Poor experiences with Korin?

[Seth]

For Doi sans 80th birthday, Korin offered twenty 30cm kiri yanagibas, 10 western, 10 wa, five each in white and blue. My knife got sent to someone else, his to me. We sent them back to be switched, his tip broke, Jackie got another blade stamped 00 from Mr. Doi and sent it along to me. It took several months but eventually ended well.

[Korin_Mari]

I have shied away from Korin. My very first J-knife purchase was from them. My initial conversation with them made me feel like I was lucky to be buying a knife from them. I purchased the left-hand sharpened version of a Masamoto VG series 240mm gyuto. No one could explain what made it a left-handed knife and when it showed up it was sharpened for a right-handed person anyway. I decided that I had learned my lesson and that was what started me looking at the kitchen knife forums.

Pesky

Please don't think I'm ignoring this comment. I'm not, I swear. I'm trying to find a way to make this better. I will PM you once I figure out how. But in the mean while, I'm really sorry for your unpleasant experience. I would like to believe that our team has improved greatly since when you stopped by. I don't know when that was, nor do I know who you spoke to, and either way it doesn't matter now because it was not okay.

[Korin_Mari]

I will do business with Korin again. Classy company and I had great service. Professional free knife sharpening on new purchases is a definite plus for those that want it.

I'm really glad. Our customer services and everything has greatly improved over the past several months. We realize it was really bad before, but we're trying to improve and smooth out any sore feelings. Thank you so much for your support, it really means the world to us.

[turbochef422]

I've been to the store and loved everything about the experience and my wife went around Christmas time with no idea what to get. I got some great gifts that year. We both couldn't of been happier with the service.

[Vertigo]

With the exception of my endless discontent over the shipping prices and times, I've always gotten good stuff from Korin and am a happy customer. The knives I've bought--either directly or through the Amazon store--have shown up well packed with quality fit and finish, so I've never had to deal with customer service and would definitely buy from them again.

All that said though, one of my favorite threads from the other forum regarding Korin's customer service belongs to C-9, and can be reviewed here. Mari says they've ugh... made some changes in the CS department since, so it's probably not a fair or current representation of the company these days, but it's still a good read.

[Taz575]

In regards to JCK's shipping, from what I remember the last knife I got from them several years ago, the package was marked as samples or something and I don't think it had a declared value on it?? Maybe as a "sample" and not with a declared value, the price goes down, ie no tariffs, fees, taxes, duties, etc? They use Japanese EMS shipping IIRC (unless something has changed, going by memory here). Kinda risky since if the package is lost/damaged, they may not have any insurance or claim available on it and they eat the cost of that package.

Haven't ordered anything from Korin

[Korin_Mari]

With the exception of my endless discontent over the shipping prices and times, I've always gotten good stuff from Korin and am a happy customer. The knives I've bought--either directly or through the Amazon store--have shown up well packed with quality fit and finish, so I've never had to deal with customer service and would definitely buy from them again.

All that said though, one of my favorite threads from the other forum regarding Korin's customer service belongs to C-9, and can be reviewed here. Mari says they've ugh... made some changes in the CS department since, so it's probably not a fair or current representation of the company these days, but it's still a good read.

I'm glad you haven't had any problems other than shipping. You mentioned time, but did the packages get to you late? It may have been while we were mostly using USPS. We have a great packing team that ships out every order they receive before 4:00 pm (when UPS picks up packages) that day. They have stayed late to ship out 150 packages during the holiday season. So as arrogant as it may sound, I honestly don't think it was our team as much as the shipper. In terms of cheaper shipping (or as competitive as amazon prices) I am talking to management to give customers the option to use USPS with a warning tab or a longer wait time, because USPS is really bad about being on time and picking up.

::face palm:: I have no words other than "omg why. im so sorry."

Yea, the company changed a lot since October or so. Management changed, customer service people got added (so its no longer one or two people), and new employees came in and helped organize some messes. I realize it doesn't make things that already happened better, but we're working on it and trying to locate those who did have problems that never got fully resolved. I don't know the full details of problems, and I don't know if I can make everything 10000% better, but it's better than not trying at all, yes? yes.

[NO ChoP!]

I just wait for the sales....but this takes you out of the everyday retailer, and puts you into the special occasions group.

I'd like to see an expansion of wa gyutos and sujihikis.

[NO ChoP!]

BTW, I think its awesome that you're here looking for input. Thumbs up!!!

[Korin_Mari]

BTW, I think its awesome that you're here looking for input. Thumbs up!!!

Thanks!