Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

1
Okay, so I've ordered the Walking Axe and it's on its way. But I need some assistance from anyone who already owns it. I've checked the measurements and all that good stuff, but I'm paranoid. The place where I want to hang the axe is a little bit cramped and I'm curious about how long the axe is from the tip of the handle to the tip of the blade. While the description says 46 and change, I don't know if that's from tip to tip. If anyone could measure for me and also just give me an idea of how -loosely- it hangs (don't ask...) on the wall, I'd -greatly- appreciate it...Thanks.

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Mkay, thanks guys. I have a short section of wall that runs between the floor and a descending ceiling (probably not the architectural term...but whatever) and that's where the axes are going to have to go as I've run out of room on the 'sword' wall...heh. I was just curious if I would have to move them elsewhere due to the walking axe length or not.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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ARGGGGG...

I need to vent somewhere, and this being the topic about it, it shall be here...

Got my axe in...all giddy to get both axes up on the wall...

Manufacturing problems!!! Axe had a wooden piece broken off and an extremely loose axe head...on top of that, the certificate was torn to shreds...

Already mailed the company to get an exchange or something...This is no doubt going to cost me -extra- money...::grumbles:: Not a happy camper...Been buying from this store for two years...This is the -only- time I've gotten trouble...I guess I should be grateful...heh...

Oh well. I'll wait for them to respond to my e-mail before I vent further...

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Seeing that the company hasn't e-mailed me back I was hoping some folks could reassure me. Considering the situation, what do you -think- the procedure would be? The site says that products can be returned within 30 days and such, but it doesn't detail exchanges due to manufacturing/packing issues. I would think they'd be pretty good about accepting the return and exchaning it for a non-faulty piece. It's a good, reputable store and they've treated me good throughout my purchases...I wouldn't care if I had to pay for shipping the busted piece back and pay for the shipping of the new piece...I'm just hoping I don't have to go though UC or something...

I'm just paranoid and ranting...but any reassurance is greatly appreciated....

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not alarmed at all. I know for a fact that they -usually- don't answer e-mails on the weekend.

However, still a little paranoid as to how the whole situation will be handled and such. I think just about every collector out there has had a similar situation. I was actually hoping to hear the policies of any forum supporters here, or any people who have gone through something like this. Just kind of trying to figure out what I have to do before I leave (going back to college tomorrow for exams). Which basically means my parents will be shipping this out. They're a bit anxious about it cause they don't deal with UPS often...heh. They're actually the kind of people who still refuse to shop online...so you can imagine how much they're loving this...

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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When I returned my badly flawed Gandalf staff, and my broken Saruman staff for replacement with my retailer, I paid for the shipping first on my end, but because I had another order coming, she simply deducted that cost from what I owed on the upcoming stuff. Also, she did not charge me on shipping for the replacement staves.

So basically, you *should* not be responsible for the cost of mailing back something obviously defective, nor should you be made to pay for receiving a replacement product. Any self-respecting business that wants to keep their customers should follow those basic rules. If you have no further pending transactions with them for now, and assuming you paid with credit card or Paypal, it should be absolutely no problem for them to issue you a credit.

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Well...glad to report that I was contacted early this morning by the company instructing me to ship it back to them and that there is "no cost for returns like this". Not quite sure what that means, but I inquired to see if I would be reimbursed for the initial shipping...I guess we'll see...

But hopefully I'll be getting the axe (finally) in two weeks (I guess they're doing inventory this week and thus will not be shipping out orders).

Thanks for the response, guys. Always helps to have fellow collectors support. :)

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Well...quick update.

I will -not- be shopping at this store anymore. It's very upsetting to realize that I've purchased so many products from them and now that they've screwed up one of my orders, I really don't feel comfortable buying from them anymore.

The damaged axe was shipped back to them on Monday and arrived today. However, they turned it away and told UPS to bring it back at a later time. Twice. In the same day.

After five e-mails they finally responded to answer my questions.

They won't ship my new axe out until Monday due to their "Inventory" this week. Which bothers me since I contacted them about this -before- this week began. I can understand it, but it's very frustrating.

Furthermore, they will not be reimbursing me for the shipping, since I didn't get a special label from them for the return. I was told that "if you did not want to pay for return shipping we could have processed a label for you but once you've already shipped it back we cannot reimburse you." I was -never- told abou this label, and was simply told to ship it back. Granted it wasn't a large amount of money, it's still a sign of how customer service is handled there.

So despite having 7 other orders go smoothly and there good pricing, I'm very bothered by their customer service. Based on that, I'd also recommend others try to stay clear of this site. While I cannot state the site's name, I'm sure that with some of the information here it can be found out.

I do plan to switch over to one of the sites that supports this forum. I only have three more pieces that I'm really looking to get. Sting, Sword of Eowyn (gotta complete the Rohan "set"), and Gandalf's Staff...

Anyways, that's my rant. And my advice to any future shoppers. Customer service is something that's a neccesity in this line of business. Collectors deserve some respect as future business is -guaranteed-.

Ah well, hopefully the next place will treat me better.

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Hear, hear!

I'm sorry to hear about your e xp erience, and I deeply sympathize and agree with everything you said. Good customer service should be a right, not a privilige to be given out when convenient and whitheld when not. Like you said, it can take a few good transactions to establish trust, but only one bad one to ruin it, and these folks need to realize that if you want to do business, you need to treat people like people, not just sources of cash. Word of mouth can do tremendous damage, so sooner or later these places will begin to realize that people won't stand for it and simply move on to someone better.

Take care, and I hope your new axe arrives in good condition.

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Well...here's a quick update...

My new axe has -finally- shipped. Once I receive the axe and inspect it for any defects, I plan to e-mail the company to e xp ress my extreme disgust with their service (or lack thereof). I've already e-mailed a forum supporter store to determine their stock of the products I want to order.

My e-mail to this company pretty much says everything that had happened and how it -should- have been handled. Also telling them that because of a $10 shipping fee, I'm not longer comfortable ordering from them.

Due to forum rules, I cannot post the name of the store here, but if anyone wishes to know for their own benefit, feel free to PM me. I don't want anyone else to run into problems.

Here's to hoping that the second axe won't be damaged.

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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I'm glad that everyone, in a way, worked out for you. Getting the axe is probably the most important part, but having to deal with all of that other crap just doesn't seem worth it.

From my own e xp eriences with on-line shopping, you can usually tell which stores care about the customers and which ones do not.

Cheers!

PS. Feel free to write a review of the axe when it comes in :)
Valar morghulis

Re: Gimli's Walking Axe Help?

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Well...after this ordeal (which I'd say it has definetely crossed the line of annoyance to ordeal), I -finally- have a piece from the store. The following is a copy of the e-mail I sent to them:

Hello,

I’m writing to you in response to the service I’ve had thus far from *store*. I’ve been a customer of *store* for 2 years now, and in those two years have accumulated over $1200 worth of products from the site. I have made it a habit to tell any who sought to purchase Lord of the Rings replicas from United Cutlery to visit *store*. My e xp erience, overall, had been so overwhelmingly good that I was the equivalent of an advertisement as I had sent many customers your way. Your company ships products usually on the day of ordering and I typically would receive my purchase within a week of ordering, regardless of weekends, even. Your prices were fantastic, far below most other sites. However, on my most recent order, I cannot say that I received even satisfactory service.
In the event that anyone reading this is unaware of what occurred, I placed an order (#*number*) for the Walking Axe of Gimli on April 26th, 2006. As is the usual with *store*, the package shipped the very next day and arrived on May 2, 2006. Being a college student, I was not able to receive the package until I came home on May 5, 2006. The package was in good condition with no sign of damage, but upon opening the inner box I discovered that the piece itself was heavily damaged. A small wooden piece had broken off and the head of the axe itself was so loose on the handle that I feared that it would not stay attached. Still not wanting to admit poor service, I continued to inspect the product and found that the certificate was torn in multiple places. However, seeing that the package itself was not damaged, I assumed this to be a manufacturing/packaging defect. I promptly decided that I could not keep the product and had to ship it back to *store*. However, I was confident that I would be treated well by your company. My assumption was very wrong. I e-mailed the site informing them of what had happened and told them of my intent to seek an exchange for an undamaged piece. I asked what the procedure would be, what the cost would be, and assured the company that this would not deter me from purchasing from them again. I then received an e-mail from *name* who informed me that:

There is no cost for returns like this. Our address for returns is:

*ADDRESS FOR SHIPPING*



*name*
*store*


I took this to mean that I would not pay for the new axe, the shipping for the new axe, and I would be reimbursed for the shipping of the damaged axe. “There is no cost for returns like this,” lead me to believe that in the end I would not have lost any money for my misfortune. However, the e-mail did not instruct me on the exact procedure for returns. I took the e-mail to mean I was to take the package to the nearest UPS or other shipping location and send it the address provided. The very next day (Monday, May 8) the package was shipped to the address provided. I was then upset to visit the website and learn that the week of May 8 to May 12 was an inventory week and no orders placed in that time would be shipped. I sent another e-mail to inquire about how this would affect my order, but it was never answered. Upon the actual shipping of the product, I sent –another- e-mail with the tracking number as well as the same question about how the inventory week would affect my exchange. Each day I looked to receive an answer to my questions and each day I was never answered. On Thursday, May 11, the returned package arrived at your company and was turned away. I did not understand the reasoning for this and e-mailed you with my same questions. When would I be reimbursed for the shipping? When would my package ship? And now why had my package been refused? It was not until this 5th e-mail that any of my questions were answered. But they were not the answers that I e xp ected, nor did they answer all of my questions:
We will likely ship your return on Monday May 15th, as it says on the top of our website we're not shipping out this week.

You will not be billed for shipping on the new item, but we cannot reimburse you for your return shipping. If you did not want to pay for return shipping we could have processed a label for you but once you've already shipped it back we cannot reimburse you for a variety of reasons.

*name*
*store*
I was informed (finally) of when my package would ship. And I was then informed that I had been lied to, and that in the end I would in fact be charged for “returns like this”. Apparently, I “wanted to pay for return shipping”. For a $10.50 shipping fee, I felt the need to write this e-mail to you

I have been a loyal customer for 2 years. $1200 worth of products later and the intent to purchase several more in the coming months, I feel it necessary to tell you that I will no longer be purchasing from *store*. This pains me, as I have become a large fan of your site and I am very apprehensive about buying elsewhere. However, based on the service I received when I had a problem with a product, I’m willing to go elsewhere to avoid this kind of problem in the future. As I was told by a fellow collector, “any self-respecting company would not permit you to be charged for damaged products”. I agreed. Due to the extreme lack of customer service from *store* and the extremely unsatisfactory time period involved in this final order with the site, I will not be purchasing from your company, and I will instruct any other collector to steer clear of the site. I wish this were not the case, but given the circumstances, I do not feel comfortable shopping from *store*, as the event of another damaged product would leave me losing money and a great deal of headaches. I hope that this sort of incident never occurs to another collector purchasing from your site, and I hope that if nothing else my dissatisfaction will lead to better treatment of further cases.

As I’m sending this, I have received a replacement piece. However, it shipped on Wednesday, not Monday. Thus it got here a little later. Forgivable. However, the piece remains damaged. The same small wooden piece that had fallen off on the original piece was again off on this piece. Rather than deal with the return of your site again, I resorted to just repairing the piece myself, as I didn’t want to lose anymore time/money on this piece.

So two years after I began to be a customer, I would like to say I have no further business with you. Thank you for previous services.

-Ian Hiatt

***
I of course edited personal information and the name of the store (I think I got them all...). But there it is. I finally have the new axe (repaired by my own hand, of course....), and my business has ended.

I do have to say that one good thing came out of this. I've decided to shop from a forum sponser and I have to say I've had -amazing- service before I even purchased a product. I plan to place an order by the end of this week, in fact. As that's what a good customer does. They keep their word, as should the business.

Besides that, the axe itself is awesome. Beside the Battle axe, they're both beautiful pieces, and I hae to say I like the antique-style finish. It's a bit hard to keep clean, but that's okay. :)

I've read on several instances that some like the Walking axe -better- than the Battle Axe. I have to disagree. The Battle axe is just far more impressive than the Walking Axe. While I don't regret the money or time spent in purchasing the Walking Axe, I feel it is not one of UC's best pieces, but far from its worst.
Last edited by GuardianWolf on Mon May 22, 2006 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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