Dem-Bart Checkering Tools Inc - Snohomish, Washington

Ron H.

I started making and checkering stocks in the mid 70's. I bought a starter set of DemBart tools and a book by Monte Kennedy. You can see my work at TENNESSEE STOCKMAKER on YouTube. Walt has been nothing but kind and professional to me, for decades. He takes my orders over the phone and sends them to me quickly with a bill enclosed for me to pay after I receive my order. He's always very personable and interested in stocks I'm working on.

Bob S.

Up until today, I wouldn’t have had too much good to say about Dem Bart, except that their checkering tools are much better than any I have used. I placed my order in November of last year. As of a week ago, I still hadn’t received them. I had tried to contact them by email, but got no response. I called, and talked to Walt, and he agreed that 6 months was a bit ridiculous to wait. He said my order may have been misplaced, and would check into it. I thought, well, talk is cheap, and lets see what happens. I received my cutters today, and when I opened the envelope, I saw my check inside. I thought, great, they don’t have the cutters, and are returning my money. Not so. My order was complete, and included a note from Walt, apologizing for everything. That’s great customer service, and I felt a little guilty, getting the cutters for nothing. I thanked Walt, and started using the cutters. Still the best!

doc ?. C.

ordered a bunch of tools. i kept in touch with the proprietor. nice guy. took forever for items to arrive but everything arrived and i've been checkering since. he hand makes all the tools and blades by himself and then mails them out. long, tedious process but quality is the best.

Josiah R.

The first negative review I've written in my life. My correspondence with Dem Bart started 5 months ago. I exchanged some emails with Walt, we discussed what products I was in need of, and I ordered without delay. A month later I had not heard or received anything so I reached out again to ask if they received my payment. He said they received it a month ago and told me how much shipping would be. I promptly made it right away and followed up with an email notifying them that I had moved since I placed the order and needed to update my address. No response. A month later I reached out again, no response. Finally a month after that I filed a paypal dispute hoping it would resolve the situation speedily. Today I was notified that the dispute was being closed against me because the goods were delivered. I looked at the referenced tracking information and discovered that they had shipped the goods to the original address even after being notified two months prior that I had moved. See the attached emails, I wish I could post records of the numerous voicemails I left trying to resolve this and even get a response from them. I'm in sales myself, I try to be the customer that I'd like to have. However I think I have a right to be frustrated after 5 months, money paid, and failed delivery. On top of not being able to pick up the phone or write me an email to let me know what was going on. Trying to get paypal to make the situation right still. Just seems very poor business practices. At the end of the day, an apology, and the goods I ordered would make the situation right. It's not too late. I'll even pay the shipping charge again since paypal did refund me that. I'm not trying to take advantage of a negative situation, I'm simply a tradesman who would like to buy quality goods, from domestic manufacturers, and support someones livelihood in the process.

Edit:
Paypal will not do anything further, they say you can "appeal" the case for ten days but I followed their instructions and cannot find the appeal dialogue. A little research shows that this is the same for other folks and if you do get someone on the phone they just tell you the same instructions and that you must have made a mistake. Just ridiculous. Very poor way to run a business Dem Bart, just because you've been in business since 1945 does not give you an excuse to treat customers this way. And I'd be surprised if a company can stay around for much longer when they are treating folks like this. Probably nice tools but don't buy them from Walt, give your business to brownells or some other reputable online retailer.

Darren O.

I ordered over $100 worth of tools back in February. After I disputed the payment on PayPal in March they responded and said they were waiting on one of the tools but it should be there in a few weeks. I said great but it sure would have been nice to let me know. April = nothing. May = nothing. I attempted to contact numerous times via phone and email. June = nothing. July = nothing. The absolute worst customer service of any business I have ever dealt with. A few seconds of your time would go a long way. I am basically writing the money off at this point.

Javie

Great quality tools and steel as well. I also like that the handles are unfinished which probably keeps the price down a little and I can do that myself of course. Everything I ordered is here, BUT... It took from October 2020 until February 2021 for them to be shipped to me. Mind you, I live in Edmonds Washington which is an hour south Of Snohomish Washington. To be honest that was absolutely unreasonable. There is no way that it took them that long to throw a couple boxes of tools in a box and put it in the mail. I looked for the charge in my bank account and didn't see it until January. I was going to dispute the charge but since my bank allows me a month to dispute charges before they become permanent, I thought I'd wait since it took them three months just to charge me. Sure enough I got them on February 15th. The wait was worth it for sure because you cant beat the price and quality, its local, and I HATE Brownells(only supply store with checkering equipment), gunline has terrible quality checkering tools, and Ramelson is absurdly over priced. Well worth the wait. As I was told when Dembart was recommended to me, They take for ever to ship. But just hang in there.

Clegg D.

Sent in order and payment. No contact, no shipment, no refund or return of check. When finally reached, he still did nothing. Rip -off artist. Not the same guy who started the business. Stay away! This guy should be in jail for fraud! Never got my money back.

Christopher S.

Tools are good. Walt refuses to send anything more. Strange set up.