SOG customer service story.

Death's Head

Death's Head

Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
2,027
I took the plunge and tried to put a ballpeen hammered finish on the scales of my Titanium Vision. Well, things didn't go as planned. I messed up one of the scales. I called SOG to buy a replacement scale. I felt to stupid to tell them the truth, so I told them that I lost one of the scales when I dismantled it for a cleaning when I was camping. As if the truth is a much stupider story.
I was told that dismantling the knife voids the warrenty and that they receive the knives pre-assembled, so they don't have spare titanium scales. The scales that I on the knife were given a oxygen bath, meaning, tiger-striping the scales using Oxi Clean. Also, I had the blade waved before hand. So this knife's future was looking gloom.
Anyways, Christina at customer service told me to mail them the knife with an explaination on what work needs to be done and they will see what they can do.
A week and a half later, the knife came back. It had a new scales, it was cleaned and lubed. Both scales were replaced. I know because there were no more stripes. I never received a call to pay for any service or parts. It was just received like it was brand new.
Now that's what I call service.
 
SOG's customer service is definitely top-notch. :):thumbup: My experiences in dealing with them have been equally pleasant.
 
I put in a call yesterday to purchase a new Bowie sheath. After a few minutes of conversation I had a new sheath on its way . . . gratis. I never asked for such service, it was simply given. To say the least, I was very impressed. Way to go SOG. In such a competitive marketplace, the "little things" make all the difference in the world.

Dan
 
I agree with everyone who previously posted. Customer service like that gets noticed, especially from forum member like us that expose every detail regarding knives. SOG will develop win faithful customers with service like they are presently giving out.
 
I bought a PE-14 and wasn't happy with the factory edge.
Sent the knife to SOG with a brief explanation.

Knife was returned to me in little more than a week, edge including serrations now shaving sharp; no charge.

I was definitely pleased and impressed, particularly at the speedy turnaround time.

Great idea to publicize your experience w/ SOG, Death's Head!
 
SOG has traditionally had wonderful customer service. That is part of how they have developed such a loyal following.

It is true that disassembling a SOG knife will void its warranty. That has been clearly stated in SOG's warranty since their earliest days. But, that being said, SOG always goes out of it's way to attempt to do something for the customer. Not always will they be happy (in part or whole), but most often, the customers walk away thrilled. Many customers know that they have done something wrong and contact SOG in the hopes that they can do something miraculous. When I was making the decisions on non-warranty situations, I'd try to refurbish the knife (to original or near-original condition), replace the knife with a factory second, or give a sizeable discount off a replacement. With the exception of a few cases, one of these solutions were completely fine with the customer. Especially when they did something really stupid with their knife and they knew it. Also, some knives give more options that other knives in how the problem is resolved.

It is true that the Visions (and most/all Japanese made knives) come pre-assembled and SOG doesn't stock replacement parts--except they usually will have washers, screws, and thumbstuds.

From my experience, there are several posibilities for the condition of the knife you received back:
  1. They gave you a new knife, a factor second, or a fully refurbished knife
  2. They canabalized another knife they had sitting around to re-build yours
  3. Or, more possibly, they bead-blasted your scales and cleaned up the knife. I've seen them do this dozens of times with perfect results. The only way I ever noticed this was done is that the results of bead-blasting the titanium scales is a slightly darker shade of gray and an ever-so-slightly rougher finish. But you would likely only notice this if you had two Visions (one bead-blasted, the other standard) side-by-side or if you've looked a hundreds/thousands of them and can from memory notice even the smallest differences from one knife to the next.
Regardless to what happened, you have a new/refurbished knife that is perfect in every respect and you're a very satisfied customer!

SOG's done it again.
 
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