Mercworx - Poor Customer Service!!

knifenut43

knifenut43

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Last Year I bought a Mercworx Atropos folding knife. Very nice piece and cost well over $400 new. It had an ambi thumbstud that had sharp edges and hung up in my pocket so I returned it after about one years use for repair of the thumbstud and sharpening. It has been four months and the knife is still in the wind. Every time I called Mercworx and left a message regarding the knife and requesting a call back they never had the courtesy to return my calls. After repeated calling and finally catching someone on the phone I was told that they were waiting for parts, it wasn't finished yet, and other put offs. As it turned out, my knife is the Atropos prototype! Got shipped by acident I guess. Over two weeks ago, I was told they were shipping the knife back to me.

As of this date - no knife! I've called twice more, left messages - no call back. Sent them an e-mail two days ago - no answer. This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced with a knife manufacturer. Mercworx charges big bucks for their products but can't even return a phone call or an e-mail! If you have any notions of buying knives from these people beware!! :barf:
 
sue them in small claims court. That should get their attention and it's easy to do.
 
Tell you what......I purchased a Lachesis from MercWorx directly. I received what turned out to be a faulty mess of a knife. After I called & complained to Nigel, he said to ship it back & they will get me out another one ASAP. 1 week later I called to see where it was & he replies that he didn't want any trouble from me & that they had a reputation to uphold. So they were going to give me back my money. I got mad & told them to send me a new knife, that's what I paid for & that's what I expected. 1 week goes by & it finally shows up. Much better, but in all honesty, it looked to have been someones daily user. All was good except for the fact that the blade had small light scratches all over the blade. Sure I was able to buff them out to where you can't see them so easily, but that's not the point. If these knives are "SUPPOSED" to be hand made, the people who are doing them are not doing a very good job of it. There have been a BUNCH of other people who I have spoke with who are also fed up with the overall quality & customer service form them.

Don't get me wrong, I truely LOVE my Lachesis. With a little work by myself, I will get the knife to where I want it, but I really shouldn't have to do d*ck to it since it is supposed to be handmade quality. The blade wasn't sharp the 1st time & the 2nd time was better, but it still needs a really good sharpening. Great feel in the hand, but it needs more.


Really, they screwed themselves for the way they treated me. I was planning on buying a few of the fixed blades & more than likely the Atropos, but you know what, forget them. They are doing it to themselves.


Do a search under MercWorx & see what others have said about them.


CALL THEM ONE MORE TIME & TELL THEM THAT YOUR PLANNING ON GETTING A LAWYER & CONTACTING THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU IF YOUR KNIFE ISN'T FIXED & RETURNED TO YOU WITHIN A SET AMOUNT OF DAYS. THAT'LL GET THEM MOVING. IF NOT, THEN GO WITH THE LAWYER & GET EM'!
 
Well, more e-mails sent and no reply. No knife either! If any of you guys have taken legal action against Mercworx in the past please send me an e-mail. Looks like I'll have to sue them to get the knife back.
 
knifenut43 said:
... I was told that they were waiting for parts, it wasn't finished yet, and other put offs...
Click to expand...

I was under the direct impression that these knives were made directly for the company. What is this now about waiting for parts? They should have them directly available, if not in stock.

I spoke to "Nigel", one of the alleged managers of Mecworx about a year ago. He seemed like a responsible person during those few conversations. However, I was very reluctant to purchase a new design that I had no opportunity to handle. I decided to wait for the opportunity to either see the knives at a show or to meet Nigel in that he had indicated that he might attend a blade/SHOT show. Neither have happened yet.

In addition, as nice looking and functional as the knives appear in photos, I wasn't too impressed with the whole "merc" reference in that as "fun" a marketing tool that might be, it could be used against a private owner in the civilian world. It seems as if this might be another episode of “marketeering” gone way bad.

It would appear that I was fortunate not to make an impulse order in this case.

I'm sorry to see that some folks seem to be getting burned in this situation.


All the best,

Stuart
 
More info. that I have found out about MercWorx.


A friend of a friend type deal who "used" to deal with MW......well, the friend questioned Nigel about their past "18" years of whatever background they supposedly had with their fixed blades in foreign coutries. Nigel got upset that my friend had the nerve to question their past. Nigel couldn't even produce any pictures of past knives or anything which made fellow knife people in the industry sceptical about their so called past. So alot of people I know are no longer going to deal with them. Sure their fixed blades are nice, but their folders need some fixing.

I really love the fit & feel in my hand with the Lachesis & now that I had it professionally sharpened, NOW the knife is sharp, unlike what Nigel called shaving sharp. Yeah, sharp enough to cut through shaving cream :D
Now it is really sharp & I am starting to like it again.

But the fact remains that MerecWorx people are careless S.O.B's that obviously won't do what it takes to get the customer satisfaction thing going over there Their claim to be hand made is no longer exceptable. Their liners are thinner in design from when the first ones came out & they cut to many corners. They still produced a great looking & feeling knife that is still heavy duty, but you can tell where the shortcuts are. I still can't recommend there folding knives to anyone because of the customer service or lack there of.
Maybe if there knives cost half of what they do, then maybe I could, but the overall quality of the knife isn't where it should be for the money there asking. :grumpy:


Unless things change, I bet you that there going to drop their folders in the some what near future because of all the problems that they are having.
I honestly have NOT heard of anyone getting a perfect folding knife from MercWorx yet. Now what does that tell you?
 
Send them a detailed registered/Sig. required letter with your contact info. they will get back to you :-)
Loandr.
 
I will never buy anything from them unless they can turn things around. I really wanted one of those folders before reading this. Not now. No way. I'll spend my dollars elsewhere.

Jon
 
It's a shame ain't it?! Great looking knives they have....all of them IMO, but you can't get over how they treat people :barf: & the fact that they are letting junk get out of their factory.......

I really do hope that they turn things around. I would like to buy something from them again, but I will have to wait :(
 
knifeknut,

I know most of these are usually subject to NDA, but could you tell us what he did to make things right?

I have had a fairly dim view of MW due to this and several other reports and I'd like to know if they're shaping up.

Thanks.

-jon
 
biogon said:
knifeknut,

I know most of these are usually subject to NDA, but could you tell us what he did to make things right?

I have had a fairly dim view of MW due to this and several other reports and I'd like to know if they're shaping up.

Thanks.

-jon
Click to expand...
Me too. After reading what you wrote, my view of MW was low. It seemed yours was also.

What could Nigel have done to turn your view around?
 
Well, the first thing that happened was that Nigel called and sincerely apologized for the actions or inactions that caused the knife to not be finished and returned promptly. He then sent the knife back via overnight FedEx and included a Mercworx shirt and coffee mugs. The man has definately made an effort to right the situation. It is not easy to call up someone who you know is going to be irate. He also advised that his people had been reprimanded for the mistake and said that his company is still all about customer service. We will see what the future brings! :D
 
knifeknut,

Glad things worked out for you. It's nice when the customer service finally gets its act together.

Sixfeetdeep,

Perhaps it's time to see if you can get yours fixed up CORRECTLY?

-j
 
sixfeetdeep said:
Their liners are thinner in design from when the first ones came out & they cut to many corners. They still produced a great looking & feeling knife that is still heavy duty, but you can tell where the shortcuts are.
Click to expand...

This is a still major factor in why I will not plop 400+ dollars down on one of these. I would like to see more on this issue. Thanks.

Jon
 
Well, I had a friend fix mine up for me.

I ment to post here yesterday about Nigel.......1 out of the 3 torq bit screws had a stripped head :mad: . So I called up Nigel & left him a messgae asking him about getting me a couple of new screws & whola, he called back about 3 hours later & he has them already being shipped out to me.
I'm not to happy that there was a problem with the screw, but at least I have new ones coming. He told me not to take the clip off because the screws are lock-tight'd down. Yeah, but what if I ever wanted to take the clip off?! If I didn't need to adjust the tension on the blade, I wouldn't have had to try to get them off in the 1st place. The tension was too tight, but it is getting better with a little Militec-1 & alot of opening/closing.

His call back actually made me a little bit happier with them, but I am not convinced about them just yet.


Ever since I had the knife sharpened, it has been just awesome. Now if they could make it as smooth as a Sebenza for opening & closing it, it would be perfect.....well, almost :rolleyes: :D
 
My new Lachesis folder opens smoothly; however, when it locks-up, the inside steel piece barely covers the back of the blade. My Clotho folder locks-up in the middle of the back of the blade, as do all of my other folders of this type system. Additionally, the Lachesis is very difficult to close. It takes a great deal of pressure to depress the side lock and it clicks loudly as you do.

My concern about the extent of lock-up on the blade is that it may fail. And, the release should operate smoothly. It's an otherwise very nice folder; however, I believe this should be carefully checked before releasing for sale.

I emailed Mercworx on July 5th and have yet to receive a reply from Niegel.

By the way, I had problems with the Clotho folder when I first purchased it direct from MW. Jagged edges that could cut your fingers, when opened. They corrected it but only after an aggressive campaign of calls and emails.

It's really a shame they let these types of knives leave their factory to buyers. For the prices they charge, buyers deserve better quality.
 
Northgull, even linerlocks from reliable companies can engage in different places along the tang. As long as the entire liner contacts some part of the tang, I wouldn't worry. As for locking too tightly, you should try my Greco's sometime! :) I have an Emerson Commander that locked so tightly I needed two hands to release it.

There's two things you can do to fix this. First, most linerlocks that start stiff will loosen up with use, so .. play with it. (That's not so hard, is it? :D ) Next, lubricate it: take a pencil and scribble a little on the contact point of the liner lock and the tang. The graphite should smooth it nicely.

Sometimes I get knives with sharp edges, like the backs of some Spyderco blades, cut very cleanly and feeling as if they had a wire edge along them. Very simply, what I do is buff them with a ceramic rod. This micro-smooths the metal. Problem solved.

Knives that cost what MW do should have someone at the factory tuning each one up before it gets packaged. Sebenzas don't suffer these defects, and they cost less than MW.
 
Thanks for the tips.. I'll try them. But, as you recognogize, these knives shouldn't leave the factory in this condition.

The Clotho is in very excellent condition now. Hopefully, the Lachesis will be at some point!
 
I received an Atropos last week and I am satisfied. No problems with the knife. I was hesitant after reading all the negative threads, but I thought I'd give them a chance. No problems so far.
 
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