Is "Thepickshop.com" a trusted site anymore?

by **WonderChimp** » 27 Jan 2004 12:39

Hi. i was reading the forums earlier and saw that somebody had bought a set of picks from ThePickShop.com, but said they had recieved no confirmation and thought it was unsafe. An administrator attempted recieving a reply of some sort via e-mail, but failed.

I was just wondering if anybody has safely bought from there and succeeded, because there prices are nice and cheap:D

by **Grudge** » 27 Jan 2004 12:46

I don't know if anyone has ever received anything from thepickshop, but I have heard of a LOT that got billed but received nothing. STAY FAR AWAY, enough said.

by **WonderChimp** » 27 Jan 2004 17:05

I recently tried sending them an e-mail about a random subject on jacknives, but as soon as i sent the e-mail i got a reply notifying me that the e-mail is invalid:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

Sales@ThePickShop.com

So, if they cant even get an email account sorted, i don't think there will be much more effort in the paying process

I advise nobody to buy from this site and hop on over to www.airpistols.co.uk. The site may suck, but atleast theres some service going on...

by **WonderChimp** » 27 Jan 2004 17:06

Correction: www.airpistol.co.uk

The plural, airpistol'S', is some army website...

by **almightyares** » 31 Jan 2004 20:38

Just to let everyone know...thepickshop.com was owned my an internet friend of mine. He started it by himself, and he recieved discounts from Southord, and he would sell them for pretty good prices.

I bought several sets from him, and when his business was up, everyone including me, liked his business because of his fast shipping and his low prices.

Well, he (not mentioning his name) got into a major car accident and is in a coma...he has been in one for almost a year now. A friend of his took the rest of the orders and sent them out. Just wanted to let everyone know...if thepickshop.com ever gets back in business, it was a great place to buy what you wanted for lockpicking.

by **CitySpider** » 1 Feb 2004 1:16

almightyares wrote:it was a great place to buy what you wanted for lockpicking.

Condolences on your friend. Some of my closest are people whose faces I've never seen.

I'd suggest either you or whoever took over for him put a "this site is on hold indefinitely" notice up. When he comes out of it, if he wants to keep going, it'd probably be nice if his reputation hadn't been shot.

by **Red** » 1 Feb 2004 11:53

almightyares wrote:
it was a great place to buy what you wanted for lockpicking.
__________________________________________

You may want to do a search to see all the very sad stories that forum members have written about their experiences at thepickshop.com- including my posts.
If Mr. Lum really was in a horrible accident, I am truly sorry and he will be included in my prayers.

The site went live in February of 2003. SouthOrd CLOSED his account several months later because he refused to sell at (or near) their suggested retail prices. The "pretty good prices" you mentioned were determined by an UNauthorized reseller designed to undermind those of us that have been running a fair business for years. SouthOrd gave him several opporunities to rectify the situation and it never happened. The owner of SouthOrd called all of his major accounts one Sunday evening last June and warned all of us not to sell anything at all, EVER- to your friend at thepickshop.

If he was in an accident, it begs the question as to whom was running the show there? Who was the owner of SouthOrd speaking to on the phone in June and July when this battle was going on if Mr. Lum was in the hospital?

Were one of his friends posing as the owner of the site?
This whole situation gets curiouser and curiouser.
What I find most interesting is that the site is still live and the shopping cart still works- I know there is no SouthOrd merchandise left to sell.

Does anyone have any more insight into this?

My partners and I work very hard and very long hours to provide our customers with excellent service and products and are going into our 4th year on the net. Our prices are competetive and at the levels we are permitted to resell at. Though I cannot speak for anyone elses business practices, I can rest easy every night knowing that we work hard to earn and keep the reputation that we have.

almightyares, your experiences may have been positive with thepickshop but you are truly one of only a handful I've ever heard say good things.
Most of the time I'm answering email from his customers that have been ripped off who've nowhere else to turn.

by **Grudge** » 1 Feb 2004 13:11

Another curious item is that ThePickShop is a Yahoo hosted e-commerce site. That costs AT LEAST $39.95 a month. Who is paying the bills and why would they for a guy in a coma, who can't run his business (you could always just get new web space if he gets better)?

One *could* think that maybe the credit card companies/Yahoo/the local law is getting hot on Mr Lum and he doesn't want any more of his existing ripped off customers to complain further.

I certainly hope Mr Lum gets better so he can explain all of these things himself.

by **almightyares** » 3 Feb 2004 4:55

I really cannot explain everything that is going on. All I know, is that he has been in a coma for a long while, and thats really about it.

I also dont understand why the site is still up, or why someone can still purchase something there, but not recieve it. That is not only extremely bad business, its extremely unfair to anyone who would purchase anything.
I dont understand who would be paying for the hosting costs for his website, either.

I am also wondering why he couldnt sell the picks for any price, like 5 bucks a set if he wanted too. If he payed SouthOrd for the products, he should be able to sell them at whatever price he wants.

Im not gonna defend the owner any longer if that many people were/are having problems with the business that is no more. In the meantime, I will try and locate his friend that, from what I know, took the business over after the accident.

by **Varjeal** » 3 Feb 2004 12:47

I don't know much about his particular situation, other than the many complaints (and I'm sure it's nowhere near Red's count) I've read about the site itself.

As far as being able to sell tools at whatever price he wants, well, that's not necessarily factual. Manufactures of product's have every right to set the range of price that their product is sold for, and if this range has been agreed to in a contract (whether verbal or written) SouthOrd has every right to enforce it. It's a tactic used to keep a relative playing field between resellers, and to maintain the OEM's reputation for not undercutting those that are selling their product.

It's poor business practice to try to step around a manufacturer like that.

I sincerely hope that the owner recovers and quickly, but quite frankly wouldn't want to see him in this line of business again.

by **azma** » 6 Feb 2004 15:53

What i ended up doing was getting the company name and doing a google search on it. and found the guys home phone number and called him about 200 timesuntill he finally anwsered and played phone tag with his wife girlfriend mother whatever until i finally got my pick..all in all it took about 7 months to get my picks

by **Grudge** » 6 Feb 2004 16:17

Another little interesting side note:

thepickshop.com domain name was set to expire on 2/2/2004. Well it has been renewed for another year (2/2/2005). I wonder who did that?

So I guess this Internet version of a Tiger Pit will be staying online for another year

by **swiftden** » 2 Jul 2004 7:34

wow glad im sitting here reading all of the posts i can otherwise i too might have spent money there. is it true are there any further updates on this situation??

by **Hak** » 2 Jul 2004 10:12

WonderChimp wrote:I recently tried sending them an e-mail about a random subject on jacknives, but as soon as i sent the e-mail i got a reply notifying me that the e-mail is invalid:

I advise nobody to buy from this site and hop on over to www.airpistols.co.uk. The site may suck, but atleast theres some service going on...

that site sux, prices are way too high, why dont you just go to www.southord.com the site doesnt suck, prices are awesome, and service is guaranteed

by **Hak** » 2 Jul 2004 10:14

sry about double post, i got some debug message and i didnt know if my first post got through.

Is "Thepickshop.com" a trusted site anymore?

Is "Thepickshop.com" a trusted site anymore?

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