upnorth I've dealt with too; bought my Gladius from them. Good comms and fast shipping. They didn't have the models I wanted at that time; on and off their goods come and go.
I decided to go 'cheapie' first to start, and ordered a couple of Bucks (Iceman and Stealth Mantis) as shown earlier in this thread. Also bought a cheap United Cutlery knife from them. The cheap knife was from ebay which led me to their online shop where I bought the Bucks.
At first they didn't ship to Singapore (not on their system), and they were kind enough to add it to the list, but did not answer my question about combined shipping. After a couple more emails, they didn't reply so I went ahead and paid for the ebay item + shipping and ordered direct from their store + shipping. Left many notes to tell them to combine and refund me the difference.
But no replies and no word for a month odd... I emailed them every few days, finally someone there said something like "Don't worry, we have not forgotten you and will inform when your order ships"... I was like "Duh?????" after a month odd they still haven't shipped it?
Then later the boss emails with a one liner asking me if I have any idea why the knives were returned to them.
Up till now, I have no idea how they shipped it, when they shipped it, whether they were sent separately or combined and whether I will be getting a refund. All I want now is to get my knives.
They have a mix of good and bad reviews on Bladeforums, so I though to give it a shot, since the value was 'reasonable' too. I guess for expensive knives, no way am I gonna risk buying from them.