First [and last] Benchmade

WinDancer

WinDancer

Joined
May 15, 1999
Messages
720
I bought my first Benchmade a while back [a Pinnacle] and liked it fairly well except for the thumb stud being too short to work well with my hands.

I wrote to BM and asked about a longer stud and got back a very terse "No".

Last week I sent another note and asked if I could buy one of the coin-type studs used on some of their other knives. This "No" included a short lecture about voiding their warranty.

After dealing with Buck Knives, and their excellent customer service, I am more than a little upset.

BM needn't worry about my using their warranty, or ever buying another product from them. Their "Customer Service" rep has cost them a customer, and pointed out the sad lack of customer interest shown by many companies today.

Dave Evans

[This message has been edited by WinDancer (edited 18 December 1999).]
 
Hmmm...
That seems odd. I've dealt with BM customer service several times, and they have always been great (one time better than I ever expected from any company). But then again I never asked them for parts to modify any of my BM's. Oh well.
WinDancer, I wish you better luck on your future knife dealings.
 
GOOD customer service is very hard to come by these days. Though it does seem the knife industry has a better than average record. Notice how a few of the big names in custom and production knives take time to answer many of our questions personally. Spyderco IMO is outstanding. Sal and crew come on here and treat us quite well. Buck seems to do a very good job at trying to please its customers also. The custom side is no slouch either. When I got my Benza, I emailed CRK with a list of questions. The response I got was quite in depth, well thought out and very informative. Kit Carson im sure is very busy, but you can find him in the chat room some nights. I havent bought one of his knives...yet, but he still treats people well. Lynn Griffith is another, hes another one that is quite busy, but at the same time his goal seems to be to make each customer happy, and treat each one as if they were his most important customer. Its to bad your experience with Benchmade did not go well, I had a couple of 'less than satisfying' things with them as well. Hopefully that is something they are working on. But until then there are plenty of factory and custom guys on here who go that extra mile and want you happy.

Richard
 
Forumites often talk about customer service at knife companies, both good and bad. In my experience, limited with knife companies, so I'll rely on the Forum, customer service generally has declined everywhere, often much worse than in the knife business. People complain about getting disappointing responses from knife companies, how about NO response from 1) Cellular Phone companies, who sent me a refund check and then voided it without telling me so the bank got to charge me for a return; 2) after six attempts to change the billing address on an automobile insurance premium, getting a call from the agent telling me the premium is overdue, even though they know the company sent the bill to the wrong address (and the post office didn't forward it). Are you spending more and more time fixing things that never should have gone wrong? I do. Many times, an unacceptable response would be an improvement. Sorry for the tirade, but, from what you're telling me, the knife business isn't doing so badly. Maybe they're not big enough to be totally incompetent yet. Cheers.
 
Dave,
Give Spyderco a shot at your business. They have awesom customer service. Sounds to me though,like custom would be a good choice for you. Then you can get exactly what you want. I don't make folders my self, but there are many fantastic folder makers out there. Many here on the forums.

And to Richard, thanks, it is a pleasure to know you.


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Lynn Griffith-Knifemaker

My website
GriffithKN@aol.com


 
The issue crops up from time to time with Benchmade on these forums, but is there any factory knife company out there that sells parts separately, or otherwise assists customers in doing their own customizing or repair work? Factories earn their keep by making their products, within each SKU, all the same, and there might be issues of liability or at least misunderstanding in encouraging customers to modify sharp things that could eventually come back to the factory from a subsequent owner.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
My heart bleeds to hear anything bad about Benchmade, which I have heard for the past few weeks from bad Customer servie to unsharp knives form the box.

I am not spreading propaganda and maybe I am too young'in in the knife world to know better - but BM always treated me right. Well except that one girl who.. well anyways. Mr. Travis Noteboom is the best PR person in the world. I wanted an old copy of a BM catalog for my collection and he spent the extra 30 mins on the phone with me to look for it in the storeroom.

and it wasn't a one time thing he was consistent in doing me 'under the table favours' and I was only a voice on the phone that never directly paid him or treated him to dinner, and I am no celebrity.

It might sound odd or unrelated but if he was willing to do these 'weird' things for a customer what more a thumbstud??

Maybe you just got a bad guy or I lucked out and got the only good salesman in the company. All in all it just hurts whenever i hear anythign bad abot the knfe company that got me into this whole knife collecting..
frown.gif


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<A HREF="http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~soo/balisong/balisong.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~soo/balisong/balisong.html
</A> If you play with love you will be heartbroken; if you play with knives you will [bleed]


 
I, too, have to say that I've had nothing but red-carpet treatment from Benchmade. When I hear people complain about Benchmade, I have to wonder if I'm hearing the whole story?

If you'd like custom work done to your Benchmade knife, do what I do: send it to Frank Recupero.




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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
 
The root of the problem is not Benchmade at all (although it would be nice if they could help with the solution), but the thumbstud, which CAN be taken care of. Someone makes an attachable thumbstud for single bladed folders; I don't know who, but I think the Knifecenter sells it.

Good luck.
Howie
 
My experience with Benchmade is 110% positive, Mr. Travis Nootenboom was fast in his email replies and when I sent my AFCK over I had it back without having to pay the about $18 airmail costs sending it back to Holland.
The woman who fixed my AFCK did a wonderfull job and the knife could have been sold as new.
Benchmade gets my vote on good customer service.
Don't ask Rolls Royce if you can get a Chevy engine from them to fit in your Rolls their answer will be NO
wink.gif
smile.gif
just like BM did.
Cheers, Bagheera

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Dave,

Asking manufacturer to modify your knife is a bit complicated. They don't want to screw their own design, most of modifications are time consuming. But I have different experience with different companies. That said, you can always get a titanium thumb disc from Les Halpern at http://www.halperntitanium.com and go to a custom maker to modify your Pinnacle. I've heard (and sen) good things about Corduroy's work, so drop him a e-mail. I haven't seen him posting here for a while, but here's his e-mail addy: adq@student.umass.edu


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Reynaert
Fayetteville, AR


 
WinDancer - In defense of BM. Longer studs than the designer builds in are sometimes a problem with snagging clothing and accidentally opening. This is especially true of a tip up carry. (Can work like a Commander). This could create a liability problem.

In America, Liability problems are a serious "inconvenience" because many ELUs believe that cutting oneself (even carelessly) is an opportunity for some quick $. You may contact a custom maker to have your current model modified. But make sure that the stud isn't sticking aout so far past the handle as to hurt yourself.

sal
 
dave, i have to agree with frantium on this one. asking a manufacturer to modify any of their knives would probably be a "no" with most of the companies out there.now if they were rude about saying no would be a different story. saying it would void the warrenty is not rude, they are probably just trying to let you know one more time that disassembly or modification would void it.bm makes great knives and i would atleast give them one more chance in the future, i love my pinnacle by the way! maybe check out the new axis lock, i know i am.
 
Who designed the Pinnacle? I can't remember and my old catalogs aren't handy. Anyway, it's possible that Benchmade is not allowed by their contract with the original designer to modify the design without getting the original designer's approval. That would be a difficult process to go through for one knife for one customer.

Why wouldn't Benchmade just come out and say this? Well, maybe because they don't want to cast blame on the designer.

As Mr. Glesser pointed out, there may be valid engineering and design issues involved in using parts designed for one knife on another. That would have to go back to the engineering department for review, etc.
"Wait a minute," you say, "We're just talking about making a thumb stud a bit bigger. You don't need a rocket scientist to do that!" Well, maybe you do. Benchmade doubtlessly carries product liability insurance. That insurance policy probably requires that all products be approved by an engineer. Putting a part onto a knife that was not originally designed for that knife makes it a different product.

If you called GM up and said, "I really like that new Trans Am, but I wish it had softer seats. Can you take the seats out of on of your big Buicks and put them in that Trans Am?", GM would say "NO! Go away!" for the same reasons.

Before you go off getting mad and posting flaming rants, try thinking about the problem from the other side of the coin.



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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
 
Howie: "One Arm Bandits", 3 different sizes to fit various blade thicknesses. About $6- $8 each depending on one source.

L8r,
Nakano
 
Howie: "One Arm Bandits", 3 different sizes to fit various blade thicknesses. About $6- $8 each depending on one' s source.

L8r,
Nakano

Signnn... after more than 1100 posts, I' ve finally doubled! Hmmm... who holds the record?

[This message has been edited by Nakano 2 (edited 19 December 1999).]
 
I talked to BM once, the person wasn't flat out rude, but really odd. I'll second Buck for having excellent customer sercice thou
 
WinDancer,

Does your hands become bigger since you bought your Pinnacle? It could occur if you would have age 12-14 years or less... ;-))
On the other hand, if you are adult man it wouldn't be the worst idea to see what you are buying. If this particular knife doesn't match your needs simply choose another one.
Of course you can customize your knife as far as you wish, it's your property, your decision and your liability. But it's not the reason to claim BM customer service BAD if they don't want to help you to do it. Production knives are usually sold as they are designed, if you don't agree you can turn to custom knives.
As to BM knives - I have some and my impressions with them are very positive. Like each normal man I can to list options I like more and ones I like less. But it's nothing to do with knife quality or service quality. BM knives quality is great and this is the main reason why I don't know how good is their customer service - I simply never had to turn to them.


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Sergiusz Mitin
gunwriter
Lodz, Poland
 
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