The Armour Archive

I was thinking about ordering a rapier from Alchem Armoury, but about a month ago I saw some negative posts here about their customer service. However, some people I know from my local practice have had acceptable experiences with them. I'm looking for people who have dealt with them in the last year or so to share their experiences. Rapiers are expensive, and I'd rather not tie up my money on a weapon that is long delayed or never arrives.

Minutes AFTER I placed my order with them, several friends in An Tir warned me that they had been waiting for almost a year for their orders.

I then made it a point to be impossible to ignore - even so, it was 15 weeks to delivery - two months later than expected. The automated ordering process was fine, but not knowing ANYTHING about the status of my order was unacceptable, and I get the feeling that if I had not strongly-worded my emails, that those would be as easily ignored as my earlier ones were.

They are very *VERY* slow and tend to have horrid communication. Its very hit or miss with them. I have done over a grand of business with them and I'll come out and say I will never spend another dime with them. I'll deal with crap service for excellent quality on occasion, but everything I've bought from them has fallen apart to boot.

Granted, this was a bunch of years back, I can't speak to modern times.

Regardless, Darkwood and James the Just are much better buys for the money and have fantastic service.

I have a dagger blade by Alchem...But I bought it through James the Just.

I can't recommend James highly enough...He is a delight to work with.

No direct experience with Alchem.. But I bought from James because I was already ordering stuff from him and it was just more convenient.
You may pay a few dollars more...But the speed and high quality service makes him the best choice in my own opinion.

http://amazoniaenterprises.com/

-Badger-

I have purchased at least half dozen various blades from Alchem over the last 4 years. I have always e-mailed first to verify how long it would take. They have always arrived pretty close to the promise date for me. The latest was ordered 2/21 and promised 2/28. It arrived 2/29 AM delivery... you be the judge.