shakeup at smkw

[carrmillus]

.......anybody know anything about the changes in management(ceo,etc.) going on at smkw????...............

[MITCH RAPP]

Don't know any thing about that but maybe this has something to do with it! Read this Blog a while back. Seems Dolly Parton's Niece had a Run in with Kevin Pipes Son, Chase.


Chase Pipes

We know you love your son, but all you rich, coddling parents need a course in tough love because these selfish, sociopathic pricks you're raising and their sense of entitlement are beginning to get on our nerves. Case in point, Chase Pipes, whose father Kevin Pipes founded and owns Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Jennifer Parton alleges she had been a promoted more than any other employee at SMKW during her 15 years there, until she began to share an office with Chase Pipes. The 37-year old heir apparent began leaving notes on her desk and making unwanted advances, even though Parton had recently been married. When she reported these to her supervisor, he noted Pipes' relation to the owner and suggested she try to ignore it, suggesting it could jeopardize her job.

She says Pipes started openly fantasizing about getting a divorce so they two of them could hook up. He told Parton and other employees that he would provide her a better life than her husband, and would disparage him to her. Though she continued to avoid his advances, he persisted and suggested his father would soon leave the company and implied she may not still have her job when he takes over if she didn't comply. He even called her from a Walmart, in earshot of her husband, attempting to suggest they were conducting an adulterous affair. She went to her supervisor, who took her to the CFO to report the matter. Pipes was made to vacate their office and had a write-up place in his file.

A couple months later she received a text from Pipes' estranged wife with the simple message "HOMEWRECKER." She reported it, but he continued to try and lure her into this office or to meet him after work, and threaten her job. He offered to stable her horses on his father's farm. She resisted and asked to get the agreement in writing and discuss it with his father. Pipes offered to let her talk to the man who managed the farm about the arrangement and was able to lure her to the farm, where he grabbed her from behind, tied her arms behind her back and raped her. She went and had a rape kit done, and refused to go back to work since she would have to work with her attacker.

She was fired and denied unemployment on the grounds she voluntarily quit. She claims the company and her employees have defamed her in the community, and that the subsequent breakup of her marriage was due to Chase Pipes' behavior and the Post-traumatic Stress she suffered in the wake of her attack.

It's not clear why he wasn't criminally charged, and only faces this sexual harassment, but if true, he deserves to have his virgin ass fed to a cell block of hardened criminals, who will teach him what rape and powerlessness feels like. As an added bonus, it'd be great if each of them carved their initials in his ass with a Smoky Mountain knife after they finished.

[wazu013]

If all that is true I think you may be reaching a little when you said he has a virgin A**

[whitebuffalo58]

This may be what you're refering to.

This is a Special Notice to all SharpFans. Some of you do not subscribe to emails or the digest, so this message is to just let you know what has been going on for the last week in case you were not aware. For you that get the emails, this is more of a recap.


Travis Ferguson, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) is no longer with SMKW. I do not know the exact reason, or the circumstances surrounding his departure, only that Kevin Pipes made that decision approximately 2 weeks ago. I believe that Jay Parker's father has been named to replace him. Forgive me, but I do not know Mr. Parker's first name.


Steve Koontz announced on Facebook that he was happy to have worked with us, and wished us well in the future. We learned that,in fact, Steve was let go. After a lengthy phone call to SMKW and speaking with Tony Watkins, it was basically a performance issue in that the television sales did not meet Mr. Pipes expectations. When things like that happen, it is usually the department head that gets relieved. I believe that to be just that in Steve's case. Television time is expensive, so there must be benchmarks to meet in sales, and evidently they were not met. (Speculation on my part.)


As far as SharpFans, we are still here, and are still being supported by SMKW. Tony will now take over as the point of contact for me, and getting things done with club knives and anything else from their end. I would ask that you do not call Tony as he has a very full plate and is also at a loss over this. SMKW needs a bit of time to settle down, and then we will see where we are. I don't know at this point if Tony is aware of all the things we have going on, but I will do my best to gain his trust, and we'll see where the next few weeks take us. We need to get started on the 2013 knives and some other projects.


I spoke to Steve yesterday (Saturday) morning, and he is of course upset, but is taking it in stride. He has already had some contacts with some other knife people, so who knows where he will land. He has some vacation pay coming from SMKW, and plans to take a trip and think over his options. I am positive that he will do well in whatever he decides to do. I offered to put in a good word for him at Cutlery Corner and we both laughed!


We discussed alot of things, and I asked about how he felt on giving his email to the group so members could email him. He asked that at this time he would prefer to keep it private as with all that is going on, he didn't know if he could handle the volume of email that it might generate. So, I will respect those wishes. I do know that he definitely reads Facebook, and has posted to SharpFans there. So, if you have anything to say, you can say it there - just keep it clean. If you are not a member of SharpFans on Facebook, you do have to ask to join, and once one of the moderators approve you, you will be able to post messages.


I just wanted to make sure that ALL the SharpFans on Yahoo are aware. If you have any other questions, I will do my best to answer them. Send a direct email to me, or via the forum if you feel that an answer will benefit all of us. If you want to call me and talk, I'll give you my cell phone number. I work odd hours, so if I don't answer, please leave a voice mail and a good time to get back to you and I'll do my best.

WB

[Miller Bro's]

Read the whole story:

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/dis ... 6/58842/12

Pretty sick if it is true.

[Robert]

Read the whole story:

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/dis ... 6/58842/12

Pretty sick if it is true.

u got that right sick sick


i hate to see kevin go,He was a pleasure to talk to the few times I have been up there

[bonehead]

IMO What a joke,

The Co. Gets what they deserve when this kind of thing happens. However, not a suprize on my end as I've never been a fan of the show except in my earlier days. It allways seems so artificial. In their program everything seems to be run out of stock and all...... Nice product but an experienced collector can easily read through the lines. Not to Offend anyone here but painfully obvious IMHO sorry. BH

[chetr1200c]

truthfully, at times it was hard to differntiate between cutlery corner and smkw. both do well for china merchandise.

[D.P. Hunter]

Big Difference between Cutlery Corner and SMKW my knife brothers. The fact is that the reach of SMKW is enormous and it crosses many brands. I am all about American knives and one brand in particular. What Steve and SMKW did vastly improved the recognition of our brand and many others.

Those of you who have more knowledge than they distributed may not have been satisfied with their scope in your particular areas of knowledge and interest, and I can accept that. I'm sure they can too, but they were, and are great for our industry. Great for a very broad kindling of interest in knives, and for exposing huge numbers of people to knives they never would have looked at twice before SMKW introduced it to them on TV. Steve was a large part of that - and it remains to be seen if they are going to have quite the reach they had across the brands now that Steve's gone.

Cutlery corner does not, and never will have that kind of brand reach. That's not what they're about.

[chetr1200c]

eric, i totally and 100% agree with you. the operable words i used are, " at times", and i see that you can accept that . otherwise it was a great show to watch and learn. but even with that aspect, now that steve is gone, it will be that much harder to watch, he made the whole show snap to attention with wit and humor.
thats just my, drop in the bucket of having any effect, opinion.

[whitebuffalo58]

I still miss the hoppin' mad hillbilly! Chris could be a bit outspoken on certain subjects, but not by many people that I know. It did seem that the product they offered on the show back then, was always top shelf. About every show, they had atleast a handful of knives that you just weren't gonna find anywhere else. In fact, I think the influx of some of the lower end stuff, had alot to do with why Chris left. He pretty much refused to sell anything that wouldn't be considered the best of the best by collectors. Not diss'n Steve or Tony, but IMHO the show just never was the same after Chris left.

WB

[carrmillus]

..............w.b.58, i agree 100%!!!.....when chris left, it went downhill from there!!!.......... .......

[Elvis]

What a stinking mess! From reading the official papers it seems as though young Mr. Pipes is a spoiled rich kid who believes his sense of entitlement has no bounds. Based soley on what I've read, it would be only fitting if, in the end, SMKW became Parton Knife Works and young Chase does time for rape.

[Robert]

I agree Elvis,I stopped buying from smkw years ago for other reasons but i wont buy nothing from them no more,it just goes to show ya money can make anything disapear ::td::Even when I stopped in there they had a small section for case and other american companies and a huge i mean huge selection of offshore knives

[Elvis]

I too stopped buying from them years ago. It just isn't the kind of place I want to give my business to.

[jmh58]

What a stinking mess! From reading the official papers it seems as though young Mr. Pipes is a spoiled rich kid who believes his sense of entitlement has no bounds. Based soley on what I've read, it would be only fitting if, in the end, SMKW became Parton Knife Works and young Chase does time for rape.

John

[Knife Nut]

If you read the court document pertaining to the case, it eludes to Kevin having a "harem" at smkw that were rewarded with gifts and promotions in exchange for sexual favors.
It sounds like the apple didn't fall to far from the tree.

Paul

[Miller Bro's]

If you read the court document pertaining to the case, it eludes to Kevin having a "harem" at smkw that were rewarded with gifts and promotions in exchange for sexual favors.

Bottom of page 21 into page 22.

[Jigslinger]

Disgusting. If the kid did it I hope he goes to prison, but somehow the law doesn't seem to be applied to the rich the same as it is to the rest of us. How many rich folks have ever been put to death? Not many. As for SMKW, I liked visiting their showplace for the sake of all the knives, but I think they are overpriced. I get my Case knives locally and buy the occassional vintage knife of ebay. Plus I always check out member stores here.

[coffeecup]

From other material found doing a websearch, the victim made the decision to not press charges. The lawsuit was apparently settled out of court.

[knifetime]

The last and one of the few knives I have bought from them was advertised with a leather case and win I got it no case.I called and to make a long story short I was told that it was a mistake in the add and I would not git my case but I could git a refund if I would like
That is not the way to do business,I have never bought anymore knives from them since and I had bought a lot of stuff from theme for the last year or so before that.
Let me say this it was mostly they way they responded to my email and phone calls that did it for me.No costumer service at all.If a guy had bought $500.00 worth of stuff from me in the last few months I would have just sent him the leather case that was advertised with the knife.There loss

[Clark Doc Savage]

I have a couple of questions for Mr. Pipes that I hope he reads here or someone relays to him. As far as Steve Koontz performance, does he realize we have been in one of the worst recessions since the depression? I suppose he never watches the news. Secondly, Steve Kontz was a VP in charge of the televison sales and it has been posted that Mr. Pipes was not happy with sales/perforance. What could Steve do. It seems to me that all he could do was put on products he thought would sell other than that John Stewart produced the show and did the shots of the products. I could see a little more if Stev's job was meeting people face to face as far as performance. Even at that does his time at SMKW of over 20 years helping to build the company mean nothing. I guess not. Performance issue? Does Mr. Pipes think Steve Kontz could reach through the TV set and grab peoples wallets? Perhaps the two remaining hosts are in training to do just that.

[carrmillus]

...it appears to me that of the 3 remaining hosts, jay parker is the only one who comes anywhere near steve as far as knife knowledge goes!!!..the other 2 are comedians!!!...... .......

[Jody744]

The tactical guy (josh?) is very helpful in the store
Last time i was there i was looking for a coast knife
Had about given up after 5 other employees pointed
me to the wrong place. He looked it up in computer
and escorted us to it

[knifetime]

https://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebr ... tack-hell/