Benchmade AxisLock Spring Failure

Benchmade is simply trying to cover its legal bases with its knife policies. If you don't like their model, vote with your pocketbook. Picking up the shipping cost and offering free part replacement and sharpening is their way of attempting to satisfy their customers. They also replace blades for minimal or no cost.

If you wish to do the work yourself, Benchmade won't try to stop you--you're just not going to get their proprietary parts.
 
Bryan J said:
Benchmade is simply trying to cover its legal bases with its knife policies. If you don't like their model, vote with your pocketbook. Picking up the shipping cost and offering free part replacement and sharpening is their way of attempting to satisfy their customers. They also replace blades for minimal or no cost.

If you wish to do the work yourself, Benchmade won't try to stop you--you're just not going to get their proprietary parts.
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I hear yah. I don't see how legally it could affect them. I can replace parts on my new, under warranty truck if I want to do so. Selling me a spring should not affect them legally in any way that I can see. It seems more of a control factor. If they offered their springs for sale or offered free warranty work the customer could decide. If I damage my knife and send it to them to fix my mistake, they can and should charge me for it.
 
Slowrid-Der said:
I am just having a conversation with the people here. Is that okay?
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I say this with all due respect, but I think what skimo is getting at is that there are dozens of these types of threads popping up. It gives a lot of people the following impressions:
1.) The knives are garbage, and are not well made
2.) This is the norm from the manufacturer at all times
3.) Finally, voicing complaints similar to this (but in a chicken little the sky is falling type of context), is acceptable instead of first making attempts to fix things through the proper channels.

I'm not directly pointing to you, but there have been a slew of threads with a largely negative tone over the last few months. People get whiny, and start whipping others into a frenzy. Usually it's the people that would really be better off collecting plush toys instead of knives. Again, not saying you fit the criteria, but just try to understand where differing opinions come from and why those are shared. Sometimes, there is just cause for a thread where something goes wrong, but lately it seems that weak thumbs, poor manual dexterity, overall lack of common sense, and baby soft skin getting raw makes most of the knives complete and utter defects and is enough to justify slamming the makers/manufacturers. I too wish we could buy spare parts, Kershaw gives them away. Unfortunately, the few knuckleheads that cannot reassemble a knife and have to ship it back in pieces are to blame.
 
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RevDevil said:
I say this with all due respect, but I think what skimo is getting at is that there are dozens of these types of threads popping up. It gives a lot of people the following impressions:
1.) The knives are garbage, and are not well made
2.) This is the norm from the manufacturer at all times
3.) Finally, voicing complaints similar to this (but in a chicken little the sky is falling type of context), is acceptable instead of first making attempts to fix things through the proper channels.

I'm not directly pointing to you, but there have been a slew of threads with a largely negative tone over the last few months. People get whiny, and start whipping other into a frenzy. Usually it's the people that would really be better off collecting plush toys instead of knives. Again, not saying you fit the criteria, but just try to understand where differing opinions come from and why those are shared. Sometimes, the is just cause for a thread where something goes wrong, but lately it seems that weak thumbs, poor manual dexterity, overall lack of common sense, and baby soft skin getting raw makes most of the knives complete and utter defects and is enough to justify slamming the makers/manufacturers. I too wish we could buy spare parts, Kershaw gives them away. Unfortunately, the few knuckleheads that cannot reassemble a knife and have to ship it back in pieces are to blame.
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Wow, I am not understanding how that pertains to me or my issue. I am a huge fan of Benchmade. I simply do not want to send my knife away for something so simple as a broken spring. I have 4 others, two get a lot of action so I will have to endure this again in the future. I think it is a valid point and a worthwhile debate topic.
 
Well, I'm sorry you didn't understand my point. I thought I was pretty clear and concise in what I was saying. Best of luck.
 
Doing the work yourself can lead to more issues which may require more parts that need to be shipped ultimately costing them more cash. Not saying you're too incompetent to fix the knife, but the average knife buyer usually is. Sending it in ensures that their employee with experience will work on the knife making it a cheap and quick problem solved.
 
Just because me, you, and maybe most on this forum could take apart and repalce the spring and put it back in good working order does not mean that everyone can. Many people are idiots out there and would attempt with no direction or know how and end up not putting it together right and then the knife would not funtion properly and somebody would get hurt. Seems many are sue happy these days. I feel for you because you should be able to do it yourself by saying they are not reliable but I will not stop buying BM because of this. At least they are willing to fix it for nothing I know a knife company that won't even sharpen their own knives if you want them to. BM is great production quality with great customer service. And to top it all off they are made in America with american products.
 
When a spring broke on my Ritter Grip, I emailed Benchmade and they sent me a set of Omega Springs, a new pocket clip, and a complete set of screws. Of course I live in the UK at the moment, and don't really have the option to mail it in at all.

As an aside, a broken Omega Spring is no big deal, the knife is still completely functional, it just lacks lock redundancy. Hell, they still work fine with both springs broken too, when you get down to it.

If I lived in the USA, then it would be a negative to have to send it in for such an easy fix, but certainly not enough to make me stop buying them. Benchmade makes my favorite UK illegal knives, and I will stick to hem even when I am back in the USA in a few years.
 
I am fine with Benchmade's warranty policy. put yourself in their shoes. what if they mailed out 1000 omega springs. 20% of those customers do something by accident and damage it further or hurt themselves. You never know. then the company has lawsuits.

vs them saying, send us your knife. we will install the omega spring, sharpen your blade, clean it, and any other warranty service work while its here, then ship you an almost new Benchmade.

Doesn't sound too bad to me.
 
RevDevil said:
Well, I'm sorry you didn't understand my point. I thought I was pretty clear and concise in what I was saying. Best of luck.
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I don't understand because it doesn't make any sense. If people have issues with a product and they are members of a forum that discusses the products and issues, then it makes perfect sense that the issues be discussed. That is what forums are all about.
 
Zookie said:
Doing the work yourself can lead to more issues which may require more parts that need to be shipped ultimately costing them more cash. Not saying you're too incompetent to fix the knife, but the average knife buyer usually is. Sending it in ensures that their employee with experience will work on the knife making it a cheap and quick problem solved.
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I understand that. I do not need them to send it for free. I am totally willing to pay for the part and shipping. If I need additional parts then I accept that also. If I am incompetent and have to send my knife back in pieces for them to repair then I should have to pay for that also. I am not asking for them to take any risks, legal or financial.
 
NJCutter said:
I am fine with Benchmade's warranty policy. put yourself in their shoes. what if they mailed out 1000 omega springs. 20% of those customers do something by accident and damage it further or hurt themselves. You never know. then the company has lawsuits.

vs them saying, send us your knife. we will install the omega spring, sharpen your blade, clean it, and any other warranty service work while its here, then ship you an almost new Benchmade.

Doesn't sound too bad to me.
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Gun companies send springs all the time. How many people get hurt doing back yard mechanics? Benchmade can not be held liable for something you do at home with their product or parts to repair the product. It is owners decision to purchase the product and it is the owners decision to repair the product.
 
I was in the same position but I broke down and sent it in. I spent $6.10 for insured shipping and they replaced all the screws, the pocket clip, fixed my springs, and also sharpened it. They payed for return shipping and I had it back in less than a week. I take all my knives apart from time to time and i'm pretty handy but you won't be disappointed with the service Benchmade does.
 
ajbuckelew said:
I was in the same position but I broke down and sent it in. I spent $6.10 for insured shipping and they replaced all the screws, the pocket clip, fixed my springs, and also sharpened it. They payed for return shipping and I had it back in less than a week. I take all my knives apart from time to time and i'm pretty handy but you won't be disappointed with the service Benchmade does.
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I know that they are a good company. This is the second time this knife is going back to Benchmade. When I first purchased the knife the blade was not centered and it could not be made to be centered. They replaced the blade. I think it was a bad grind. It took two weeks before it was back home. It is going back again. I will look for an alternative because my mini grip gets a lot of use and I will not want to part with it for that long a time.
 
I understand how this can be frustrating for you. Depending on your area, shipping a knife back to the manufacturer can be a pretty tedious and expensive matter.

I ended up getting rid of my Presidio because both Omega springs broke within a few weeks of each other. I sent it in to have the first one replaced, got it back, and the other one followed suit shortly thereafter. I'm sure shipping charges aren't a big deal to you folks who live down the road from Benchmade's factory, but Shipping knives from Ontario, Canada to Oregon, USA isn't friggin' cheap! :grumpy: With the money I wasted paying to ship that knife to the opposite side of the continent, I could have just bought a Kershaw (who don't have a problem mailing replacement parts to customers) :rolleyes:. I bet I've paid well over 60$ just sending faulty Benchmade knives back. Imagine what a European or South American customer would have to pay for shipping, and the wait time involved for them. :eek:

Their policy wouldn't be such a pain in the balls if I could just buy some spare omega springs, or buy replacement parts. I don't really care about voiding the warranty because a) they won't know the difference if you just put the knife back together properly, and b) if the knife is broken and I can repair it myself, it would be much cheaper for me to pay a few bucks for a package of spare parts than to shell out 20$ to ship the knife back to Oregon, only to (potentially) have to repeat the process at some point down the road.

The only other Benchmade product I've bought so far, an Alias, has also had nothing but problems, even after I shipped it back to Benchmade and they 'repaired' it. So, yeah, I can definitely see where the OP is coming from and I, too, am pretty sick of dealing with Benchmade. I don't intend to give them any more of my money. There are plenty of other companies that are willing to help their customers out, so I'm thinking I'll just take my business elsewhere.
 
I could be wrong but isn't the spring wrapped around the lock bar.

It doesn't just slide off and on.

From their standpoint it probably isn't a good idea to let people bend the springs back and forth trying to replace them.
 
Brian Sargent said:
I could be wrong but isn't the spring wrapped around the lock bar.

It doesn't just slide off and on.

From their standpoint it probably isn't a good idea to let people bend the springs back and forth trying to replace them.
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They pop right off. Getting them off and on is trivial.
 
Brian Sargent said:
I could be wrong but isn't the spring wrapped around the lock bar.

It doesn't just slide off and on.

From their standpoint it probably isn't a good idea to let people bend the springs back and forth trying to replace them.
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It does just slide off and on. The spring just 'clicks' into place on the lockbar. No bending necessary (at least, that's how it was on the Presidio I had).
 
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