Battle Mistress Again

Cleaner,
Believe me, I do understand that long waits are frequently necessary in a custom order, as I've mentioned before that's not the entire issue.
My field is more guns than knives, and back when Shiloh Sharps, for instance, had a five-year wait for delivery on their custom rifles I had no interest. When they re-arranged their ordering, production, and delivery process to cut that to less than one year, I bought one. That was a $2000 rifle. I'm no stranger to custom orders, I'm not independently wealthy like most of you here ( ;) ) but I do have several custom guns that run over $1000. In each case I was told up front about the process & given an approximate time frame. I didn't & don't expect to-the-minute time quotes, or to have them hold.
I do expect them to be in the ballpark, and I do expect to be told when I can at least order an item. Constant references to what appears to be a company's flagship item should be accompanied by some sort of production schedule, and not constantly put off into the un-forseeable future by the introduction of multiple lesser items. Again, just my opinion. :)
I also expect knowledgeable people to give me good info when I call on a delay. When my FSH ran way over, I made several calls to the company, not one was answered by anybody who seemed to have a clue about where production or shipping was until Jerry finally got involved at the end. Which I did appreciate. I even confirmed my order was still in & valid with one lady, ten minutes later another lady called to say they had no record of my order. Everybody I talked to was very courteous, just nobody seemed to know what was going on.

Jerry,
Again, you certainly don't need to explain your production & marketing to me, but you're right when you say it's difficult for the occasional or limited buyer.
Your Store items involve minute by minute monitoring for the high demand products, I don't have the time.
No amount of cool new blade designs gets me the one single blade I want from Busse, if it never shows & nobody can even tell me when to look for it.
Glad your company is doing well, you seem to be satisfyling a majority somewhere, I'm just not in it. :D

Seth,
I fully understand Busse is not like other companies, I pointed it out myself. I mentioned them as examples of regular production knives. I also mentioned I understand the regular full custom business. I was pointing out that Busse falls somewhere in between. I also understand the quality, that's why I'm trying to buy something from them.
Very simply, I can't buy it if they don't make it & won't tell me when they will.
I also understand what I was suggesting would involve expanding production facilities, that's why I mentioned the expenditure of investment funds.
I understand everything you said.
Bottom line for me: I can't get the knife, can't get an estimated production date, and I've lost interest.
Great product, nice company people, fun family forum. :thumbup:
But, I'm here to buy & I can't buy. So I buy elsewhere. :)
Denis
 
I believe the reason you arnt told when knives are comming is for two reasons:

1) They dont really know themselves... :D

2) If they do tell, and something happens, like a big military order, and the knives are delayed, many people would get very angry.

Anyway, enjoy watever knife you end up with.
 
In real plain English:
If it's been made you can get it. You're not the first person to come this forum and complain. I don't see how the Busse Co. is any different than Benchmade or Spyderco or Microtech or Kershaw or Camillus. Do you know how often those companies stick to their release dates? Not real often. In fact, they usually just say we'll release it sometime this year.
If is hasn't been made yet, don't count on it being available, but if it has been made you should be able to get one as long as you're not too picky about the color. Or just get an eHandle. If you can't get a specific model, you can probably get one really close. Can't get an EU-17, okay, get a Steel Heart, Can't get an AD, okay, you can always get a Leaner Meaner. The fact is there ARE Busses out there for the having. And if you don't like something specific about a knife, you can always have another maker custom alter it for you, foretunatly, Busses have big parts that can be custom altered.
Be open minded. We can and will help you if you have questions, but you're really not accomplishing anything.
 
WM,
I am generally fairly openminded, just venting my two cents' worth of frustration in a non-threatening way, and including a liberal use of smilies to try to re-inforce that. :) :) :)
When a product requires too much effort to acquire, I don't acquire it.
As noted, when I've asked questions of the company, they seem to be unable to answer them. When I ask questions here, same.

Dr. Thor,
Thanks for the good luck wishes.

Merry New Year, all. :)
Denis
 
The problem is that you keep buying BMs left and right. There aren't any for the piglets.
 
DPris said:
Cleaner,
Constant references to what appears to be a company's flagship item should be accompanied by some sort of production schedule, and not constantly put off into the un-forseeable future by the introduction of multiple lesser items. Again, just my opinion. :)

I also expect knowledgeable people to give me good info when I call on a delay. When my FSH ran way over, I made several calls to the company, not one was answered by anybody who seemed to have a clue about where production or shipping was until Jerry finally got involved at the end. Which I did appreciate. I even confirmed my order was still in & valid with one lady, ten minutes later another lady called to say they had no record of my order. Everybody I talked to was very courteous, just nobody seemed to know what was going on.
Click to expand...

theres not much i can add to that... at my work we make custom blacksmithed light fixtures, that are first forged, then fabricated, then zinc oxide coated, then powdercoated, then sent to my department where they are painted, wired, assembled, packed and shipped.

i work in the assembly department, and i know all about missing parts, mixed up and incorrect information, incorrectly fabricated parts and incredibly difficult to wire designs. all of wich is just do to bad information management. without a centralized computer system that has stations in every shop area that people actively use to update the system on order information, you are left to the memory of the peoply who worked on it. wich is both frustrating and unreliable... its an honest complaint.



DPris said:
Jerry,
Again, you certainly don't need to explain your production & marketing to me, but you're right when you say it's difficult for the occasional or limited buyer.
Your Store items involve minute by minute monitoring for the high demand products,
Click to expand...

for whatever its worth, the line doesnt really need minute by minute updates as each set of models is up for 6 weeks at a time (sometimes longer). if you check in once a month, you should be able to catch all of the models as the come and go.
 
DPris said:
I am generally fairly openminded, just venting my two cents' worth of frustration in a non-threatening way, and including a liberal use of smilies to try to re-inforce that. :) :) :)
Click to expand...
Okay, but please keep in mind what I said about how most big companies handle their release dates. Sorry if I sound rude.
 
PoorGuy said:
The problem is that you keep buying BMs left and right. There aren't any for the piglets.
Click to expand...
Well said!!!

When people buy knives the second they see them, regardless of what they are and wether they already have one like it, then it makes buying them by the average person a hell of a lot harder than it should be
 
PoorGuy said:
The problem is that you keep buying BMs left and right. There aren't any for the piglets.
Click to expand...

Whoops, I forgot to add a smiley after my reply to cobalt. I was kidding about that. I can't fault Cobalt for grabbing BMs left and right - I'd do the same if I had the means. Besides, at $700 per knife, there are a precious few that can make the leap when they come up at all.

PLUS, when I eventually have enough for an earlier BM, I'll know who's door to knock on. :D
 
I haven't seen any of you guys posting in the WTB section for a BME. You could probably get one for around $400.
Actually, I take that back. I have seen a couple of people post asking for this sort of thing, and you know what? They are getting what they're asking for. I can understand the desire to get an SHBM, but anyone who complains about not being able to get a BM is wrong. They are out there.
 
Walking Man said:
I haven't seen any of you guys posting in the WTB section for a BME. You could probably get one for around $400.
Actually, I take that back. I have seen a couple of people post asking for this sort of thing, and you know what? They are getting what they're asking for. I can understand the desire to get an SHBM, but anyone who complains about not being able to get a BM is wrong. They are out there.
Click to expand...

that is right, there are plenty BM's out there being sold daily. There was one BM-E that being traded. Not sure if it is gone but I am on the list for that one. They come up all the time, you just have to be patient. I have seen probably 30 BM's come up for sale in the last 5 months. Anyone who tells me they can't find one isn't working hard enough to try and get one. If you can't afford one then that is another story all together.

Frankly, antone who has done their research knows that ordering from Busse will not net them a knife immediately. Buying second hand will. So shouldn't we all get the Dpris discount then since we all have to wait the Loooonnng periods even though we are continually quoted 2 weeks.:D
 
WM,
You don't sound rude, no apology needed.
As a parting comment, let me say ( :) ) without intending any rudeness on my part, that most of the regulars here are brand-loyal to an extreme. That's fine & great. You guys have a passion for Busse knives, for whatever reasons, that I've rarely seen anywhere else for any product. Jerry has produced a quality product and worked hard to build a family relationship among his dedicated market that's a PR marvel in itself, and one that could be taught as an example in Economics 101.
I've said all the way along that I don't quarrel with the quality. :thumbup:
From your viewpoint, as die-hard Busse fans, long waits for new blades & extended efforts to find secondary-market samples are worth whatever it takes because of that passion. Again, fine & dandy, for you.
For the one or two time buyer, it's not so fine. Jerry is selling everything he can produce, fine for him and the company (and I mean that :thumbup: ). That's the goal in any business, to sell the product. But, in making the production schedule & availability so variable that it essentially limits the market to hard-core buyers, to an appreciable degree, that's again not so fine for the one or two time buyer. Jerry obviously doesn't have to concern himself with people like me when he can sell his products very successfully to people like you. That's just a matter of simple business reality, and it works for the company and the majority of his market. No company can satisfy every potential customer, no customer has the right to expect that.
You're absolutely right, if I wanted a Battle Mistress bad enough I could chase one down. Three factors intervene- I'm not totally averse to used but do prefer new (in certain things I have something of a snobbish "First Owner" attitude and this is one where I can exercise it since it's not an item I really have to have), I understood the new ones (if they ever show up) would probably be a more evolved version (I could be mistaken), and I'm a fairly busy guy who doesn't need or want the knife bad enough to haunt sales sites or Ebay for a used one. We all have obstacles to true happiness in life, those are mine in this case. :D
Part of my purpose in starting this thread, aside from venting frustration, was to try to generate some more info on when the knife will be taking orders. I got no response to the question from the company by email, past experience leaves me doubting the ability of the telephone gals to give me any useful info (no offense intended to them since they can't pass on info they don't get themselves :) ), and I've posted a request here for info a couple times that got nothing useful. I had hoped this one might generate something more specific from Jerry. "More cool blades" and another hint doesn't help. :confused:
Another aspect is that I'd originally considered including Busse products in print, but it's hard to do that on items that have such vague cycles of availability. I was able to get a piece on the Swamp Rat Desert Battle Rat into a feature article because (at the time) readers could order a regular production knife and expect to get it. With Busse knives, it tends to turn off many potential first time buyers who read a good review, build up some interest, and then read at the end that they may have to wait a year or more to just order one, and the actual production schedule is totally unknown. Yes, there is a certain percentage who will maintain the interest through to purchase point, but the majority most likely won't. It's not like a genuine custom knifemaker who works with a smaller core offering and can tell a customer up front "You can order today, send a deposit, and my backlog right now is six to eight months, with maybe a month or two fudge factor" to get the ball rolling. People can't even get the process started without waiting for a knife to rotate around, and nobody knows when that might even approximately be. Another factor to consider is that most of us here on Internet forums tend to forget not everybody has a computer, or access to one, to try to keep up on what's going on with Busse production, or to keep checking the Busse site, or to keep checking other sources. Again, if the only other source of info they have is to call the company, most will drop out of the game after several long distance phone calls just continue to get them an "I don't know" response.
I may still get the FSH into print, but if I do it'll be as a side product in another article & not heavily covered. Most likely more to illustrate the excellent Leatherman sheath it rides in. The new Battle Mistress is now out of the picture.
I mean no sarcasm in anything I've said, and intended no insult to anyone here. I do not quarrel with the quality, I do not quarrel with your passion, I do not quarrel with your support group, I do not criticize the demeanor of anyone I've ever talked to at Busse, and Jerry can run the place anyway he wants to. It's his business, and if he's making the kind of money out of it that he's happy with, then all else is secondary. :D Money rules.
My only complaint is availability, and from your viewpoint that's largely irrelevant. From mine, it's relevant.
Thanks for the discussion. :)
Denis
 
Hey Dpris, did you order an FBM?

smile.gif
 
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