Did you get a shipping notification email that didn't contain a tracking number?
With the exception of - Automatic Openers (Flick-knives); Out-the-front/Gravity Knives; Butterfly knives; Concealed Knives, such as those hidden in a pen or belt buckle and Thrust Daggers where the blade protrudes between the fingers, in the UK we are pretty much allowed to own any knife we want.
It is the carrying of a knife in public places that is illegal without "good reason". That includes carrying them in our vehicles.
There is an exception - We can carry in a public place without very good reason (i.e. carry as an edc) a folder with a blade of less that 76mm that does not lock (i.e. its slip-joints only here).
So in reality we can own pretty much most of the Elan, Navy or Sanrenmu ranges, at home, but just about the only reasonably sized Sanrenmu we could carry as an edc would be the AO-H02.
Personally I just wish that Sanrenmu would make a similar knife/copy of the the Boker Plus Trance 42. Its a decent non-locker but at almost 60usd is far too expensive to my mind.
After a long drawn out online paypal dispute and several unanswered emails from the crooks at discoverybargain, I called paypal and spoke to one of their reps. The US paypal phone number is 402-935-7733 for those that cant locate it. It turns out that there is a loop-hold for knives purchased from China. I was told that since knives are considered weapons, it is illegal to ship them to China. Yeah, I know thats VERY hard to believe. Since I couldnt ship my order back, I was given a 100% refund for the entire order, not just the missing item. The amount was withdrawn from DB's paypal account and credited back to my account and they now have no recourse.
Result for extremely poor customer service: DB is out just short of $100 and I have most of my knives. Id be happy to have simply avoided all the time involved had DB simply refund the amount due me. They even lied on the PP dispute and I was able to prove their lies. I also told the PP rep about all the similar problems others had with DB from reading comments on various forums and she concurred. Per my suggestion, an escalation has been created for PP's business investigations team and will likely result in PP severing their relationship with DB. I will NEVER do business with that bullshit company again.
As for those that have had good luck with DB, Im very happy to hear that, but its probably only a matter of time before they try to screw you too... as they have done to many many others in the past.
Good luck to the rest of you who enjoy playing Russian Roulette.
That's pretty funny you can't send knives to China, but they can send them here. I think one thing that really hurt DB initially was they had a bug in their software where they weren't putting complete address labels on their shipments. But my last two orders have been just fine. I got my three SRM 763's today (2 for a friend and one to give away).
I never did get the 4 knives ($45) I ordered in april. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and went past my 45 days (paypal) and I got screwed.
So Discovery Bargain gets 2 thumbs down
and 2 middle fingers up from me.
With the amount of money you spend on knives, they are absolutely insane not to try to make you happy. I wonder if they realize that? Sorry to hear about this. They are definitely on my questionable list and I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt on anything.
As I mentioned prior, their customer service scores ZERO in taking care of its customers and fulfilling lost orders. They have lost me permanently as a customer as well as at least a thousand US dollars in revenue. I spent it elsewhere on knives. AVOID THESE THIEFS AT ALL COST!!!!!
I'm not exactly sure how, but my latest order from DB somehow found it's way to Vancouver, BC, Canada (wrong country, but still, thanks for sending it to someone who could make sense of the correct address on the label), before someone in Canada's customs service helpfully send it on to me.
As far as I can see, this is entirely HKP's fault since DB put my address on the label, so I'm not blaming them but I can see why so much stuff gets lost on the way to the intended recipient.
I just tried to go to their website http://www.discoverybargain.com/ and it will not open. Is this usual or am I to expect the worst?
Ordered 21.9.2011 and package was sent about 2 days later. Today (14.10.2011) I received it. So pretty average time from China to me.
It is not unusual for their website to be down. It usually pops back up again.
At first glance, I dont see any pricing differences. Do you?
You're right, FlashPilot; the prices are the same. Which reminds me, a couple weeks ago I noticed that DB had two different prices for the Ganzo G704. Here are the two HotDealings links:
$17.90 http://www.hotdealings.com/product/HT004567S/Ganzo_Folding_Knife_-_G704_(Silver)_31098.html
$15.99 http://www.hotdealings.com/product/HT00474S/Ganzo_Folding_Knife_-_G704_(Silver)_31098.html
I haven't ordered either one, but $16 is a decent price for a G704, and I like the one I got from ExDuct. Also, I don't think that "HotDealings" rolls off the tongue very well.
I don't think it's a great choice of name either, but I guess that's the reality of doing business in China. Get big enough and sell enough potentially questionable stuff (sex toys, lasers, knives, RE magnets, you name it) and you're bound to have PP disputes roll in before you know it. Add to that their weird way of handling orders, not to mention the pointless address mangling, and you've got some explaining to do. At that point, you can either try to clean up your act or you close up shop, rename the place which isn't a lot of work since they still have the whole shop and backend in place and start over. There are some HK-based shops that have gone through five or six reincarnations because it's easier.
Oh, and about the G704: that could simply be an oversight. Or they're selling the new and the old version but forgot to update the specs.
I just received a new Ganzo G704 from Exduct. I had my choice of the old or new version. I think it was a dollar more. While it certainly is a cool looking knife, every single SRM and Enlan I own completely blow it away in materials & workmanship. IMO, the 704 is akin to most of the junky knives you'll find at DX or MF... etc. Maybe Enlan will copy it some day and make it what it should have been in the first place.
I ordered lots of stuff from them and found their service to be reliable.I received everything I ordered from them, faster than DX extreme .Their website leaves much to be desired, and they keep jacking the prices on their popular sellers.Every seller could do better in some ways, but DB gets and OK in my books.
They have not been able to accept Paypal payments for the last 24 hours.
Yesterday I ordered a knife from "hotdealings", but wasn't able to pay via PayPal, since their account seems to be suspended.
Today I've noticed that the titlebar didn't say "hotdealings" anymore, but "hoursbuy" ... they've changed their name again, this time to hoursbuying.com.
So I went to the new site, was able to log into my HD account and pay for my order.
PayPal accepted the payment, but it says: "The recipient of this payment is unregistered"
Well, now I'm curious, how this will go ...
Maybe it got too "hot" for Discoverybargain and they are changing their name "hourly" now.
I ordered 2 knives from hotdealings and they were tracked to have left HK on 11/11/2011.