admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,088
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Post by admin on Jan 15, 2016 12:44:54 GMT
Hey all, I rarely post anything like this, but I am about to get a little more personal than usual.. You see, tonight I am in a hotel in China in between two SBG related trips and this is officially my vacation (I worked over the holiday period, including Christmas day and New Years) however I am still working to ensure no customers are inconvenienced too much by my absence. I take customer service seriously, and do more than what I should to ensure customer satisfaction - often at great personal expense, both financially and in personal relationships.. So it pains me hugely when - while ignoring my girlfriend who I have not seen for 4 months to search for the SBG Store to check something for a customer - I find some "reviews" I had not seen before for the store on a site called "reseller ratings". Here is the first one - took me an hour to find who he was as the name used is not the customers name or even anything close to it. Anyway, "D.Mann" claims that: Looking at my records, he initially wrote that "very impressed and happy with the overall product" but had an issue with saya rattle and emailed asking to help him out. I emailed him the next day suggesting how it might be fixed by shimming, and "recommend you first try some of these fixes and if you have no success we can send you a new saya, but it will need to have the koiguchi widened as it is made deliberately tight to begin with." Several emails went back and forth, one from him on the 24th of March and I replied him the 25th of March providing the advice he needed and asking him to let me know how he goes. His next email is 7 days later out of the blue blasting me for not replying and saying he had written a bad review and was going to tell all his friends never to buy from me again. I emailed him immediately, and while I did not approve the review in the store as it was an issue in progress, I also provided him my personal email. I emailed him again two days later, saying we are not ignoring him and requesting he contact us to get it back on track.. That was the last I heard of it - and of course, the nature of reseller ratings is - as far as I can see - will not allow me to reply or provide my side of the story unless I pay them.. Then there is a review as follows from Fred-43631: This was, as far as I can tell, for a custom katana order. If November, it was batch 31 - which was originally supposed to come in Feb 15th, so indeed was late (2015 was a TERRIBLE year for the custom katana, we have not taken orders for nearly 8 months to try and catch up on a series of unfortunate incidents that have caused me an incredible amount of stress, financial losses and trouble) but the majority shipped by the end of March.. But here, it looks like it was just a scam and he never updated it.. So despite bending over backwards, working myself ragged and doing things that no-one else in the industry does and not once, EVER being rude or insulting to a customer no matter how nasty they may get jumping the gun, SBG looks like a total scam.. I am reluctant to pay this company to be able to give my side of the story, but hate this blight on a name from two customers, one which disappeared despite numerous follow ups and the other that I cannot even identify and who never even bothered to ask for an update (updates are usually pretty regular, indeed I need to send one after I finish writing this) but I might have to.. So I ask one thing, if you have ever purchased anything from the SBG sword store and were satisfied, please help to redress the balance by posting something positive. And if you ever felt let down, well - email me and let me know. We sometimes make mistakes, but NEVER have willingly or knowingly ignored, ripped off or done anything bad to a customer EVER. My only wish is that some of the untold good stories will get out there.. Like when a customer complained about a cosmetic defect on a sword, the manufacturer would have told them "its normal, live with it" - we went to bat for the customer, paid for return shipping, it still was not up to par, so we sent them a free $500 sword which we knew would satisfy them and let them keep the original - these stories don't get out.. So we lose thousands of dollars going way beyond the call of duty and thousands more in lost sales from people who read these "unbiased reviews" and think SBG is a scam.. Sorry if this is a bit of rant, but seeing SBG listed prominently with a 2/10 rating and coming across as a scam site when I spend every waking moment working for SBG customers to keep the lights on here and provide info to the community just blows.. (that is no exaggeration, I used to enjoy PC gaming, watching TV, etc - haven't done either in years.. Best I have seen of TV is a few episodes of "Vikings" - not enough time for Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and the best I do for gaming now is iphone games every now and again when I am on a train - feel guilty leaving customers unanswered - so to say I don't care, yeah - that is just waaay off).. Here is the site: www.resellerratings.com/store/SBG_Sword_StoreHope someone will add something positive.. Rant mode off, time to get back to some customer emails..
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2016 13:10:21 GMT
I'm sorry that you've had these hate posts recently, that you're clearly not deserving of Paul. All of my experiences with the SBG store have been fantastic. For example, I bought a Hanwei Raptor Wakizashi on the sale you had a while back, and it chipped on a water bottle. It turned out to be a heat treat defect, and even though you were sold out of the factory seconds, your customer service sent me a shipping label to take it back, and had a brand new wakizashi sent to me from the manufacturer via 1 day priority mail, with no extra cost on my part. You guys have always been happy to answer any questions and address any issues we customers have within a matter of hours. You guys do your best to insure that we get the best sword for our money, and I really appreciate it. Keep up the great service Paul, and don't listen to the biased, unfounded hate posts. I hope more people will post stories of their dealings with SBG.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2016 13:22:58 GMT
I posted my review on that site. Hopefully it'll balance it out
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Post by brotherbanzai on Jan 15, 2016 14:49:16 GMT
Hey Paul, I know it's very difficult for someone who is extremely conscientious about their work, but just ignore that crap. What kind of person would go to that site for shopping advice rather than visiting forums for reviews and information about a seller? It seems like that site is tailor made to wring money out of sellers by charging them to respond to criticisms. I'd never even heard of it before.
There are always going to be a handful of whiners and haters no matter how good you are at what you do or how much you bend over backward to make sure everyone is happy. Don't waste your time or energy on that sort of thing, you'll never do enough to make any real progress. Just keep doing what you do, and trust that the results of your work speak for themselves.
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Jan 15, 2016 15:28:35 GMT
I completely agree with BB... I'd never heard of that site until you posted a link to it. Looks like it's meant to wring $ out of businesses like BB mentioned. Keep up the good work Paul.
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,088
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Post by admin on Jan 16, 2016 0:43:14 GMT
Thanks Bennett, the review has not gone live yet - maybe I have to pay.. :-P
I can see how a site like this can be useful. But the way it is set up is definitely designed with what amounts to a kind of extortion in mind.. Hate having stuff like this out there where I am not able to defend myself..
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Post by johnj on Jan 16, 2016 0:49:22 GMT
I really don't think you need to worry about it. Anyone who uses that outfit to check out your store probably spends so much on monthly bail payments to keep the Prince of Nigeria out of jail there's nothing left to buy a sword with anyway.
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Sean (Shadowhowler)
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Retired Moderator
No matter where you go, there you are.
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Post by Sean (Shadowhowler) on Jan 16, 2016 6:55:59 GMT
It's sadly human nature to get angry and heap scorn when one is unsatisfied... But almost no one goes out of their way to heap praise when transactions go WELL. I've made it a point to combat this sad trend by trying to speak to managers a customer service departments about GOOD service I get to counter balance this trend.
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,088
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Post by admin on Jan 16, 2016 14:00:39 GMT
John: True enough - but the issue is it comes up in search results, right below the store itself.. So anyone searching for the store might well be tempted to check it, see all this - and shop elsewhere. Bad for them, bad for everyone here too.. (as sales from the store keep all the lights on)..
Sean: Very true.. Wish more people thought like you.
I suppose the thing that bothers me most about these cases is that the story presented is not actually accurate and I have no recourse.. In the first case, the customer WAS contacted several times and never got back to us so we had no idea what he needed or what was going on anymore.. In the second case, he probably got the sword a week later but never emailed us or corrected the review..
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Post by newfoundviking on Jan 16, 2016 16:48:18 GMT
I hate that, hard not to worry when your working hard at it though. I'll read reviews on different items or businesses and don't pay much attention to the naysayers cause there is always some @$$ who is just unhappy with life in general and wants to spread it around. Laugh it off, you'll feel better. Btw maybe we should flood this other side w reviews that are good? Just a thought.
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Post by johnj on Jan 17, 2016 1:18:55 GMT
I hate that, hard not to worry when your working hard at it though. I'll read reviews on different items or businesses and don't pay much attention to the naysayers cause there is always some @$$ who is just unhappy with life in general and wants to spread it around. Laugh it off, you'll feel better. Btw maybe we should flood this other side w reviews that are good? Just a thought. You could do that... but then the scammers would have your email address and sell it to spammers, which is fine if you have good spam filters. Worse, though, you'd be making the pirate review site look more "relevant" to the algorithms that drive search engines. It's better for everyone if you ignore the monster and let it die of starvation. If nobody payed attention to Casey Kasim or the Cardassians or anyone like that, they'd have just gone away. This is like that. Ignore them and they'll go away.
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admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2,088
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Post by admin on Jan 18, 2016 2:44:16 GMT
They are not a scam site per se - what makes them bad in my opinion is they do not allow sellers to respond unless you sign up to a slew of services you don't need or want..
I am considering making a call out to all previous customers to try and redress this and turn the lemon into lemonade. I see they have not approved Bennets review yet though..
The problem is, they are right there just below any search done for the SBG sword store and if we ignore the monster either they or SBG will die of starvation - and me thinks they have much, much deeper pockets..
If anyone genuinely bought a sword from SBG and wishes to submit a review, I would be grateful as they don't look like they are going anywhere soon. I may sign up with them for the free 30 day trial long enough to answer the specific cases.
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Post by Afoo on Jan 19, 2016 4:11:37 GMT
Bennet's review is up. Hope it works out
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Post by csoderland on Jan 1, 2019 6:28:04 GMT
All I have to say is, I had an issue with a custom Katana for my son, as a present for his earning his black belt so receiving it in a timely fashion was critical.
I contacted Paul, and even though there were delays in manufacture, that were putting things in jeopardy, Paul saw to it that I had the order I made for my son, before his graduation ceremony.
Truthfully I did not expect much, mostly the usual placation's, but Paul went above and beyond, and rather than offer excuses simply made it right, and on time.
To that end I can say that is absolutely the best customer service I have ever seen or experienced.
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Post by johnbarry4283 on Aug 11, 2020 14:46:57 GMT
I bought a Saber a month ago. The tip broke off 2 weeks ago. I've e-mailed, called, and messaged you on Facebook. The only response I got was "my assistant will be getting in touch with you soon" which was received last week. If you aren't a scam, you need to put your services where your mouth is, Paul. Thanks for sharing the Reseller ratings link so I can respond appropriately.
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Post by Siward on Aug 12, 2020 9:24:44 GMT
I bought a Saber a month ago. The tip broke off 2 weeks ago. I've e-mailed, called, and messaged you on Facebook. The only response I got was "my assistant will be getting in touch with you soon" which was received last week. If you aren't a scam, you need to put your services where your mouth is, Paul. Thanks for sharing the Reseller ratings link so I can respond appropriately. If he was a scam he wouldn’t have a forum where people can say what they like about the SBG store on a server which he pays to host would he idiot..... I think you’ll find most retailers are scrabbling about at the moment due to the “deliberately over hyped” (my opinion) pandemic.
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Post by RufusScorpius on Aug 12, 2020 11:07:57 GMT
I've had nothing but excellent service from SBG and Paul. I deal with a lot of companies worldwide and I can honestly say that Paul is running a small, but very world class, operation. I have no hesitation in conducting business with him.
I say be calm, be patient. The global economy is trying to adjust to unprecedented events and therefore it is to be expected that there will be problems and delays in random areas. It will sort itself out. Paul will make good on his word at the end of it all.
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pgandy
Moderator
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Post by pgandy on Aug 12, 2020 12:10:24 GMT
I think no scam. The problem lays elsewhere. COVID-19, reduced staff?
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Post by randomnobody on Aug 12, 2020 14:22:28 GMT
Isn't Paul himself still stuck in Cambodia? Or has he finally gotten out?
If he's still stuck, there's not a lot he can do...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2020 15:08:28 GMT
Welcome aboard
To be honest, I imagine Paul will get around to posting to this thread.
The timeline outlined is not yet a horrific standoff but cs stuff shouldn't reach this point. Simply put, notify and update the sales pages themselves if communication delays are to be expected. Timely responses to customers with updates keeps such posts as even appearing.
However "The tip broke off" doesn't tell us much about why you may be experiencing a delay. A make and model could be cool to share. A description on how you may have had the sword break. For all we know, you are the scammer. Please fill in some of the blanks. Otherwise, you are likely to not get a lot of sympathy. Why should we appreciate what you are experiencing without more detail. If it is just to flag Paul, good luck with that but be a bit more open to what happened to end up with a broken sword. A lot of his stuff is drop shipped from various manufacturers, so any warranty may take some time. Again though, you shouldn't be left hanging.
Cheers GC
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