Benchmade Company Question?

[SHADOW84]

What it basically boils down to is how bad you want a paticular model or brand knife will weigh on how many "hoops" your willing to jump through... And let me suit up and put my flame suit on before I finish........... You can call be a BM fanboy but I love there products there customer service is the best in the business along with class A products and quality... I much prefer them over any other brand of knife made.. Yeah Spyderco's and Kershaws are nice.. But just not my cup of tea... I feel that some people are blowing this thing way out of proportion if ya dont like there new pricing policy system then dont buy there knifes!!! Its as simple as that... But for me they still have me as a loyal customer... :thumbup:

 

[Spade115]

What it basically boils down to is how bad you want a paticular model or brand knife will weigh on how many "hoops" your willing to jump through... And let me suit up and put my flame suit on before I finish........... You can call be a BM fanboy but I love there products there customer service is the best in the business along with class A products and quality... I much prefer them over any other brand of knife made.. Yeah Spyderco's and Kershaws are nice.. But just not my cup of tea... I feel that some people are blowing this thing way out of proportion if ya dont like there new pricing policy system then dont buy there knifes!!! Its as simple as that... But for me they still have me as a loyal customer... :thumbup:

Honestly, I agree, I dont jump through any more "hoops" as I do to get a good price on any other knife/brand. I found a knife I liked (13100) and made one phone call to a company and got the price right away. Thats it. no big deal no worries. If I have to email someone. then I have to email someone, not exactly time consuming. I like benchmade a lot and still plan to purchase several of their knives. (when found)

 

[Alann45]

Ripping part of a sentence out of context. How classy!

I don't care what point he was making, I used his data to make mine.

That better? Doesn't change my response at all. I avoided commenting that no point had been made...oh wait, I just did comment.

Guess you're insulting my class is classier.
My compliments.

 

[greater]

Benchmade is a great company hands down. I once pulled out my Endura to so off my awesome knife and fellow knife fan pulled out a 710 and stopped the show.

The internet has change the way we buy products. The way companies produce, wholesale and retail products is different these days and Benchmade has made changes to respond to the times. I live in a city that has seen many cutlery stores close due to unfair competition and someone should do something to stop this trend.

I can honestly say that Benchmade's pricing policy has defiantly encouraged me to purchase knives at my local brick and mortar store. And to all guys that go to a store to feel knives and turn around and go purchase them online, stop and think about the guys trying to make a living selling those knives that store. Thats what Benchmade did.

You have made a good point maybe Benchmade has chosen to do the right thing in a season when it is unpopular.
However I would like to know more about the big picture.

 

[greater]

This is quite the complex issue really... I see strong points from both points of view. Yes it is nice and convenient to order from huge online retailers and pay as little as possible for the same product however I do think that saving brick and mortar stores is also a very good thing. Its funny really how people complain all day long about how all industries are moving overseas and that America is losing all of its jobs but when someone actually stands up and does something about it they don't get the support that they should. This is actually an extremely brave thing that Benchmade is doing and they are doing it all at once. They're moving ALL they're manufacturing to US soil AND implementing this new MAP policy. It really is a great thing for helping our fellow american jobs however it could be argued that they are moving forward with these new business changes too quickly. My honest opinion is that it is a good thing that will help many a budding cutlery store however it also may well decrease the sales from uneducated online knife buyers. Good luck in your quest Benchmade!

Benchmade love them or hate them but this sounds like they are making an honest stand where most fear to tread.

 

[greater]

I have close to 400 Benchmades in my collection and F&F on any one of them is just perfect or close to. I have a VERY hard time believing the above post.

Call me a fanboy, but the fact remains. Not once did I encounter a problem with any of my BMs.

This has been my experience too although I don't own 400 Benchmades none of the ones I do own are anything but top quality for the most part. They are not junk dealers that is for sure.

 

[cziv]

My roommate loved the aesthetics of their Kulgera model, and he ended up having the knife replaced three times for terrible blade play and off center blades when closed before he gave up and got a refund. Before that, he tried a 710 D2 that suffered the same issues. The blade play was so bad in one of them that you could shake the knife, when fully open and locked, and hear the blade rattling around. That's some of the worst quality I've ever seen in a $100+ folder.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=715486

Post #1 And #6 - plus when taking out the pivot screw for cleaning, I found that the bottom half was not coated (or rusted?)

$130 knife from a recommended dealer never used! Same thing with a new 940 Osborne S30V plain edge, just received! ARRGHHH!

 

[illumination]

A vendor has employees that are at the store working. How is them picking up the phone costing them money exactly? Answering the phone/ email is part of doing business. Yeah they might have to stop doing something to pick up the phone, but that isn't going to change the hours that are worked.

I take it that you do not run a business. Employees are a finite resource. The point here is that employees will spend time on unproductive tasks like giving price quotes to customers that are calling a half dozen or more stores for the best price instead of on productive things like discussing features with customers, restocking shelves, etc. On the margin this could easily cost more because your employees will need to complete their other tasks at another time or you may need more help to get everything done. You comment only makes sense if the employees are not productive during the day (ie, they just stand around with nothing to do) -- but that is a bad place to be if you are a business owner.

 

[jop91]

Are they playing hard to get?

 

[Bill_Mead]

While I am not sure I totaly understand Benchmades reasoning, I am not concerned with the new policy. I don't have the number of Benchmades some of the folks here have, but I have more than a few and have not had any issues. Bottom line, I still like their products and will continue to purchase them.

 

[Sep]

It's all smoke and mirrors, though. Any knowledgeable knife enthusiast knows that Kershaw and Spyderco are at least on par with Benchmade in terms of quality. Chirs Reeve, they are not.

It comes off pretentious, to me.

Online knife enthusiasts are just a small part of Benchmade's customer base. I dare say that we're just a small part of ANY manufacturer's customer base. If people out there buy nothing but what we recommend, Gerber/Fiskars would have been out of business a long time ago.

Benchmade is willing to give up on us in order to cultivate a more exclusive brand. IMHO they never really cater to the online knife nut crowd to begin with; quite opposite to Spyderco's approach.

Pretentious? There's a LOT of pretentious people out there looking for exclusive brands to support their ego. This kind of people don't mind spending a lot of money to support their image. Sounds like a good crowd to sell to.

You know, I agree 100% with that, but I was afraid to say it. Someone said a few posts up, "I hope someone at BM reads this and responds." I say don't hold your breath; their ego is too big for that.

BM makes a damn nice knife. I don't think anyone can deny that. But this is going to, unfortunately, cause me to refrain from buying their products. If they decide to change their minds, I won't hesitate to change mine either, simple as that.

They don't care what forumers think, because the kind of people they're now targeting don't frequent online knife forums.

On a different note: Somebody mentioned that maybe Benchmade is doing this to support brick and mortar stores. I don't believe that for one second. It has everything to do with cultivating an "exclusive" image and nothing to do with the goodness of their hearts.

Think of Louis Vuitton and Coach. They're not custom, but they're high-end and can command high prices. This is where Benchmade wants to be.

 

[Doc Pringles]

It's all smoke and mirrors, though. Any knowledgeable knife enthusiast knows that Kershaw and Spyderco are at least on par with Benchmade in terms of quality. Chirs Reeve, they are not.

It comes off pretentious, to me.

Your funny
Sure there are companies equal in price and value. So buy from them. It’s healthy and contributes to competition. However you appear to have a beef with Benchmade. If you were honest I could respect that. We all have a beef with one thing or another. Credibility shot.

My roommate loved the aesthetics of their Kulgera model, and he ended up having the knife replaced three times for terrible blade play and off center blades when closed before he gave up and got a refund. Before that, he tried a 710 D2 that suffered the same issues. The blade play was so bad in one of them that you could shake the knife, when fully open and locked, and hear the blade rattling around. That's some of the worst quality I've ever seen in a $100+ folder. Needless to say, he is no longer a Benchmade customer, despite his first quality folder being a very nice Switchback model that he loved for years.

No need to tell tall tales to make your point.

 

[Doc Pringles]

I can't stand BM, and that's still the dumbest thing I've read all day.

A lot of knife companies have similar practices, and worse. Look at Busse, CRK, ZT, Randall and many others.

Yeah, it's annoying for a mid-level company to make you work a little harder to find a good price, but it's far from customer abuse, and it's only a few minutes more effort if you are interested in one of their models. I never just buy a knife on the fly, anyway. I take a week or so to investigate pricing and do research regardless of the brand.

Yes, it is a little silly and annoying, but the exaggeration is a bit much.

I missed this before I posted. You are honest. You do have issues with Benchmade.

As far as pricing goes. On Jan 1st I started a thread crying the blues about Benchmades pricing. It took about 5 days before it all came together. I read the simple instructions on the web sites for pricing. It took most sites (not all) some time to set up alternative ways to give knowledgeable Benchmade customers the regular prices quickly. In fact, you don’t even have to go through the check out process or phone calls etc to get pricing. Just ask your favorite online dealers what their percentage off MSRP is for you.

It’s easy and it takes me less time to figure out that I spent too much last year on knives. No new knives until old knives paid off.

Thank you

 

[mmarkh]

Online knife enthusiasts are just a small part of Benchmade's customer base. I dare say that we're just a small part of ANY manufacturer's customer base. If people out there buy nothing but what we recommend, Gerber/Fiskars would have been out of business a long time ago.

Benchmade is willing to give up on us in order to cultivate a more exclusive brand. IMHO they never really cater to the online knife nut crowd to begin with; quite opposite to Spyderco's approach.

Pretentious? There's a LOT of pretentious people out there looking for exclusive brands to support their ego. This kind of people don't mind spending a lot of money to support their image. Sounds like a good crowd to sell to.



They don't care what forumers think, because the kind of people they're now targeting don't frequent online knife forums.On a different note: Somebody mentioned that maybe Benchmade is doing this to support brick and mortar stores. I don't believe that for one second. It has everything to do with cultivating an "exclusive" image and nothing to do with the goodness of their hearts.

Think of Louis Vuitton and Coach. They're not custom, but they're high-end and can command high prices. This is where Benchmade wants to be.

I don't know that to be the case. If they didn't care what forumers think why would they have a Gold Class? The problem here is some on this board seem to have an agenda. Slam Benchmade and prop up other popular companies. I don't know if they work for these companies or what but their feelings are too strong to not raise eyebrows.

 

[SHADOW84]

The problem here is some on this board seem to have an agenda. Slam Benchmade and prop up other popular companies. I don't know if they work for these companies or what but their feelings are too strong to not raise eyebrows.

Agreed...

 

[cziv]

Originally Posted by mmarkh
The problem here is some on this board seem to have an agenda. Slam Benchmade and prop up other popular companies. I don't know if they work for these companies or what but their feelings are too strong to not raise eyebrows.

Not me, I love Benchmades and have a bunch of them, but the last two I got, (one just coming in day before yesterday and going back for an exchange), have had the blades loosely flopping around inside the handles (both of them).

One has a weird discoloration right smack in the center of the blade, like a thumbprint that won't come off. The other one, that's going back, has an unfinished pivot screw, the loose blade (as described above) and when tightened to the point of being undeployable with the thumbstud, there's still something that rattles in the pivot area if I shake it.

I asked for it to be inspected before it was shipped and they obviously missed the blade ready to fall out and the unfinished screw. I had to pay for another one to be shipped while my return for exchange processes. I am assured (was told that I would be sent a quality, inspected knife again).

Other than these two, all of my Benchmades, 8 of 'em are excellent pieces of work. I'm a blue collar type of guy so my BM's are all Blue Class, which BM advertises as "excellent."

Just ask your favorite online dealers what their percentage off MSRP is for you

Not baiting the poster, but how do you do this w/o calling or emailing? I've found one vendor who will change the price at the cart and another who gives a coupon, but that's it.

 

[J85909266]

I missed this before I posted. You are honest. You do have issues with Benchmade.

As far as pricing goes. On Jan 1st I started a thread crying the blues about Benchmades pricing. It took about 5 days before it all came together. I read the simple instructions on the web sites for pricing. It took most sites (not all) some time to set up alternative ways to give knowledgeable Benchmade customers the regular prices quickly. In fact, you don’t even have to go through the check out process or phone calls etc to get pricing. Just ask your favorite online dealers what their percentage off MSRP is for you.

It’s easy and it takes me less time to figure out that I spent too much last year on knives. No new knives until old knives paid off.

Thank you

I said multiple times in this thread that I don't like them as a company, and even said why: I don't like the way they treat their peers in the knife community, nor their high and mighty attitude.

The Kulgera story is true, as well, four or five models handled, all of them with bad blade play and off center blades. I also said that I realize that this is not indicative of their entire product line.

Being called a liar is extremely annoying, but I guess there isn't much I can do about in an online forum.

 

[cziv]

I said multiple times in this thread that I don't like them as a company, and even said why: I don't like the way they treat their peers in the knife community, nor their high and mighty attitude.

The Kulgera story is true, as well, four or five models handled, all of them with bad blade play and off center blades. I also said that I realize that this is not indicative of their entire product line.

Being called a liar is extremely annoying, but I guess there isn't much I can do about in an online forum.

Spot on J85909266! :thumbup:

You're no liar, the two vendors that sold me the 710 and the 940 tried to act like I was full of s*** but in my post right above, I got two real stinkers in a row from BM authorized dealers. These are models that have been time tested and I've already owned, but the new ones are crap by comparison. I got the 710 straightened out and if the 940 return works out, I'm sticking to Spydercos and maybe looking around for something nice, well made - that I've not tried before.

 

[Sep]

I don't know that to be the case. If they didn't care what forumers think why would they have a Gold Class? The problem here is some on this board seem to have an agenda. Slam Benchmade and prop up other popular companies. I don't know if they work for these companies or what but their feelings are too strong to not raise eyebrows.

Uh, if they're moving toward the boutique market, the high priced gold class is an indispensable part of that strategy.

I don't have a problem with Benchmade's marketing strategy, a company must have a marketing strategy to survive. Making your brand look more exclusive is probably one of the oldest marketing trick in the book, so I can't blame Benchmade for doing it.

It's been very interesting for me to watch the 3 high-quality knife manufacturers position themselves in the market.

• KAI USA is moving into the Wal-Mart crowd, so much that they even begin selling knives here made in China, which is a departure from their previous "made in usa" only strategy. In this spot they're competing head on with Gerber, and knowing Gerber's quality (or lack of) Kershaw is poised to win. They might downgrade the Kershaw brand by associating with Wal-Mart, but it's no big deal since they have Zero Tolerance brand for the upper market.
• Since Kershaw is moving down, it's makes perfect sense for Benchmade to move up. They must feel crowded down there with Kershaw and Gerber. They discontinue their china made Red Line to be USA exclusive. You see the see-saw here?
• Spyderco is the company for knife aficionados and steel snobs (a.k.a. forumites). They aim to make highly usable high quality knives with less regard toward the general population's taste.

I personally disregard their marketing and buy only the knives that I like. As long as the price/performance makes sense and the design fits my need or my fancy, I will buy it.

 

[Neo]

They don't really discontinue their red line but relabel it to Harley-Davidson knives.
Benchmade an all American brand with no conections oversea