Update 2011
I just reached 100,000 positive feedbacks. It has been a long road, but I made it. I would like to thank all the customers, over 40,000 now that have purchased knives from Ky Knives, that has made this business possible. I will continue to bring you the best product at the best price with the best service. I do admit I have a little difficulty with high maintenance customers. High maintenence customers along with Ebay newbies is where a majority of the negatives come from. After a long hard day, it's difficult to bow down to a rude, demanding customer who has already practically stolen the knife at auction and then received free shipping to boot. Please read the rest of the review and see where I have come from a few years ago. Thank You for your continued business, Gary, Ky Knives
Update 2010
I wrote the guide below several years ago. At this time, buyers could receive negative feedback. Now , as everyone knows, that's not possible anymore. I don't think that is fair, because you are going to deal with some people who don't play fair. They will give you a negative feedback, email you dozens of times and just in general, be a nuisance. At the time I wrote the guide below, I had 8448 positive feedbacks. Now I have over 50,000. I have come close to losing my discount a time or two with Ebay because of the buyers who are allowed to give any kind of feedback without restraint. It's a real challenge to keep your rating at 99.9% when dealing with 20,000 customers. For all the good folks who read this, know that I will always do everything I can to deal fairly with you. This is a Mom and Pop business. My wife and I have other ocupations and operate this Ebay business to help others. This year 2010, we were blessed to help someone go to Haiti and bring back a little child for adoption. Thank you for your continued support, Gary and Ronnie Yocom
The Guide below written around 2006
I am writing this guide for all the new ebayers just getting started. It has to do with negative feedback. As of this writing, I have a 99.2 % rating. The figures break down like this. 2892 ebay members have left me 8448 positive feedbacks. 22 members have left me 32 negative feedbacks. You might ask the question, why are so many people satisfied and so few dis-satisfied ? I've thought about this and here is my conclusion. There are some folks out there you can not satisfy or have normal dealings with. They are going to get you one way or another. There are 3 reasons why people leave me negatives. Reason # 1 : Did not receive the knife. OK, what happens is this. I ship about twice a week. When Paypal payments come in and Money Orders come in, I set down and ship out the knives. If my negative buyers would take a little time to think, why would I intentionally not ship their knife after they have paid. Do I want a negative? Do I want Paypal refunding their money? Do I want to get a lot of nasty emails? Of course not. In shipping 10,000 plus packages this year, there is going to be a lost one [ U. S. Postal Service, anyone know what I'm talking about?] every once in a while. Since I'm the one who is going to take the loss, I ask the buyer to wait as long as possible to see if it shows up. If it doesn't show, I replace it. I have had a few that took over 30 days. Nevertheless, I have had some buyers give a negative in a few days, very impatient folks. The sad thing is that I always return the favor [ negative feedback ] seeing that the buyer has acted in an irresponsible manner and a lesson needs to be learned. So those new ebay members that have acted irresponsibly and have 100% feedback suddenly find their 100% gone, and gone forever. If they would have been patient, they would have received their knife and we both would be minus a negative feedback. Some say I didn't answer their email. Again, am I going to answer 8000 emails and then decide to skip you? No way. Sometimes email doesn't get thru for one reason or another. Use common sense. I will try to work out every problem, it is to my advantage to do so. Reason # 2 : Made In China : Well, let me put it like this. If you are buying a pocket knife for $2.99 or even $9.99, you should know it's not USA or Germany. Country of origin is not stated on other products on ebay, why should pocket knives be any different. The informed buyers are buying because they know it's a good deal and the uninformed buyers are buying because of the looks and physical description of the knife. If I list a knife as 3 1/2 inches long, bone handles, stainless steel blades, good quality, and show you a picture, that should be enough. If you receive the knife after having won it at auction, and all description is accurate, you have no beef. Read my review " Be Aware Of China Made Knives ". Reason # 3 : No Shipping Discount : Boy, this one takes the cake. Ebay allows for reasonable shipping and handling charges. My handling includes the following: I have ordered the knives, paid shipping to get them to me, credit card fees, I unboxed them , stocked them, listed them on ebay, paid listing fees, answer all their emails, took them back out of stock, packaged them, [purchased packing materials] took them to the Post Office, stand in line for 2 hours, mailed them [ lose some in the mail] .If they pay with Paypal, I pay Paypal fees to get their money. If they send a money order, I go to the box, pick it up, open it, look up their auction and fill their order. Many times I only break even and I even lose on some knives. So the extra cost in the shipping fee is not extra profit on the sale of the knife, it is to pay for my time and expense getting the knife to them. So I charge $4.99 per knife, every knife. Now if a buyer don't like this deal, they don't have to bid. I have a notice posted on my auctions " no shipping discounts on any knives " . But some buyers will bid the knives in and then scream to high heaven about the shipping. Duh, can't they read. If I go to Walmart and don't like the price, I just go someplace else. I don't go to the cashier and raise cain!! So in conclusion, negative feed back is unnecessary between us normal folks who like to get along with each other. Right now the normal folks outnumber the other folks 2892 to 22. Which category are you in. I am just here to sell pocket knives, not to have problems. If you will bear with me, we will get it worked out. Have a great week. Gary, Ky Knives
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