Frost Cutlery, Cutlery Corner, Jim Frost, Ocoee River, Whitetail Cutlery, Frost Cutlery Bait and Switch, Liars, Nonexistent Customer Service, Rude and Dismissive, Fake Warranty. Ooltewah Tennessee

My list of gripes with Frost Cutlery is going to take a while to go over, fair warning. 

The troubles started on one of the first two orders I placed when they took it upon themselves to substitute an item that was out of stock for another item that I did not order and hope that I was OK with it. I ordered a 14 tool Leatherman and they sent me a smaller 12 tool Leatherman, obviously a lesser value. I was given no warning or notification that they were doing this substitute and no one checked to see if that was OK with me. A seperate item, a three piece set, was missing one of the knives on a different order. On yet another order three knives came in shattered, completely broken and unusable. All in all I placed around a dozen orders and on literally half of them something has been screwed up, not a good rate of success. If you order absolutely anything from this company make sure you keep good records and double check the orders because they absolutely will try to just slip stuff past you.

Shortly after, I placed another order for a Blue Damascus Steel Katana. When I received the shipment the Katana was defective so I called in to report it and order another, to make sure I got this item. I got the second shipment in and it was defective again. I called in a second time and they inform me that they are now out of stock of the Blue ones, they say they won't be getting any more in and there is nothing they can do to help me in a very rude and dismissive manner. These people just don't care about doing their job and helping the customer, they just want you out of their hair and you will see examples if you keep reading. 

Now, after receiving the first one they offered to swap it for a Black Damascus Katana of the same price. I refused, thinking I would receive the correct one on the second order. When the second one comes in defective I asked them if they could swap for the Black or another Copper colored one they had offered the first time, and was showing in stock on their web site. The "customer service" supervisor ( and I use that term very loosely with these people ) basically tells me to buzz off, she refused to substitute for any other color even though they were in stock and they had offered to do exactly that before. She took it to the next level when she told me they didn't even have any in stock, and that was why they couldn't swap it. That turned out to be a blatant lie because right after I got off the phone with her I ordered the Black AND the Copper swords from the web site and recieved them a few days later. After she initially told me they were out of stock I even specifically asked her "So if I order the Copper Katana, what will I receive?" to which she replies "Probably a phone call saying we don't have it". So for whatever reason this lady named Lori thought it would be better to lie to me and tell me they don't have any more than to do what she offered to do for me the first time, or help me in any way, shape or form. I'm normally easy to please and if they had even pretended to care and had done anything at all without me having to hound them I wouldn't be doing this right now. 

And it's only because I cared as much as I do that I got SOME of the items that I wanted, since if left up to them I wouldn't have gotten ANY of them. And you would think these people would want to help me spend my money with this company, but they don't, they just want their job to be as easy as possible and to get you off the phone. Then they'll cross their fingers, knock on wood and hope for the best and hope you don't catch a mistake or don't care enough to complain. If you do they'll deal with it then in the usual dismissive way they have, refusing to cover for their mistakes and using company policy as a shield to not help you. If it's company policy to not help your customers it's going to cost them a lot of customers and cause a lot of people to be disgruntled customers like me. I'm sure you notice I'm not the only person that has taken the time to write about this company. 

The part that infuriates me the most is when I asked for a prepaid shipping label to be sent to me so I can send the defective swords back to them. This "customer service" "supervisor" Lori refused and refused to give me a shipping label to cover their mistake. I mean, why should I have to pay to ship items back when they screwed up? I have ordered from many other companies and it is standard practice that when the company makes a mistake, the company pays to correct it, Frost tried to tell me that it was company policy that they don't do that. Well I told them the beauty of company policy is that it can be changed and that if she can't approve that, I will wait to talk to someone that can. This lady hit the roof and started literally yelling at me. Earlier I was told I was going to recieve a credit on my account for all the items they screwed up or was missing and at this time the lady yelled at me that she was taking the credit away from me but finally agreed to send a prepaid shipping label. Her words were "FINE! You want to stop ordering from us, then stop ordering from us! I will send you the label but you are NOT getting the $25 credit and you can go ahead and stop ordering from us!" Although I would have liked ALL of my issues dealt with, instead of just one, I realized this was too much to ask for from this group so I settled for having the largest issue being dealt with. I ended up getting the label but they didn't give me my credit. 

Now the incident that has spurred me to go the distance and actually write this report here just happened today. I said earlier that I ordered the Copper and Black Damascus Katana after the "customer service" superliar told me they didn't have any left, more so just to prove that she was a liar than anything else. The first couple swords were on sale at $98.00, the Copper one wasn't on sale the day I purchased it but did go on sale two days later. I purchased it at $168.00 and two days later it was on sale for the same price as the others, $98.00. I called in today to have them refund me the difference, which, after the fiasco I had already been through with these swords AND their "customer service" supervisor of all people straight up lying to me I figured they shouldn't have a problem doing that but I was wrong.

You could have counted the Black and Copper as the exchange for the two defective swords I purchased for $98.00 but because they refuse to cooperate in any way I had to send those two back and get refunded, only to have to turn around and purchase the Black and Copper seperately. They don't care that they screwed up half my orders, or that they lied to me and got caught. Actually they're continuing the lying, now they're telling me that the sword that is on sale is a different one than the one I got, which is a total lie. I know these swords well enough to spot them, not to mention that it has been displayed over and over on their internet show you can link to from their web site. It's from the same manufacturer and they only offer one type and style of these colored swords, which is the ones I've been ordering from them. Not to mention that I am still within my 30 day return period, I could easily send this one back and then purchase the same sword for the cheaper price...BUT since its their "Company Policy" not to send prepaid shipping labels, they're hoping that I am just threatening them and won't pay for the shipping to send it back to them. How stupid do they think I am? Apparently they think I'm stupid and/or not determined enough to tell people and spread the word about what hucksters they are. Unfortunately for them they're wrong and now not only am I sending it back and getting the cheaper one purely on principle I'm also here trashing them and will continue to trash them any chance I'm given.

For the sake of being complete these are not all the issues I have had with their customer service people, just the largest examples with their so called supervisor. After seeing her attitude I completely understand why these other customer service and sales representatives have the kind of attitude they have too. 

One day I called multiple times and got multiple responses with multiple people before both parties eventually just gave up, read on. 

After watching their most recent broadcast I placed an order and wanted to add an item to that order, which I did during that same week with a different online retailer and needless to say had two completely different experiences.

With the other retailer I called in and told them what I wanted and they said they can't add an item to an existing order BUT they can waive the shipping on this item so I can have it within the same time period as the order. I didn't even have to ask, they offered to do this for me. That's quality customer service where the employee wants to help the customer spend more money with the company.

With Frost/Cutlery Corner I called in the morning and spoke with a guy who said there is no way to add an item to an order that's already placed, thanks and goodbye, very quickly. He didn't give a chance for a follow up even, just answered the question, ushered me off and hung up.

When I called back I spoke with a woman who said the only way that can be done is if the order is on hold, thanks and goodbye. Basically the same as the first guy she answered my question, didn't give me time to answer any more and basically hung up on me.

So I called back the third time and was heated by this point but I got who must be their only employee who cares at all because she did verify what the other two people said but demonstrated less laziness because she actually looked up my order and lo and behold, it was on hold the whole time but the previous two employees were too lazy to even check if it was or not. They spouted the company policy and hid behind it in order to be lazy, assuming that my order wasn't on hold without even checking. So the third woman allowed me to add the item to the invoice that was on hold saying to me that she could leave it on hold in case I decided to add anything else and whenever I was ready to release the invoice to have it shipped all I had to do was call back in and let them know.

So later that day when I called in 4:45 to have them release the order this new lady gave me a hard time right from the bat. She couldn't find my invoice when she was looking it up so she was talking to me as if it didn't exist and I was crazy. When she finally realized the order was placed online, only the one item was added over the phone, she remembered that the internet orders are filed away differently and were in a completely different place from where she was looking-in the phone order invoices. She did at least realize she was giving me a hard time because she apologized profusely for it saying "I know I was a little rough and gave you a hard time, but I'm sorry I just wasn't thinking it could be an online invoice". Now once she found the invoice it went right back to fiasco because she just literally gave up. She found the invoice but all she said to me was that she couldn't figure out what had been done, didn't know what she was looking at, and that there was nothing that she could do so I would have to call back tomorrow. I literally howled with laughter at this point. It was then that I realized this has to be one of the most unorganized and haphazard businesses in the country, and that by the time this was over I'd need anxiety medication. When I called the next day they said my invoice wasn't on hold, didn't look like it ever was but at least it was correct and on it's way, or so I hoped. 

On one of the sets where a knife was missing I gave them the chance to send me the knife and the set they sent was a completely different set altogether. The set I ordered had a flashlight, a skinner and a small caper knife. The one they sent had a flashlight a skinner and a large filet knife. Obvious enough difference. When I call in to tell them that they sent me the wrong set they argue with me telling me that not only was it handled but I was speaking directly to the particular employee who handled it and she said to me "I sent you the correct item, the numbers match up and everything". To which I would ask why would you even have item numbers if the numbers don't stay on the same product. I told her the problem and the difference in the knife but she insisted that she sent the right one and when I asked if there was any way she can find the correct small caper knife that was pictured on the web page she replied the exact same sentence "I sent you the correct item, the numbers match up and everything. So I'm not sure where I can get the item number for the knife you're talking about". I'm not sure that's the case but at this point I don't know what to contribute it to, laziness, complacency, dismissiveness or stupidity. I just gave up and ate it, realizing that even if there miraculously was a single employee who wanted to help me there that that place is too far out of control and too much a fiasco for that person to do so, and I'm sure that adds to their frustration and contributes to their nasty attitudes as well.

I have sent them 6-8 different messages on their web site to address some of these issues and have never gotten a response to any of them, not a single one. At this point I'm convinced that's just an outlet for angry customers to feel like they're being heard and the messages sent in just go to a sort of limbo where they are quicky disregarded, forgotten and deleted. After I proved that their "customer service" stupidvisor was lying to me I called in and got what I was told was the e-mail to the owners assistant, because after being talked to and yelled at the way I was I wanted to report her to her superior for it. I sent an e-mail there and never got any response, so I'm not sure if what he gave me is even a real e-mail or for all I know he gave me his own, or even the supervisor's herself.  

All in all after doing a couple thousand dollars of business with a company in a matter of months I expected to be treated much more like a valued customer and much less like an inconvenience than I was. I would warn anyone purchasing from Cutlery Corner/Frost Cutlery to keep good records, ALWAYS know exactly what you ordered and double check it. I must be a pain because every item I order I leave open in it's own tab online until it gets delivered so I can check them off as they come in. They will try to squeak things past you if they can. Getting them to honor any warrantee or offer any sort of post-sale service, forget it. All you are going to get is a return authorization number and yet another shipping charge. 

I'm normally easy to please, hard to anger and I have never written a bad review about any other product, business, service, movie or anything for that matter ever before in my life but Frost Cutlery and Cutlery Corner truly offended me with how they treated me. I have vowed only to use them as an advertising outlet and if I see something on there I will try to buy it elsewhere if possible. or only buying those big dealer packages that they can't possibly be making money on. and continue to check off each item as they come in. If you decide to order anything from there beware and good luck. 

No, really...good luck.