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SURVIVE! Ellie
Joined Apr 21, 2014 Messages 1,008I believe a lot of folks who placed preorders with us during the SURVIVE! Starter campaign were expecting a knife similar to our old spec production models. Instead they are getting a knife with much tighter fit & finish and innovations like our unique surface finish, Delta 3V and Microtextured handles.
Open ended preordering was last available in September of 2016, which is when we closed the GSO-8 Preorder. Since then we have offered some preordering, but with limitations on time and/or volume. Those preorders have only been available for models that have started or are close to starting production. In actuality, we haven't had any knives available for sale since October 2017 and have been working on fulfilling existing orders.
We are always happy to reply to emails and talk to people on the phone when they are concerned about their order. If anyone feels they have been treated poorly by someone at SURVIVE! please let us know so we can be better in the future. We strive to have top-notch customer service and have never intended to be disrespectful to anyone, customer or otherwise.
Every knife that leaves our workshop is a functional cutting tool. The Factory 2nds are knives that have some sort of flaw. Some of those flaws are things that used to pass as firsts until a customer complained. Over the years, our standards have gotten really high. Some folks might not care as much as we do about a mismatched bevel and would say that there is nothing wrong with the knife. Functionally, they're right. But the primary bevels are still mismatched and I know many of our customers would be pretty upset if they received a first that way.
The SK Series also hasn't been released yet.
Assembly isn't where things are getting held up. The time consuming processes are the ones that require more skill and attention to detail, but they can also be boring and uncomfortable. Hiring people for those tasks can be more difficult but we aren't against the idea. We have hired people who didn't work out and we have interviewed people who were no longer interested once they realized what the work was. We also have to consider that a lot of what we do involves proprietary processes that took years to develop. We can't just flood the workshop with people we don't know until one of them sticks around. Instead, we decided to work with highly rated companies who already have teams of skilled employees. That is one of the advantages of the upcoming SK Series.
We aren’t comparable to Busse. They make a different style of knife, for a different amount of money. They have also been in the business for over 30 years.
At the start of 2017 we implemented a new policy of charging a 10% cancellation fee for refunded orders. This was intended to help cover lost payment processing fees as well as in house costs associated with issuing refunds. The fee was waived for refunds on any weekly sales orders that had gone beyond the 90 day delivery window. Any orders placed before January 01, 2017 are not subject to the cancellation fee.
