- Joined
- Apr 5, 1999
- Messages
- 460
Dear Members,
I feel a need to post about the issue of the Canadian scratched pivot screw. First, I am going to send the gentleman a screw at no charge, but I'm also going to say a few more things. First I'll ask, what is a scratch? Second, who is to say whether it happened here or at the seller. I've already talked about stores or sellers, tinkering with or "adjusting" the knives. I've actually had knives returned for scratches or dings, where we could not find the defect, until someone literally got out a magnifying glass. So there is always the judgment by the customer as to what is a defect and that may differ greatly from what we define in court as the opinion of a "reasonable man". And you need to know this, all of the owners and presidents of the knife companies know each other and we all talk. We discuss a lot of things and a lot of times it revolves around customers. And I want to tell you, we've all seen everything. From problem customers that rotate between knife companies, to outright liars who say things like, "I just took the knife out of the box, and the tip was broken off." That's actually a pretty common story between our companies. And there are those customers that just cannot be satisfied. And because some of those same names come up not just in the knife community but from our friends in the tactical and firearms community also, I will venture to say that they are people who just seem to look for a "problem" no matter who they deal with.
Now, I want you to understand that I am not accusing J.L.C. of any of the above, but, I will say our staff is not annoyed, when they talk to customers, in fact I've seen them getting hit pretty hard at times and I applaud them for their grace under pressure.
We as manufacturers can not just send parts out for free to our customers just as the other manufacturers, knives, guns, optics, etc. cannot do. And the reason quite simply is this. It is due to the dishonesty of a portion of the general public. "It came like this, The lens was scratched, The optics ring was stripped, The takedown pin was dented", etc., etc., etc. If companies responded to every customer request for free parts, it would cost them dearly so companies in general are reluctant to have a, no questions asked policy on replacement parts. I admit there are some out there, but they are damned few, these days.
Again, I am not accusing J.L.C. of any of this but I am taking the time to address an issue that some in this forum want to give us heat about. We're not evil or bad guys, but there always seems to be those who are ready to accuse companies of being so. I'm going to tell you something, and if you ever own a business or a company you will hear this mantra about, ''The customer is always right". Well that's not so true anymore. The truth is this, " The customer always thinks he's right, but sometimes he is not."
You would not believe some of the elaborate schemes we have seen some customers go through in trying to get a free knife or sometimes cash back, or credit when they've actually been working a scam from the moment they contacted us.
Do any of you know what the terms, shrinkage rate, mean in business? It is a benign term for the amount of money or product lost to a company due to illegal activity. In a retail store it would be for example, shoplifting. Every business has a percentage of loss that they suffer each year due to nefarious acts, and they put things in place to mitigate or prevent the loss.
Unfortunately, these policies frequently affect the "good" customers in a negative way. And the good suffer because of a small minority of bad.
In the end, the point I'm making to this forum, in particularly those who are quick to "pile on" in a negative way about a company's policy, is this, before you run off just badmouthing some company because it "feels good," learn a little bit about how a business is forced to operate . Hell, I'd like to give free parts to everyone who needs one, but it's not going to happen.
We'll bend backwards a little to satisfy the customer, but we won't get bent over.
My Best Regards,
Ernest Emerson
I feel a need to post about the issue of the Canadian scratched pivot screw. First, I am going to send the gentleman a screw at no charge, but I'm also going to say a few more things. First I'll ask, what is a scratch? Second, who is to say whether it happened here or at the seller. I've already talked about stores or sellers, tinkering with or "adjusting" the knives. I've actually had knives returned for scratches or dings, where we could not find the defect, until someone literally got out a magnifying glass. So there is always the judgment by the customer as to what is a defect and that may differ greatly from what we define in court as the opinion of a "reasonable man". And you need to know this, all of the owners and presidents of the knife companies know each other and we all talk. We discuss a lot of things and a lot of times it revolves around customers. And I want to tell you, we've all seen everything. From problem customers that rotate between knife companies, to outright liars who say things like, "I just took the knife out of the box, and the tip was broken off." That's actually a pretty common story between our companies. And there are those customers that just cannot be satisfied. And because some of those same names come up not just in the knife community but from our friends in the tactical and firearms community also, I will venture to say that they are people who just seem to look for a "problem" no matter who they deal with.
Now, I want you to understand that I am not accusing J.L.C. of any of the above, but, I will say our staff is not annoyed, when they talk to customers, in fact I've seen them getting hit pretty hard at times and I applaud them for their grace under pressure.
We as manufacturers can not just send parts out for free to our customers just as the other manufacturers, knives, guns, optics, etc. cannot do. And the reason quite simply is this. It is due to the dishonesty of a portion of the general public. "It came like this, The lens was scratched, The optics ring was stripped, The takedown pin was dented", etc., etc., etc. If companies responded to every customer request for free parts, it would cost them dearly so companies in general are reluctant to have a, no questions asked policy on replacement parts. I admit there are some out there, but they are damned few, these days.
Again, I am not accusing J.L.C. of any of this but I am taking the time to address an issue that some in this forum want to give us heat about. We're not evil or bad guys, but there always seems to be those who are ready to accuse companies of being so. I'm going to tell you something, and if you ever own a business or a company you will hear this mantra about, ''The customer is always right". Well that's not so true anymore. The truth is this, " The customer always thinks he's right, but sometimes he is not."
You would not believe some of the elaborate schemes we have seen some customers go through in trying to get a free knife or sometimes cash back, or credit when they've actually been working a scam from the moment they contacted us.
Do any of you know what the terms, shrinkage rate, mean in business? It is a benign term for the amount of money or product lost to a company due to illegal activity. In a retail store it would be for example, shoplifting. Every business has a percentage of loss that they suffer each year due to nefarious acts, and they put things in place to mitigate or prevent the loss.
Unfortunately, these policies frequently affect the "good" customers in a negative way. And the good suffer because of a small minority of bad.
In the end, the point I'm making to this forum, in particularly those who are quick to "pile on" in a negative way about a company's policy, is this, before you run off just badmouthing some company because it "feels good," learn a little bit about how a business is forced to operate . Hell, I'd like to give free parts to everyone who needs one, but it's not going to happen.
We'll bend backwards a little to satisfy the customer, but we won't get bent over.
My Best Regards,
Ernest Emerson
