Karate Depot

Found a new supplier, Karate Depot. They carry a pair of tonfa by KD Elite, which looks surprisingly similar to Shureido's square tonfa. The price is under $25, where the Shureidos go for over $125. They requested that I post about them and add a link to them from my website. This is an updated posting. I won't exaggerate by saying this was the worst buying experience I've ever had, but it's the worst I've had in years. Now that my order finally arrived (weeks late), here is my horrible experience with this company:

Karate Depot's website allowed me to become a wholesale customer, but I had a couple of questions first, so I phoned them. After being on hold for more than 12 minutes, a customer service rep said they're no longer accepting wholesale accounts. I told her their website has a link to become a wholesale account and she said she knew nothing about that. Went back to the website, applied for wholesale status and was approved, just had to send them some corporate paperwork. An email from 'Alex', their wholesale accounts rep, OK'd my account. Still having some questions, I called Alex directly several times - never got thru - always left a voicemail - never got a callback. When I emailed him I'd get a response, but never really answered the questions I asked.

Both the retail and wholesale webpages showed a banner offering $2.95 shipping and handling no matter what size the order. I ordered three pair of tonfa and a bo bag. At checkout, it charged me over $5 in tax and $4.70 s/h. This company is in Lenexa KS and, as a wholesale account, should not charge tax. I deleted the order and called Karate Depot. Of course Alex wasn't in again, so I asked to speak with a 'regular' customer service rep. This time I was on hold for 11 minutes. The 'regular' customer service rep offered me no answers, said she couldn't help me, and that Alex alone deals with wholesale accounts. Left another voicemail for Alex which went unanswered. Sent him an email; he emailed back that the $2.95 s/h was for retail accounts only, that wholesale accounts pay the actual regular shipping rate. I'm staring right at the $2.95 banner on their wholesale webpage! He never addressed the tax issue. Now, how badly do I want to try these tonfa? I re-placed the order on June 16th, paid the tax and $4.70 s/h, and was informed that delivery would be June 23rd. Meanwhile, as thanks for my order, they offered me a free T-shirt if I posted them on my website. Very nice gesture. A week later the shipment hadn't arrived as promised, but I did receive my free T-shirt complete with a bill for $14.95 + $1.55 tax + $2.95 s/h. My free shirt costs $19.45! I immediately got on the phone, left a voicemail for Alex (Surprise! He wasn't in), then asked for a regular customer service rep. After only 9 minutes on hold a rep, 'Baby', checked with her supervisor and said the T-shirt comes from the corporate office, just ignore the invoice, it'll be OK. Not comfortable with 'just ignore it', I then phoned 'Chana', the rep who emailed me the free T-shirt offer. That's when I noticed her area code was 845, Westchester County, which is why they charged me, a New Yorker, sales tax. It just would've been nice if someone told me thay had a NY office when I posed the tax question. Chana confirmed that I should disregard the invoice.

Still no shipment, so I went onto their website to track my order. A message said they were having problems tracking orders at this time; please call customer service. It happens on occasion, so I waited for the next day to track my order rather than deal with customer service (who gives no help) or phone Alex (who's never in). After four days of their website saying they couldn't track my order I phoned Karate Depot and actually got thru in less than 4 minutes! They said the whole shipment was being held because the bo bag is backordered; they're not sure when it will be in. So that means you don't know when you'll ship any part of my order? I told them to cancel the bo bag and just send the tonfa, which they said they'd do right away. This was on a Monday. On Wednesday, June 30th, the web tracker finally worked and showed that my order had just been shipped. It also showed that the bo bag is still on backorder. I contacted customer service again to confirm that the backorder is canceled. I don't want them accessing my credit card to send merchandise no longer wanted. The rep assured me that she again deleted the backorder. My three pair of tonfa finally arrived July 6th, but to make Karate Depot look less inefficient, the order was now dated June 30th, a full two weeks after I actually placed the order! By the way, the website tracker now shows the tonfa as 'delivered', but still has the bo bag backordered!

To be fair, everyone I spoke to at Karate Depot was courteous and friendly; it's just that their systems are messed up. The tonfa are terrific. They're made of red oak just like the Shureidos and almost identical dimensions. I brought them in to the dojo and had others try them as well. All agreed that they're far superior to the standard, cheap tonfa (around $20), about as good as the Kensho tonfa (around $75), and pretty darn close to the Shureidos (around $125). Just wish another company carried these KD Elites at this price.

If you still want to try Karate Depot, be forewarned that you must sit on their backs to be sure things go smoothly. Here is their link: www.karatedepot.com/.