tera
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Post by tera on Jun 16, 2021 17:27:21 GMT
I agree with tera. Really appreciate the new owner coming here and giving us his thoughts. I also agree that the price match wording struck me as a little odd.
I've used KoA's price match guarantee once, in October of last year. Almost immediately after ordering a sword, I found it on another website for $15 less with free shipping. I sent KoA an email asking if it was too late to price match, and they got back to me promptly, offering a $60 refund to cover the lower price, free shipping, and that the other website doesn't collect tax on sales to California! I replied that $60 was too much - I didn't want them to lose money just because another website doesn't comply with California law, and I was really only looking for the $15 price difference, but KoA still refunded me the full $60. That's some impressive customer service, and I hope to see it continue going forward!
That is very impressive, and speaks strongly for the company's commitment to their values and customer service. One job I had, we had the proviso that the competitor's price could not go below our cost (i.e. we couldn't sell at a loss). I got in some fairly tense discussion with management over this, not because it was unreasonable in itself but because that meant the answer to the price match was simply "no". If our price was, say, $100 over the competitor, and our cost was $50 below our advertised price, at LEAST let me sell it for cost to keep a customer happy. That company's insistence on price match or list price (no wiggle) was a pain in my ass. Eventually corporate agreed with me and allowed manager overrides. Not that my opinion mattered, they must have had enough General Managers complain. So, again, awesome story of an interaction with KOA. I admit I keep a tab open with their web store up all the time, hoping certain items come in stock.
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Post by ThomasW on Jun 16, 2021 17:43:03 GMT
I for one also appreciate the effort taken to respond here. Let's hope good things are in the future.
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Post by pellius on Jun 16, 2021 17:50:40 GMT
KoA declined to price match a couple of items for me over the past few years (i.e., under prior management). That particular policy isn’t new.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2021 19:14:32 GMT
Thank you for the info! While price and availability are a huge KoA plus for me, the individual inspection of items prior to shipping is the one thing that really sets you apart in my eyes. It’s really great to hear that KoA is still interested in maintaining and building on its distinguishing qualities. From May news on the site We continue to work to respond to your questions, provide updates, and sharpen and ship your orders as quickly as possible. We are also working with our suppliers to drop ship some orders, a practice that we generally try to avoid. The upside of drosphipping is that you will receive orders more quickly. The downside is that, while our suppliers are very good and keep quality top-of-mind., we pride ourselves on our internal quality checks, and want to keep those in place as often as possible. Additionally, not every supplier can drop ship, and any order that includes sharpening cannot drop ship.
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Post by pellius on Jun 16, 2021 20:17:36 GMT
Thank you for the info! While price and availability are a huge KoA plus for me, the individual inspection of items prior to shipping is the one thing that really sets you apart in my eyes. It’s really great to hear that KoA is still interested in maintaining and building on its distinguishing qualities. From May news on the site We continue to work to respond to your questions, provide updates, and sharpen and ship your orders as quickly as possible. We are also working with our suppliers to drop ship some orders, a practice that we generally try to avoid. The upside of drosphipping is that you will receive orders more quickly. The downside is that, while our suppliers are very good and keep quality top-of-mind., we pride ourselves on our internal quality checks, and want to keep those in place as often as possible. Additionally, not every supplier can drop ship, and any order that includes sharpening cannot drop ship.I can tell you put these two quotes together for a purpose, but I’m not sure what it is.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2021 20:40:22 GMT
"While price and availability are a huge KoA plus for me, the individual inspection of items prior to shipping is the one thing that really sets you apart in my eyes."
"We are also working with our suppliers to drop ship some orders, a practice that we generally try to avoid. The upside of drosphipping is that you will receive orders more quickly. The downside is that, while our suppliers are very good and keep quality top-of-mind., we pride ourselves on our internal quality checks, and want to keep those in place as often as possible. Additionally, not every supplier can drop ship, and any order that includes sharpening cannot drop ship."
Is that any clearer in why I bothered to point to KOA news? Drop shipping indicates they are moving away from in house stock when fulfilling orders. Hence, less in house inspection. Cold Steel and CAS as just two examples drop ship a great quantity of goods straight from containers. They may be checking a couple from a batch but the quality control is more based on what is shipping off the production line. This, going forward at KOA, means less personal inspection of what one will receive.
Cheers GC
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Post by pellius on Jun 16, 2021 20:54:58 GMT
I would still encourage KoA to inspect each item before it ships, whether by their folks or by individuals working for their suppliers or anyone else, and mostly regardless of how long prior to shipping.
I also still appreciate it when KoA performs such inspections, and hasten to let them know that it makes a difference in my own personal purchasing choices.
Since KoA made an appearance here on SBG, I took the opportunity to voice my opinion. What they do with it is, of course, up to them.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2021 21:07:39 GMT
For some time, KOA had indicated that in some cases (particularly CS and CAS) what they were seeing time and again was that some blems seemed apparent as the end product qualities they were receiving. In moving to drop shipping, less time and handling (and space) is needed by the retailer.
At any rate, expect fewer munitions grade sales and a more viable/profitable business projection.
Cheers GC
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Jun 16, 2021 21:27:46 GMT
Thanks for the update, that explains a lot, a new web site, change in service. None of which I have seen an improvement in, on the contrary. As for their service I ordered a belt over a month ago. The belt was listed as in stock and so far nothing has come of the order other than KoA holding my money, taking it out of circulation. I’ve received about four notices from KoA regarding the order stating how understaffed they are with 3 employees sick, thanks for my patience, the belt is miss marked but brown as ordered and would be shipped the following week (after about a month), and no response from them after waiting another week with no shipping confirmation. Cheepers it’s in stock. How long does it take to walk, probably in KoA’s case drive, to the bin and pull a belt and hand it over to the shipping department who no doubt in this age and time pushes a key and the label and all other information is printed out, throw it in a box/bag, seal, then handing it off to the UPS man when he shows up at the dock? I’ve seen all too often a good business bought and then the new owner tries to improve on what is already working. Ya, sure...Maybe they will get the bugs worked out with time. I feel this is needed as a closure for the post I made earlier today. I don’t know if it was a coincident but after a few hours following sending an email after posting the above I got a shipping confirmation. For those wondering, I was polite.
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Post by Elrikk on Jun 16, 2021 21:59:23 GMT
Hi Everyone - My name is Dave. I'm the new owner of KoA. I don't spend a lot of time in the forums - and don't intend to become a regular participant... we're pretty busy (as you've noted) but a friend forwarded me these messages, and it seems appropriate to take a moment to tell you about what is and is not changing at KoA. 1st - Ryan decided to retire last year and is now enjoying some much deserved relaxation after more than 20 years of building the KoA community. He agreed to do a few interviews prior to leaving, and we're happy he did. His experience and knowledge is ridiculous. 2nd - I stepped in in November. It has been a wild ride. We've made plenty of mistakes since that time - not due to the team that is still in place, but a few due to me. We've been clobbered by demand (thank you!), supply chain issues (these suck), and trying to hire. Here is what we remain committed to: A) Having the broadest range of swords, replica weapons, and other products that our community loves and wants. B) Offering the best value possible C) Providing knowledge, quality control and expertise that you can't find elsewhere D) Providing good customer service. How are we doing? A) I'd give us a C. We're busy updating our assortment and adding newness... you'll see more in the next three months B) B - I hear the complaints on a few items. We've kept a huge % of our assortment constant with 2020 and 2019, and are absorbing cost increases from the supply chain across the board. Where suppliers have raised prices significantly, we've been forced to do an increase. You may find better prices elsewhere - if you do, reach out, we still have a price match guarantee where we will evaluate whether we can match what you found. We also don't fool around with weekly coupons, bait and switch discounts, or other shady methods. Sure, you might see an MSRP and then our lower price. But that's us, when we can, doing our best to give you a value. We also do everything we can to keep shipping costs low. We just looked at what you have paid for shipping this year. If you live in the lower 48 states, shipping for an order with one item costs, on average, less than $20 to you. Two items? Less than $22, on average. Does a spear or a shield cost more? Of course... but we think we're pretty darn competitive, and invite you to take a look. C) The previous team is still in place, so I'd give us another B+. We miss Ryan's twenty years, but the core team has been around for 5+ years. D) A crappy D. We are behind on responding to messages and shipping. We've added three new members to the customer service team and two more to receiving, shipping and packing to match increased demand, tried to be transparent on timing, been working overtime since March, added phone lines, and... well... even more. We've introduced split shipping and are absorbing that cost in order to get you what we have while you wait for your entire order. But yeah - there is plenty of room to get better. And we're working on it everyday - here in our warehouse and with the supply chain. Again, you won't hear from me often but know that we hear when you are upset. We are committed to assortment, value, knowledge and service. Thanks for being KoA customers and caring enough to share what you think. We have plenty of room to improve. And now I'm going to get back to working on it. Thanks for the info! I look forward to doing business with you in the future. Dave, can you tell us more about yourself and your background in this field?
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Post by Bob B on Jun 17, 2021 3:55:22 GMT
KoA declined to price match a couple of items for me over the past few years (i.e., under prior management). That particular policy isn’t new. Just today they wouldn't price match for me. The item I was trying to price match was NOT in stock to be fair. However, The competitor DID stand by their price if I wanted to wait until the next batch or shipment. So...the last bullet statement in KoA's price match "policy" is a little misleading in that not ALL their competitors have lower prices due to lack of updating. Secondly, I was a little put off because as I was being honest with KoA over the phone about their competitor and how they would hold the price if I would like to wait, KoA shut me down and said no. The conversation was less than 60 seconds total. There was no "trying" to price match. I reached out as his reply said and was shut down. Now, I did buy the sword from KoA simply because they had it in stock and I wanted to see them put their money where their mouth is. So far I don't feel they have at least in trying to be competitive. If you don't want tot price match don't come on here and make it a point for us to consider..so for $1100.00 I hope they do inspect it or whatever. Shipping was the same price by the way. I haven't been gouged by any vendor for shipping in a long time, so moot point to me. I bought the sword I hope it's in good shape since that was another point brought up about inspecting or what ever word you choose for looking it over etc. I'm interested to see how this goes It's nice he came in here and took time, but really, I can hardly blame him. It was to his benefit more than ours. But because he did I'm giving the benefit of the doubt and giving him my business.....for today anyway. I won't get soft because someone made an appearance. You really want my business then do what you say and earn my loyalty. There was a 3rd competitor that WOULD price match KoA though...just throwing that out there. If this deal gets botched up the sword goes back and I buy it elsewhere. This is my personal thoughts and experience right or wrong I don't care. Bob
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Post by fester on Jun 23, 2021 1:10:11 GMT
Well they shipped my Balaur arms 15th century Italian sword and I received it yesterday. They originally told me they had oversold and I requested a refund
But then a few days later they shipped it. I will say it is an excellent sword and I am happy with it.
But I think their customer service needs some work in the matter of the status of swords on hand.
The new owner did state this area needed some work so hopefully they will straighten it out.
alls well that ends well
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Post by Bob B on Jun 23, 2021 3:51:13 GMT
Well they shipped my Balaur arms 15th century Italian sword and I received it yesterday. They originally told me they had oversold and I requested a refund But then a few days later they shipped it. I will say it is an excellent sword and I am happy with it. But I think their customer service needs some work in the matter of the status of swords on hand. The new owner did state this area needed some work so hopefully they will straighten it out. alls well that ends well Interesting. But it's good you got the sword after the back nd forth. I haven't had issue with KoA. I ordered a week ago today. They say 7 business days. The sword says still in stock. I have confidence in them. And as I stated above I did call them that day about that particular sword. But I do get a little willy nillie when I hear about lack of communication. I got ripped years ago in the Guertin debacle that spilled over into SFI. I think there's one SBG member that had the pleasure of going through that with me still around. Aside from being an RN I'm somewhat of a Poopologist. The sniffers are on but not sensing a dumptruck full of mud bricks headed my way just yet. Bob
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2021 22:46:09 GMT
It's the end of an era. And the start of a new one. Big shoulders to stand on.
My message to the new owner would be - fix the damn website. That should be a top priority. The old one was good (really good - fast, accurate). The new one isn't. I can't get a number of pages to load. I can't see stock that I know you have available. Shouldn't have to resort to phone calls, which overload the already overloaded staff.
See what happens when you try to browse for baldrics. --------edit------ that's working today. It wasn't yesterday.
If you can't get your servers working, and working consistently, and working accurately, then you're not going to have the success the KoA legacy should have.
I'd put that top priority. Just my opinion.
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Post by fester on Jun 23, 2021 23:13:47 GMT
It's the end of an era. And the start of a new one. Big shoulders to stand on. My message to the new owner would be - fix the damn website. That should be a top priority. The old one was good (really good - fast, accurate). The new one isn't. I can't even get a number of pages to load. Which one's change from day to day. I can't see stock that I know you have available. See what happens when you try to browse for baldrics. -------- edit - that's working now. It wasn't yesterday. If you can't get your servers working, and working consistently, then you're not going to have the success the KoA legacy should have. I'd put that top priority. Just my opinion. I agree the site is not as friendly as the last one. I could easily check out the different brands in a few minutes It takes forever on the new site
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2021 23:19:28 GMT
I agree with you Fester. The problem isn't KoA, or their staff, or their offerings. The problem is that the new website is crap. Which makes the employees' lives miserable. A month to get a sword sharpening feature?
Those employees are trying to deliver quality.
It's on the owner to fix this.
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Jun 24, 2021 2:08:16 GMT
The problem is that the new website is crap. I'll buy that. If the old site wasn't broken why fix it?
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Post by Bob B on Jun 24, 2021 6:12:35 GMT
The problem is that the new website is crap. I'll buy that. If the old site wasn't broken why fix it? I 2nd that! Probably many a organizations that take on new leadership ask that.....many. Bob
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Post by JH Lee on Jul 3, 2021 3:59:25 GMT
The new site is AWFUL. The previous site design was just fine. It should be reverted back to the old format. There was simply no good reason to change the site (and also for the worse).
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Post by unistat76 on Jul 3, 2021 4:30:38 GMT
I like the new site. I mainly browse on my phone and the old site was very unfriendly for that. The new version is mobile friendly and works well for me.
I haven't visited the new site on a PC yet, so maybe it's not as good? IDK.
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