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What a surprise to see you here. Coming around now just to bash Spyderco huh?
Who said you "disliked Spyderco knives?"
In my opinion, every production company needs to step up their quality control. I buy a lot of knives, but not enough to warrant the number of flaws I see generally. I would say 1 in 5 Benchmades and Spydercos I buy, I can observe some flaw in fit and finish.
And warranty issues for anyone outside US is so much worse; sometimes not even worth the hassle. Currently 2 knives in my collection have problems, a Spyderco Delica 4 in G10(stripped screw) and a Orion Knives K2 backpacker(poor quality all around). I use the Delica as a beater now since I'm just not interested in spending any more money and time dealing with it, though it is funny that I would end up using a knife costing over a hundred dollars as a beater.
I do also agree that a company making the customer pay anything for a warranty issue is a bit unfair. Are there really so many warranty issues that the company would lose money covering the shipping charges for them all? Maybe this is an indication the QA needs to be tighter?
The knife industry in general is an interesting business, as the customer base aren't just mere customers, but serious fans. It's probably the only market I've seen where the customer's are so understanding about any problems. I deal with a lot of warranty issues regarding various electronics and the customers are brutal. Most of you would explode in anger and disgust at the amount of hate these people have to a company over a minor problem. It is likely due to the fact that they're not fans of the product; they're all average people who feel they must get everything they paid for. 'Things like this happen' isn't good enough. Even when items are shipped out, fixed, and shipped back in with no cost to the customer, they're still pissed that it even happened at all and no longer trusts that brand completely. The level of expectations are simply different.
In the end, I do feel the knife companies could generally offer better quality and service. They're lucky to have such loyal customers for their products and I certainly do hope that their satisfaction isn't simply pushed off to the side for profit.
If you feel anything I've said is being unreasonable, here's a test: find someone you know who isn't a fan of knives and tell them you'd have to spend your own money to replace a knife that arrived with a problem. Then tell them how much you spent on the knife. Most likely, that person will stare at you as if they recognized a serial murderer.
I'm not out to bash anyone or any company, nor am I trying to start an argument. I still love BM and Spydie knives, but I'm also sharing my honest opinion. I don't think I'll get any argument saying soft screws in Spydies is a known and reoccurring problem, the users should be allowed to disassemble or reassemble a knife for maintenance without voiding the warranty, and in the case of nyfemaker's sharpmaker rods, a picture should have been sufficient evidence for Spyderco to just ship a couple rods out instead of continuing to add to the cost for the end user.
Sorry for such a long post, but it's something I've felt for a while since collecting knives. Maybe my luck just sucks and I see more flaws in knives than others? After all, even my Sebbie is back with CRK to fix a flaw.
