I do not know of any company who pays the freight on returns both ways..... If you know of one please let me know and that may reshape policy.....
Chris Reeve Knives has been the only company that I've personally dealt with who paid for shipping both ways for a warranty issue, and sending a $400 knife back and forth from Canada to US with tracking and insurance is anything but cheap.
Yes, their knives cost much more than most knives and you could say that kind of service is to be expected at the price range. However, I'm inclined to believe CRK is the type who makes sure things are perfect right off the bat than just get it out the door and deal with later through warranty, which is probably why they can afford to pay all the costs involved for the customer.
Rat Cutlery is a company I haven't had to use the warranty with, but I have seen Jeff at least once or twice offering to just send an entire new knife without taking the old one back. I think that just goes to show the amount of trust they have in their customers and why they have such a loyal following.
It's really annoying in my opinion when you get something with a problem out of the box and you have to spend more money to get it fixed(not to mention losing it for a few weeks). And considering the fix is usually a replacement built under the same quality control I was unhappy with in the first place, I usually sell the item off and move onto a different company despite the fact I will likely end up losing money over the whole ordeal with nothing to show for it. Given the choice, I would rather pay upfront the $10-20 it'd normally cost for shipping to have a product be guaranteed it'll be fine when I first receive it.
I don't mean to make this sound like an attack towards BK&T, since as mentioned, most companies operate the exact same way. At the same time, when certain companies go above and beyond the 'standard', that's what makes them special.
