BestSharpeningStones.com

[Phil Pasteur]

I got the “compensation” and a refund on the two sets of paddles that I was waiting to get. I was told that when they were available I could purchase them for 10% off and get free shipping.

I have to say that Mike is going out of his way to make things right. I appreciate it greatly.

What I am not real thrilled about is that it took so long and things got as bad as they did. Again, it is all about communication. Had we heard something back in a timely fashion… Oh well.

Hopefully he just had something distract him… and this was just an anomaly !

Phil

[Phil Pasteur]

In my last post I was hoping that Michael was just distracted for a short time. I guess that this was not the case. Part of the deal he offerd me was to sell me the 800/1000 paddles with free shipping. I have been writing him, about 4 times in the last three weeks, to place my order. He shows this item as being in stock on his web page. Well I have got no reply. I am not sure how he can run an online store and not anwer email. I also sent him a message through his ebay store. No answer to that either.

I wanted to buy several things from Michael, but at this point I guess I just will have to go elsewhere.

I ran an online search and noticed that the BBB for his area had 6 unresolved non-delivery complaint in the last few months.

I am posting this just as sort of a public service. Perhaps this guy should be avoided when doing business online. As they say, buyer beware.

Phil Pasteur

[wickededge]

In my last post I was hoping that Michael was just distracted for a short time. I guess that this was not the case. Part of the deal he offerd me was to sell me the 800/1000 paddles with free shipping. I have been writing him, about 4 times in the last three weeks, to place my order. He shows this item as being in stock on his web page. Well I have got no reply. I am not sure how he can run an online store and not anwer email. I also sent him a message through his ebay store. No answer to that either.

I wanted to buy several things from Michael, but at this point I guess I just will have to go elsewhere.

I ran an online search and noticed that the BBB for his area had 6 unresolved non-delivery complaint in the last few months.

I am posting this just as sort of a public service. Perhaps this guy should be avoided when doing business online. As they say, buyer beware.

Phil Pasteur

Hey guys, I can’t speak to the past issues, but I do know that Mike has been out of touch right now as they try to get his brother moved to a better facility, closer to Mike. His brother is suffering from liver cancer and Mike and his wife are putting everything they have into taking care of him. His brother lives in rural NJ and they’re working to get him moved closer to NY. I’m pretty sure that this explains what’s going on with his delays right now.

-Clay

[Phil Pasteur]

Clay,
Thanks for the info.

I kind of feel like a jerk now.

I have been in a similar situation to that Michael is dealing with. My mother died in my arms due to bladder cancer. So I do get it.

One problem though, and I hope it will not be percieved as hitting a man while he is down, that is not my intent at all. I found several threads in other forums where people were complaining about no communications and waiting months for delivery, or having to demand a refund with help form their credit card company. This goes back over a couple of years. The BBB compalints also go back a long way.
Granted, it doesn’t look like anyone was ripped off. I t just often took way too much time to get there.

I wish Michael all of the best in dealing with the illness in his family, I really do. If we are all lucky we will never have to deal with cancer in a close relative. It is pure hell, again, from one with direct experience.

I am still concerned though. The current situation does not explain all of the historic problems.

Clay, again, thanks for the heads up.

Phil

[wickededge]

Clay,
Thanks for the info.

I kind of feel like a jerk now.

I have been in a similar situation to that Michael is dealing with. My mother died in my arms due to bladder cancer. So I do get it.

One problem though, and I hope it will not be percieved as hitting a man while he is down, that is not my intent at all. I found several threads in other forums where people were complaining about no communications and waiting months for delivery, or having to demand a refund with help form their credit card company. This goes back over a couple of years. The BBB compalints also go back a long way.
Granted, it doesn’t look like anyone was ripped off. I t just often took way too much time to get there.

I wish Michael all of the best in dealing with the illness in his family, I really do. If we are all lucky we will never have to deal with cancer in a close relative. It is pure hell, again, from one with direct experience.

I am still concerned though. The current situation does not explain all of the historic problems.

Clay, again, thanks for the heads up.

Phil

Phil,
No need to feel like a jerk and you’re right to be concerned. You’re also right that the current situation doesn’t explain past issues. At least we do know what’s going on now… I’ll follow up with Michael on Monday and find out what’s going on with his orders.

-Clay

[Trevor Barton]

I’m sorry to hear that Clay but the facts are the facts and Michael has a history of bad customer service! I have a bunch of medical problems with my family too but I can’t drop the ball at work or life gets worse. I don’t wish him any ill will and I hope his brother pulls through but I will never do business with him again and I feel it is only fair that people are aware of his business practices. My story below…

December 27th I ordered 2x Wicked Edge Lapping Film # 4 kits and each kit is supposed to come with 2 blank handles with 4 aluminum blanks (epoxied in where the stones go) and 8 strips each of 9, 5, 3,1 & .3 micron lapping film. Michael Poe sent me 4 empty handles with no aluminum blanks attached which rendered my kit useless. Jan 13th I contacted Michael Poe and he said he must have shipped them before he glued in the aluminum blanks because he was so busy with the Christmas rush. He then said he will ship the aluminum blanks, epoxy and a free full package of lapping film strips for my trouble. Ok that sound good! Feb 24th I emailed Mike because nothing had arrived but this time he was not responding to my emails. Over the next several days I easily found numerous complaints about bestsharpeningstones.com and then I came across Best Sharpening Stones Better Business Bureau report which didn’t put my mind at ease. http://www.bbb.org/new-jersey/business-reviews/internet-shopping/best-sharpening-stones-in-new-providence-nj-90032552 I sent Mike another email saying that I was going to take action if I didn’t see some from him and by the next day I had a shipping notice. Mar 8th I received the package all excited and he only sent 4 aluminum blanks instead of 8 (4 paddles = 8 aluminum blanks), no epoxy and only 12 & 9 micron lapping film instead of the 9, 5, 3,1 & .3 micron which is useless to me. At this point I’m done with this tool, as in Michael Poe not the WEPS, and will will never purchase from Best Sharpening Stones again! :angry:

[wickededge]

I’m sorry to hear that Clay but the facts are the facts and Michael has a history of bad customer service! I have a bunch of medical problems with my family too but I can’t drop the ball at work or life gets worse. I don’t wish him any ill will and I hope his brother pulls through but I will never do business with him again and I feel it is only fair that people are aware of his business practices. My story below…

December 27th I ordered 2x Wicked Edge Lapping Film # 4 kits and each kit is supposed to come with 2 blank handles with 4 aluminum blanks (epoxied in where the stones go) and 8 strips each of 9, 5, 3,1 & .3 micron lapping film. Michael Poe sent me 4 empty handles with no aluminum blanks attached which rendered my kit useless. Jan 13th I contacted Michael Poe and he said he must have shipped them before he glued in the aluminum blanks because he was so busy with the Christmas rush. He then said he will ship the aluminum blanks, epoxy and a free full package of lapping film strips for my trouble. Ok that sound good! Feb 24th I emailed Mike because nothing had arrived but this time he was not responding to my emails. Over the next several days I easily found numerous complaints about bestsharpeningstones.com and then I came across Best Sharpening Stones Better Business Bureau report which didn’t put my mind at ease. http://www.bbb.org/new-jersey/business-reviews/internet-shopping/best-sharpening-stones-in-new-providence-nj-90032552 I sent Mike another email saying that I was going to take action if I didn’t see some from him and by the next day I had a shipping notice. Mar 8th I received the package all excited and he only sent 4 aluminum blanks instead of 8 (4 paddles = 8 aluminum blanks), no epoxy and only 12 & 9 micron lapping film instead of the 9, 5, 3,1 & .3 micron which is useless to me. At this point I’m done with this tool, as in Michael Poe not the WEPS, and will will never purchase from Best Sharpening Stones again! :angry:

Thank you. I’m really sorry about your experience. I’ll check all this out.

-Clay

[BassLake Dan]

Thanks everyone for the information in this issue. I have an open order there for several weeks now, and could not understand what in the heck was happening.

I must say, as someone that has a hand in actually running several e-commerce sites, the people over at BSS need to set their store in a mode where it is either offline or in a mode where you can look at the site to see the goodies for sale, but the software is set to not accept any orders. All ecommerce software packages have these abilities and setting them up in that mode is not rocket science. Usually you just enter your stores back-end admin area and click the few simple settings necessary.

One thing they need to be very careful about is that if they take Charge Card payments and not send out merchandise they will be violating the terms of their Merchant Agreement and will be dropped. At that point they will be out of business, probably never to return, as once you screw up a merchant account you are pretty much blacklisted. Hope this does not happen at BSS, as I look forward to them getting back up and running as I see many items there that I want, so I sure hope they can hang in there and do the right thing!

[peter]

I recently placed an order with these guys, and after two weeks have yet to see my order (1200/1600grit paddles and a quartzstone base, both listed as “In Stock”, and they had advertised same day, 2-3 day shipping).

I’m having the same problem thought they were in stock, got the sharpener w/base and extra stones it has been a month now, but it looks like everybody has them on backorder.

[Jonathan Beaver]

Ordered a WEPS while I was in the US on business a few weeks ago because it said they delivered in 2-3 days and had it in stock.

1 week later, called to find out what was going on and only got through to a ‘we’ll leave him a message’ answering service.

2 weeks later, called a couple more times, same message service, never heard back, had to head home at the end of my trip.

Now it’s 3 weeks later, I’ve left 6 or 7 messages and haven’t heard a peep. Starting to get pretty frustrated, wish I had seen this thread and the BBB review before I ordered.

Anyway, my credit card has been charged and the sharpener, if sent, will end up at a hotel where I’m no longer staying. Should I just contest the credit card charges and be done with it, or is this something that the proprietor is likely to be able to sort out? I don’t mind paying the shipping costs and calling it a day if that gets me the sharpener in the end, but if it gets shipped to the Hotel, I don’t have any way of retrieving it!

[wickededge]

Johnathan,

We’ll look into this right away for you and find a solution. I don’t think there there will be any need to dispute the charges – if we can’t get a hold of BSS quickly, we can drop ship the order for you and settle up with BSS ourselves. Can you please provide us with your shipping address? Please send an email to info@wickededgeusa.com.

-Clay

Ordered a WEPS while I was in the US on business a few weeks ago because it said they delivered in 2-3 days and had it in stock.

1 week later, called to find out what was going on and only got through to a ‘we’ll leave him a message’ answering service.

2 weeks later, called a couple more times, same message service, never heard back, had to head home at the end of my trip.

Now it’s 3 weeks later, I’ve left 6 or 7 messages and haven’t heard a peep. Starting to get pretty frustrated, wish I had seen this thread and the BBB review before I ordered.

Anyway, my credit card has been charged and the sharpener, if sent, will end up at a hotel where I’m no longer staying. Should I just contest the credit card charges and be done with it, or is this something that the proprietor is likely to be able to sort out? I don’t mind paying the shipping costs and calling it a day if that gets me the sharpener in the end, but if it gets shipped to the Hotel, I don’t have any way of retrieving it!

-Clay

[Jonathan Beaver]

Hi Clay,

That would be very helpful, thanks!

I’m impressed that you’re willing to step in and help out on an issue with a distributor like this, although saddling you with the issue certainly wasn’t my intention.

I’ll fire through an e-mail straight away, cheers!

[Phil Pasteur]

Now THAT is customer service!!! Bravo Clay!!
I just wonder how long BSS should be allowed to keep screwing people by taking money for WEPS products and not delivering product. This is obviously a pattern over a long period of time.
Phil

Johnathan,

We’ll look into this right away for you and find a solution. I don’t think there there will be any need to dispute the charges – if we can’t get a hold of BSS quickly, we can drop ship the order for you and settle up with BSS ourselves. Can you please provide us with your shipping address? Please send an email to info@wickededgeusa.com.

-Clay quote]

[ToJo]

I had to file a dispute with my credit card, and finally received a credit.This is by far the worst customer service I have ever experienced.

[peter]

I too, had problems with BSS and there was a point I didn’t think I was ever going to get my order but with some patience Clay and Kay took care of me and then some. I know its hard to have patience with things like this but Wicked Edge will take care of yea.

-Pete

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