Gsm failure? Never seen this before...

Shrub said:
No, I don't believe that's what happened, and I'm not immediately sending it back in the mail because I shouldn't have to pay for shipping and be out the cost of the knife plus shipping. Especially when there may be other options.

I've sent message to the seller and they're supposed to be getting me a new sheath when they get back in the office in the coming week. Even so, Cold Steel/GSM are one now, and yes they are responsible for the warranty they put on their products.
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We don't know yet whether CS/GSM will remain responsible for the warranty they put on their products.
What we do know is that they won't apply a manufacturer's warranty if you buy from an unauthorized dealer.
And I said that's not extremely unusual, as Warranty Policies vary from company to company.

The entire responsibility in this case is on your Seller. He sold you a defective item. Replace or Refund. He "should" pay for the return shipping,
but that's up to you to negotiate. The Seller should have inspected your knife/sheath before shipping out.
If having a manufacturer's warranty is crucial for you, buy from an authorized dealer. You usually will not get
as low a price as from a third party seller, but you will get Manufacturer's warranty plus the comfort of knowing
it's not a counterfeit.

BTW, I am no fan of GSM and their customer service so far looks like garbage compared to what Cold Steel CS used to be. And I have been buying
Cold Steel products since the 1980s. But in this instance blaming GSM/CS before the Seller is simply barking up the wrong tree.
 
Shrub said:
V Vlade Sorry for the timing/misunderstanding. A few posters kind of came across as though they were upset with me for expecting the manufacturer to produce a decent product and honor their warranty. Maybe I misunderstood? I don't know. Sorry if I did. The timing of your post made it seem to me as though to antagonize that point. Probably not what you intended.

Hopefully the seller will keep their word and get back to me next week/couple days, and said they would try to get a replacement sheath. I'm not totally sure what they'll actually do.

If not, I'm already eye-balling a few custom kydex replacement sheaths. Maybe I should just go ahead and get one of those? To be honest, as much as I've been a Cold Steel fan boy since I was about 10 years old, I've never been super impressed with the Secure-Ex sheaths. Maybe a nice kydex would be a worthy upgrade.
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I just hope you can get a good sheath. I meant you no harm. Or disrespect. I apologize if I sounded like that.

Joseph
 
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KenHash said:
We don't know yet whether CS/GSM will remain responsible for the warranty they put on their products.
What we do know is that they won't apply a manufacturer's warranty if you buy from an unauthorized dealer.
And I said that's not extremely unusual, as Warranty Policies vary from company to company.

The entire responsibility in this case is on your Seller. He sold you a defective item. Replace or Refund. He "should" pay for the return shipping,
but that's up to you to negotiate. The Seller should have inspected your knife/sheath before shipping out.
If having a manufacturer's warranty is crucial for you, buy from an authorized dealer. You usually will not get
as low a price as from a third party seller, but you will get Manufacturer's warranty plus the comfort of knowing
it's not a counterfeit.

BTW, I am no fan of GSM and their customer service so far looks like garbage compared to what Cold Steel CS used to be. And I have been buying
Cold Steel products since the 1980s. But in this instance blaming GSM/CS before the Seller is simply barking up the wrong tree.
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This. I know everyone wants to go after the new company because they aren't the "same quality" as the old company. ( That in itself is kind of funny considering the waves that Thompson used to make with his shenanigans.). Maybe they aren't as good maybe they are, but what no one should expect is for a company to honor its warranty when whatever random seller sells you one of their products that has who knows what history. It sounds like in this case the seller is making it right as they should. The irony is that from what I've read you should replace the sheath anyway since some of them have a nasty tendency to dull the blades.
 
Triton said:
This. I know everyone wants to go after the new company because they aren't the "same quality" as the old company. ( That in itself is kind of funny considering the waves that Thompson used to make with his shenanigans.). Maybe they aren't as good maybe they are, but what no one should expect is for a company to honor its warranty when whatever random seller sells you one of their products that has who knows what history. It sounds like in this case the seller is making it right as they should. The irony is that from what I've read you should replace the sheath anyway since some of them have a nasty tendency to dull the blades.
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Oh, poor GSM. Getting flak for crap service and crap sheaths. Gimme a break.
 
Triton said:
This. I know everyone wants to go after the new company because they aren't the "same quality" as the old company. ( That in itself is kind of funny considering the waves that Thompson used to make with his shenanigans.). Maybe they aren't as good maybe they are, but what no one should expect is for a company to honor its warranty when whatever random seller sells you one of their products that has who knows what history. It sounds like in this case the seller is making it right as they should. The irony is that from what I've read you should replace the sheath anyway since some of them have a nasty tendency to dull the blades.
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Didn’t the logo actually change before Lynn sold Cold Steel? I’m not arguing on either side but I have yet to see any evidence that the factories and workers are any different than before GSM bought them out, and part of me even kind of (mis-?)remembers the logo changing prior to the sale being announced. I could be wrong and I’m not replying to you to put this on you, Triton, but more to try and see if the idea that anything has changed yet with QC outside of statistically probable mishaps are nothing but a red herring for now. I’m sure it can and will get worse but shoot, I’ll be damned if every knife i have bought with the newest logo isn’t perfect. And I’ve bought a lot
Edit: I’m not inspecting with a microscope I mean perfect as in I see no quality issues, fit and finish are the same etc.
 
EveryDayIsHalloween said:
Didn’t the logo actually change before Lynn sold Cold Steel? I’m not arguing on either side but I have yet to see any evidence that the factories and workers are any different than before GSM bought them out, and part of me even kind of (mis-?)remembers the logo changing prior to the sale being announced. I could be wrong and I’m not replying to you to put this on you, Triton, but more to try and see if the idea that anything has changed yet with QC outside of statistically probable mishaps are nothing but a red herring for now. I’m sure it can and will get worse but shoot, I’ll be damned if every knife i have bought with the newest logo isn’t perfect. And I’ve bought a lot
Edit: I’m not inspecting with a microscope I mean perfect as in I see no quality issues, fit and finish are the same etc.
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I have no idea, I thought that the logo changed after GSM bought the company. But you know a whole lot more than I do. So I'd have to answer that question like Bill Clinton .. I don't know
 
EveryDayIsHalloween said:
Didn’t the logo actually change before Lynn sold Cold Steel? I’m not arguing on either side but I have yet to see any evidence that the factories and workers are any different than before GSM bought them out, and part of me even kind of (mis-?)remembers the logo changing prior to the sale being announced. I could be wrong and I’m not replying to you to put this on you, Triton, but more to try and see if the idea that anything has changed yet with QC outside of statistically probable mishaps are nothing but a red herring for now. I’m sure it can and will get worse but shoot, I’ll be damned if every knife i have bought with the newest logo isn’t perfect. And I’ve bought a lot
Edit: I’m not inspecting with a microscope I mean perfect as in I see no quality issues, fit and finish are the same etc.
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I have no idea, I think the only Cold Steel product that I own at the moment is a very old Recon Tanto probably purchased 25 years ago. That said, I think your point is valid. I'm not sure that GSM is doing anything different then the company was doing under Lynn Thomposon, we can say that they are doing things i.e. changing steel choices, eliminating some products etc. but then so did Lynn Thompson. I just think it's somewhat amusing that there's all this hullabaloo over what has always basically been a mid-range knife brand which so far as I can tell... is still a mid-range knife brand doing mid-range knife brand things.

In this particular case no company with any sense would warranty a product that they don't even know is their product since it was sold by some random seller that is not affiliated with them. Also, I seriously doubt they have a pile of extra sheaths lying about, they aren't a manufacturer they are an importer and a distributor, which is also why they can't fix a sheath... there's no one there to do that.
 
The logo changed when GSM bought Cold Steel. This is the easiest way to know what you’re buying.

GSM will look for every possible way to increase profit margins, this usually comes at the expense of quality with the actual product or service. How do you know if they didn’t start sourcing cheaper steel, cheaper parts, cheaper heat treat processing, cheaper labor, etc. No one will know if the S35VN is sourced from a new supplier that is lower quality until it’s too late. I’m a capitalist, and I’m all for companies making profits, the problem is when bean counting accountants and CFOs who know nothing about actually using knives make company wide horrible decisions to cut costs to increase profits to make their quarterly and annual goals to make their quarterly and annual bonuses, I’ve seen it over and over again, so sad. GSM has a team looking a spreadsheets all day every day trying to figure how to cut costs and increase profits, this is where all corporate decisions are made. There’s nothing wrong with increasing efficiencies, but not at the cost of quality or service. Lynn started with the knife, the steel, the quality and the service, built the best knives he could and sold them for a fair price and the spreadsheets took care of themselves. See the difference. GSM will start with the numbers and work backwards to the product and Lynn started with the product and let the numbers tell him if he was doing things right. What’s funny is that I spent most of my knife life laughing off Cold Steel and never giving them a shot because I thought they were a joke, a gimmick, etc. and it wasn’t until I used a Recon 1 CTS-XHP and an AD-10 that I realized how wrong I was, since then have become a huge fan of what you’re getting for the price.
 
Triton said:
I'm not saying that. I'm saying that don't buy Cold Steel products from random internet resellers and expect that they will fall over themselves to warranty said ambiguous product.
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I absolutely expect it. Most decent manufacturers (including Cold Steel, not GSM) provide it. I bought a 1 year old used Jeep. I literally closed the deal in a dark parking lot at night near a bad part of town. Should Jeep be off the hook for the remaining 24k warranty? You can disassemble a Sebenza and host of other knives, dump the parts in a box, missing screws, send $10 or $20, and get the knife back better than before no questions asked. Glocks, Craftsman Tools (before they were Home Deport or Lowes or whatever), etc... all will fix their items, mail the odd screw or part, or sell them to you online, never caring when or where you bought it. I bought a cheapo $40 duty belt with a Chicago screw that fell out, and the maker sent me a new screw and a spare even though I refused them on the phone.

Get real. Customer service and warranties are nothing new. GSM isn't in some special position because they bought a company that didn't, and now they want to use the name they bought but not follow through on maintaining it.
 
Many years ago before the buyout I tried using Cold Steel warranty/service once for an American Lawman that I messed the blade up on. I talked with a rep, who told me no worries, and to send it in. I said I would pay for a new blade or any labor.

I got the knife back about a month and a half later in the exact same condition, with no note or explanation on the return. I was not charged return shipping though.

This is purely anecdotal of course.
 
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I don't believe there has been any change in the actual production line and factories. At least none that I've noticed. The blade logo change is the only thing I've seen.
The real issue with the GSM takeover is the personnel, a company that specialized in one line of products now being run by a company that is involved in many things.
Customer support seems to have been a victim.
 
XJ-linux said:
I absolutely expect it. Most decent manufacturers (including Cold Steel, not GSM) provide it. I bought a 1 year old used Jeep. I literally closed the deal in a dark parking lot at night near a bad part of town. Should Jeep be off the hook for the remaining 24k warranty? You can disassemble a Sebenza and host of other knives, dump the parts in a box, missing screws, send $10 or $20, and get the knife back better than before no questions asked. Glocks, Craftsman Tools (before they were Home Deport or Lowes or whatever), etc... all will fix their items, mail the odd screw or part, or sell them to you online, never caring when or where you bought it. I bought a cheapo $40 duty belt with a Chicago screw that fell out, and the maker sent me a new screw and a spare even though I refused them on the phone.

Get real. Customer service and warranties are nothing new. GSM isn't in some special position because they bought a company that didn't, and now they want to use the name they bought but not follow through on maintaining it.
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As you say warranties aren't anything new but I'm not going to get incensed by a mid to low range reseller not providing an unconditional warranty either. To me this thread looks mostly like another excuse to carp about the "good old days" when Lynn the Good ran the show. People seem to have quickly forgotten what a controversial figure he was.

I expect that you will continue to be disappointed in your expectations. The answer of course is to vote with your wallet. If enough people do GSM may change their business practices. I wouldn't expect it but its possible.
 

XJ-linux said:
I absolutely expect it. Most decent manufacturers (including Cold Steel, not GSM) provide it. I bought a 1 year old used Jeep. I literally closed the deal in a dark parking lot at night near a bad part of town. Should Jeep be off the hook for the remaining 24k warranty? You can disassemble a Sebenza and host of other knives, dump the parts in a box, missing screws, send $10 or $20, and get the knife back better than before no questions asked. Glocks, Craftsman Tools (before they were Home Deport or Lowes or whatever), etc... all will fix their items, mail the odd screw or part, or sell them to you online, never caring when or where you bought it. I bought a cheapo $40 duty belt with a Chicago screw that fell out, and the maker sent me a new screw and a spare even though I refused them on the phone.

Get real. Customer service and warranties are nothing new. GSM isn't in some special position because they bought a company that didn't, and now they want to use the name they bought but not follow through on maintaining it.
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This. ∆∆∆∆∆
Beautifully said sir.
 
Triton said:
As you say warranties aren't anything new but I'm not going to get incensed by a mid to low range reseller not providing an unconditional warranty either.
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Pretty sure the ire is directed at GSM and not some reseller. Regardless, I’ll agree to disagree.

For the record, Lynn’s “controversies” were pretty cool to a lot of people and turned people to the hobby. GSM’s crap warranties don’t, IMHO.

YMMV. Peace out.
 
XJ-linux said:
Pretty sure the ire is directed at GSM and not some reseller. Regardless, I’ll agree to disagree.

For the record, Lynn’s “controversies” were pretty cool to a lot of people and turned people to the hobby. GSM’s crap warranties don’t, IMHO.

YMMV. Peace out.
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Fair enough. All the best.
 
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