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(SOLVED, happy with outcome) Need to call out a knife maker (Ken Coats) for his very poor response

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kc custom said:
Here we go, yeah I sent the POS knife to Ryan. Am I going to defend myself? - not much, past customers already have. When this originally started and was put up in traditionals
I believe it was done on purpose. This was done without any contact with me and spewing about a broken spring twice. That did not happen. I'm not saying I've never had a broken spring,
I am saying I've never had 2 on the same knife. Every other word out of the OP's mouth was about a design flaw. After a solid 10 year run of selling knives on BF I'm still not ready to
throw in the towel as so many others have.
So when Ryan gets his replacement knife. I hope he's happy, I'm sure you will see pics of it 8 ways from straight and you can CF & CE it for an eternity to come.
Ken .
Click to expand...

What an arrogant jerk. Someone should post this on his IG, Twitter, Snapchat, whatever he is using to sell his crap.
 
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kc custom said:
Here we go, yeah I sent the POS knife to Ryan. Am I going to defend myself? - not much, past customers already have. When this originally started and was put up in traditionals
I believe it was done on purpose. This was done without any contact with me and spewing about a broken spring twice. That did not happen. I'm not saying I've never had a broken spring,
I am saying I've never had 2 on the same knife. Every other word out of the OP's mouth was about a design flaw. After a solid 10 year run of selling knives on BF I'm still not ready to
throw in the towel as so many others have.
So when Ryan gets his replacement knife. I hope he's happy, I'm sure you will see pics of it 8 ways from straight and you can CF & CE it for an eternity to come.
Ken .
Click to expand...

Quoted for posterity, and any possible future customers of this guy to find.

Google is a great tool. :)
 
kc custom said:
Here we go, yeah I sent the POS knife to Ryan. Am I going to defend myself? - not much, past customers already have. When this originally started and was put up in traditionals
I believe it was done on purpose. This was done without any contact with me and spewing about a broken spring twice. That did not happen. I'm not saying I've never had a broken spring,
I am saying I've never had 2 on the same knife. Every other word out of the OP's mouth was about a design flaw. After a solid 10 year run of selling knives on BF I'm still not ready to
throw in the towel as so many others have.
So when Ryan gets his replacement knife. I hope he's happy, I'm sure you will see pics of it 8 ways from straight and you can CF & CE it for an eternity to come.
Ken .
Click to expand...

Just talk to us about it. I, at least, was trying to look at it from all angles. But, that is hard when you don't come on here. I think we all want you to at least defend yourself. I mentioned that the OP did not play this correctly right from the beginning. So you felt he posted on Traditionals on purpose for extra negative exposure before even going to you? So you sent the POS knife to him? Ok, I'm at least trying to follow you. You were offended. I'm starting to understand if I am following you correctly. Am I on the right track? You don't just want past customers defending you. This would be a great opportunity to gain the trust of new customers. Here's your chance. It's a booming economy right now. No better time than now. I would be the first to consider you!
 
Oh man... this one took awhile to develop but boy did it pay off in jackassery. What a pompous clueless reply. There are not enough past customers to bring you back from this.

kc custom said:
Here we go, yeah I sent the POS knife to Ryan. Am I going to defend myself? - not much, past customers already have. When this originally started and was put up in traditionals
I believe it was done on purpose. This was done without any contact with me and spewing about a broken spring twice. That did not happen. I'm not saying I've never had a broken spring,
I am saying I've never had 2 on the same knife. Every other word out of the OP's mouth was about a design flaw. After a solid 10 year run of selling knives on BF I'm still not ready to
throw in the towel as so many others have.
So when Ryan gets his replacement knife. I hope he's happy, I'm sure you will see pics of it 8 ways from straight and you can CF & CE it for an eternity to come.
Ken .
Click to expand...
 
Quiet said:
Whelp, definitely never owning a knife by this Coats guy. I never understand makers who act like you should bow down and show reverence that they deigned to allow you to buy a knife from them. Too many other great makers out there to put up with THAT nonsense.
Click to expand...

I think we are at least partially responsible, wowing every move they make and every thing they do. Some start believing their own press. I don't know Ken at all, but I have seen this in a number of makers. Hard to remain humble(I guess)when all say you are so great.
but sending the POS knife out has no excuse and just hurt him. If he didn't want to deal with Ryan he should have just told him that.
 
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kc custom said:
Here we go, yeah I sent the POS knife to Ryan. Am I going to defend myself? - not much, past customers already have. When this originally started and was put up in traditionals
I believe it was done on purpose. This was done without any contact with me and spewing about a broken spring twice. That did not happen. I'm not saying I've never had a broken spring,
I am saying I've never had 2 on the same knife. Every other word out of the OP's mouth was about a design flaw. After a solid 10 year run of selling knives on BF I'm still not ready to
throw in the towel as so many others have.
So when Ryan gets his replacement knife. I hope he's happy, I'm sure you will see pics of it 8 ways from straight and you can CF & CE it for an eternity to come.
Ken .
Click to expand...

I am truly surprised by Ken's reply. It is incoherent, rambling and very unclear.

This is not the response or attitude of the man I met and did business with some 12 years ago.
Something does not make sense. I am sure that there are many older BF members from the traditional forum who would agree with me.

I am not defending Ken or being an apologist for his actions but I am very surprised by this turn of events. I can only assume that there is a piece of information we don't have and that something has happened to cause this.

Once again I hope that the OP receives his knife and is made whole.
 
Steven65 said:
I am truly surprised by Ken's reply. It is incoherent, rambling and very unclear.

This is not the response or attitude of the man I met and did business with some 12 years ago.
Something does not make sense. I am sure that there are many older BF members from the traditional forum who would agree with me.

I am not defending Ken or being an apologist for his actions but I am very surprised by this turn of events. I can only assume that there is a piece of information we don't have and that something has happened to cause this.

Once again I hope that the OP receives his knife and is made whole.
Click to expand...

A lot can change in 12 years...
 
kc custom said:
Here we go, yeah I sent the POS knife to Ryan. Am I going to defend myself? - not much, past customers already have. When this originally started and was put up in traditionals
I believe it was done on purpose. This was done without any contact with me and spewing about a broken spring twice. That did not happen. I'm not saying I've never had a broken spring,
I am saying I've never had 2 on the same knife. Every other word out of the OP's mouth was about a design flaw. After a solid 10 year run of selling knives on BF I'm still not ready to
throw in the towel as so many others have.
So when Ryan gets his replacement knife. I hope he's happy, I'm sure you will see pics of it 8 ways from straight and you can CF & CE it for an eternity to come.
Ken .
Click to expand...


WOOOOW man I was NOT expecting this. I will say I'm glad you're being honest but I'm pretty upset that you lied to me on the phone when I asked about the knife I received.
This is severely unprofessional and the fact that you keep calling me a liar (In reference to the spring being broken twice)
I encourage you to search your email history, as I still have records showing our correspondence from 2015-2016

NGTPU3b.png



I am also upset that my reputation has come into question over all this, I feel that I have been reserved in my responses.

In 2015 my knife backspring broke, then I private messaged you through bladeforums and ended up resolving it with you.
In 2019 my knife broke AGAIN so I made a thread in the traditional forum asking them what I should do (I truly appreciate all of the kind folks in there, I'd trust them with my life, and I know they're pretty level headed in their judgements on situations)
After sending the knife back to you and waiting 4 months with no replies to my follow up emails, I ended up receiving the orange knife in the mail.
It was after this point that I created this post (which I immediately notified you about Via email)

I'm not even sure if I'll end up receiving a replacement, at this rate, though we'll have to wait and see. It wasn't my intention to try to criticise every flaw in that replacement, as you insinuated, I have only ever intended to be 100% honest (As I have been with all of my dealings on this forum)
I'm actually worried that even if I receive the replacement I won't be happy to carry I knife with "Coats" on the blade. I feel that my 21st birthday gift has been ruined by this whole affair.
 
Steven65 said:
I am truly surprised by Ken's reply. It is incoherent, rambling and very unclear.

This is not the response or attitude of the man I met and did business with some 12 years ago.
Something does not make sense. I am sure that there are many older BF members from the traditional forum who would agree with me.

I am not defending Ken or being an apologist for his actions but I am very surprised by this turn of events. I can only assume that there is a piece of information we don't have and that something has happened to cause this.

Once again I hope that the OP receives his knife and is made whole.
Click to expand...


Yeah I'm inclined to agree with you on this, it is definitely not the response I would expect from a custom maker
 
Ryan Sumner Ryan Sumner

Glad things are working out. Still wont buy a Coats knife, but would be inclined to do a deal with you if the situation presented itself.
Stay on the respectful path, and you will keep your good reputation.
 
This is a sad ending, especially for Ryan. He owned a special birthday knife made by this guy. He's supposedly getting a replacement knife, but he will think about this experience every time he sees the maker's name on the blade.

In my 40 years of collecting production and custom knives, I always tried to align myself with stand-up manufacturers and custom knifemakers. I understand things can change and nothing is guaranteed, but it's hard to own a knife connected to a bad experience or made by someone with a bad reputation.
 
Ryan Sumner said:
WOOOOW man I was NOT expecting this. I will say I'm glad you're being honest but I'm pretty upset that you lied to me on the phone when I asked about the knife I received.
This is severely unprofessional and the fact that you keep calling me a liar (In reference to the spring being broken twice)
I encourage you to search your email history, as I still have records showing our correspondence from 2015-2016

NGTPU3b.png



I am also upset that my reputation has come into question over all this, I feel that I have been reserved in my responses.

In 2015 my knife backspring broke, then I private messaged you through bladeforums and ended up resolving it with you.
In 2019 my knife broke AGAIN so I made a thread in the traditional forum asking them what I should do (I truly appreciate all of the kind folks in there, I'd trust them with my life, and I know they're pretty level headed in their judgements on situations)
After sending the knife back to you and waiting 4 months with no replies to my follow up emails, I ended up receiving the orange knife in the mail.
It was after this point that I created this post (which I immediately notified you about Via email)

I'm not even sure if I'll end up receiving a replacement, at this rate, though we'll have to wait and see. It wasn't my intention to try to criticise every flaw in that replacement, as you insinuated, I have only ever intended to be 100% honest (As I have been with all of my dealings on this forum)
I'm actually worried that even if I receive the replacement I won't be happy to carry I knife with "Coats" on the blade. I feel that my 21st birthday gift has been ruined by this whole affair.
Click to expand...


Not really addressing this to you, Ryan, but I think it's important to note for people that were hard on you for not initially making the phone call.

Seems like the maker was willing to take orders and payment through email and discuss the issue with the initial knife that way as well. Given all that, the idea that it's on the customer to change the method of contact when communication gets bad is just wrong. It's pretty clear that there was an ongoing email conversation that went dead for five months when the customer had issues. An international phone call isn't a huge inconvenience, but it's still not right to make the customer go that route when there was a clear and open channel of communication available.
 
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