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Report: #353372

Complaint Review: FROST CUTLERY COMPANY - OOLTEWAH Tennessee

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  • Reported By: BUFFALO New York
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  • FROST CUTLERY COMPANY 6861 MOUNTAIN VIEW ROAD, OOLTEWAH, Tennessee U.S.A.

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We have agonized many days before we finally decided to report the questionable business practices of Frost Cutlery Co., some which are nothing short of a rip-off, while others are caused by employee incompetence or indifference. It is our sincere desire that this exposure will help others from becoming victims, while at the same time putting Frost Cutlery on notice that listing them here affords them the opportunity to take corrective action, as compared to facing legal action from the Feds, were they to address some of these complaints.

The Frost Cutlery Co. proclaims to be one of the largest distributors of cutlery, including high end collector items such as Hen & Rooster and German Bull. The principal means of advertising their knives is their weekly three hour TV sales show: Cutlery Corner Network. The hosts, in a good ole boys and "down home" mannerism display weekly individual knives or lots of knives. Individual collectors or dealers, like our company, call in and place orders with their phone operators. Their show is styled similar to ShopNBC and QVC, to mention just two. The first rip-off is a matter of misrepresentation or lack of representation. The show hosts make sure that the TV cameras never show the origin of their knives (which is clearly imprinted or stamped on every blade). The blades are skillfully shown from only the side or angle which does not show the imprint: China or Pakistan. The show hosts will never mention these countries of origin, while emphasizing Germany as country of origin, whenever it calls for. If the country of origin, like made in Solingen, Germany is such a big deal (which it is), why not be honest and disclose the country of origin for all the other knives.

Therefore, Buyer Beware, while the knives may be sold under such Native American names as Chipaway Cutlery, the knives are actually made in Pakistan and imprinted accordingly.

Rip-off #2 occurs when you wish to order more than 10 item numbers per day. While the show hosts never make any mention of this restriction, the operators taking your telephone order will. This rip-off may appear minor to the uninformed or uninvolved. In fact it is a major issue to dealers like us. The show hosts advertise during the program a certain number of items, many of which are only available that night and only in very limited quantities. As a dealer, we now have to make a choice of which 10 item numbers we wish to purchase, or establish a 2nd dummy account in someone elses name and different address. We do not care to operate in this fashion. Again, why not disclose this buying restriction? It certainly has nothing to do with fairness, as you are permitted to buy as many units per item number as you can afford.

Rip-off #3. This rip-off occurs due to incompetence or indifference by Frost Cutlery Co. employees. Never, ever ask Frost Cutlery to drop ship an order directly to one of your customers. If requested, they will drop ship your order to your customer, but they will also include the order invoice (!) with the shipment. Even though Frost employees will assure you that they will not include the order invoice with the shipment to your customer. This way your customer will see exactly the amount you paid for the item(s) he purchased from you. You can rest assured you will never again get another order from this potentially former customer of yours. If this is not bad enough, Frost Cutlery will also permanently change your mailing address (in their computers) to that of the drop shipment. This means that all of your future Frost Cutlery orders will get shipped to the address of your customer. This happened to us. When we received shipping notifications for future orders from Frost Cutlery, showing the wrong shipping address we called the Frost Cutlery Customer Service Department again and again. They finally changed the shipping address back to our companys address, but not before 1 order had been incorrectly sent to our customers address. The customer claimed he never received the incorrectly mailed order and Frost Cutlery, to this date, has not replaced the order, or given us credit for the lost order.

Rip-off #4. The Frost Cutlery Warranty. During each of their programs Frost Cutlery advertises over and over again, all Frost Cutlery items are warranted for life. The show hosts never explain that their warranty offer is virtually useless. If you purchased an item from any of the 5000 weekly customers/dealers of Frost Cutlery and it is damaged, you may as well throw away the item. Please note where and how most Frost Cutlery items are being resold. Unlike our company which has a fixed retail business location, most dealers of collector knives attend gun shows, flea markets, bazaars, re-enactment festivals etc. Receipts are rarely given and the warranty information is usually a copy of the warranty info provided by Frost with each shipment.

Many knives are also purchased as gifts. In order to make use of the Frost Cutlery Warranty you must first contact Frost Cutlery and secure a Return Authorization Number. This however only possible if you have the invoice number, item number and lot name under which Frost Cutlery had sold the item to its customer/dealer (me). No dealer will give a customer a copy of his invoice from Frost Cutlery. However, without this information Frost Cutlery will not issue a Return Authorization, thus making the lifetime warranty useless. Even we dealers have an extremely difficult time securing a Return Authorization. We have written on the average 4 letters per item requiring repair or replacement under the Frost Warranty. We have received so far 2 Return Authorizations and have mailed the damaged items back to Frost. The postage was to our account. We tracked the shipments with UPS. Frost Cutlery had received the items. We contacted Frost Cutlery about the repair or the replacement of the items we had returned. After countless calls we were finally advised: Frost Cutlery has no record of ever receiving the return shipments.

Possible Rip-off #5. Several weeks ago we had placed an order with Frost Cutlery. Our bank account was debited, but to date we have never received the order. We contacted Frost Cutlery in writing, asking them as to the arrival date of our order. Every weekend we fax to Frost again and again our multiple letters of inquiry. To date our inquiries have all been ignored. We also called Frost Cutlery and were directed to voice mail. We left multiple messages, but never received a return call from Frost. In defense of Frost Cutlery, they did replace 1 damaged item this year. It took only 8 letters of inquiry and multiple calls to their Customer Service Dept. While we are only a small dealership, we had to assign an employee to do nothing more but follow up on warranty items and monitor the receipt of orders from Frost.

Before someone suggests to us to seek out another cutlery company to do business with, keep in mind, Frost Cutlery is for many smaller cutlery labels the exclusive representative. You therefore have no choice but to deal with Frost Cutlery. Besides, Frost Cutlery claims to be one of the largest companies in the USA, with approx. 5,000 weekly customers, why should Frost not be forced to operate their business ethically and professionally?

I am certain, the company owner, Jim Frost, who according to the show hosts is usually gone fishing has no clue how pathetic his company is being operated in his alleged absence. Buyer Beware!

Harold
BUFFALO, New York
U.S.A.

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/20/2008 10:33 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/frost-cutlery-company/ooltewah-tennessee-37363/frost-cutlery-company-buyer-beware-warranty-is-a-rip-off-ooltewah-tennessee-353372. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
1Author
8Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#9 Consumer Comment

Purchaser of Frost Cutlery beware of knock off's

AUTHOR: Dardwizzle - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, March 25, 2015

While I can not comment directly on the warranty aspect of Frost Cutlery, I can comment about the products that they make / sell. I happened have have made multiple purchases of Frost Cutlery knives. In all cases these knives were made in the USA, yet I see a lot of complaints saying that their knives were made in China or India. Were you able to prove this with the proof mark on the blades themselves? I ask since I have never purchased any Frost Cutlery product that did not have a "Made in the USA" proof on it.

In all cases, the knives that I have purchased were of good quality. Some better then others. Some I would call "Excellent" others I would say were "OK" but in all cases, you got what you paid for. I wrote this rebuttal because I do not want Frost Cutlery to be vilified for knives that may have been knock off's or forgeries. I have never seen a true Frost Cutlery knife that was not made in the USA.

I believe that there maybe some confusion or possible another "Frost Cutlery" company that is established somewhere in Asia. Of all the Rip Off Reports I have read, they all seem to be of Frost Cutlery Knives made in China or India, and even some in Japan. I suggest that anyone looking to make a purchase of a true Frost Cutlery Knife check to see where it is made and that it is made in the USA. Of all the knives that I have purchased from Frost Cutlery, they are made from Frost Cutlery in Tennessee. I believe that there are also other companies that go by the name of Frost Cutlery in other areas. My suggestion is if you want to purchase a good quality Frost Cutlery Knife, please make sure that you are purchasing ones made only in the US, not from anywhere else. You will get a quality knife and made by a company that stands behind their product 100%. If you purchase one from China or India, buy at your own risk. I hope that this help those that read this Rip Off Report and will help people understand why there are so many complaints about knives with the name Frost Cutlery.

Cheers from a very satisfied Frost Cutlery USA customer who has sold many of their knives and never had one complaint nor one with any need to return for any reason. Please make sure you read the fine print. Best of luck and best regards!

Dar.

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#8 Consumer Comment

What is wrong with Frost pocket knives

AUTHOR: Jimu57 - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, February 09, 2012

What is wrong with Frost pocket knives? Even the ones made in Pakistan?  Nothing.  What is wrong is those that complain because they can't buy a whole barrel of them to sell and make a few bucks.  Sure, the knives are inexpensive.  They are not Case or Queen.  You get what you pay for.  For 12 bucks for a 3 blade pocket knife, to me, is almost a disposable knife.  The steel in the blades are decent. They can be sharpened and hold an edge decent. Operation of the knife is fine.  you might get one every once in a while that seems to not be perfect.  What do you expect?  You are complaining about the seller of the knives more than the knife itself. I wont even say "buyer beware" in this case because you are just stupid.  Just dont buy Frost.  Then go buy some other Pakistan knife which is what I am sure you will do.  Typical flea market seller.  They sholus have never posted you report of ignorance.

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#7 Consumer Comment

HELP

AUTHOR: okkydok - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, April 07, 2010

If you recieved your first order and found the knives to be from pakistan and of such poor quality, why would you keep ordering from them because it sounds like you ordered several more. You were talking about only being abale to order 10 stock # at a time, drop shipping to customers and having to liquidating your inventory plus the returns am I missing something? I have only ordered from them a few times but my experiances have been good. 

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#6 Author of original report

FROST CUTLERY QUALITY

AUTHOR: Harold - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, February 14, 2010

Frost Cutlery blades address the needs of the every-day sportsman and not the serious collector.  The vast majority of their blades are made in China and/or Pakistan, something which is never disclosed in their weekly TV sales shows.  E-bay is full of ads for Frost Cutlery items.  Rarely ever are any sold at a profit.  Serious collectors are brand loyal and will not take a chance with anything "made in China" or "made in Pakistan."  Frost Cutlery has one or two name brands which are of some value to the serious collector, such as Hen and Rooster for example.  The other questionable practice involves their "limited edition" items. With a "first run" of 500 units, each of the first five hundred units are engraved with "1 of 500" - and you hope only 500 units made up the first run.  Usually limited editions of anything are numbered sequentionally (ie:  1 of 500, 2 of 500, 3 of 500, etc.) The lower the number, the higher the value, the higher the number, the lower the value.

One final point about Frost quality and their lack of disclosure. Periodically, Frost will advertise "an authentic USMC NCO sword."  It is in reality nothing but a cheap "authentic reproduction."  Yet at no time will Frost disclose that the sword is in fact an inexpensive reproduction. One can easily find the reproduction sword offered by other repro.vendors, at a much lower price.

As to their pricing, Frost Cutlery always advertises of how easy it is to sell their blades retail, "at double the price you had paid for the item...."  Our company has been unable to retail any Frost item at its MSRP.  Instead, we had to dispose of our Frost inventory at a loss, while hoping that there will be no warranty issues. We are no longer retailing any Frost blades in the USA or Europe.

HWH

Buffalo, NY         

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#5 Consumer Comment

Frost Cutlery Knives

AUTHOR: Ringo - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, February 13, 2010

  I would also like to add that I have been a serious knife collector for 30 years now.  I think any knife collector would testify to the fact that Frost Cutlery knives are not worth the time it took to make them.  Plain and simple they are nothing but junk.  How Jim Frost could put his name on these is beyond me....I would be ashamed to.

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#4 Consumer Comment

Frost Cutlery Provides ME with excellent service and Quality

AUTHOR: Joe Knife - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, July 24, 2008

I am a frequent viewer of Cutlery Corner Network and a frequent purchaser of the products they sell from Frost Cutlery. I would like to respond to the ripoff report submitted by Harold from Buffalo, NY.

Harold accuses Frost Cutlery of being deceptive by not disclosing that many of their knives are manufactured in Pakistan or China, while emphasing those brands made in Germany. It is obvious to me that only those knives that are stated made in Germany by Frost Cutlery are the only ones made in Germany. Anyone who watches the show realizes that those knives are much more expensive than the knives that are not given a country of manufacture. In fact, hardly any one selling any thing on TV or elsewhere tell where the product is made, especially if it is made in India, Pakistan, China, Mexico, etc. Thousands of products we purchase are made in foreign countries, and we are never told that fact by the seller. I find it hard to believe that anyone that is a serious collector of knives or anyone that purchases knives for resell is not somewhat familiar with the various knife brands and the country in which they are made.

The knives made in Pakistan and China that Frost sells and that I have purchased are of excellent quality and workmanship and are very inexpensive. The quality of the Whitetail brand, the Chipaway brand, the Frost Family brand as well as other brands made in Pakistan or China in most cases are equal to or better than many brands made in Germany or the USA, and are much, much more affordable.

I have shopped for knives at many outlets, and have not found any brands or sellers that can compete with Frost as far as the quality that you get for the price. I find nothing deceptive about not disclosing the country of origin as to the manufacturing site. I know that when Frost says a knife is made in Germany that it applies to only that specific knife or brand.

I have received a very small number of shipments that have contained missing items and in each instance a phone call to their customer service representative has resulted in prompt, fast and courteous service to correct the problem. Maybe Harold should call them instead of writing them as he says in his report. When shipments have been delayed, again, a phone call gets me a quick, courteous response and a resolution to my inquiry.

I have not received any damaged knives from Frost, nor have I had to exercise the warranty, so I cannot address their return authorization procedure or their warranty service. However, if the service I have received from them thus far is any indication of how I would be treated, I think I would be satisfied with their response.

I'm sure Frost Cutlery is not perfect, and I'm sure there are those who purchase from them who are not going to be satisfied with the merchandise or the service. However, I would submit that the overwhelming majority of those who purchase from Frost Cutlery are very satisfied. Otherwise, the company could not remain in business as one of the largest importers and sellers of cutlery.

For those of us who want to purchase a darn good quality pocket knife or fixed blade knife for hunting, fishing, working, or to add to our collection, or to re-sell at a good profit, Frost Cutlery is a darn good place to shop.

Larry
Greensboro, NC

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#3 Author of original report

THE WARRANTY MESS CONTINUES

AUTHOR: Harold - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, July 21, 2008

Received this date from Frost Cutlery a package containing their replacement of three (3) warranted item. Two (2) items were either repaired or replaced in accordance with their warranty provisions. However, the third item we received was the identical damaged item we had returned to Frost(weeks ago) for repair or replacement. We had to sent another letter to Frost requesting a Return Authorization for this item. We refuse to pay the return postage a second time, as the shipping mistake was made by Frost employees and not our company. We also sent Frost a complete accounting of all the open warranty items, hoping that someone at Frost will address all open items with only one Return Authorization. We shall see. Buffalo Blades - Buffalo, NY

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#2 Author of original report

THE WARRANTY MESS CONTINUES

AUTHOR: Harold - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, July 21, 2008

Received this date from Frost Cutlery a package containing their replacement of three (3) warranted item. Two (2) items were either repaired or replaced in accordance with their warranty provisions. However, the third item we received was the identical damaged item we had returned to Frost(weeks ago) for repair or replacement. We had to sent another letter to Frost requesting a Return Authorization for this item. We refuse to pay the return postage a second time, as the shipping mistake was made by Frost employees and not our company. We also sent Frost a complete accounting of all the open warranty items, hoping that someone at Frost will address all open items with only one Return Authorization. We shall see. Buffalo Blades - Buffalo, NY

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#1 Author of original report

THE WARRANTY MESS CONTINUES

AUTHOR: Harold - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, July 21, 2008

Received this date from Frost Cutlery a package containing their replacement of three (3) warranted item. Two (2) items were either repaired or replaced in accordance with their warranty provisions. However, the third item we received was the identical damaged item we had returned to Frost(weeks ago) for repair or replacement. We had to sent another letter to Frost requesting a Return Authorization for this item. We refuse to pay the return postage a second time, as the shipping mistake was made by Frost employees and not our company. We also sent Frost a complete accounting of all the open warranty items, hoping that someone at Frost will address all open items with only one Return Authorization. We shall see. Buffalo Blades - Buffalo, NY

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