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I'd probably buy from REKAT if...

Y

YoungCutter

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Sep 17, 2001
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1. They had a website
2. They had a catalog (an online one would suffice)
3. They had the common decency to communicate with some of us knife owners
and
4. If they'd clarify just what the heck happened with that unusual batch of knives with the defective lock that need to be sent in

until then, REKAT is off my list, something to consider if any of them are out there...
 
Eventho' the way REKAT "conducts business" does SUCK, I DO like their knives, so I'll continue to support them.:).
 
I only have one - - the full sized Carnivour. The design is excellent. I have always found the rolling lock mechanism to be rather rough in operation compared to the Pat Crawford custom, but, on the other hand, it is about $200 less costly as well. Hope the company makes it through it's current troubles.
 
Just what ARE the troubles? I've tried to play catch-up here, as I've been gone for awhile, but is it mainly QC, PR, or both? I have a handful of Sifus, had a sweet Pocket Hobbit. All my folders varied a little. Some were a little "grindy". Most were fine for the $$. PR had space for improvement. At shows too. Bob. Man..You need to be friendly and invite potential customers to your table. Maybe eye-contact and a smile? I tried talking to you at the Oregon Show, and you just seemed to have a chip on your shoulder, like you were just not liking being there????? For what it's worth, I hope you guys get your stuff together.....

:confused:
 
I think they will make it, but Youngcutter does bring up some important issues. The knife industry is a buyers market right now. So many awesome designs and companies to choose from. Customer service is very important to me. There are too many good alternatives to choose from to deal with the appearance of poor customer relations.

As stated above, I think they will survive but will not grow to their full potential until they overcome this weakness.
 
I owned a lagre Carnivor and thought it was a very good knife. That being said, it seems to me that REKAT pulled out of Bladeforums because they couldn't take the heat that had built up around the problem with those six Sifus. It is too bad that they couldn't just solve the problem and then let us all know what was wrong and what was done to fix it.

It is too bad that they seem to think that keeping their potential customers informed is too much of a hassle. They did not have time to respond to this forum or to get their website going or to do a catalog. Maybe they are already getting all the business they need and feel that doing these things would only make them too busy. Who Knows?
 
Website
In truth we are a very small company and most of our efforts go into producing product and by the time we get photos and everything else our dealers have beat us to it. I know this may seem like a poor excuse but a website is all outside work. The time it takes to keep one up to date, until we can grow to the point where we can do every thing in house, photos, artwork, web page design, our efforts are best spent on production.
Communication
Look at the time of this post. There are a lot of days that doesn’t give us time to be on the net to respond in five minutes. It’s after midnight here.
What the heck happened with that unusual batch of knives with the defective locks?
Got me on that one. Without seeing them I could only speculate and with all the headhunters here no way am I going to do that. If they do come back I will post a report. Until that time all I will say is a 75% failure rate from one individual would not add up to all the knives returned if they were all one model. That’s counting adding pocket clips and blade replacements from admitted customer abuse.
Bob Brothers
 
Bob's got a very good point! I know if I had problems with six knives and the company said "send 'em in for evaluation and a fix", they would've had them the next day. Evidently this hasn't been done. What's up with that? All smoke and no fire? My experience with REKATs is that they are hard core users at bang for the buck prices. A Carnie Cub is part of my basic EDC(usually no less than three), and I also carry a SIFU when I'm not carrying something a whole lot larger.
 
JW wanted assurances that the knives would be fixed for free before he would send them in. When he did not get these assurances he decided it would be better just to sell the knives to someone else.

I have to wonder why he would seel six defective knives without getting them looked at. I sure wouldn't buy a knife from JW.
 
Originally posted by KWM
When he did not get these assurances he decided it would be better just to sell the knives to someone else.
Click to expand...

Bad medicine :(
 
R.E.K.A.T. knives were market internationally. With this in mind I think it’s a bad customer service not to have an available website.
 
Hey YC,
I tried to e-mail you a while back, but it probably didn't get through. Give me an e-mail at echang@uni.uiuc.edu when you got time. If you're from around Aurora, you aren't too far from me. Maybe only two hours or so away.
 
By no means the best solution, but certainly something that could work well, is a quick explaination on the website to the following effect:

1. We are very busy grinding knives.
2. Because of #1, we don't have time to do up this website.
3. For the same reason, we may not be able to respond quickly to your inquiries, but rest assured that we will look in to problems that are brought to our attention even if we can't reply in a timely fashion.
4. If you would like to buy our knives and have come to this website looking for more info, we're sorry that due to reason #1, we can't keep this website updated with the latest models and pictures.
5. Hence, please go to any one of the following on-line dealers whom we trust and can recommend.

From here, just list and link some of your major dealers who have the best rep with you, such as possibly Cumberlands, 1SKS and others. Make sure that the dealers listed are your best. With that, you won't have to pay any more attention to your website unless your dealer changes the URL to his website (which is probably never).

This web presence is probably very important, but people who are searching for your knives don't like it when they come to a website promising that it will be up soon but hasn't changed in a year. At least with some links that take them to your best dealers, they will be able to find out more about your knives than getting stumped and frustrated with a dead end webpage.
 
Through the Internet is only one way of doing business, albeit that way of the future, and an inevitable necessity, but as of today, only one way of doing business. Furthermore, I have some empathy for a company that just doesn't have the patience to put up with a web forum. Let's face it, it is a lot of fun for us, a lot of bullshi+ for them.

I get a lot of benefit from the input other forum members, but still rely most highly on my own experience with knives. I have had almost nothing but good experience with REKAT knives. Well designed, well built cutting tools for the most part. But then I am the home improvement type who doesn't really mind getting out the files to make the two handle sides match in profile. The Pioneer II (and presumably the Savant), the Sifu, and the Carnivore are all first class rugged cutting tools in my experience. Kind of like Newt Livesay's knives, not elegant by any means, but efficient and rugged.

The difficulties reported with the Sifu locks is troubling, but still only a small cloud in a bright sky in my opinion. I would gladly buy any new model REKAT came out with that struck me as cool. Especially since the bulk of feedback I have seen regarding REKAT customer service has been outstanding.
 
REKAT representatives:

forgive me if I seemed a bit crass, I just have a hard time acknowledging a company that seems barely have a prescence of what I can see (bear in mind none of my local dealers stock REKATs), such things scare me into believing that you might not be there when I would need you most, such as when something goes wrong with my knife.

Additionally, there's still some information to be had directly from the reps, one of my biggest problems is i've no earthly idea what the heck a rolling lock really is, and it's very unlikely some place like knifecenter or 1sks would tell me.
 
My hat is off to REKAT for building great knives esp. the Sifu big and beautiful. The Carnivor is great, one of my favorite mid-sized folders.

:( Now the bad part. I am by no means a computer person. Sure I can do the basic's and I know how to surf the Web. In that lies the problem. So does 100 million other people out there. I've stated it before, either your on the web and accessable to your customers or your compition is. It's that simple. If your not going to have a Web page, not be a participant on the forums and not offer a catalog then I'm sorry you will never be a "major player" in the knife industry.

I don't buy that it is too hard to maintain. A baisc web page could be built by some local college student (computer nerd) for next to nothing. Heck, if it's his/her major they may do it for simple recognition, or a letter for their resume. Something is needed for customers to go to.
 
imho they have a serious prob w/QC on the sifu model, none of the others seem to have the lock prob - i know my sifu, which was unmodified/not taken apart/not jakked with certainly failed, after only very light use - sure they fixed it, but when bob acts like there is no prob w/them, i cant hardly stifle a grin - maybe i was just unlucky and got the only bad one?? i guess the sifu is ok, but after mine folded up on me and cut the pizz outta me, it has not had the same spot in my heart - and if i got 6 sifus that wouldnt lock correctly, i would not be happy either - imho bob shoulda fixed the darned things, and not have thrown a fit and removed the forum, etc - oh well, dont matter to me, the 'new' savant, to me, just looks like the same old rekat stuff - no interest at all in them - wish them the best though, they COuLD make some neat stuff, but imho they are too small/not popular enuff to have such a cavalier attitude about customer service, etc- i would buy the product, but would have to be something totally different than what they have now........in other words something new..............


sifu
 
Originally posted by YoungCutter
Additionally, there's still some information to be had directly from the reps, one of my biggest problems is i've no earthly idea what the heck a rolling lock really is, and it's very unlikely some place like knifecenter or 1sks would tell me.
Click to expand...

http://www.delphion.com/cgi-bin/viewpat.cmd/US05685079__?MODE=fstv

I think the lock came from someting used on rifles, (read somewhere they thought they might not receive a patent cause it had maybe already been done) You seem to know a bit about guns as well as knives, YC, so you've probably already seen the lock in a different application.
 
The Rolling Lock is indeed Patented. It was born from the way the safety on an AK-47 works. I have 2 Rolling Locks, a Carnivore and a SIFU and both work beautifully. I have also built them and it is a good lock.
 
I imagine REKAT could find someone on these forums willing to create and maintain their website for nothing more than free samples. Heck, I have 10megs of webspace with my ISP that I'm not using. That could be used for a simple, yet informative site with links to REKAT dealers. They already own the domain name, they would just need to point it to another server IP.

Chris
 
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