Broken (steel) hearted

MVF

MVF

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Messages
2,811
Some of you may remember my joy at receiving my first Busse, a black FSH w/black magnum scales. I was not even overly upset at the inch or two of wire edge, and just figured I would learn to sharpen a convex edge a little sooner than expected.

This is where things start to go downhill. In working on the wire edge, I noticed that the grind was off a bit at the tip. I figured "No problem" having read about the excellent customer service. I made a call, and sure enough they said send it in and we'll fix it. Shipped it to Busse 10/31 insured with a note of appreciation, an explanation of what was wrong, and a request to sharpen it while they had it since I'd read so much about how sharp most people said their knives were when they got them. I also mentioned I sure wouldn't mind a dogtag included on the way back to make up for having to pay shipping for a repair.

Three weeks later 2 calls and messages asking for status went unreturned. After another week, called back and got to speak with Garth (the only one who could give status, I was told), who said the knife was in the grind shop and would ship the next day.

Five days later- JOY! There's the box on the porch!

But wait- it feels awful light-- shake, shake- no rattle, no movement inside- what?? There's a hole in the side of the box!!!! There is no knife! There's the nice little green sticker that says the post office has confirmed delivery of my empty box. And there's the postage mark that's $4 less than it cost me to ship it- oh, that must be because it doesn't say "Insured"!!

My heart drops. My knife is gone. I feel numb.

When my brain starts working again, it only gets worse- if it's not insured, the post office can say they're not liable- and that it was improperly wrapped (the hole in the box shows that it was broken out from the inside). Busse can say they shipped it- and they have the confirmation that it was delivered.

I can't- make that, don't want to- believe that I am out $400 and my knife, but reality just keeps setting in. Can I really be this screwed?
Continued in next post-
 
This is one of my worst nightmares sorry to hear about your loss. I always request anyone shipping me stuff to insure it and I offer to pay for the insurance. Its not that I don't trust the mailman but better safe than sorry...so far safe....knock on wood.
 
Did you email Jerry or try and contact anyone at Busse when you received the package as the mail is not delivered on Sunday? I am sorry if you lost a knife, but I would think that before you aired all this in a public forum you would give them an oppertunity to look into it and/or make things right. This may sound old fashion, but being PC has never been my strong suit.
 
I am sure all of you can feel my pain, and I apologize for putting you through that. Let me put you out of my misery-

I got to the post office just before it closed with the empty box, and it turned out that my knife had been turned in. It was only slightly the worse for wear- a bit of coating missing in a few places around the lanyard hole- about what you'd expect from the knife coming out of the box butt first.

How kucky was that? For me to get it back it had to happen at the local post office AND the person who found it had to turn it in.

Here's my gripes-

-When I opened the box, I found the original cardboard/paper sheath for the blade area, but no extra wrapping had been done (as it had been when I recieved it and when I shipped it) to (a) keep the knife in the sheath, and (b) protect the handle and butt and keep what had happened from happening. Let's see- big piece of metal with sharp corners, thin cardboard box that's probably going to get thrown around pretty good....hmm.

-Why wasn't it shipped insured? When I bought it, it was shipped insured, and when I sent it in, it was shipped insured. If this is policy, I would have appreciated at least the option to have paid to have it insured. This is my almost $400 knife! I am actually kind of amazed that they would treat a customer's property this way.

-Why did it take over a month to do less than 2 hours work on a customer return? I appreciate that they're busy, but in my business, if a customer has to return something due to our mistake, it gets first priority. I wonder how much longer it might have been if I hadn't been calling- do they really have that many returns- or do they just not give them any priority?

-The knife is still not very sharp. Won't shave hair, some places won't even slice paper. Again, in my business (not knives) that would have been the sharpest blade that went out that day. I do realize that some of its adventures after leaving the box could have dulled it but there is no evidence of the edge having been used.

-Not only didn't I get a dogtag to make up for my inconvenience, the long wait, and having to pay for shipping, there was not even a note saying sorry for the inconvenience, or even here's your knife back, thanks for your business. This was after I had been very complimentary and understanding in my letter to them.

Not a gripe per se, but what would've happened if my knife hadn't been at the post office?

And as a final "big boo-hoo"- I now have a brand new premium knife that has just enough damage to not be cherry. Not enough to really do anything about, or need to be fixed, but maybe enough to turn off a collector if I wanted to sell it.

Sorry for all the venting, but this sure doesn't match most of what I've read here. Maybe my expectations were too high, although I would expect better from any company of this stature. Maybe they're just getting too big or too busy to take that much care, but at least Jerry will know what's going on, and hopefully take some steps- at least to make sure they pack the knives better and insure them!
 
MVF said:
I am sure all of you can feel my pain, and I apologize for putting you through that. Let me put you out of my misery-

I got to the post office just before it closed with the empty box, and it turned out that my knife had been turned in. It was only slightly the worse for wear- a bit of coating missing in a few places around the lanyard hole- about what you'd expect from the knife coming out of the box butt first.

How kucky was that? For me to get it back it had to happen at the local post office AND the person who found it had to turn it in.

Here's my gripes-

-When I opened the box, I found the original cardboard/paper sheath for the blade area, but no extra wrapping had been done (as it had been when I recieved it and when I shipped it) to (a) keep the knife in the sheath, and (b) protect the handle and butt and keep what had happened from happening. Let's see- big piece of metal with sharp corners, thin cardboard box that's probably going to get thrown around pretty good....hmm.

-Why wasn't it shipped insured? When I bought it, it was shipped insured, and when I sent it in, it was shipped insured. If this is policy, I would have appreciated at least the option to have paid to have it insured. This is my almost $400 knife! I am actually kind of amazed that they would treat a customer's property this way.

-Why did it take over a month to do less than 2 hours work on a customer return? I appreciate that they're busy, but in my business, if a customer has to return something due to our mistake, it gets first priority. I wonder how much longer it might have been if I hadn't been calling- do they really have that many returns- or do they just not give them any priority?

-The knife is still not very sharp. Won't shave hair, some places won't even slice paper. Again, in my business (not knives) that would have been the sharpest blade that went out that day. I do realize that some of its adventures after leaving the box could have dulled it but there is no evidence of the edge having been used.

-Not only didn't I get a dogtag to make up for my inconvenience, the long wait, and having to pay for shipping, there was not even a note saying sorry for the inconvenience, or even here's your knife back, thanks for your business. This was after I had been very complimentary and understanding in my letter to them.

Not a gripe per se, but what would've happened if my knife hadn't been at the post office?

And as a final "big boo-hoo"- I now have a brand new premium knife that has just enough damage to not be cherry. Not enough to really do anything about, or need to be fixed, but maybe enough to turn off a collector if I wanted to sell it.

Sorry for all the venting, but this sure doesn't match most of what I've read here. Maybe my expectations were too high, although I would expect better from any company of this stature. Maybe they're just getting too big or too busy to take that much care, but at least Jerry will know what's going on, and hopefully take some steps- at least to make sure they pack the knives better and insure them!
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You did not lose a Knife, and you thought this was the appropriate forum/method to tell your story without contacting the company? I may be an a$$hole, but I have more class then that. Jerry would have known what was going on and made things right if you would have simply called/emailed him instead of bad mouthing his Fine Company to the whole world. I was right about my first impression of your original post. :jerkit: I hope my intent has not been lost in the sugar coating of my response.
 
Thanks for the kind thoughts- I should have had part two ready when I posted. Sorry.

The mail came yesterday- I wanted to sleep on it before posting anything.

Yes, I could have waited and tried to talk to somebody at Busse about this, but, so far, out of seven calls to them, I've only had one returned.

And what is there to say, really? I still have a great knife. I don't know how they could replace the little bit of coating that's missing (and obviously, I wouldn't be overly eager to send the knife back again). I certainly wouldn't expect them to replace the knife over something so minor. And, I was going to have to learn to sharpen it sooner or later anyway.

I do think its better for this to be out in the open so that other people can take steps to avoid these problems- if I had read this, I would have requested special packaging and made arrangements for insured shipping. I may not have even bothered to send it back if I hadn't read so many stories about "hair-popping sharp out of the box". I figured they were pros and I was eager to see that good of an edge.

I still believe Busse is a good company and makes a great product. I don't think a little reality check will hurt them, and that was certainly not my intention. If this results in Jerry doing something to avoid anyone else having these problems, so much the better. When I posted originally about receiving the knife with the wire edge, Jerry responded that he'd look into it- he didn't seem upset that it was mentioned in public. Please note that this was posted in the Busse forum- not the general forum.

The issues I experienced are minor ones of execution that just all happened to add up to a near catastrophy. A little better quality control on the knives before they go out, a little better packaging, and some kind of arrangement for insurance are not really big deals. If they happen, great- if they don't, at least people can take steps.
 
MVF said:
Sorry for all the venting, but this sure doesn't match most of what I've read here. Maybe my expectations were too high, although I would expect better from any company of this stature. Maybe they're just getting too big or too busy to take that much care, but at least Jerry will know what's going on, and hopefully take some steps- at least to make sure they pack the knives better and insure them!
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In my estimation (no official bearing mind you) Busse Combat has grown in demand in a very very short period of time the last few years and I am betting there are still many "growing pains" that have to work themsleves out. As for the insurance issue, I don't know. I personally hate to assume anything so if I want to make sure I always ask. If I wanted to be sure it got insured on the way back, I would have asked about it. As for the edge, no one can say what happened to the knife between it having exited the package and it finally ending up in your hand, that issue is probably a draw.

The one point you make is good, Jerry will know what happened and if there is something to be done to keep this happening to another knife in the future, I am sure it will be remedied. One thing I like to keep in mind is that Wauseon is not a sprawling metropolitan area. Given that fact one might infere that Jerry would hire whomever is looking for a job in the community to perform less "skilled" work to free up the "skilled" craftsmen who are doing the grinding and shaping of the knives. After all you wouldn't hire a guy who has been working steel for many years to pack boxes would you? No more than you would take someone who obviously has not the talent or desire to learn the art of knife making to grind blades. I am not saying that the folks Jerry hires to run the shipping room are substandard employees, but as an employer myself I can attest to the fact that it is very, very rare to have a crack group of folks cover every job in the place and keep it running flawlessly 24/7. Jerry sincerely cares about his customers and I would be very surprised if he doesn't take notice of this and address it.
 
Maybe my expectations were too high ...
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I don't think so, mistakes happen, and it is just as important to discuss when you have problems than when you don't. Anything otherwise would just cause the forum to snowball into a pile of useless hype. You have as much right to be critical as someone has to praise.

-Cliff
 
Glad to hear it's been found.Did the person who found it say anything about how/where it was found? :thumbup:
 
Cliff Stamp said:
I don't think so, mistakes happen, and it is just as important to discuss when you have problems than when you don't. Anything otherwise would just cause the forum to snowball into a pile of useless hype. You have as much right to be critical as someone has to praise.

-Cliff
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Cliff I completely agree, but it needs to be to the right person (Jerry) not a public forum for a first complaint about an incident. I have never failed to call/email Jerry without a timely response. Nowhere is it mentioned that that was ever attempted. If the intent is merely to complain as this was, than this is entirely the wrong forum, that's what the GB&U is for.
 
To me this is a completely inappropriate post until you speak to JERRY personally. Mistakes happen, but Jerry will take care of problems, if he knows about them. If you spoke to Jerry and it still wasn't handled correctly (which I seriously doubt) then you should have posted.

I really dislike when people post every thought/assumption/generalization/"what if" that comes to their mind, before they ever speak to Jerry. Not someone just answering the phone, but the person that has their name on the company and makes the decisions.
 
well said Cliff. I see nothing wrong with bringing this up. After all, the people in this forum can help Jerry and the gang keep their quality and service up to par. To many companies rest on their past laurels and let their quality go downhill. We certainly do not want that to happen to Busse and I am sure it won't, at least not until after the HOFBM comes out:jerkit: :jerkit: :jerkit:

Oh, I would like to add that it is hard to contain a Steel Heart, she is vicious and mere cardboard is sometimes not enough. you need a box made of INFI to ship her
 
Eric Isaacson said:
To me this is a completely inappropriate post until you speak to JERRY personally. Mistakes happen, but Jerry will take care of problems, if he knows about them. If you spoke to Jerry and it still wasn't handled correctly (which I seriously doubt) then you should have posted.

I really dislike when people post every thought/assumption/generalization/"what if" that comes to their mind, before they ever speak to Jerry. Not someone just answering the phone, but the person that has their name on the company and makes the decisions.
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OMG Thank You!
 
Cobalt said:
well said Cliff. I see nothing wrong with bringing this up. After all, the people in this forum can help Jerry and the gang keep their quality and service up to par. To many companies rest on their past laurels and let their quality go downhill. We certainly do not want that to happen to Busse and I am sure it won't, at least not until after the HOFBM comes out:jerkit: :jerkit: :jerkit:

Oh, I would like to add that it is hard to contain a Steel Heart, she is vicious and mere cardboard is sometimes not enough. you need a box made of INFI to ship her
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If he would have spoke to Jerry first and didn't get any satisfaction then he could have posted. Until then everything is speculation
 
It is not fair or correct to publicly attack a man's business/livelihood without at least giving him the oppertunity to make things right. :thumbdn:
 
Eric Isaacson said:
To me this is a completely inappropriate post until you speak to JERRY personally. Mistakes happen, but Jerry will take care of problems, if he knows about them. If you spoke to Jerry and it still wasn't handled correctly (which I seriously doubt) then you should have posted.

I really dislike when people post every thought/assumption/generalization/"what if" that comes to their mind, before they ever speak to Jerry. Not someone just answering the phone, but the person that has their name on the company and makes the decisions.
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I have to concur with the learned Hog from Kentucky. Jerry would have been the very first call to make.
 
Just my two cents. I think you should have emailed what you posted here to Busse Combat first. They at the very least have the right to resolve the issue prior to your venting. Investigation prior to contempt.

Having done that and you received the same attention you say you got the first time around, then perhaps a post with less assumptions would be appropriate.

Not all my Busse knives have come hair popping sharp. They have come very sharp but I don't believe that it's possible to get every single knife to the same degree of sharpness. Some knives from other companies have come to me dull, so if Busse Combat can get their knives very sharp, as they are, I would have to say they're doing better than most.

Good luck with your knife and I'm glad it wasn't lost.
 
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