Questions About Ordering From 3knives

[robcelani]

Hello, I haven’t posted in a long time but still occasionally hop on to browse this forum and the sales forum. I’m wondering if anyone here has ordered from 3knives lately?

I’ve sent 6 emails so far to 3knives and gotten one reply to my 2nd email. That’s concerning to me but not enough to stop me from ordering. It’s border line but I’m willing to overlook it since they’re in Europe, different time zone and are probably not native English speakers. I did try to call yesterday but can’t get my phone to dial through. Their # online includes the country code so not sure what’s going on with that. Any suggestions for that issue?

What’s bugging me more is that their website on my desktop says half off international shipping. I wanted to place an order yesterday and the checkout says shipping is 40 Euros which is almost $50. I’ve shipped international before and that’s more than it’s cost me to ship anywhere in the world including Europe. I think they use fedex so that’s probably why it’s so expensive. I used USPS for my shipping.

Regardless of the higher cost, the site says half off. Has anyone ordered recently and gotten half off shipping? If so is there a code or something that I need to use?

Here’s a couple pics. One shows the offer and the other my cart with shipping charge. Any help is much appreciated.

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83055F65-3491-44E0-B85F-E891EFB0CDC4.jpeg (762.49 KiB) Viewed 2193 times

[Luke_of_Mass]

Make sure when you try to call them to dial 011 before their number to dial OUT of the USA.

And I've always had that deduction display in the checkout screen right after specifying my non-EU shipping address.

Angelo in my experience is the most fluent English speaker of all of them so don't chalk up any email negligence to language barrier.

[robcelani]

Make sure when you try to call them to dial 011 before their number to dial OUT of the USA.

Thanks for the response Luke and the info on calling them. I'll try that tomorrow morning.

And I've always had that deduction display in the checkout screen right after specifying my non-EU shipping address.

So are you saying I need to go to the next step in checking out for the shipping discount? I'm tempted to just place my order and if the shipping charge isn't correct trying to get a refund but then the communication issues would probably mean that wouldn't happen.

Angelo in my experience is the most fluent English speaker of all of them so don't chalk up any email negligence to language barrier.

My one email response was from Tanja. Her english seemed good to me. My wife, one of my sons and I took a trip to Italy a couple years ago and I was impressed with how many people spoke english there. We even had some people tell us they didn't speak english but would then talk to us fairly well in english while my italian was non existant. I only remember talking to one person who really spoke no english and that's where google translate came in handy.

[Luke_of_Mass]

It's been probably 3-ish years (mid-2018) since I ordered from 3knives, I seem to remember filling out delivery info before billing info, things may have changed. Hopefully they deduct the tax from your order.

Returns with them seem hit/miss as their responsiveness over email sort of comes in waves... not sure why.

I guess things sort of function that way in Italy with a lot of stuff.

[XBMX]

I have had very bad experience with them. Sent in a new knife for repair this past July. One reply in early Sept since then maybe 10-12 emails without a reply. They are quick to take your money but for anything else they suck. I even contacted them before sending it in and they encouraged me to send it. I've included copies of the emails from Angelo, meant nothing to them no replies nothing. Plus I was a regular buyer. Shitty customer service.

[robcelani]

I have had very bad experience with them. Sent in a new knife for repair this past July. One reply in early Sept since then maybe 10-12 emails without a reply. They are quick to take your money but for anything else they suck. I even contacted them before sending it in and they encouraged me to send it. I've included copies of the emails from Angelo, meant nothing to them no replies nothing. Plus I was a regular buyer. Shitty customer service.

Well that sucks. Have you tried calling?

Now I'm not feeling so great about ordering from them. Anyone else have experience buying or dealing with warranty issues? How about just communicating with them?

[sammy the blade]

It's always better to buy in the States if at all possible, or so I've heard. I've never tried to order anything from another country, to far to go if you have to put dog poop on a door knob.

[Bill DeShivs]

This really shouldn't even be discussed here....

[robcelani]

This really shouldn't even be discussed here....

Ok, why?

[Bill DeShivs]

Discussing illegal importation is against the rules.
Of course if you are not talking about automatic knives, it's perfectly OK!

[button_man]

I can shed a little light on the current high cost of shipping..... a lot of international carriers have shut down or greatly reduced service due to the virus situation; and the remaining carriers can charge whatever they want, justifying it by the extenuating circumstances. To the best of my knowledge, the only company shipping out of Germany these days in DHL, and they charge a fortune. (I dunno about other countries.) Last October I purchased a vase and a spoon from Germany (two separate sellers). For a medium size vase (18.5 cm tall) the shipping was 54 Euros; and the vase didn't arrive until January 15. During all this time, the tracking info stayed stuck in the "in transit" mode with no updates. It didn't even show as delivered until two days after it arrived!

Now for the spoon: for one ordinary size teaspoon, the shipping was 10 Euros. The tracking number indicates that the item "is being prepared for shipment" even though it was actually mailed around October 23rd. I went to the DHL website and tried to obtain further information; all I could discover was that the package was "handed over to the International Logistics Center on 27.10.2020 to be forwarded to United States of America". It still hasn't shown up, and I'm not even sure what continent it might be on. The seller tells me that all shipping is backlogged to an unimaginable degree and that other items she mailed at the same time are just now starting to arrive at their destinations.

If this is the situation with the super-efficient Germans, I shudder to think what the situation is like in Italy.....

[robcelani]

I mentioned Italy earlier because I thought the people I was dealing with spoke Italian. The store is located in Austria. I’m assuming they ship from there not Italy. Also, I looked online, at Wikipedia I think, the most common language spoken there is German. That threw me off but as long as they understand English it’s all good.

I know about the long delays with international shipping right now. When I sell knives I normally offer international shipping but stopped during the pandemic because of the problems. I had a guy in Italy want a knife I was selling. I decided to do the deal after talking with him and getting assurances their mail system was working again.

Now I have a package in limbo. It got to Italy a couple weeks ago and nothing since then. The buyer didn’t seem concerned about it the last time I talked to him so hopefully it’s just a long delay like other people have experienced.

[robcelani]

Discussing illegal importation is against the rules.
Of course if you are not talking about automatic knives, it's perfectly OK!

Ok, thanks for clarifying Bill. My real reason for posting was to try and figure out what the deal is with communication. I actually got a couple emails tonight so that was good. Now if somehow we can get them to help XBMX that would be great!

[Erik131065]

responding to emails is not one of their virtues as I mailed them several times for more details on a vintage knife in their antique section. On the other hand; I'm in the EU and they deliver fast. Unfortunately....other than Scandinavia and The Netherlands, English is not mandatory in the other EU countries so phoning them will not help that much from my two cents.

[XBMX]

Responding to my initial inquiry re repair was favorable and quick. I figured what the hell I've got time, I'll save money and wait. When I enquired they replied that they had the knife, and it was there product but didn't see anything wrong. I responded with copies of previous emails but never responded to me after the first emails. Telephone calls never went through or were not picked up. If you want quick service and a proper job, send it to Bill. He just did a Hubertus for me in December, flawless job.