Emerson Calls Bullsh*t

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Dear Members,

I recently became aware of a thread here concerning Emerson Knives QC problems. Inside the thread were several mentions of numerous knives, in fact a preponderance of knives that were being rejected, returned to dealers, couldn’t be sold, knives snapped in half, screws stripped, etc, etc.

Where are those knives? I repeat. Where are those knives?

Since we have the most liberal return policy in the industry they should be flooding our repair departments. Oh, I forgot, we don’t have a repair department. One of the gals simply replaces or works on the 3 or 4 knives we get every couple of weeks. Oh, by the way, most of those knives are not returned for warranty. They are in because guys want them factory sharpened or cleaned up after some serious use and abuse. I’ll tell you what, if I bought a $250.00 knife from someone and it broke, I would damn well be sending it in for warranty.

And if anyone says, “I sent them back to my dealer.” Well you can be guaranteed that the dealer wouldn’t be taking a loss of several hundred dollars. They would be sending those dozens of knives back for refund or replacement too. Yet again, no knives. Call the distributors if you don’t believe me. They will verify this fact.

And to answer one post that stated, “one of my suppliers doesn’t even sell Emersons anymore, what does that say?” It says this; we cut them off for not paying their bills. And, we weren’t the only one to cut them off. Again, verifiable fact. And yes, it’s one of the big distributors. And since then, we’ve gotten dozens of emails and phone calls from them begging to get back in our program. Ain’t gonna happen.

And, for those of you who do not know, we are moving toward direct sales to our dealers. Hence, the new Prestige Dealer Program that is driving our business through the roof. In spite of our terrible knives, our terrible service, our terrible quality we are one of the only knife companies that is growing in this economy and at the fastest rate since the company Emerson Knives was founded.

In fact, it is why we just purchased a major manufacturing facility in Southern California for several millions of dollars which will quadruple our size and capacity. I guess the truth is, that we needed the extra thousands of square feet and new employees to handle the huge volume of knives being returned to us for repair and shoddy workmanship.

Here’s something else unique to Emerson Knives. We haven’t placed any ads in years and we have an advertising budget of 0$. Funny how the other knife companies stand in awe of this. Believe me, we all speak to each other quite frequently. Now, if we don’t advertise and yet are growing every month, how can that happen? It’s because our users are our advertisers. Now, if our knives were so shoddy, weak and sub-standard, I wonder why they keep telling people to buy our knives rather than return them for the myriad of problems they possess.

“I don’t like the way they look. I don’t like the laser finish. I don’t like the fit of handles and backspacers. I don’t like the texture of the G-10.” These are opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, however, we don’t get knives returned back to us for those opinions either.

And obviously, they don’t seem to matter to the hundreds of thousands of customers that already own and use Emerson Knives on a daily basis. And almost all our customers own more than one Emerson, in some cases 10 or 12 Emersons.

Broken blades, defective parts, stripped screws etc. are not opinions. They are real, tangible, physical things. Again I ask; Where are they?

In the end, I’ll say up front and always have, that my knives are not perfect, they are not pretty and they are not for collecting. Occasionally, in a manufacturing environment there are things that get through. However in our case it is by far one of the lowest error/defect rates in the entire industry. Notice we do not have a catalog of factory seconds or an 8 week stand in line repair time like some of the other companies do.

When I hear the chatter here that comes up about every year or two about how bad Emerson Knives are, I just wish, just once, that someone would step up with documented evidence, return receipts, broken knives, stripped screws (I swear it was like that out of the box, I didn’t do it.”) We talk to dozens of dealers a week. I go to shows and talk directly to tens of thousands of users and dealers a year.

Where are you, who are so vocal behind the anonymity of a user name and a keyboard? I am right here. I am a public figure. I use my real name everywhere I post on the internet. You all know where I’ll be. Where are you? Or is it bullsh*t?

Prove it. And I don’t mean “I worked in a knife store and we had dozens of returns.” Show me the knives. For they never made it back to us. I’m sure you would have wanted your couple of thousand dollars back, maybe not. Until then, pile on with the B.S. and we’ll keep checking our mailbox.

My Best Regards,

Ernest R. Emerson
Best Maker of Sub Standard Knives In The World

P.S. I stand corrected, we do have dealers who will stand eye to eye with me and voice their complaints. “We can’t get enough Emerson Knives in stock. We sell them as soon as we get them.”
 
Mr. Emerson...Please allow me to share some advice with you that has proven beneficial to me over the years -- (pardon my mock latin) -- "nolite te bastardes carborundorum"

Keep your head up and keep producing those outstanding knives!
 
Very interesting. While i do agree the F&F isnt the most amazing in the industry, i have loved all the emersons ive owned, never had any problems with them at all. I carried my CQC-7 most of last week.
 
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Thanks for calling this out. I wasn't that big of a fan for a while, just don't know why, but now I'm back and wanting more and more of them.


So uh.... how's production on the EKI balisong, and the auto swing guard A100? (hint cough cough hint hint)
 
A major manufacturing facility in Southern California. Can I come by for a tour?
 
Took me about 10 months to find a karambit from you with a wave opener- an exercise in tracking down a quality product. I'm glad I did, one of my favorite knives all around. Keep it up
 
Ernest, just this year I ordered my first knife from your company -a CQC 7A. It is flawless as far as I can tell. I was an instant fan right from the moment I examined it.

Best Regards,

-Max
 
News to me that you guys are increasing capacity! That's great! I hope this mean you'll be able to pump out knives faster, as it is right now it's tough to find some models.
 
I own literally hundreds of knives... 40+ Syperco's, 30+ Benchmades, several Zero Tolerance, many Kershaws, a couple of CRK's, a couple of Striders, heck I've even got a small collection of Busse-kin knives that I like to drool and fondle over quite frequently... I'm sure you get the picture, I am a true knife-nut. I can honestly say that when I leave the house, my EDC of choice for the last several years has been my Emerson Commander. The Emerson Commander is not the sexiest knife I own, nor is it the most high tech knife I own, it's not even the close to being the most expensive folding knife I own... my Commander is however the one folding knife that I have absolute confidence that it will perform any and all tasks that I ask of it... And that's the bottom line.

I also have a CQC7V, a CQC11, a Super Raven, and an A100. I have had no issues with any of those knives and have absolutely no qualms about recommending EKI products to anyone interested in sharp, no nonsense tools. Just keep on doing exactly what you've been doing Mr. Emerson and your company will continue to flourish. All the haters can be damned.



/Dusty
 
I worked in a few police and military equipment stores over the years. While I mostly sold firearms we did stock knives as well, in 5+ years I have never seen a factory defect. One I remember was damaged by the user; it was a huge nick in the blade. The owner said he was cutting a tire and hit a nail. I was for sure he would be out the money but you guys sent him a brand new knife. No question, Emerson customer service is first class.:thumbup:
 
The intention of the thread I started was only to gather knowledge. Im new to the knife game and wanted the feedback from my experienced users about your knives. This all started with my search for a high quality hard use knife and I started with Emerson. I asked about the comparison of to Zero Tolerance. I was interested in the CQC-14 and asked around and got the feedback. I decided to ask around on another forum and got the complete opposite feedback. I only seek knowledge and info I did not intend to stir up the hornets nest. I apologize for the frustration and aggravation. Perhaps there could have been a better way at getting what I needed.
 
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