Dear TOPS Knives, Please hire someone who knows English to describe your products.

squints said:
I stand corrected XD
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Yeah but it's no problem since its clear what you meant
TOPS on the other hand... Sure it's clear what they meant, but good writing says good things about a company professionally, but apparently most people here do not mind and find it insulting to point it out. Given the context though, I say TOPS is doing fine. Knife makers and companies in general are not great at grammar or copy, but they are not known for their great writing after all :p
 
CWL said:
retzius,

I seem to recall that the people at TOPS come from Special Operations and LEO backgrounds. Perhaps they were too busy keeping America safe than in getting their 3-Rs down to your satisfaction.

So what are your qualifications? An English degree? :rolleyes:
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I sure hope guys with badges have some sort of degree, maybe in criminal justice. Or is that frowned upon these days.
 
I by nife it cutter godd so yur problum is watt? reed my testes results so yoo ken deside if yoo lik it to. tops i meen
 
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Maybe you should walk a mile in their shoes before you criticize someone so much. Yeah, that's right, i said it. Take the test & do the job before you talk smack & insult someones lively hood. I would like to see YOU do the job that so many that carry a badge do. Day in & day out, for the money they make. So-what happens when you dial 911 & no one answers ? What happens when your house is on fire & no one answers ? What happens when your in a car accident & no one shows up to help ? Not everyone has had the luxury of going to college to get a better job. Not every job requires a degree. Why? Because the pay for those jobs usually, but not always, sucks. Sarcasm can & does get people fired. Video cameras are everywhere. There is no shortage of criminals or just people that hate authority in general, with a video phone, looking for a lawsuit, with the attitude of "somebody's gonna pay me." I would love the day, when every public employee just does not show up for work, for a week or two would be awesome. It would certainly give many an eye opening experience. The Military, Police, Peace Officers, EMT's, Motor vehicles, Subway drivers, Train & Trolly drivers, Snowplow drivers, Correction Officers, Sheriff's, Search & Rescue, Fire fighters & a whole bunch more, make this country run every single day, yet are some of the lowest paid people---usually. Compare what they do, putting their lives on the line everyday to varying degrees, to what a CEO or Professional sports player makes. I'd say they all deserve a little more respect & could do without that type of sarcasm. I'm just saying.

If i miss spelled anything, please forgive me. I don't have a college degree either.
 
I don't know anything about the Tops catalogue but this thread does give me the opportunity to comment on some posts by members for whom English is presumbably their first [ and doubtless only ] language.
I'll bet I've seen at least a dozen posts wherein someone asks the members at large to ; "to recommend me " this or that. Hey Shakespeares, it's enough to ask us to" recommend " this or that, the "me" is entirely superflous and ... well, to be honest, suggests strongly that you and education parted ways at about grade 8.
 
It is quite possible that the person typing was eating bacon and the grease made his fingers slip on the key board. It has happened to me before. You should not criticize bacon eaters, for they are good people.

I don't own any TOPS knives, but I do eat alot of bacon. I bet a good TOPS knife will slice up bacon well. Yup.
 
uyotg said:
apparently most people here do not mind and find it insulting to point it out.
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I agree with his statement. I'm a bit of a perfectionist (before I retired, I had to be) but am starting to relax. Some people would actually prefer to be corrected although many are indeed insulted by an innocent grammatic correction. This is too bad. I've learned, generally, to not correct anyone's grammar.
Finally, I've gotten to the point where I also write "thanx" or g'day or some drivel like that. I figure that as long as communication was achieved, then the purpose was served.

OTOH, when I notice blatant grammatic or spelling errors on a commercial website, I get annoyed. The company should hire more competent writers, or at least get someone to proof-read the copy.
Sonny
 
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Maybe they are just so busy, doing double duty, that mistakes are made, IDK. Maybe they don't have a typist or secretary, IDK. Maybe they are trying to not go out of business & not to cave in to the "made somewhere else" cheaper for more profit, IDK. I certainly do not like all of their products, but i do like some & i do own one & will probably buy more someday.
 
I am quite surprised to see so many of you give TOPS a pass on their atrocious website descriptions of their products. As knife users and collectors, I would think that we would be some of the most demanding customers.

Perhaps I was not clear in my original post. That is my fault.

What I was trying to convey was that regardless of the overall quality or design of their product, the way they market the product on their website needs serious improvement.

In the current marketplace, where so many consumers buy knives on-line and review products on a corporate web-site, there is no excuse for gross grammatical and spelling errors that a simple spell check would resolve.

Let me give you another example of why I think their website is actually hurting their product:

1. They will introduce a new knive called "The Screaming Eagle" (Im not gonna even go into that..) and then in the product description give only a run-on sentence summary of the 101st Airborne division and not talk about the knife. TOPS, why should I buy this knife? What makes it better than your competitors? :confused:

2. On almost every page they use ridiculous lines like "Spec Ops trust TOPS cuz were Hard to the Core" or "Taliban Takedown... You can run but you cant hide" (I mean really, are we 14 and playing Call of Duty?).:barf:

3. They say all their knives are designed by Operators, but on the first knife I click on in a certain subsection, here is the product description: "BARTENDER DEFENDER (AKA…THE D-CAPITATER) This may be one of the new great ideas for the last of the ‘REAL GUYS’. A combination bottle opener and mini knife…handy for dozens of survival or party chores. Made from 1/8” thick, real 1095 high carbon steel, with our favored black traction coating (for that wet grip). May be worn around the neck or in a pocket.
Created by Ryan Johnson, an up and coming designer and high speed CAD drafter with talented hands…part-time musician, guitar player…who’s hobbies include a bit of beer or root beer, whichever the case may be…. ONE …COOL…TOOL!" So let me get this straight, the "real operator" is a CAD drafter that drinks beer and carries a little bottlel opener he calls the "D-Capitater"? :rolleyes:

In short, none of these marketing strategies would make me want to purchase one of their knives.
 
TwinStick said:
Maybe you should walk a mile in their shoes before you criticize someone so much. Yeah, that's right, i said it. Take the test & do the job before you talk smack & insult someones lively hood. I would like to see YOU do the job that so many that carry a badge do. Day in & day out, for the money they make. So-what happens when you dial 911 & no one answers ? What happens when your house is on fire & no one answers ? What happens when your in a car accident & no one shows up to help ? Not everyone has had the luxury of going to college to get a better job. Not every job requires a degree. Why? Because the pay for those jobs usually, but not always, sucks. Sarcasm can & does get people fired. Video cameras are everywhere. There is no shortage of criminals or just people that hate authority in general, with a video phone, looking for a lawsuit, with the attitude of "somebody's gonna pay me." I would love the day, when every public employee just does not show up for work, for a week or two would be awesome. It would certainly give many an eye opening experience. The Military, Police, Peace Officers, EMT's, Motor vehicles, Subway drivers, Train & Trolly drivers, Snowplow drivers, Correction Officers, Sheriff's, Search & Rescue, Fire fighters & a whole bunch more, make this country run every single day, yet are some of the lowest paid people---usually. Compare what they do, putting their lives on the line everyday to varying degrees, to what a CEO or Professional sports player makes. I'd say they all deserve a little more respect & could do without that type of sarcasm. I'm just saying.

If i miss spelled anything, please forgive me. I don't have a college degree either.
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Heartwarming narrative. And this has what to do with the OP's thread?
 
retzius said:
In short, none of these marketing strategies would make me want to purchase one of their knives.
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I'm not saying their presentation is tops, but they are a very successful company.
Perhaps they simply aren't marketing their knives to you.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I'm not saying their presentation is tops, but they are a very successful company.
Perhaps they simply aren't marketing their knives to you.
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Perhaps. Who do you suggest they are marketing them to then?

Is it the teenage COD player with military fantasies?
Is it the "mall ninja"?
Is it the unimformed consumer who is taken with a slogan and a camo paint job?
 
Instead of making up insults when you don't know the answer, just say you don't like the knives.
If you did like the knives, you wouldn't care how they described them.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Instead of making up insults when you don't know the answer, just say you don't like the knives.
If you did like the knives, you wouldn't care how they described them.
Click to expand...

OK fair enough. My question still stands. Who do you think they primarily marketing to, based on their marketing strategy?
 
squints said:
I find it rather amusing that you automatically equate poor grammar to foreign-written material. I'm Chinese, and I daresay my grammar is better than most "Americans'."
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Wait... your name is squints, and you are Chinese... and your location is Detroit.

I agree with the OP, whoever wrote that crap is ESL, if it's marketing, it simply doesn't make sense.
 
In my opinion you shouldn't need a college degree to write grammatically correct sentences!
I don't think foreigners have anything to do with that either!
In reading online forums, online shop descriptions, online "literature" and similar stuff I came to the conclusion that especially the native speakers don't seem to bother with grammar or spelling but rather just write away.
And I have to say: I expect a professional company to make a professional appearance. That goes for spoken as well as written word.

That beeing said: I have no college degree (yet :p ) and am not a native speaker.
;)
 
"To this end, Hawke's Hellion is designed to wreak havoc on both sets of needs specifically for the Survivor to have 2020 vision for jobs big and small."

"It's TOPS , they don't cater to the common denominator".
 
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