Bud K and corporate ethics
I have blogged before about sleazoid companies, like Wal-mart–which literally steals from its employees, and is the target of three new lawsuits a day–and McKesson, which paid almost one BILLION dollars in penalties when it got caught in a sweetheart deal with a bunch of hospitals–but none of them affected me personally. Now I have been victimized personally, and I am angry.
Bud K is a mail-order knife company which sells wholesale and retail, and so is one of my biggest competitors. People come to my table at gun shows and say “Oh, I buy from Bud K.” And I can’t blame them–their prices are low (as is their quality, as a rule) but their salespeople are courteous and competant and they don’t whine when they have to make an adjustment on an order. But they DO lie. And this is VERY wrong.
For instance, last year, they advertised a knife, and said the handle was “braided leather.” Not “similar to braided leather,” not “has the look of braided leather,” not “simulated braided leather,” but flat-out, “braided leather.” Stupid me, I assumed it was in fact what they said it was, so I ordered a dozen or so. What I got was a knife with a handle made of cheesy molded synthetic material which in very poor light might be mistaken for something remotely similar to braided leather. I didn’t complain, just took my business elsewhere.
Fast-forward to a few weeks ago. I got a call from Crystal, a sales rep, who wanted to know why I hadn’t placed an order for a while. I told I was tired of being lied to. She listened to this without explanation, defense, or comment and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse–free shipping. Since the shipping costs are sometimes real close to the costs of the items themselves–especially swords and battle-axes–I went out on a limb and ordered a whole lot. It was the biggest order I had made in years. And guess what? I got burned again.
One knife, the catalog said it came with “a wooden gift box.” So I ordered four of them. It came with no gift box at all, much less a wooden one. A dagger was said to come with “leather sheath”–so I ordered five of them. When I got them, the sheath turned out to be bottom of the barrel quality patent leather. The quality of the knives was acceptable, the prices were right–but I resented being lied to, conned, scammed. I resent being made a fool of. So I called to complain and seek some sort of redress.
Crystal wasn’t there, so I talked to Tabitha. (I am not making these names up.) I explained everything to her, said I realized she may not have authority to make some extraordinary amends, asked her to pass on the message to Crystal and/or someone in higher authority. She said she would. She also explained that there should have been a “computer pop-up” to let Crystal know that the knife that was supposed to come with a gift box, didn’t.
That turned out to be another lie, evidently. When I called back five days later, I spoke to Crystal, who said she had not gotten the message. This means that either she was lying or Tabitha was lying. So I had to go through the whole damned story again, repeating that I had no problem with the knives themselves, or with the prices–I just hated being lied to. I hated being the victim of false and misleading advertising–which should be against the law, if it isn’t already. She reiterated the pop-up story, said she was sorry, but offered nothing in the way of amends.
What’s more–and here is where it gets really sleazy–she said that there was nothing wrong with referring to plastic as leather. “Leather is just a descriptive term,” she said. I tried and tried to explain that it is wrong to sell plastic by calling it leather. She did not seem to get the idea. She did offer to refund my money if I returned the knives.
I told her AGAIN that I had no problem with the knives–and anyway, being a handicapped senior citizen I did NOT want to spend my limited time and energy standing in line at the post office. Then she started getting hostile and defensive. “SIR, I am TRYING to be patient with you,” she said, using that tone of voice one usually reserves for an unruly child or a pet that has just stained the carpet.
I told her I intended to share my experience on the internet. I gave her one more chance to make some sort of amends, but she persisted in her arrogance or ignorance, insisting that there was nothing wrong with lying in print. That calling something what it is NOT, is somehow not lying. So I wished her a good day (in that case, I was the one who was lying–I was just trying to be civil to the little snip), assured her I would probably not be doing any more business with them, and hung up.
I intend to send a hard copy of this to the president of Bud K. I will let you know if he responds.
Recent Comments