Kershaw/ZT and Spyderco Customer interaction is excellent, Why not Benchmade?

M

MRaymond

Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
2,166
I have been doing some thinking about why Benchmade doesn't have the same "presence" in the knife enthusiast community as Spyderco and Kershaw. Am I tainted by being a member of the one forum that has prominent members of both companies as moderators? Is there some history behind the fact that there is no benchmade company representation here? It just makes me feel really confident in both brands because they have public presence. Am I missing something? I don't own a Kershaw/ZT yet, but suspect I will in the near future. What gives? Is my perception that Benchmade is out of touch with the community off base?
 
Benchmade is interactive with knife enthusiasts, just not here. They have their own factory forum instead.
 
raym0016@gmail.com said:
I have been doing some thinking about why Benchmade doesn't have the same "presence" in the knife enthusiast community as Spyderco and Kershaw. Am I tainted by being a member of the one forum that has prominent members of both companies as moderators? Is there some history behind the fact that there is no benchmade company representation here? It just makes me feel really confident in both brands because they have public presence. Am I missing something? I don't own a Kershaw/ZT yet, but suspect I will in the near future. What gives? Is my perception that Benchmade is out of touch with the community off base?
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A lot of assumptions are being made. Benchmade does listen and interact with their enthusiasts (albeit not as regularly), just not here. I believe to have a Manufacturer forum here, the company has to pay, not unlike the dealers. That could be why they're not on here, but only my guess. If you want to interact with their forum, by all means go for it, it's just a Google search away.
 
raym0016@gmail.com said:
But I am not on the benchmade forums, I am here:)
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thats a good point. i have 2 bm's, a griptilian i picked up about 10 years ago and an auto i got about five years ago. i got enough spydies to torture a person with arachnophobia for life. its neat to see sal post stuff every so often. i have no clue of the name of any employee at benchmade.
 
One of the reasons I don't have any benchmades is because they aren't being marketed to me! :o
 
I have more Spydies than BM's, although I find the CS of both companies to be excellent.
Sonny
 
To be fair to Raym0016 he asked the question as to whether his perceptions are correct - I guess each person will have their own opinion on that but interestingly (to me anyway!) whilst I don't dislike BM I don't own any whereas I have several knives from ZT and Spyderco. Maybe there is something to BM 'seeming' remote...

Ben
 
Peroni1973 said:
To be fair to Raym0016 he asked the question as to whether his perceptions are correct - I guess each person will have their own opinion on that but interestingly (to me anyway!) whilst I don't dislike BM I don't own any whereas I have several knives from ZT and Spyderco. Maybe there is something to BM 'seeming' remote...

Ben
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That is exactly right. My perceptions are being based on the fact that they are not interactive on this forum, of which, I frequent. I realize that this isn't the only non manufacturer knife forum on the internet but I feel the people on here are very knowledgeable and "enthusiastic" about the knives they buy and talk about. Is this the largest knife forum on the web? (members, activity, etc.) If so, one would think of it as good marketing to have a presence here. The manufacturers that do have a presence here I have also seen in youtube videos, etc. It seems that there is more interaction with the knife community in general from Spyderco, Kershaw, some of the others on this forum, and it makes many of us more confident in the purchases we make. I am not bashing BM at all, I own one benchmade and have handled about a dozen more (since my local brick and mortar is a premium retailer of theirs). I just wonder if BM is missing out on some of that good will and at the very least, a great opportunity for marketing, by not having a presence here.
Mike
 
In my mind, they can't not know about BF. If they're not here, seems like it would be a conscious decision on their part and they must not feel they need a presence outside their own forum to succeed. I would say they are right, although it would be nice...
 
I've been noticing a lot of posts about a lack of quality control coming from Benchmade recently, and I think it would definitely behoove them to have a presence on here to reassure people. I'm even getting nervous about buying any Benchmade's in the future after what I've been reading recently, especially in reference to the 755.
 
Misanthropia said:
I've been noticing a lot of posts about a lack of quality control coming from Benchmade recently, and I think it would definitely behoove them to have a presence on here to reassure people. I'm even getting nervous about buying any Benchmade's in the future after what I've been reading recently, especially in reference to the 755.
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This is another good point, if there was a more of a presence among the community, these "complaints" might be more visible and at least appear to be heard. One can only hope that QC issues are not only being voiced here, but also on their forums and with their CS.
 
ibute21 said:
A lot of assumptions are being made. Benchmade does listen and interact with their enthusiasts (albeit not as regularly), just not here. I believe to have a Manufacturer forum here, the company has to pay, not unlike the dealers. That could be why they're not on here, but only my guess. If you want to interact with their forum, by all means go for it, it's just a Google search away.
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A lot of assumptions are being made...one of which being that manufacturers have to pay to be here. This is not the case.

From the FAQ

BladeForums.com is proud to offer industry Manufacturers the ability to have live interaction with their customer base. Our sole requirement for this service is that the manufacturer provide official company representation. We also encourage that the manufacturers help contribute to the community by providing products for our support giveaways & auctions.
 
Morrow said:
A lot of assumptions are being made...one of which being that manufacturers have to pay to be here. This is not the case.

From the FAQ

BladeForums.com is proud to offer industry Manufacturers the ability to have live interaction with their customer base. Our sole requirement for this service is that the manufacturer provide official company representation. We also encourage that the manufacturers help contribute to the community by providing products for our support giveaways & auctions.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I don't know if that makes me more curious or answers the real question.
 
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