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Post by Wes Cameron on Jul 12, 2018 18:46:04 GMT
$600 for shipping...boy were they ever going to make a LOT of extra money off of the customer. Yeah I was definitely not gonna pay that. Rather buy from A&A directly. For sure.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2018 20:52:54 GMT
ESPECIALLY considering international shipping. Double wait and see points in that case. Regarding KOA, I would NOT buy a sword from them. They charge at least twice what the shipping should be, so essentially they are making money on you at your expense. I attempted to buy a Excalibur from them, but when it got to shipping it was outrageous. I contacted them and had to go through big preamble and then ALL OF A SUDDEN the sword was sold to someone else...NOT COOL. Sonny charges reasonable shipping charges and the sword I received was well packaged to prevent damage. I know there have been issues in the past with some of his products, but from what I know he solves them with the customer. I last contacted yesterday morning and he agreed to compensate me...I don't know how much at the moment because it has not happened yet. I'm sure he has many satisfied customers. However I think his quality control before shipping needs to improve. I pay shipping to Germany on KOA between 60 and 180 USD, depending on item size and shipping company. USPS is cheapest, UPS faster but more expensive. I have my bills right here inmy desk; dont know where those prices come from. To Germany they are waaay cheaper than anybody else.
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Post by leviathansteak on Jul 13, 2018 0:04:20 GMT
I've had both good and bad experiences with KOA, I recently got a Arms and Armour Danish War axe, and KOA's service was great. And shipping was good too, considering I live in the UK. But Like Wes said, they do seem to sometime charge too much for shipping. I tried to get a Gustav rapier, and shipping was somewhere in the region of $600. Which is mental. Oh well, they still seem better than southern swords, who list everything as in stock, when nothing actually is. $600 for shipping...boy were they ever going to make a LOT of extra money off of the customer. 600 for shipping?! As in 2 zeroes? Are they delivering by foot?
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Post by Curtis_Louis on Jul 13, 2018 0:41:42 GMT
OK folks, please keep on topic. If you need to start another thread about deranged shipping charges, no problem. This is a sword review.
Thanks.
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Post by Wes Cameron on Jul 13, 2018 4:13:34 GMT
OK folks, please keep on topic. If you need to start another thread about deranged shipping charges, no problem. This is a sword review. Thanks. I don't mind a bit of off topic in my thread, and I was the one who started it, but yes we should keep it on topic now. Deranged shipping is a good thread though. Perhaps separate those posts out into a thread of it's own.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2018 4:30:42 GMT
we definitely should discuss this in a thread; something is completely wrong here - see picture. I just had this played through quickly. Attachments:
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Post by Wes Cameron on Jul 13, 2018 19:57:43 GMT
Hi All...I have added an amendment in the form of an Edit placed at the top of my review, if you would be so kind as to read it..Thanks!
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Post by Faldarin on Jul 13, 2018 20:09:32 GMT
Hi All...I have added an amendment in the form of an Edit placed at the top of my review, if you would be so kind as to read it..Thanks! Thanks for the clarification!
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Post by strigoil on Jul 13, 2018 20:10:54 GMT
A fair addition, VA aren't full of semprini and have a good reputation and one bad sword in a trying time shouldn't ruin that, I'm sure their new series of sword will be great once they get used to the workload.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2018 22:24:13 GMT
Good to hear Sonny stands tall for his work... much appreciated!
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Post by Wes Cameron on Jul 14, 2018 14:16:47 GMT
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Post by strigoil on Jul 14, 2018 14:21:54 GMT
Looks good polished, that fuller termination looks very wonky tho, personally it would bother me but other than that the sword looks good.
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Post by Wes Cameron on Jul 14, 2018 18:41:46 GMT
Looks good polished, that fuller termination looks very wonky tho, personally it would bother me but other than that the sword looks good. Thanks. I think it's just the way the light hit it and the angle of my camera. Here's the fuller on each side in a better photo (I see one side near the edge needs a better buff after the Renaissance Wax application) . Addendum: Well, after examining the previous photos and these ones, I realized that the fullers were indeed wonky at the ends but the lighting and angle somewhat exaggerated them, and that during the process of me sanding the horizontal grinding marks throughout the length of the fullers, that I must have also corrected the wonky fullers, but they still need more work.
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Post by strigoil on Jul 14, 2018 18:47:48 GMT
Thanks. I think it's just the way the light hit it and the angle of my camera. Here's the fuller on each side in a better photo. Yeah that could be it, looks better in the closeups, cheers.
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Post by Faldarin on Jul 14, 2018 19:15:07 GMT
Looks good polished, that fuller termination looks very wonky tho, personally it would bother me but other than that the sword looks good. Thanks. I think it's just the way the light hit it and the angle of my camera. Here's the fuller on each side in a better photo (I see one side near the edge needs a better buff after the Renaissance Wax application) . Phew. Okay. That makes me feel a little better, I saw that too, but it looks like it was a trick of the light.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2018 20:50:11 GMT
Looks fine fine enough for me...
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Post by Wes Cameron on Aug 10, 2018 14:19:13 GMT
UPDATE:
This amendment to my review is a little long but is factual and I think needed given my recent further experiences with Sonny/Valiant Armoury. BACKGROUND:
I had ordered the Craftsman line of this sword because the Signature line was no longer available. But now I see the Signature line has started up again at Valiant Armoury. In the Signature line one can usually expect a slightly rough finish on the sword, but this is made up for by a good scabbard/belt being included in the price. Sonny of Valiant Armoury touts their Craftsman line to be of high quality and this is reflected in the amount charged, so one expects to receive that high quality sword and scabbard being paid for. My Craftsman sword and scabbard came with less quality than the Signature line, yet cost me so much more. After I did the work on the sword and some work on the scabbard, I contacted Sonny about it. He wanted me to send the sword back to him as in his words ‘I will make this right for you’, but since I had already did the work I suggested a good will amount for the work I did and the troubles I encountered with the sword and scabbard. I received this amount after a reminder email about it. You may wonder why I did not just send the sword back to him to be fixed or for a refund. My reasons are; I had, after receiving the sword, read a past review of Valiant Armoury where an inferior sword had been received, sent back and received back with it still having quality issues, and I had wanted this design for an arming sword for a long time. CURRENT REASON FOR UPDATE:
When I saw that the Signature Line was again available, I felt put out with the price I paid for a Craftsman product that was inferior to the Signature line and given that you get a sword and scabbard in the Signature line for a lower price (my Knights Templar scabbard is of better quality, and the sword just had some machining scuffs). I contact Sonny to see if we could work something out beyond the modest amount of monetary compensation (basically refunded an amount equal to minimum wage where I live) for about the 10 hours of work I did on the sword. I still have to do more work on the fullers. Well it ended up not going well. Sonny at first said to send the sword back to him for a full refund and then I could buy a Signature sword. This at first sounded pretty good, but at the same time it would be onerous for me to send it back since I live rural and would have to travel to the nearest town with a Post Office to do this, plus all the paper work to go along with it, and I would have to wait another 20 to 24 weeks or more for the Signature sword. Also, I took into consideration that it would have cost Sonny for the shipping back to him and re-shipping to me ($135 total). So I suggested a refund on the scabbard. Sonny sent a response that he was not “interested in working for free” and in addition stated that once he sold my sword and adding “a sword like that would sell very quickly” I would get a refund (so it changed from a refund on sending it back to a refund after he sells it). I felt Sonny's statement - “interested in working for free” was unjustified and insulting given the state of the sword and scabbard when I received it, and sure it would sell it because now it was decent to sell after I did hours of work on it. I sent another email to Sonny saying that I did not feel he would be ‘working for free’, that he would save on the shipping back and forth, and that a refund on the price of the scabbard ($300 minus $135 shipping = $165 on the scabbard) would be fair to me given all the difficulties I encountered. I also said that I wanted to be fair to both of us and that I wanted to work with him to our mutual satisfaction. It has now been three days since my last email to Sonny, but I have not heard back from him. To sum up, I have not had a good experience with Sonny and Valiant Armoury. A good company that really screws up is willing to take a loss in order to keep the customer. My request for a refund for the scabbard would not have had Sonny incur a loss, as a profit would still have been made ($1045 for sword and scabbard minus $150 for my work on the sword and $300 for the scabbard = $595 cash still in his pocket) but not as big of one that he seemed to want. It appears that there is a lack of quality control at any stage during the making of the sword including when sending it out. Another person on this forum received a sword that was a lot worse than mine, and now another one has received a sword with rust on it plus some questionable manufacturing on the guard. One has to ask themselves – How could a sword be sent out in the condition that mine was in and yet charge the amount of money they do and then not be willing to make it truly right for the customer? An inferior product should never be sent out to a customer requiring that customer to send it back for fixing, yet this seems to be a present theme for Valiant Armoury in a least two current buyers experience, and from at least one buyer's review from 2014.
Before the Crusader sword I had never bought a sword from Valiant Armoury. My Knights Templar sword came from a vendor in Canada. As a side note, the price on the Crusader sword (bought Jan 30/18) has dropped from $745 to $718.25 while the price of the scabbard and belt has gone up from $300 to $350.
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on Aug 10, 2018 15:45:10 GMT
Thanks for the update. Makes ya wonder what's going on in the shop. To me, this whole fiasco sounds like *mostly* a problem in quality control and shipping. On the other hand, I've spoken to Sonny a number of times, and he always seemed pretty up front and decent. Good info, and thanks again.
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Post by Wes Cameron on Aug 10, 2018 17:18:07 GMT
Thanks for the update. Makes ya wonder what's going on in the shop. To me, this whole fiasco sounds like *mostly* a problem in quality control and shipping. On the other hand, I've spoken to Sonny a number of times, and he always seemed pretty up front and decent. Good info, and thanks again. Thanks, I only wish it was something positive to update about.
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stormmaster
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I like viking/migration era swords
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Post by stormmaster on Aug 10, 2018 18:05:04 GMT
First off dude it sucks that the sword didn't turn out the way u hoped, lord knows that has happened to me before, but the problem I have is that sonny already compensated u with an amount you both agreed on then just because the signature edition is back u want him to refund you another 300ish for the scabbard, I think you should of just taken the offered full refund that is more then fair if sonny had offered it considering he already gave u compensation on top of that, it does appear to be some qc issues with the new line tho, sonny might have bitten off more then he can chew
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