Escrime Line International

I placed an order online with this vendor at the recommendation of our club coach. I received an email confirmation of the order and my credit card was charged for the amount at the time of confirmation (a practice which I don\'t agree with).



After 2 weeks I had neither received the shipment nor any further emails regarding the status of my order. I sent several emails and left phone messages with a representative who finally contacted me and said that they had lost my order and would send it out right away if I would resubmit the order.



I resubmitted my order and, after another week without any response, I contacted the vendor again, and was informed that the blades I ordered were back-ordered at least 2 weeks. Since that was too late for the tournament I needed them for, I asked them to cancel my order and refund my credit card - they stated that they would immediately send out a refund check.



It has now been over 2 weeks, and I still have not received a check, so I guess I will now have to file a complaint thru my credit card company to get the charge reversed. I think it\'s safe to say that I will not do any business with them in the future, nor would I recommend this vendor to anyone else.



UPDATE (4/24/07): I did eventually receive a refund check from this vendor.

I just placed my first order from this vendor, and will probably be using them for some of the beginner’s equipment for our club, as their prices are quite attractive on many items.



The StM line of blades is their main draw for most I would guess and they have some very good prices on those. The down side is that most of their other stuff is Chinese made goods that appear to be being sold under the StM trademark. Some of the parts that are sold as German are not up to the standard of Uhlmann/Allstar however. Specifically their foil and epee wires point wires. The points themselves may very well be, but my gut tells me they are "German Pattern" tips made in China.



The only other real complaint I have is with their packaging. It was rather cobbled together and amateurish looking. I have gotten much better packaging from ebay vendors before and padding and so forth was pretty much nonexistent. My bell guards, points, wires, nuts, sockets etc were all loose inside a Safeway grocery bag and my shipping container was a DHL poster box with Airborne express boxes tapped over the ends! :-) Still everything arrived in good shape and that is what really counts. I gave them a Neutral in Returns/Exchanges as I have not had to deal with that yet.



The Customer service was very good and they were eager to help and knowledgeable in answering any questions I had and promptly contacting me to make arrangements on a few items that were out of stock. Another thing I like is that they will bend the tangs upon request and were spot on for my request for the angle and dip.



All in all they seem to be a very easy to work with and enthusiastic. Any new company has some things to work through and has to cut corners (such as on shipping cost) until they get their feet under them. I was happy with my overall experience, as price and customer service are my two big key points for my shopping. I plan on doing business with them again and would recommend them, although not some of their house brand products.



***Update*** I have had to return an StM FIE-N blade that broke from an obvious defect and it was pretty hassle free and painless. I have found out that they charge a rather ridiculous 7% fee for credit card orders which effectively means that you will have to use a check or money order and have your order take a far longer time to arrive. Not a very smart business decision on their part IMHO. ***