vjb.knife
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2002
- Messages
- 1,695
First let me say that I am a big fan of what SOG has produced over the years and have not had any problems with any of their knives until now. I have Bought , used collected and traded SOG knives probably since 1984 or so. I currently own a S1 Bowie, a Trident, a Blink, and have had literally dozens of others including Tomcats, Tigersharks, Paratools, Power Grips, Sog Techs, Government models and probably a couple of others. I have always been happy with them whether I was just collecting them or I was taking them out in the field and tearing them up, but the recent purchase of a SOG Twitch II Black Ti has really got me ticked off.
SOG if you are out there listening and you have not heard it from your Customer Service Department - YOU HAVE A BIG QC AND OR DESIGN PROBLEM WITH THIS KNIFE!!!!! It Suucks big time! The original purchase of the Twitch II Black Ti I had was about 6 weeks ago, because I wanted something a little sleeker than the Blink I was carrying. Let me say that the Blink works very well, tight lock up, takes a nice edge and snaps open sharply; nicely done SOG. However the Twitch II is another story. I thought all was fine until about a week into owning this one when I noticed that the blade could be closed with both locks engaged!! The Secondary sliding lock which should block the pushing in of the back lock did not function. When it was slid forward the back lock could still be depressed and the blade would close - NOT GOOD. This is definately not the case on my Blink; when both locks are engeged the blade is solid as a rock and you ca not press in the back lock whatsoever.
Now the saga begins. I called SOG to see about a return and after a while of convincing the "service representative" that this is not how the knife is suppossed to work I was told to send it in for repair or replacement. About two weeks later I got the same knife back with tag attached saying they had cleaned the pocket lint out of the knife and it was fixed; needless to say this was not the problem at all and the knife was the same as it was before. Another call to the "service representative" got me the response that we probably can't fix that problem and the model is discontinued so we can't replace it. I asked for a substitute of the new GovTac model in the bead blast finish which I was having a hard time finding and offered to pay the slight difference in price. They said not to worry and they would cover the difference. They also assured me that the knife was in stock and would ship out right away. Great I was happy to get the trade and revert to using my trusty Blink.
Well, nearly two weeks later and SOG delivers what I thought to be a new GovTac, but no it is a Twitch II not in the aluminum handled black Ti version I had but the cheaper G-10 handle satin finish model. Immediately I am a little ticked but it still looked pretty nice so let's try it. Guess what SOG, yep the same problem as the first one - the sliding lock is as worthless as an icepack in a snow storm. WTFO! You would think they could at least check to see if the damn thing worked. They sent me a cheaper product and it did not even work!!! SOG, this is not the way to run Customer Service, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing, Design or a company in general in you want to retain customers.
Now when I call the "service representative" for the third time I am told that the Gov Tac I thought I was getting was not in stock and there were few alternatives to this knife in trade without paying the retail price difference or taking a factory second. Well, I already had two factory thirds so a second was not going to do either. And all of you know as well as I do that SOG knives have deep discounts on the internet bordering on wholesale and the price difference to get some of the possibilities were more than buying on outright on the bay or from some of the big dealers. So I finally agreed to wait until a GovTac came in to make that trade. At lease it probably would not close on my fingers.
So over a month has past since buying the Twitch II and I have nothing more than a pain in my; well you know. Thanks so much SOG. I have worked for many years as a Plant Engineer and Manufacturing Engineer in the metals industry and have not been embarassed by Quality problems more that one time. Figure it out and fix it.
Somewhat less than best regards, Vince.
SOG if you are out there listening and you have not heard it from your Customer Service Department - YOU HAVE A BIG QC AND OR DESIGN PROBLEM WITH THIS KNIFE!!!!! It Suucks big time! The original purchase of the Twitch II Black Ti I had was about 6 weeks ago, because I wanted something a little sleeker than the Blink I was carrying. Let me say that the Blink works very well, tight lock up, takes a nice edge and snaps open sharply; nicely done SOG. However the Twitch II is another story. I thought all was fine until about a week into owning this one when I noticed that the blade could be closed with both locks engaged!! The Secondary sliding lock which should block the pushing in of the back lock did not function. When it was slid forward the back lock could still be depressed and the blade would close - NOT GOOD. This is definately not the case on my Blink; when both locks are engeged the blade is solid as a rock and you ca not press in the back lock whatsoever.
Now the saga begins. I called SOG to see about a return and after a while of convincing the "service representative" that this is not how the knife is suppossed to work I was told to send it in for repair or replacement. About two weeks later I got the same knife back with tag attached saying they had cleaned the pocket lint out of the knife and it was fixed; needless to say this was not the problem at all and the knife was the same as it was before. Another call to the "service representative" got me the response that we probably can't fix that problem and the model is discontinued so we can't replace it. I asked for a substitute of the new GovTac model in the bead blast finish which I was having a hard time finding and offered to pay the slight difference in price. They said not to worry and they would cover the difference. They also assured me that the knife was in stock and would ship out right away. Great I was happy to get the trade and revert to using my trusty Blink.
Well, nearly two weeks later and SOG delivers what I thought to be a new GovTac, but no it is a Twitch II not in the aluminum handled black Ti version I had but the cheaper G-10 handle satin finish model. Immediately I am a little ticked but it still looked pretty nice so let's try it. Guess what SOG, yep the same problem as the first one - the sliding lock is as worthless as an icepack in a snow storm. WTFO! You would think they could at least check to see if the damn thing worked. They sent me a cheaper product and it did not even work!!! SOG, this is not the way to run Customer Service, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing, Design or a company in general in you want to retain customers.
Now when I call the "service representative" for the third time I am told that the Gov Tac I thought I was getting was not in stock and there were few alternatives to this knife in trade without paying the retail price difference or taking a factory second. Well, I already had two factory thirds so a second was not going to do either. And all of you know as well as I do that SOG knives have deep discounts on the internet bordering on wholesale and the price difference to get some of the possibilities were more than buying on outright on the bay or from some of the big dealers. So I finally agreed to wait until a GovTac came in to make that trade. At lease it probably would not close on my fingers.
So over a month has past since buying the Twitch II and I have nothing more than a pain in my; well you know. Thanks so much SOG. I have worked for many years as a Plant Engineer and Manufacturing Engineer in the metals industry and have not been embarassed by Quality problems more that one time. Figure it out and fix it.
Somewhat less than best regards, Vince.
