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True North Knives

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So the situation is:

1. Seller says they won't guarantee delivery times. It doesn't matter what the shipper says; the seller itself says they won't guarantee them.

2. Customer buys expedited shipping knowing (1).

3. Seller says if it's late and you're unhappy then refuse it.

4. Package is not refused by customer.

5. Customer requests a refund for the shipping price for not meeting the delivery time that wasn't guaranteed thinking the seller will be able to get a refund.

6. Seller informs customer they cannot get a refund for themselves.

7. Customer tries to force refund through PayPal.

I can't see how any of this is on the seller. Customer read and was told shipping wasn't guaranteed and proceeded anyway based on information from a company they weren't buying from so irrelevant to the transaction. The rest of the customer's wrong turns stem from that, but forcing a partial refund after not taking the optional out the seller provided of refusing the package is just wrong.

I can't say I'll ever buy from TNK after the escalation, however.
 
OP, let's not overlook that Neil told you before you got the knife that if it was not received by you in the timeframe you wanted, you could simply refuse the package and everything would be fine. To me, that could be Neil saying to himself that he is not going to file a claim with FedEx if the knife does not get to you on time, i.e. your only recourse is to refuse the knife. You may not like that solution, but Neil mentioned it in case you had an issue. Then when things played out in a way that was not to your liking, you accepted the knife anyway and now want Neil to spend his time pursuing a refund from FedEx. That is BS and you know it.

You do not tell Neil what he can or should do with his time. You are not the judge of how he spends his time. You had a solution that would have avoided this and you chose to not exercise your right to refuse the package because you wanted the knife. FedEx screwed up and you screwed up. Neil's response to you may be rude in your eyes and maybe he screwed up in that regard, but your perspective is not the only one in play; his is too. Don't look to Neil to fix your issue with FedEx. It's just not his problem IMHO.
 
Check out the OP's thread in Benchmade about the knife he got as a gift from his parents that he was very disappointed in.

Pattern of entitlement.

Tengu Flipper First Production Way Off Center

I'm posting to share my disappointment about a knife that'd been gifted to me by my folks over the weekend, a Tengu Flipper (aka 601). The blade is so far off center that it very nearly contacts the liner on the show scale side of the knife: I tried to correct this by manipulating the pivot...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
Neil Ostroff said:
I maintain that FedEx, UPS and USPS are not honoring their shipping commitments
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That is an understatement. Add trucking companies also.

Shipping problems for the last year have caused shippers tremendous problems. Some customers are understanding and others take advantage of the situation.

Chuck
 
It’s one thing to be rude. It’s quite another to threaten someone (3 times: Paypal dispute, CRK distributor relationship, this thread). There are not many possible other responses to a bully in this cancel culture environment.
 
Whaaaaat? If I went nuts every time FEDEX or UPS came past the 10am or 2pm or whatever guarantee deadline, I would be institutionalized. Give me a break and get over it. You try calling FEDEX and asking for a refund because they were late, see how that works out for you. The important question is do you like the knife? If so, you got it and and should be happy. TNK has been around a while, I would never hesitate to buy from them.
 
I have dealt with Neil several times and he has went out of his way to accommodate my situation more than once.

It seems to me that you set this up for failure so that you could try to get shipping cost back, that is dishonest and disingenuous on your part. Neil told you carriers won't guarantee delivery times currently, and I know this to be true also. He also offered to have you refuse the package if you weren't satisfied with the time of it's arrival. Neil mentioned that you brought up the fact that you have done this many times in the past, isn't real difficult to see your intentions.

I think like many that make a thread like this when the facts are all out it's showing the OP to be the source of the issue. Classic backfire.
 
OP, have you publicly voiced your dissatisfaction with FedEx somewhere else other than here in a thread about your dissatisfaction with TNK? Your knowledge of how FedEx refunds work suggests that you have familiarity with FedEx delivery timeframe failures. Are you going to "learn your lesson" and take your business elsewhere? I'm only asking because I don't want to see you disappointed by the same thing over and over.
 
Buyer paid extra $ for a shipping deadline, expecting from past experience that if not met he could get the $ back. BUT seller has on website that shipping deadlines can't be guaranteed due to Covid. I can see how both are frustrated. If I was the seller I would offer to refund 1/2 of the extra fee.
 
fishface5 said:
Buyer paid extra $ for a shipping deadline, expecting from past experience that if not met he could get the $ back. BUT seller has on website that shipping deadlines can't be guaranteed due to Covid. I can see how both are frustrated. If I was the seller I would offer to refund 1/2 of the extra fee.
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You'd refund half even having a note on your website saying times aren't guaranteed, reminding the customer directly of that fact, and saying the only recourse if the customer is unsatisfied is to not accept the package which s/he didn't choose to do? You're a very good person.
 
We have all had packages arrive late, but to make such a fuss when it still arrived the same day sounds like entitlement to me. If the extra money had not been spent, you certainly would not have gotten it on the same day, so you still had your package expedited.

This reminds me of the people who expect free delivery on pizza just because the delivery driver had trouble finding their house. You may have paid $3.99 delivery for a pie that arrived 5 minutes late, but I still had to drive 35 mins to your address.
 
Since the right to a "guaranteed refund" is technically to the seller/shipper, I would not be expecting the full amount as a buyer. I could perhaps understand if you had asked for the difference of whatever "standard overnight" costs vs. what you paid for. Then again, it's only 5 hours, and you told the seller that it wouldn't be the end of the world. He also gave fair warning that despite what their website says, that's still not reality for many of his recent and present orders.

As both a buyer and seller myself, I can sympathize (to an extent) with both parties. From the seller side, time is money, and regardless of FedEx's guarantee, it takes time to submit claims and payments are rarely instant. From the buyer side, you did pay for faster delivery, although I'm not sure I'd make a fuss about only 5 hours if the knife still arrived next day and in good condition.

I've had plenty of packages arrive later than scheduled from FedEx, UPS, and even USPS. While none of them were necessarily guaranteed, things are still quite the mess, regardless of what their website says. Almost every online merchant, vendor, shipper, etc... that I use still has a COVID-19 disclaimer somewhere on their websites. I'm not sure why FedEx thinks they're an exception, but I imagine they're going to be seeing a lot of claims.
 
knoob said:
I was hesitant from the outset to order from TNK since some of their site's pages (i.e. shipping policy) seemed messy. A couple weeks back, there was even a conflicting cutoff time for same-day shipping of an order (11am and a few lines later, noon). I decided to make a purchase from them yesterday for a Chainmail Sebenza that I couldn't find anywhere else. After all, the apparent owner/operator Neil was quick to respond to my inquiry a couple weeks back about what the actual cutoff time was for same-day shipping, and at least after his response to me, he edited that page so the conflict would be cleaned up.

In any case, I placed my order, chose Priority Overnight (since it was only a few bucks more than standard) and then noticed later in the day that the tracking number was for standard overnight. Since that wasn't what I paid for, I reached out and he indicated he'd correct that problem. and also told me that no shippers are honoring their shipping timelines due to COVID-19. This is complete BS and has been for a month (for overnight at least).

Stranger still, in this email he indicated that if it came a few minutes past noon, if I wasn't happy, I should reject the package and have it returned to him. Such an all-or-nothing customer service attitude seemed a bit excessive, but I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt.

Sure enough, the package arrived at 1641, nearly five hours past FedEx's guaranteed delivery time, and I wrote politely to him to let him know that he was entitled to a refund and, as such, I'd like a partial refund in kind for the shipping amount.

He responded by calling this a "shake down" and that I was the lowest customer he's encountered in all his 25 years of doing business and that, "of course," he'll never sell to me again. He also indicated that he cannot and will not request a refund from FedEx because he shares the FedEx account with two other companies that are larger than his. (wtf--pay for your own damned account!)

After I replied indicating that I'd open a PayPal dispute seeking this partial refund, and doing so with plenty of civility, Neil called me a "low life cheapskate pecker" and implied that I'll be tossed onto some sort of knife dealer blacklist.

While I think this is a pretty sad set of events, what makes me most upset is that there are brands like CRK that are top-notch in so many ways, and while I don't expect all CRK distributors to follow some strict code of conduct, I do see the authorized dealers as ambassadors of the brands they sell. I've had only positive experiences w/ Chris Reeve Knives as a company and with the knives themselves; I've only called them up in Idaho twice, but their customer service is awesome. I think I'd be letting down CRK as an enthusiastic customer if I didn't pass along this email interaction and let them know that one of their brand ambassadors can so hastily demonstrate such a belligerent disregard for customers.

https://imgur.com/a/bqHCdkT
Click to expand...
:thumbsdown: So much wrong with this post. The OP is the problem, not True North Knives.
 
I guess add to disclaimer expedited shipping times not guaranteed. No shipping refunds due to late delivery times
 
Having purchased many Sebenzas, Strider SNG and SMF knives I have to say talking and ordering with Neil is always a pleasure. Sure, shipping times are a bit hard to pin down due to the pandemic, but we have all had to deal with these inconveniences and as we know soon these delays will become less frequent. Keep up the great customer service, Neil, and thank you for your excellent commitment to your customers.
 
K knoob , if you never buy another knife from TNK, it won’t hurt your interests nor will it affect TNK. Sometimes it’s better to take things with a grain of salt and chock it up as a learning experience. There’s way too many places to buy knives from that will satisfy your expectations.
As much as I’ve read about BladeHQ here, I still buy from them, because I’ve never had a bad experience with them. I don’t doubt anyone’s dealings with them, but they’ve never done me wrong.
Hell, I’m happy when stuff shows that’s been on order, and I hold my breath when I send a knife to someone until I hear from them.
 
OP’s really fired up about 4-5 hours. 10 bucks per hour for the mental anguish of starring at the mailbox. Seems kind of pricey. Possibly a ruined friendship due to the tardiness of the gift, but those are the stakes of knife acquisition. Do you like the knife? Will your buddy miss 5 hours of not being able to use it?

Nothing comes for nothing, and someone pays for OP’s satisfaction. In this case it should be OP.
 
If you got the knife in time for what you needed, I don't get the problem, other than Neil being rude in response to your unreasonableness.
 
Wow. I would never want to deal with the OP. Seems like someone who makes a huge deal out of minor issues, and then seeks some type of obsessive retribution when the other party won't do what he demands. Very Sad.
 
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