Tiny's?

mypetelvis · Post by **mypetelvis** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 4:00 am

O.k. guys heres the story.

My wife got me a blonde horn Old Fasioned from Tiny's for Xmas.
When it got here, it didn't lock up and the front scale was cracked. I emailed Tiny and he said to return it. He even gave me a return authorization number. I sent it back around the 18th of Dec. and expected to wait until after the 3rd like he told me. It's now the 17th of Jan. and no knife. I emailed him three days ago and no answer. Did it again yesterday and still nothing. Just to see if he's maybe backed up, I registered another email address and emailed him about a knife he did not stock. To my surprise he emailed me back right away. STILL no answer on the return item. My question to everyone is how do I handle this one. Should I call him on it? Email him with my new address and ask him why he won't respond to my original question? What say you?

M.P.E.

stepdaddy · Post by **stepdaddy** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 4:39 am

MPE:

Best I could say is that Mr tiny is held in the highest regards around here, there has to be a reason why. I think he's done some returns for people so they wouldn't have to send the knives to Italy etc... I know when I got my IHT knife everything went over smooth without a hitch. I'm sure some one around here will be able to put your mind at ease. Just have to wait to see how things turn out.

SD

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 4:43 am

Most curious!

mypetelvis · Post by **mypetelvis** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 6:44 am

S.D.

I've had many smooth transactions with Tiny as well. He has always answered my emails quickly in the past, and when I told him I had a problem, he answered me right away and said to return it. That's why I am hesitant to jump to conclusions.
Even if the knife never made it back to him or he is out of stock ,or whatever, it would still be nice to get an answer.
I'm hoping there is a good explanation, I was hoping to get my forum knife through him, like you did with the IHT.

M.P.E.

mypetelvis · Post by **mypetelvis** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:59 pm

Still no response from Tiny. Sent him another email just now. This is really starting to piss me off! I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm being screwed!!!! What has happened to his legendary customer service?

M.P.E.

Pushbutton · Post by **Pushbutton** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:18 pm

Elvis
Things happen sometimes for the worse from a direction you didn't expect. I had always heard Tiny was a pleasure to do business with. Hopefully there is an easy explanation which would set everything right. But you know thinking about it I can't help but have this nagging thought on why he won't answer your email yet answered you when he thought it was someone else. That part kind of bothers me. plus the fact is that he has both your money and your knife which also doesn't seem right. Like I said I have seen dealers change at the drop of a hat on line and I hope Tiny isn't going to be one of them.
PB

Claudester · Post by **Claudester** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:19 pm

Mr. Mypetelvis,
Sounds just like a repeat of my story with zipguy but we are talkin about a very reputable person and this could be a fluke. I would wait two days and add to your next email,( just concerned you didn't get my email ) Who knows how busy a guy is and what goes wrong. The other day my beagle Fred layed
down on my surge protector and shut down my machine. For some unknown reason I lost all bookmarks and emails and it took me two days to get everything back. So, BE COOL for two days.

By the way, Still didnt get my knife from Zippo

mypetelvis · Post by **mypetelvis** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:09 am

I've been polite in my emails, I know the world can be a busy place sometimes, and things get lost, etc... but, I've sent five emails in the past 2 weeks. He could at least write me, even if it was just to say "go to hell". Even that would make me feel a little better. What still bugs me is he answered the new email address with lightning timing! I really would like this to just be a fluke. I'd hate to loose one of my favorite dealers.

Claudester,

I got my 6 1/4 from Zipperhead, and the front bolster had the same problem as yours. He never answered any of my emails either once he got my money. Glad he's off the good one's list.

M.P.E.

BennytheBlade · Post by **BennytheBlade** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 2:35 am

Only thing I can guess is that hes waiting to get some stock in and is waiting to tell you good news when he gets it in.
I dont remember if you said that you were a forum member or not in your email... that might help.
Im sure that your not getting screwed, but...

omega · Post by **omega** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 4:16 am

My two cents:

Cut Mr. Tiny some slack. He's got a solid history and will do you right.

He's dealing with another, more devastating business issue right now. It appears that PayPal has pulled the payment plug on his site, leaving him in the lurch as far as a means to accept payments. Initially, he had something posted on the site which led me to believe that PayPal probably yanked him with no warning. The following day, that note on his site was gone, but his acceptance of e-payments is still down.

My best guess is that someone at PayPal found his offerings not in keeping with their "acceptable use policy." If that's true, they probably locked him out of his account and any funds that were sitting there. Trying to fight with those bastards at PayPal is useless too.

Imagine for a minute, if your bank shut down your checking account and kept the funds in it for as long as they damn well pleased. In the meantime, your employer kept sending your paycheck there. Your employer still expected you to come to work and your electric, phone and mortage payments were still due, regardless of the fact that you couldn't write a check against the funds in your bank account to pay them. Mr. Tiny is facing all of that, plus the loss of future sales by not being able to accept e-payments. He's got a full plate right now.

I emailed him about the issue, but like the original poster in this thread, haven't heard anything back. Mr. Tiny is a smart guy and will get it all back on track. He probably just needs some time to sort out this larger issue first.

If I can ever figure an alternative to those bastards at PaySatan, I will dump them in a heartbeat.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:22 am

"If I can ever figure an alternative to those bastards at PaySatan, I will dump them in a heartbeat."
How does Stu do it [he takes credit cards]?
Why is that SO unusual with knife dealers?

The Falcon · Post by **The Falcon** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 9:53 am

MPE,

Just curious - did your wife use PayPal when she bought the knife?

thegreatone · Post by **thegreatone** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:20 pm

Pushbutton wrote: I can't help but have this nagging thought on why he won't answer your email yet answered you when he thought it was someone else.

What kind of question did you ask as someone else? Was it a "hey do have such and such a knife?" If so he might have known off hand that he did or didn't. Which is an easy enough enough question to answer. But when asking about a repair, he may have had to check to see which knife is yours. What if he sent it out to be repaired and whoever is doing the work won't get back to him. I know I for one do this kind of thing. If someone emails me and I can answer it quickly I do so right away. If it requires thought or a lengthy response I wait til I feel like doing it but then again I not a business. I am in no way making excuses for Tiny but I hate to think that he is screwing you over.

omega · Post by **omega** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:59 pm

Vagrant wrote: How does Stu do it [he takes credit cards]?
Why is that SO unusual with knife dealers?

Stu has a regular merchant account. If you are selling pallet loads of stuff, then a merchant account is cost effective. To set one up, you need a machine to key the sales into, phone line for the machine to call VISA/MC/AMEX with, and a processing contract with Merchant Services.

The monthly cost of all of that is:

Machine rental: $25
Service fee: $10
Plus: 2.3% + .25 per transaction to the processor.

Some of the processors are even charging 4-6% if you can imagine that. And the above still doesn't provide the merchant with encrypted processing of web transactions via a shopping cart interface. That costs even more money, LOL! The web encryption software interface for sites often runs about $20 a month by itself. So you've spent $65 a month before you take in your first dollar and you still have to pay the processor his cut of 2.3% + .25 per transaction.

PayPal eliminates all that and charges it's business customers 2.2% of total revenues + .35 per transaction. So unless you are doing $3- 4000 or more a month in sales, a merchant account is not cost effective.

Due to the potential for fraud and chargebacks, the commercial processors demand a credit check too. With PaySatan, there is none of that, but you have to agree to all sorts of other shit that is buried in their 28 page terms of service, like their "acceptable use" policy.

That's why knife dealers don't want a merchant account! Stu can do it on volume. But until a dealer gets well beyond that 3K a month level, it's a loser.

Christ rebuked the money changers! And for damn good reason!

Claudester · Post by **Claudester** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 1:00 pm

thegreatone wrote:
Pushbutton wrote: I can't help but have this nagging thought on why he won't answer your email yet answered you when he thought it was someone else.
I know I for one do this kind of thing. If someone emails me and I can answer it quickly I do so right away. If it requires thought or a lengthy response I wait til I feel like doing it but then again I not a business.

Mr. Great,
Good thing your not in business.
I wait till I feel like doing it?