The Death of Blade...

[Craig]

The post below comes from Blade's message board. Comments?? Anyone dealt with Blade recently?

==================================
The Death Of Blade Fencing
My fellow fencers,


My name is Josh Schreibman, many of you will will remember me as the guy who un-fu@%ed some of your orders back in 99-2000.


I am posting to let you know that Blade Fencing is as good as dead.


When Mike left (the guy who did the website everybody loved) Justin Meehan and myself were hired to replace him.


Stan Bardakh, the owner of Blade, has gone INSANE. After turning 65 he suffered a major heart attack, and apparantly, a full nervous breakdown.


As many of you know, Justin and I have tried desperatley to work with Stan and improve this company.


Following Stan's complete lack of buisness ethics, cooperation and human decency, we have both quit in disgust.


Justin and I are desperatley looking for capital to form a new company, to provide you guys with the quality and service you deserve.


In the meantime, BLADE is a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit. Time to move on, my friends.


Anyone who can help us get venture capital, please contact me at JoshSchreibman@hotmail.com.


Thanks.

[New Dealer]

Hmmm...this doesn't sound kosher. It reads more like someone with a mad-on against Blade and forging a name.

I've recently been in contact with Stan about selling Allstar equipment. I've not gotton any bad vibes off him yet...aside from the accent. Everything we've discussed has seemed reasonable and above board.

We'll have to see what happens.

BTW all...the name will be H.O.M. Fencing Supply. Planned start-up time is 9-1-01. I'll make a full post when I'm ready to roll.

[attila]

Oh well. I never did like Blade anyway. Sorry to hear M.Bardakh isn't feeling well. You might be needing money for more than a start-up. I would no be surprized if he sued you for defamation or something for calling him insane.

------------------
"Kill the men, save the women, and by the gods, do not spill the wine"

[Craig]

I know that he had a heart attack recently, but had not heard anything else about Blade's operations. The fact that this post is on Blade's bulletin board surprised me.

[damianip]

I had also heard that Stan had suffered a heart attack.

I believe that he is trying to consolidate all his fencing business concerns (Allstar-US, Blade and Physical Chess) into one operation.

I know Physical Chess is still operating. I don't know about Blade. Physical Chess has closed their storefront but still runs a retail operation out of a showroom in the warehouse.

I have heard that Stan can be difficult (I don't really know him: met him once or twice), but I think one should refrain from passing judgement on his sanity in a public forum.


Paolo

[Purple Fencer]

Originally posted by webmaster:
I know that he had a heart attack recently, but had not heard anything else about Blade's operations. The fact that this post is on Blade's bulletin board surprised me.

The fact that the post was 6 days ago with no response post kinda speaks for itself, in a way.

------------------
Sam Signorelli -- Boldly going forward...'cause I can't find reverse!

[DarkTransient]

Has anyone ordered anything from Blade recently?

i went through about two months trying to order gloves ... started in february finally got them mid-april... my girlfriend was teaching a fencing class... she ordered them initally online didnt get them... she called 'they lost the order' she had me order them... i ordered from josh right before he left and something happened with the order and they never got here... then i spent almost a week playing phone tag to get them ordered... was more than frustrating.

[Shadow Fencer]

I ordered from them in February and was called by Josh telling me the order was lost and to re-order off the site again. That's too bad about the Mr. Bardakh. I went to Blade last November and was personally waited on by Mr. Bardakh. My last 2 orders were from Physical Chess via the web and I had no problems. It does seem strange that something so negative could be posted on their site.


------------------
I live to fence and fence to live!!

[Stryder]

I hope Blade is able to sue the guys that posted that. They would have to admit to it first. But judging from their post, they're at least that stupid.

It's one thing to have a beef with a former employer, another to defame his character in a public forum of his customers. But to say that the man has lost his sanity due to recent health problems is about as low a thing as one would expect to find on fencingsucks! I hope where ever Mr. Schreibman and Mr. Meehan look for work in the future, I hope this letter comes back to haunt them.

Blade's customer service does suck. Foreigners don't do things the way we westerners expect them to, and we often mistake the difference as rudeness. But they do their jobs, they charge a fair price, and they are nice guys, in their own way.

By the way, I couldn't get to either the general or past post forums. They may be down, but the Road to Sydney forum is working fine.

------------------
www.geocities.com/strydermike

[MikeHarm]

When I tried to place a phone order with Blade once, they couldn't seem to speak english very well or understand anything I was saying and the stuff I ordered never arrived. But when ordering on the web I've always gotten everything I asked for. I placed an order last week and it arrived fine in fact.
If what they say is true about the mental state of the owners, Its good that they let people know about the situation I think though crazy or not if I get a good deal I'll risk it. :-)
The $6 for unwired epee blades was one hell of a good deal I think, I bought a whole pack of 'em.

Mike

[Purple Fencer]

Depends on who you talk to. When I made the order for my FIE clothing, I made sure I asked for Justin. I think I may had gotton Stan one time, and I agree he has a thick accent.

If, however, you're patient and listen carefully, you can generally figure out what's being said.

------------------
Sam Signorelli -- Boldly going forward...'cause I can't find reverse!

[latenight]

I used to use Blade. I became disillusioned with the operation. I now use Fencepbt.com exclusively

[Gajuith]

The only people that have dealt with blade have been very disappointed. lost orders, horrible merchandise(weapon bags that don't even fit weapons), and i am not even going to get started on the customer service. We have now gone to great lengths within our club to make sure no one deals with them because we have had a 100% failure rate with that company. The company going under would be music to our ears.

[UCLAFencer]

I usually don't post but when I saw this thread, I had to throw in my 2 cents. I made an order to Blade back in March and when the order the came, there was nothing in the envelope except the invoice and a catalog. After one unanswered email, two faxes, and several phone calls, I finally got my order. Needless to say, I think that was my last order from Blade.

I have yet to get a clean (no mistakes) order from Blade. Josh was always been able to fix my orders in the past. The last two orders I've done, have resulted in calls from Blade to change what I want, into what they have in stock. I ordered a bag last week and I got a call to say that the bag pictured is not available in the colors shown. I'm still waiting for the bag. Meanwhile, I just ordered from American out
west. Too bad, if the post is true, I liked
the online catalog alot.
Ron

[arcon]

[ 10-23-2001: Message edited by: arcon ]

[Dragoneye]

Quality of the customer service, et cetera, aside, it's sad to lose another vendor. This only means less competition and potentially higher prices for us.

We briefly had a company start up here, offering very competitive prices on Allstar and Uhlmann FIE equipment - unfortunately, as I heard it, they came under pressure for their prices (they were too inexpensive) and recently had to shut down. It's a pity... up here in Canada vendors are even more sparse (at least here on West Coast).


Cheers,

Dragoneye.

------------------
"Violent delights have violent ends." R&J - WS.

[Bugaboo]

Blade. Bah!
I used one of the company's promotional discount coupons once, which would have saved me shipping cost on one order. Minor savings, but worth taking.

Of course I get charged anyway. So I call. And call. And call. And get nowhere. At this point, I really just want to talk to an intelligent human who would say, "I'm sorry about the mix-up, sir." That's all I wanted.

Instead, I end up with some idiot who decides the best way to fix the problem is to charge me for shipping TWICE MORE. No additional product delivery, mind you, just more credit card charges.

Absolutely ridiculous. I wrote it off as a loss and swore to avoid that company forever.

You gotta love it when a brand new foil shows up with a crushed guard. I don't know who was at fault for that one, but someone put my weapons at the bottom of the shipment, under at least one heavier box.

Just a follow-up on my previous post regarding a Blade order for a bag. I recieved
my order today. Blade sent me a Physical Chess bag. If I had wanted a Physical Chess Bag, I would have ordered from P.C. ....
I think?

Ron

Live long fence well.