[quote=""RosereIII""]I had a similar e xp erience with my original Kili sword Deimos. I got no acknowledgement from them, but the purchase price was credited to my account. However, I've never paid return shipping on defective items. I've always had then issue me a return label, or in the latest case, they contacted the courier and all I did was hand it over when they showed up.[/quote]
They did the courier contact thing with me also.
And on the phone conversation they assured me up, down and sideways that there would be no return shipping fee, that the courier picking it up already having the prepaid label, etc.
They lied, and docked me for about $15, even though I sent an email with pics and also enclosed pics with the sword, all of them showing (from different angles) how warped the blade was.
I was (and still am) so disgusted with BudK that I didn't even pursue trying to get the $15 back.
They aren't crooks per se, they just don't seem to care at all about how they treat their customers.
And since they have a captive audience (as Lindir pointed out, who else makes most Middle Earth Weapons?) they can treat us like ignorant peasants.