Would you buy a knife made by a racist who rapes children? Probably not? I imagine most people would choose to avoid such products. That's taking it to an extreme, but it serves to illustrate a point. Take it far enough and you will find that reputation and ethics do matter. It's simply a matter of how much people will tolerate before they say enough is enough and won't purchase a product from an individual or company.
Even if we completely ignore that, "Strider" aka Mickey Burger knives have a horrible reputation for customer service and fixing problems. Most notably their insane $25 return shipping charge as I mentioned in my earlier post. $25 to ship a knife back to a customer. There are way too many negative threads about the company for it all to be coincidence or "hate" or "biased opinions".
Your opinion is biased because you want to remove pertinent information from the discussion. Knives are made by people. If the people who make them are convicted felons, liars, and practice unprofessional and shady business practices, all of that factors into the knife and the experiences a customer will have owning and using the knife.
There are way too many companies out there that have integrity to waste any time on companies run by unscrupulous individuals who produce sub-par products and fail to meet basic customer service standards.
How is my opinion biased? In my initial post I listed simple facts about the Strider SMF, and aspects of it that were good and bad. I did not make the knife out to be amazing because it isn't and I know that. At the same time, I'm not going to say I don't like the knife, just because after I bought it I found out the owner was shady. As for the warranty, I also stated that I have no experience with their warranty service. If it costs $50 for round trip shipping, I really don't care. I paid 10x's that for the knife, and if it gets me a working knife again I'm happy. But again, I have no experience with them and will not base my opinion off of what people on the forums say, as usually negative publicity is emphasized 10x's over good publicity.
I simply collect knives, I like my SMF, and I said so in my original post. I kept it objective and gave the OP what he wanted to know. He asked for info about Strider knives, and Hinderer knives. So I told him about the knives, not the politics surrounding them. You don't have to like Steve Jobs to like an iPhone, so why should I have to like Mickey Strider to like his knives? If you have handled a Strider Knife before, and didn't like it, that's totally cool and it really doesn't bother me. But when someone, who has never owned or handled a Strider (NOT SAYING YOU SPECIFICALLY) says "Don't buy Strider, Mick Strider is shady, and the people on the forums say the warranty sucks." that is just ridiculous.
Lastly, how does Strider produce a "sub-par product"? And just because they over-charge for shipping, why does that mean they "fail to meet basic customer service standards"? Please direct me to the "United States of America Customer Service Standards" Act. Do some companies have better CS than Strider? Yes. But I do believe that they produce a product which is on par with CRK or ZT.
I'm not a Strider fan boy, nor am I trying to defend what Mick Strider did. I simply own One of their products, and truly believe it to be a quality product (YES you pay a little extra for exclusivity). Do I like Mick Strider? No, but I do enjoy my SMF. And in the end, isn't that all that matters? We all like knives, we don't have to like the people who make them though.
