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- Mar 5, 1999
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As often happens, a thread starts on one subject and drifts to another. In the "I told you so thead" we started talking about one thing and ended up talking about guarantees which prompted me to start this new thread on guarantees. Since the only guarantee Himalayan Imports is responsible for or knows much about is our own that's the one I'll start with.
Our guarantee says "if your khukuri should ever fail you in any way at any time contact Himalayan Imports for repair or replacement" -- but to us it means much more than that. We view the HI guarantee as a bond between us and our customer. What we are really saying is, "if you need this khukuri to save your life you can count on it. It will not fail you." We do not view the guarantee as a replacement policy. This could be a misconception on our part but when one considers that many of our customers may find themselves in a situation in which their life or the lives of others may well depend on the performance of their khukuris we view our guarantee as we do.
The HI khukuri served in operation Desert Storm and has seen action in Haiti, Afganistan, Lebanon, Panama and elsewhere. Besides military personnel, it is used by LEOs, DEA, Search and Rescue teams, and like folks who find themselves routinely in harm's way. There are times in the lives of these people when a replacement is exactly what they do not need. They need their knife to do the job at hand! And if it doesn't they may not need a replacement anyway because they could well be dead.
In 11 years we have never had a khukuri returned for a blade failure. I had a single customer, Julian, who broke 1/4 inch off the tip of an 18th Century model -- the sum total of our blade failures -- but when I tried to replace the khukuri he refused the offer. He told me he had fallen in love with his khukuri and did not want a replacement. He wanted the tip reground. Since Julian lives in Canada where Cliff lives a new tip was reground on this "purple heart" khukuri by Cliff (to avoid going through customs round trip) in ten minutes and the knife has been going strong ever since.
I'll end with an analogy. I was on a test flight once and when the testing was completed and we were getting ready to land the landing gear light "down and locked" didn't come on. We recycled the gear several times. Same indication. We did a tower flyby. Tower said the gear appeared to be down. A chase plane was dispatched to look us over. The right gear was flopping -- not locked. After we had burned off enough fuel to perhaps not go up in flames if the gear folded and ruptured a gas tank we landed. The pilot landed in a crab, stressing the right gear outward, and immediately put the plane into a tight right turn off the runway to keep the gear from folding.
A couple of mechanics worked all night and into the next day to correct the problem. They finally came to me and told me the gear problem had been corrected.
"Guaranteed?" I asked.
"Absolutely guaranteed," the mechanics said.
"Fine," I replied. "You two go on the next flight. I'll sit here and watch."
The mechanics refused to go. I told them to go back and work on the gear until they were confident enough to go on the next flight.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons I feel about guarantees as I do. I view a replacement policy and a guarantee as two different things.
Uncle Bill
[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 05 May 1999).]
Our guarantee says "if your khukuri should ever fail you in any way at any time contact Himalayan Imports for repair or replacement" -- but to us it means much more than that. We view the HI guarantee as a bond between us and our customer. What we are really saying is, "if you need this khukuri to save your life you can count on it. It will not fail you." We do not view the guarantee as a replacement policy. This could be a misconception on our part but when one considers that many of our customers may find themselves in a situation in which their life or the lives of others may well depend on the performance of their khukuris we view our guarantee as we do.
The HI khukuri served in operation Desert Storm and has seen action in Haiti, Afganistan, Lebanon, Panama and elsewhere. Besides military personnel, it is used by LEOs, DEA, Search and Rescue teams, and like folks who find themselves routinely in harm's way. There are times in the lives of these people when a replacement is exactly what they do not need. They need their knife to do the job at hand! And if it doesn't they may not need a replacement anyway because they could well be dead.
In 11 years we have never had a khukuri returned for a blade failure. I had a single customer, Julian, who broke 1/4 inch off the tip of an 18th Century model -- the sum total of our blade failures -- but when I tried to replace the khukuri he refused the offer. He told me he had fallen in love with his khukuri and did not want a replacement. He wanted the tip reground. Since Julian lives in Canada where Cliff lives a new tip was reground on this "purple heart" khukuri by Cliff (to avoid going through customs round trip) in ten minutes and the knife has been going strong ever since.
I'll end with an analogy. I was on a test flight once and when the testing was completed and we were getting ready to land the landing gear light "down and locked" didn't come on. We recycled the gear several times. Same indication. We did a tower flyby. Tower said the gear appeared to be down. A chase plane was dispatched to look us over. The right gear was flopping -- not locked. After we had burned off enough fuel to perhaps not go up in flames if the gear folded and ruptured a gas tank we landed. The pilot landed in a crab, stressing the right gear outward, and immediately put the plane into a tight right turn off the runway to keep the gear from folding.
A couple of mechanics worked all night and into the next day to correct the problem. They finally came to me and told me the gear problem had been corrected.
"Guaranteed?" I asked.
"Absolutely guaranteed," the mechanics said.
"Fine," I replied. "You two go on the next flight. I'll sit here and watch."
The mechanics refused to go. I told them to go back and work on the gear until they were confident enough to go on the next flight.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons I feel about guarantees as I do. I view a replacement policy and a guarantee as two different things.
Uncle Bill
[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 05 May 1999).]
