Quality Control : Do it the factory or at retailer

[marty123]

Quality control should be done at the factory by the manufacturer. Secondarily, if sold by mail, phone, or internet, QC should be done by the retailer before the knife is shipped out. It should not have to be done by the knife buyer, forcing upon buyers the need to return bad knives along with the attendant expense, wait, trouble and aggravation that goes along with a bad QC knife. Or even worse, being stuck with a useless, non-returnable knife, a total waste of money. Or worst off all, suffering injury because of a lousy QC knife. Yet, too often, the onus for QC falls on the shoulders of knife buyers because of poor QC higher up in the chain. Let the buyer beware, so to speak. But it shouldn't be like that.
I've seen in stores myself, and read of on the forums, too many crappy QC knives for this to be considered an isolated problem. Bad-lockup is a particular problem, a serious functional flaw, but all sorts of other flaws occur as well, both functional and cosmetic, for lousy QC at the factory and retailer to be considered an isolated or negligable problem. Bad blade-play, bad grinds, bad heat-treat, bad fit-and-finish etc. seem to occur far too often. Some brands may have more problems than others with QC, but most if not all brands seem to have too many problem with bad QC knives. I've seen, and read about, lots of knives with problems that are so obvious and blatant that I wonder "What the hell is this? How the heck did this piece of **** leave the factory? What were they thinking ?" Sure, not all flaws in knives are readily apparent, but lots of the flaws that buyers end up with are quite apparent to even a casual observer and should have been caught before getting to the buyer.
Now, a well-made knife is not the simplest thing in the world to produce, but I don't see them them as being inordinately difficult to produce properly. It's not rocket science after all. Knives certainly have some complexity to them, but compared to a lot of other things knives are relatively simple mechanical devices. It should be, it must be, possible to catch many of the flawed knives that are getting through to buyers right now.
As a consequence of this view of mine on QC, I am reluctant to buy knives on the internet or by mail. I feel it necessary to handle the particular knife before I buy it to ensure it's quality. I can't sufficiently count on good QC by the manufacturer or the retailer to weed out flawed knives before sending them on to buyers. I've seen too much crap in the stores, and read of too much crap on the forums, to be highly trustful. I don't expect perfection, but blatant and obvious flaws are unacceptable.
So there.

 

[Cosmic Superchunk]

Hi Marty. At one time I was reluctant to buy knives over the net, but if you're buying from a reputable source and the product comes from a reputable company, there's nothing to worry about. I too prefer to look at the knife before I buy it, however, reputable dealers will be glad to offer a refund if you're not satisfied with your purchase. As far as QC issues, that really can't be blamed on the dealer. That's something the manufacturer needs to deal with. My advice is, if you're going to buy online, buy from a reputable source and buy a reputable brand.

 

[glockman99]

I agree...There IS alot of crap that shouldn't have left the factory the way it was! At least Cold Steel catches some of theirs and marks it as a "2nd" (at a reduced price) before it leaves the factory/distribution center. It's a SHAME that others don't follow their lead on this one.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I do think that some manufacturers should do a better job of QC. As far as internet dealers are concerned I think that the most that they could do is a cursory inspection for obvious flaws. This would not take very long and would help at least somewhat. I do not think that dealers can take the time to check for all possible faults, and as long as there is a liberal return policy then I think they have done all that can be expected.

It is always disappointing to wait for a knife and then to find that out will have to wait longer because you have to return the knife because of problems that should have been caught at the factory. I find to many companies use the end user as their QC department. It is far less expensive for the company when they operate this way, but a real pain for you and I. Maybe we should use our dollars as a way to tell these companies that we do not appreciate this way of doing business. Do not buy from them, support only the companies that take pride in their products and QC them properly. Also tell these companies why you are not buying their products, maybe they will get the hint and start to do things right.

When you send a knife that you are not happy with back to a dealer, ask if he has had other problems with this knife. If he has, and if you know of another knife that you want, buy something else. If not then ask for a refund. Hit these guys in the bank account, it is the only way they will learn.

 

[Bugs3x]

I truly wish that we knuts could somehow gain access to sales figures and warranty returns. If we had it, then we could ourselves measure/judge the impact of actions like writing to manufacturers, demanding refunds, etc. Of course this won't happen until several months after all pigs start flying. (Funny, but I just posted about communicating dissatisfaction to knife makers about all the writing they put on their blades, which few here seem to appreciate at all.)

I'd like to think that the person who places the knives in their little celophane sack, wraps a brochure around it and sticks all in a box has the responsibility, and authority to look over the knives they are packing for obvious flaws like grind lines, blades rubbing against liners, blades not centered, etc, and turn aside any and all examples which don't meet some realistic expectations. I think we would read a tremendously reduced list of threads bitching about something glaringly wrong with a knife when it was received.

It would be nice if internet sellers would open every box, and inspect the contents against a set of expectations, but that would be extremely time-consuing for a large vendor, and, as was pointed out, it really isn't their responsibility. I think some, probably smaller vendors do look, if specifically asked to by a customer. But, I'm not at all certain what sort of reception a retailer would get from her/his wholesaler, if a significant percentage of knives sold to that vendor came back as unworthy of sale. I think that if the #s were large, a vendor might well find himself/herself SOL in terms of being able to continue buying from that wholesaler.

I may get flayed for this, but I don't think it is helpful for QC when the frequent users of manufacturers forums are so enthusiastic in their appreciation of the manufacturer, that they have a bemused tolerance of quality problems, and repeatedly write that buyers should expect to have to make a few "adjustments" on their new knives; or, that problems like very quick wear signs on parts making the knives look more used than they are, presumably lowering their value, but if not, certainly lowering the appreciation of the product by the majority of buyers, are totally insignificant. The only message such manufacturers are receiving is that there is no problem with poor QC. This provides no motivation for the company to do QC on their products.

I totally agree that customers need to make manufacturers aware of their feelings about quality and QC, and to make them aware that sales are not occurring because of such problems.