A Bad Microtech Experience: Major Lock Issue, Crappy Knife

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dzlvs8

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NOTE: This original post has been modified to show the most current status of the situation. If anyone has any opinions on the situation or any suggestions on how to fix this, please let me know.
Well, I finally bit the bullet and spent (what I consider) the big bucks on a HEC. I got a Microtech Socom Delta. I love it but.....it's behaving worse than a $10 knife from autozone. I am extremely disappointed at the moment. Please help.

Conversation with Microtech:
I called Microtech and they suggested returning the knife. Their service department is DOWN at the moment until the end of June (today is June 4th). They also said that they currenty have a 3-6 week turn around time for knives. ....???? Why shut down the dept if they are behind in knife repairs. Hmmmm, they must mkae a lot of broken knives!
So, when they told me that it would be 2.5 months before they could repair my knife, I told them, "well then you are going to lose a customer". The customer service girl then did not say anything. There was dead silence for about 15 seconds. ...???? At that point, I hung up the phone. :( If this is truly broken, I am pretty sure I am going to quietly back away from high end production knives. ...maybe not so quietly. I have many Benchmades, Spydercos, and Emersons and have never had a knife that just didn't lock up. This is the first high end knife I have purhcased. It may be my last Microtech.

THE ISSUE:
Most of the time the knife locks up at 50% but there are other times when the knife feels less smooth when deploying and then also doesn't lock up or just locks up about 2%. It's so bad that with very light pressure I can close the knife without pushing the lock bar. ...As in, it seriously wont lock.
Please watch the video for details on the issue and how I can make it occur.
[video=youtube;MFHiRFq4TBY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFHiRFq4TBY&feature=youtu.be[/video]

I am EXTREMELY disappointed in this knife. I love the style of it, but the condition of this knife is terrible. Also, the detent is basically non existent and on the first day I already pulled it out of my pocket half open!!! This is my first knife to ever do that. I've heard that the detent has been a problem on many socoms, even going back to the socom elites. How terrible of a knife company do you have to be to not be able to manufacture a knife with a good detent. I can make a knife with a good detent in my garage. Glad I paid $329.99 for this knife. Totally kidding. To me, having issues with the knife not locking is inexcusable in a $330 knife.
I feel like I was ripped off.
 
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That truly stinks that you got a lemon!

I've been a big fan of MT knives for many years but lately I've decided that I won't buy one unless the dealer has a great return policy or I can see it in person first. I came to this decision because 5 out of the last 6 production knives that I bought from them had serious issues. The customs have been very very nice but at this point I just can't afford to collect them.

My advice is to return it to the dealer if possible. If it's been too long then try to contact Hank at MT, he's a stand up guy who'll try hard to make it right for you- at least that's been my experience.

Good luck. The Socom is a fantastic knife, I really hope that they get yours fixed up for you.
 
I own a few MT knives but not a Socom. I believe it is a flipper, right? I notice in your vid that you are using the thumb stud and finger but very little to no wrist action.

If it were an assisted opener I would not expect any wrist action needed.

I had this problem with a $300 Lion Steel and needed some wrist action to get a firm lock up.
 
Original post has been updated with new information after speaking with Microtech. Microtech provided no suggestions on what the problem could be. They had no interest in actually hearing what the problem was and they had no interest in seeing the video demonstrating the problem.
 
Update: Just before calling Microtech, I sent them an email so I could give them the link to the video I made. The email didn't say much besides that I was goign to call. I think they put it together that I was the guy that called earlier. Maybe not. All I know is that the person over the phone seemed like a terrible person to be in customer service. The email response was more thorough. Although, I'm still not sure what I am going to do with the knife.

For reference: Here is the email response I received. Their response more thoroughly described their repair dept situation.


Thank you for contacting Microtech Knives. I apologize that you are having an issue with your knife. We are happy to service it for you. However, at this time, our Service Department is undergoing some transitions and will not be accepting any returns until further notice. We expect the department to be up and running by the end of the month. Please keep checking our website, under support, Return Authorization, for updates. Once we are accepting returns again, there will be a Return Authorization form available. Once that is submitted, we will email you back with an RA # and instructions for the return. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us
 
Why wouldn't they do an exchange if they're that far behind on repairs?

Thanks for posting this, sounds like they need to loose a few customers... just so they can catch up in the service dept.
 
I have never owned one but have sharpened many, all exhibited weak springs, failure to lock, and some of the worst blade geometry I have ever seen.

No reason to back away from high end knives just microtech.
 
If your dealer won't return it then send it to MT....it is what it is...MT has always been the same.

You might try the Hollow Grind, he is a big MT advocate and I remember once he was claiming to be a repair station for MT.
 
Woah. So are you all saying that the blade show knife of the year for 2012 is plagued with lockup issues? I know about the spine whack test that makes the lock fail but are all microtech plagued with a failure to not initially lock up???
Currently, I am leaning leaning towards returning the knife and buying one with a crappier blade steel and a different finish from somewhere else. Not sure if its worth my time to gamble on a second one.
 
I would suggest you have a dealer handle this. In reality, getting this handled is probably going to take months...if it only takes 2-3 months and they fix it on the first go-round, I would be truly amazed.




Jason B. said:
I have never owned one but have sharpened many, all exhibited weak springs, failure to lock, and some of the worst blade geometry I have ever seen.

No reason to back away from high end knives just microtech.
Click to expand...

They have made some models with incredible quality...but zero consistency and sometimes just plain terrible quality and either refusal or inability to fix the problem(s). They are sometimes compared to knives like the ZT0454, 0888, or 0777, which I don't understand as they really fall short of that kind of quality and consistency, IMO.
 
UPDATE: I ended up returning that knife to the dealer. The owner of the store got an attitude with me. I didn't have to fight with him to get it returned but he wasn't happy with me. I told him to show me any other knife in the store that doesn't lock up when you open it and I would keep it. He didn't accept the challenge.

I ended up buying a different socom delta from a different store and the lock up was much more solid. The detent was also a lot better, but I assume that will get weaker over time.
 
You don't have to answer this, but...
Why would you not return the knife the moment you noticed it wasn't what you wanted? I mean, at first glance it appears that you went on chasing your tail emailing, calling, complaining, yet the one thing that could make everything better was your last option. I have 2 Socom Deltas and both have *average* detent, but both lock up solid.

I had an off center blade on one of them. I sent it in after emailing for an RMA number. Every company has their own hoops and hurdles they go through for warranty repairs, they ahve various staffing levels, some companies are huge and others not so much. So after about 15ish years collecting knives, I cannot hold every company to the same standard, because they are all different. My experience was good. I sent the knife in because it was used, quite a bit. No going back to the dealer in my case. 6 weeks later, I got my knife back and everything is a-ok.

I have no idea what is happening at Microtech, but you should know they are a very, very small company. They don't have - 5,000 square foot manufacturing facility with 150-200 employees. Just a guess here, but they may have someone out sick, vacation, people in training, someone got fired, anything you can think of. Shtuff happens, you are old enough to know that. Laurel, the person that is usually in charge of communications for warranty repair was polite and informative when I emailed her. She replied within 24 hours, and gave me a reasonable amount of information. Gyanted, she didn't tell me what step of the repair they were on or offer a play by play; but it would have been a dick move on my part to demand such.

Not sure why the dealer copped a tude with you either, but somfar you ticked off 2 people. Are you sure it was them that started the feather ruffling to begin with? Did you call and act rude or talk down to people? Just asking because there is no way, this is only one side of the story as it usually is. I've read thousands of these types of scenarios and there are always 3 sides to every story. Just saying.
 
RevDevil said:
I have no idea what is happening at Microtech, but you should know they are a very, very small company. They don't have - 5,000 square foot manufacturing facility with 150-200 employees. Just a guess here, but they may have someone out sick, vacation, people in training, someone got fired, anything you can think of. Shtuff happens, you are old enough to know that. Laurel, the person that is usually in charge of communications for warranty repair was polite and informative when I emailed her. She replied within 24 hours, and gave me a reasonable amount of information. Gyanted, she didn't tell me what step of the repair they were on or offer a play by play; but it would have been a dick move on my part to demand such.
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All we have at the moment is what the OP has said. You are right though it's possible he may have acted brazen instead of with a cool head. However that does NOT excuse a company from their responsibilities. In this case: Legal responsibilities.
It's sad how quick we are to judge criminals, yet many criminal activities go on in businesses which are often overlooked and even sometimes defended. I am not saying they are the same in severity or priority, but legal/moral responsibilities are part of a binding contract (sale of a product).

Simplest resolutions for MicroTech:
1. Offer repair.
2. If you cannot repair Exchange.
3. If you cannot exchange, refund.
4. If you cannot refund, exchange for different model.
5. If you cannot exchange for different model, compensate.
6. If you cannot compensate offer store credit for future offerings.
7. If you cannot issue store credit. Just close your doors or stop offering warranties that you will fulfill whenever and only if the mood strikes.

Edit: I know a thing of small companies. Do not give me that poor excuse. There are none for it, specially in production factories.

If anything at all larger companies are harder to work with than smaller. Smaller companies rarely have such a lengthy chain of command that by the time someone higher up hears about it, it's about 5 years later.
 
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I've tried 2 new MT models lately, the DOC and the SCOM Delta. The DOC is perfect, blade centered, lock up, detent, fit and finish. The Delta does have a weak detent, the blade was a hair off center. I ordered a tool to loosen the handle screws, so I could try to center it myself. It wasn't even needed as I found out, just a tiny adjustment to the pivot centered the blade perfectly. Didn't affect the blade tightness at all, it's still dead tight and locks up great. That was great but it leaves me to wonder why MT uses that V shaped (on the inside) Back spacer that shows the blade clearly is centered or not at a glance, then sends so many of their knives out off centered closed? I had a WhaleShark once and sent it back because it too came off center. I've also seen a lot of pictures of MT's with off center blades. Other than that gripe the ones I've handled have had great fit and finish, as well as rock solid lock-up.
 
Luis G. said:
Edit: I know a thing of small companies. Do not give me that poor excuse. There are none for it, specially in production factories.

If anything at all larger companies are harder to work with than smaller. Smaller companies rarely have such a lengthy chain of command that by the time someone higher up hears about it, it's about 5 years later.
Click to expand...

I cannot speak so matter of factly in this case. I simply offered known scenarios for those newer folks that have no realistic concept of knife company size. No one is making any excuses for anything. Maybe reread my last entry for clarification. The bottom line in this is that anyone can speculate until the cows come home, but the truth is we just do not know the real "why" there is a delay in the repair department. I'd even venture a guess to say that a company can and does have the ability to modify their ability to repair/replace/refund anything they'd like at their discretion. Your bullet points are a bit dramatic for this case. I did not once read the OP said Microtech would not repair their issue, rather there is a delay in that area. Crap happens, life going on.
 
Not an excuse but another factor here:

Believe after the Blade Show, MT is moving the Bradford service center back to North Carolina to more consolidate the company.
 
A) I'm guessing since you called it an 'hec' that you watch nutnfancy slobber all over microtech and bought one because of that. That's your fault.

B) the knife of the year in 2012 was the zt0888
 
Scurvy092 said:
A) I'm guessing since you called it an 'hec' that you watch nutnfancy slobber all over microtech and bought one because of that. That's your fault.

B) the knife of the year in 2012 was the zt0888
Click to expand...

That's borderline insulting and trolling.
 
rycen said:
That's borderline insulting and trolling.
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I agree snarkier than usual but still borderline. I don't like the company in question and I don't like when people get duped into buying products because of youtube personalities (not even the ones I like too).

I didn't mean to insult the OP. My issue is more with the company and the reccomender.
 
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