Family Matter

Sal,

I am glad that you are not so irritated with our intrusions into how you run your company that you plan to drop the Forum. I don't know what I would do without it. As a matter of fact, I can account for two knives that it has sold me this year, my Military and my StarMate, both of which I love.

I meant no real criticism of your decision, I was only trying to explain how I saw the reaction in the Forum. Keep up the good work and I shall continue to buy Spydies as long as my budget allows.

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Walk in the Light,
Hugh


 
Hi guys.

Just wanted to say thanks for all of your input. I recognize that the announcement was less than ideal but as Sal stated so was the situation. If we had not posted it then many other situations could have transpired and created a different outcome perhaps better or worse. We will work on these kind of posts in the future.

I have been monitoring the Forums since the beginning and have answered questions regarding product delivery whenever I could, I will extend my best effort to maintain a more consistent presence.

Michelle
 
Hugh - Critcism is a great learning tool and certainly I, as most of us, have much to learn.
sal
 
I really wish that there was never an announcement on the forums about Danelle's termination. Since then there has been a flurry of speculation and such, and it has one big headache. This should have remained an internal matter and not announced in such an abrupt, terse manner. Danelle was a friend to all of us and the mention of her termination would have filtered through the grapevine and would have probably cause little less of a poopstorm than it has caused. I have even heard a few people say that they are not going to buy Spydie products because of this. I don't find her termination a reason for this, but her "celebrity status" in the forums made her appear to be a bigger cog in the wheel than she actually was, and I am sure a few "fans" are a little upset.

Sal,

I have bought a few Spyderco knives since January, the infamous ill-fated Goddard lightweight, and two BF natives. It is true that I have not held on to a product for any length of time, even the Starmate that I had went on to a friend of mine along with a BF native, and the other was a gift to the fiance. Right now there is not a single Spyderco in my drawer, I was hoping to end that trend with the Spyderwrench, if they are as good as they appear to be.

IT is funny, Dannelle was who I dealt with when dealing with the Goddard situation, and when I turned in a bum knife I won (traded for the Starmate), and when the one BF was engraved for my fiance. She made it possible (actually insisted) that I try to work things out with you guys. I am going to miss that. She helped restore a little bit of faith in Spyderco.

The reason Danelle is so loved here is because she proactively went out and tried to make us happy. She spent days trying to get me to accept a new knife for the Goddard. All I cared about then was burning you in Effigy.

Michelle may be a key player in the Spyderco Family. But I doubt that she is going to be as accessable to us as Danelle was. I don't think I have ever seen a customer service department become proactive before and look for disgruntled customers. The forum lets you do that and it is a shame that you will not use it to your advantage.

I know that there is a possiblility that Dannelle could have gotten herself canned. The fact that she was terminated is not what I find fault in here. Whatever the situation with her termination is, I do not need to know or care to know, but I think that the handling of it on the forums was poorly done and that it was carried out in what appeared to be a spiteful manner. This should have been taken care of in a manner consistant with any other termination in your company. Do you post on the Company bulletin boards when someone has been Canned?

I am going to miss the service that I was getting from Spyderco. I hope that the quality of your customer service remain high, but I am going to miss having a friend in the company. Danelle may not have been the Face of Spyderco, but she was an integral part of my (and many others) experiance with your company and I think she deserved a little more respect than a two sentence announcement.

YeK

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It is not a matter of whether or not you are paranoid, it is a matter of whether or not you are paranoid enough.

AKTI # A000348
 
Welcome Aboard Michelle!!

Forumites,
You all realize that we live in a highly industrialized corporate society and being a corporate society means that a fairly high degree of mobility exists among personnel within said society.
People come and go with a good degree of regularity in such a society whether it be by resignation or termination.
Better or different oppurtunities become available as viable options and the urge to pursue those options keeps the wheels of change a rollin'.
We shouldn't criticize or be angry about it, it is just the way things are in our mobile society today.
Rather, we should wish Danelle well in her new endeavours and welcome a new member to the Spyderco BF family.

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If it's stupid but works, then it isn't stupid.




[This message has been edited by misque (edited 09 September 1999).]
 
I think Yekim hits the nail on the head. Danelle's popularity here on the forums was bound to cause a lot of speculation and anger when she was terminated. This was only made worse by the way in which the announcement was made. Regardless of the true importance of Danelle within the company itself, her importance here was much higher - she therefore deserved a more respectful announcement. Given that you haven't (and I expect won't) make any announcements as to the reasoning behind her termination, making the announcement in the first place was rather poor. I think given a good reason behind the action, we could have maybe understood what was going on and not complained so much, but going halfway with the announcement was not a good idea.

Danelle's touch was indeed felt by us "knowing" someone inside customer service. This made any interaction with the company far easier. I know both Sal and Michelle have pledged to continue and/or increase their participation in the forums, but I don't think this is the most important point. Cut and dry answers are definitely needed, but I think taking a more laid-back approach would go a long way to making the company seem more friendly and easy to get in touch with.

Okay...enough griping...I'd like to say good luck to Spyderco as a whole - please continue to make customer service a priority. And good luck to Danelle

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JP Bullivant
 
First, let me say I was as shocked & saddened as anyone over Danelle's departure. I have expressed my sadness over the situation & my best wishes for Danelle both publically & privately. However, I think some folks are missing an important point that Sal made above concerning Spyderco's need to make an announcement.
Anyone from Spyderco that posts on this forum is in fact representing Spyderco. Legally, we must be sure that anyone that seems to be representing Spyderco is in fact a part of Spyderco.
Click to expand...
Without going into boring details, the issue here is the law of agency. If no announcement had been made and if Danelle were to continue to participate in BF, as she has said she will, it would have been reasonable for forumites to believe that she still represented Spyderco -- an unacceptable situation.

I know that the announcement may have seemed to be cold & sterile and we could discuss the semantics of the announcement all we like. However, the fact remains that an announcement had to be made and, in my experience, the net effect is the same regardless of the words used. The announcement simply stated that Danelle was no longer with Spyderco. To have provided any more detail whatsoever would have been very inappropriate.

Just my .02 cents + worth.

Brian
 
As mentioned earlier, sorry for the method of announcement. We live and learn. In a perfect world, we'd all be perfect. Here, pobody's nerfect, but we're improving.

Hi Yek, Perhaps you should be aware that in each step of the activity regarding your broken Goddard, Native, engraving, etc., Danelle was acting under my clearly defined directives. None of those decisions were her's. I think perhaps, because she is such a nice person and handled those directives in such a pleasant manner, that it is assumed that she was making those decisions.

BTW sorry about saying you hadn't purchased any Spyderco products, my mistake.

I don't mind taking heat for my errors. But you must also keep in mind that Spyderco paid not only for the items any of you have received, including shipping charges, but we also paid Danelle to make sure you got them in an efficient and pleasant manner.

Plese let's try not to forget Spyderco in all this.

sal

[This message has been edited by Sal Glesser (edited 09 September 1999).]
 
Yup, it is ,(time to move on I mean), Brian's post just above said it well. I have been on both sides of these situations and they are never as simple as they may seem on the surface.

[This message has been edited by Brian Lavin (edited 10 September 1999).]
 
Hello, Mr. Glesser. I just wanted to make a statement that having owned Spyderco(s) for almost 10 years, I have being extremely satisfied with their services. While no knives (or any other tools are *perfect*), Spyderco's Customer Services have being one of the best in the market.

Present/past owner/user of Spyderco Military, Endura, Delica, and Pro-Venator.

Thank you, Spyderco.

Shutoku

[This message has been edited by Shutoku Shia (edited 11 September 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Shutoku Shia (edited 11 September 1999).]
 
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