Since I am in the commenting mode from another thread I will jump in here with my 20+ years of hard Buck knocks.
Buck puts its promise of satisfaction in writing. Feel free to call the Customer Service 800 number, speak kindly but give your opinion to your complete satisfaction. If you don't contact Buck how do they know bad stuff is being sold. You will send it back to the seller and they may just throw it in a big box to sell as is. Or re-stock it and sell it to someone else.
I realize many high rise urban, busy life, rural or cross border wilderness people have to 'order' knives from stores that do that type of selling business, I have done that myself. But, if you are wanting every detail without fault, and you are able to actually buy a knife over the counter in a store that is what I would do. As I complained about in another thread, that is also why I dislike the industry direction of clear clam packs that make carefully looking at a knife difficult. Large chain stores require that type of packaging. Mail order stores and large chain stores do not inspect the products stocked.
A Buck representative would tell you they seek every knife leaving the factory to be perfect. But, all adults know that just ain't gonna happen when you are make 300.000 or more of one knife model a year. I have tweeked small Vantages myself to center the blade, but not everyone has that desire to buy a knife that you have to work on. The bent liner is a problem that could easily be made worse by a owner trying to fix it. If I bought that knife at a yard sale for ten dollars I would likely give it a go and hope I didn't make things worse. You should not have to work on it yourself, Buck should have caught that on inspection before boxing it. I have handed Bucks back across store counters and said 'let me see another one'. That we order things makes that more difficult but everyone should expect that if you get something defective you have to work some more to get it corrected. I would like to hear about no problems but this type of issue is also a result in keeping costs down in pressures of production line quotas and cost cutting by cutting the number of people handling the knife.
You can say you have had a disappointment and had enough. For every frustrated Buck knife buyer you will get a dozen or more that are happy. No company walks on water. We share your disappointment and would like to hear you were able to feel good, one way or the other...... 300Bucks
