Spyderco Advocate

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Mike45ACP

Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
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Does anyone have information on the rerelease of the Advocate? Like when it will be released again?
Thanks for any info.

Mike
 
I must have misunderstood, I thought I read that the advocate had been discontinued until spyderco came up with a fix? Thanks for pointing that out.

Mike
 
Mike45ACP said:
I must have misunderstood, I thought I read that the advocate had been discontinued until spyderco came up with a fix? Thanks for pointing that out.

Mike
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I remember reading that, too. Stopped production and old stock is still available, I guess?
 
Not sure why anyone would want to buy the old stock if it's problematic? But I'm ready and willing to buy it when they reintroduce! I love the design!

Mike

BigKurtHaze said:
I remember reading that, too. Stopped production and old stock is still available, I guess?
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As far as I know, Spyderco didn't recall the Advocate so they are sitting on dealer shelves. Spyderco has acknowledged that the design needs improvement but they don't seem to believe that every Advocate is defective. They would rather just handle warranty claims as they come. It'll probably take some patience and focus to figure out when the design has been updated.
 
Mike45ACP said:
Not sure why anyone would want to buy the old stock if it's problematic? But I'm ready and willing to buy it when they reintroduce! I love the design!

Mike
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You raise an interesting point... but buying new, from a reputable dealer should be sufficient to get any service or warranty work done, I would think. It's not that Spyderco recalled the knives, is it? If they are still being sold and waranteed, why not?
 
Apologies for being out of the loop, but what was wrong with the Advocate? I've only heard glowing reviews.
 
nick21 said:
Apologies for being out of the loop, but what was wrong with the Advocate? I've only heard glowing reviews.
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The washers the bearing run on were/are very thin, causing some of them to cup if too much pivot tension was applied. This cupping affected the flipping action negatively.
 
Pretty sure the cupping happens on all of their flippers, and has not been the source of widespread issues...the problem with the Advocate was that the washers weren't holding up, they were wearing through. There are images in a couple of the other threads here - do a search in this forum for threads with "advocate" in the title.

I have had no issues with my Advocate, other than the action initially feeling "gritty"; and I purchased it fairly early after release (before reports of problems appeared). I do not flip it compulsively, nor have I been inclined to make pivot adjustments. I'm not saying mine won't develop problems; but I'm content to use it until it does...at which point I will send it in to Spyderco under warranty.
 
I had a Southard with the same washer problem. I sent it in for repair and then called them about 3 days after they received it. The person who answered told me that it was normal and within Spyderco's Normal operating limits. I couldn't argue because the knife was inoperable as it was. They also reprimanded me for opening the knife up to see what was wrong, I guess customers who have many Spyderco's are not smart enough to see whats wrong. They then proceeded to tell me it was going to cost me $25.00. Of the few crappy warranty departments They share first place The second is a Chinese company so I guess I can say that the are the worst of all the American companies. I would stop buying them but it is an obsession. They make alot of great knives. I guess I will still have to deal with them but it is a little strange that a company that is so responsive to customer needs also has the worst warranty department.
 
emjay4248 said:
I had a Southard with the same washer problem. I sent it in for repair and then called them about 3 days after they received it. The person who answered told me that it was normal and within Spyderco's Normal operating limits. I couldn't argue because the knife was inoperable as it was. They also reprimanded me for opening the knife up to see what was wrong, I guess customers who have many Spyderco's are not smart enough to see whats wrong. They then proceeded to tell me it was going to cost me $25.00. Of the few crappy warranty departments They share first place The second is a Chinese company so I guess I can say that the are the worst of all the American companies. I would stop buying them but it is an obsession. They make alot of great knives. I guess I will still have to deal with them but it is a little strange that a company that is so responsive to customer needs also has the worst warranty department.
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Yeah that's super weird. I sent in my Domino that I got second hand that I soon realized had no washers at all(strange right?). I never had to send a knife in to anyone before so the first thing I did was call Spyderco's Customer Service and the lady I spoke to was incredibly helpful and while I did have to pay the $25 she said it wasn't an issue that I disassembled my Domino.

This was maybe 2-3 days after their warranty update and I even quoted that saying it convinced me to try and figure out the issue with my knife. She said I could have done it even before their update and it still wouldn't have been an problem at all.

My Domino came back absolutely perfect. I've flipped that bugger hundreds and hundreds of times without a single hiccup. They treated me right and if I had to do it all again I'd send it back to them. The turnaround was 13 days starting from the day I sent it to the day it arrived.
 
I guess either you were lucky or I wasn't. I spoke to a guy. could be it just wasn't a good day for him. I have read threads and watched YouTube knife reviewers that had the same complaint. Maybe next time it will go smoother due to the fact that the disassembly restriction has been lifted and they no longer use red Loctite on the screws.
 
emjay4248 said:
They also reprimanded me for opening the knife up to see what was wrong,
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I just wanted to address this one point. Spyderco does now allow the disassembly of screwed together knives for maintenance. They have changed their standing on disassembly, and stated so publicly.

How long ago was it that you sent your knife in?
If it was recent (within this calendar year), I would call and speak to a supervisor.
 
It was 2 months ago. I had told them that I wanted to change the scale and asked if that was okay they said that always allowed people to take the knives but we didn't understand the wording. In addition they said if the customer took it apart they would determine whether the problem was yours or theirs. I have dealt with CRKT, Kershaw, Shun (same company) and they were much more accommodating and not as snooty. I had a problem with Steel Will, I needed a new clip. A Russian woman who did not understand English very well and had no idea as to what I was talking about. The next day I received an e-mail thanking me fo calling and that they hope that they were able to solve my problem. Not very good either. I just hope nothing happens to my Steel Will Final story, I sent my Kershaw Tilt to get a factory edge put on. The person I bought it from had tried to touch it up on a Sharpmaker and didn't know what he was doing and dulled the blade. The Tilt's edge is supposed to be perfectly straight. I guess they gave it to someone that didn't know or look and sharpened it with a belly in the middle. I can now use it as a rocker chopper in the kitchen. I have not dealt with this problem because I am pretty angry and I don't want to be when I speak to them. Warranty service is a crapshoot. At least that's how I my experience.
 
Nothing but first rate experiences with Spyderco customer service. I'm guessing you're in the minority here when it comes to dealing with their CS.
 
Same here, nothing but first rate interactions with Spyderco when I had a Leafstrom with lock rock and an Ayoob that I lost a clip screw on.

Completely happy how they sorted those problems.
 
We had very few problems considering the large number made. Almost all of the problems were from taking the knife apart or adjustment. We are changing the engineering on the model and the new version has just been approved. If someone has a problem with the older version, we'll certainly take care of them. The problem was magnified by a you tube "star" and some of our forumites that felt it was more important to to do it another way.

We've had problems in the past and someone would come to us, explain what they learned, we fixed the problem and moved on. Different strokes I guess.

sal
 
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