammer.

SMKW isn’t a “bad” business, I’ve never had issues getting returns for items, etc. Sounds to me like you should’ve just let the girl cancel the order and make a new one with the new product added.
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I didnt change my mind and cancelling the order was not an option due to the 7-10 day wait for cash. I paid for the BK9 with my PayPal wallet funds and needed to use a credit card for the scales. No option on the checkout for using two forms of payment like I was needing to do. The showroom yesterday made me think this would be no problem on Monday morning. They could of accommodated me if they wanted to. The Sunday order had not even been looked at by shipping at 9am today. I’ll still shop there, but not expect any assistance from CS if it’s needed again.
 
Mick Boardman said:
I didnt change my mind and cancelling the order was not an option due to the 7-10 day wait for cash. I paid for the BK9 with my PayPal wallet funds and needed to use a credit card for the scales. No option on the checkout for using two forms of payment like I was needing to do. The showroom yesterday made me think this would be no problem on Monday morning. They could of accommodated me if they wanted to. The Sunday order had not even been looked at by shipping at 9am today. I’ll still shop there, but not expect any assistance from CS if it’s needed again.
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When you say “showroom”, I assume you’re talking about the people that stand at the counters? Sounds to me like the “showroom” people don’t understand how SMKW processes orders for shipping. You make the remark that “they could have accommodated me if they wanted to”… and that is a big fat assumption. Sorry, but you sound a little too worked up over this. You placed the order, then you wanted to change your order and also use multiple methods of payment, and when they figure it’s too much of a hassle and they should be safe about it by cancelling and creating a new one you get all worked up and slam them.

Nah, I’ve purchased from SMKW many times before, and will continue to do so. They are top 5 for me on knife retailers. I do not think they singled you out for some reason. This problem is more about you changing your mind after checkout to reduce your shipping costs. If I ran a knife business as large as SMKW, I might be inclined to do the exact same thing they did.
 
Mick Boardman said:
No option on the checkout for using two forms of payment like I was needing to do. The showroom yesterday made me think this would be no problem on Monday morning. They could of accommodated me if they wanted to.
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Seems like this entire ”issue” stems from your ignorance. The only way to split pay between a PayPal balance and credit card is to have your credit card linked to the PayPal account. If you have a credit card linked, any payments that exceed your PayPal balance will be pulled from the credit card. This is the only form of splitpay that exists.

I don’t see how this is SMKW‘s fault. They said split pay is an option, not their fault you couldn’t figure out how to use it. They offered a refund so you could try again, you declined.
 
Mick Boardman said:
Absolutely no help today from customer service, the testy girl on the phone offered to cancel my order and “ you will get a refund is 7-10 days”. I wanted to added to my order I placed yesterday. I did call the showroom yesterday and was told to call CS this morning before my order shipped. Woman today was rather testy with me and said I needed to make another order and pay another shipping charge. No chance of getting the $40 micarta scales tossed in with my BK9. That was not customer service I received today, it was corporate service, she served the seller, not the buyer. They have fast shipping and great prices, but are lacking in the CS department.
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You outside the US ? Fedex shipping is free with SMKW in the US, correct ?

Happens with the best shops, just means they already packaged the knife and it's on the way out the door. Happened to me with DLT, for example. Fast shipping is a good thing in my book.

Now, regarding a CS representative being testy, that's a different story. Just pick another store next time.
 
ferider said:
You outside the US ? Fedex shipping is free with SMKW in the US, correct ?

Happens with the best shops, just means they already packaged the knife and it's on the way out the door. Happened to me with DLT, for example. Fast shipping is a good thing in my book.

Now, regarding a CS representative being testy, that's a different story. Just pick another store next time.
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Maybe they were “testy” because an irate customer wasn’t getting what they wanted?
 
Mick Boardman said:
reread my last post
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You’re going to see that running to the GBU to vent because a customer service worker didn’t get you what you wanted isn’t exactly evidence of a “bad business”. It isn’t like she cussed you out or hung up on you. She offered a solution and you rejected it. Sounds like she did her job. I won’t ever tell someone they can’t create a post like this, it’s a free country… but this seems more like a minor inconvenience as opposed to a poor business practice. It’s not even “bad” what she did, just “a way of doing something”.
 
While it would have been nice if they could fix things for you, they have their rules and procedures. All the problems you stated were originated on your side- wanting to add and forms of payment. It wasn't a problem they caused, so I would not blame them. Calm down and proceed with your purchase(from them or elsewhere) when you can. A few days is unlikely to matter in the long run.
It may have seemed she was testy , because you were'nt listening and accepting what was being said. They are only going to go over it so many times.
 
Order from them all the time and never had an issue but I would expect if I changed last minute that they may or may not be able to accommodate the request.
If not, no big deal it was my request and depending where they are in the process it just may not be possible.
Cant see how its even worth getting upset about.
Its just part of the way things work and with a place turning over large volumes of product, I would expect there shipping system to be automated and may be a hassle to stop orders mid process.
Ive ordered from dealers and wanted to order additional items but if i miss the option to add in and already complete an order, thats on me. I just order again.
Reaching out and asking to have things manually changed just leads to more issues IMO/experience.
 
I can imagine why the CS rep would have refused to accommodate your request -- they may not be trained to do so, their systems are not setup to do so, or both. They did, however, offer you an alternative solution. In my experience, anything that seems a simple thing for us, may not be that simple for the business to pull off. . In my books, this certainly is not "bad business". I have excellent experience with SMKY, both for ordering and returning.

I sincerely hope you remove the big red banner that reads "BAD" from the heading, since it may convey inaccurate information to other forum dwellers who may not want to go over the entire thread. But it is up to you.
 
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What walking into SMKW feels like

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OP - doesn't seem like it is fair for you to post bad on this. You are being unreasonable and most companies don't/can't combine shipping on orders placed at different times. I am guessing you got upset and were probably not very nice to the CS person.
 
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