Poor experiences with Korin?

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Korin_Mari

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So... this is a scary question for me to ask, but I'm going to ask anyways. Has anyone had poor experiences with or at Korin?

Please be gentle. If it makes you feel better, the majority of the employees have left and policies have changed. LOL

I am here in hopes to make things better. I may not know how immediately and it may take some time, but damn it I will try.

A few that have been previously pointed out to me:

Amazon and Korin.com shipping charges are different
Reason: Amazon uses USPS, and even if we used to use USPS we stopped because we were having such horrible experiences with them. The reasons why we stopped using USPS are because they kept losing our packages, never coming to pick up the packages, just unreliable, and etc etc. Customers can call in and request USPS shipping, but customer service will warn you that it might take longer and the dangers of USPS. The reason we offer USPS on Amazon is because it has limitations on shipping settings and we couldn't be visible on Amazon without lowering our prices somehow.

Wooden knife cover pin holes are too small
We have started to test each pin and make sure it fits before we ship. If you have had to drill or do anything to your cover, because it did not fit. We will happy to replace it, if you can send us the cover and pin (we will provide a label), and you let me know.

Anything other problems?
 
I had extremely good service from Alex Chen. I have bought from Korin twice. Both times with excellent service. The first time you were out of stock on a ux10 so I had to wait for your delivery to get shipment sent from you, but I have nothing but good things to say about Korin. Also, both my sayas and pins were fine.
 
I had extremely good service from Alex Chen. I have bought from Korin twice. Both times with excellent service. The first time you were out of stock on a ux10 so I had to wait for your delivery to get shipment sent from you, but I have nothing but good things to say about Korin.

::WHEW:: I was bracing myself. LOL

I'm so glad!! I will let Alex know. He will be thrilled, I'm sure. Thank you for your support! :)
 
::WHEW:: I was bracing myself. LOL

I'm so glad!! I will let Alex know. He will be thrilled, I'm sure. Thank you for your support! :)

Well.. if you're waiting for something i'll make some story up to get you to become better at something.


No but seriously, i haven't had any experience with Korin, as i haven't found you to be as competitive as other stores when it comes to international buyers.
Perhaps you should try to expand in this market?

Like shipping from Japan as mentioned earlier, i'm used to pay like 7 bucks for shipping from Koki, so paying like 40-50+bucks from Korin isn't really that competitive, especially when the product itself is often a few dollars more expensive. (but that's what's needed when you have physical stores)
 
I've had very good experiences although I haven't had the pleasure of walking in and seeing Mr. Sugai sharpening. Oh and I've always left with a sense of disappointment.....that I couldn't take home all of the display knives. Such a tease
 
Well.. if you're waiting for something i'll make some story up to get you to become better at something.


No but seriously, i haven't had any experience with Korin, as i haven't found you to be as competitive as other stores when it comes to international buyers.
Perhaps you should try to expand in this market?

Like shipping from Japan as mentioned earlier, i'm used to pay like 7 bucks for shipping from Koki, so paying like 40-50+bucks from Korin isn't really that competitive, especially when the product itself is often a few dollars more expensive. (but that's what's needed when you have physical stores)

I will bring this up. Pricing wise, we should be pretty competitive, but shipping always adds a lot especially if you live farther away. I wonder how Koki ships aboard... USPS or maybe from Japan? I have no idea. Kencrest is in Seattle though, so I assume when they ship domestically it's USPS. Hmm...

I will work on it. Thanks for telling me. :D
 
I've had very good experiences although I haven't had the pleasure of walking in and seeing Mr. Sugai sharpening. Oh and I've always left with a sense of disappointment.....that I couldn't take home all of the display knives. Such a tease

Your location says NYC, but are you still in the area? If you plan to come into Korin looking for Mr. Sugai, I will be happy to let you know. He also has a free demo in the showroom on tuesdays and saturdays on 2pm. He's in Japan right now, but he'll be back in two weeks. :)

Thank you for your kind words!
 
I will bring this up. Pricing wise, we should be pretty competitive, but shipping always adds a lot especially if you live farther away. I wonder how Koki ships aboard... USPS or maybe from Japan? I have no idea. Kencrest is in Seattle though, so I assume when they ship domestically it's USPS. Hmm...

I will work on it. Thanks for telling me. :D

He ships from japan when i purchase, atleast!
 
Hmmm... How are they shipping for so cheap? Thanks for the heads up. :)

Japan post, might be that they take some of the profit from the knives to have the cheap shipping as marketing.
But still, the prices on the knives is also very cheap
 
Shipping is a valid point. Shipping from Koki is cheap and fast.
 
I have not purcased from Korin yet, but simply asking this question makes me respect you more and I will probably do business in the future.
 
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
 
I have not purcased from Korin yet, but simply asking this question makes me respect you more and I will probably do business in the future.

I'm really glad. I am here to help and in hopes to make Korin better. If you ever have any problems regarding any knives, even if I can't help you directly, I will try to gather information to help you. :)
 
The famous birthday Doi mix up; however, to make up for it I got a picture of Mr. Doi and - seriously though - a 180 masanobu petty. The petty is probably about a $200 retail value, so I have forgiven you several times over. This was especially classy because I didn't make a fuss or ask for anything and it just showed up along with the big knife as a token of apology. Nice!
s.
 
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.
 
The famous birthday Doi mix up; however, to make up for it I got a picture of Mr. Doi and - seriously though - a 180 masanobu petty. The petty is probably about a $200 retail value, so I have forgiven you several times over. This was especially classy because I didn't make a fuss or ask for anything and it just showed up along with the big knife as a token of apology. Nice!
s.

I have no idea what you're referring too... and sarcasm is hard to get over the internet, so I'm sorry if it flies over my head. :[
But I'm going to assume everything was okay and you did in fact get a big knife as a token of apology?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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. :)
 
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.
 
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. :D
 
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 :(
 
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. :D

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.
 
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.
 

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