Bad Survive! Deserves A Permanent Post In The Hall Of Shame

Quiet said:
And by "owning their mistakes", it needs to be along the lines of an actual confession, not more fluffer from Chief of Flufferization Ellie. Here, I'll even type it up so they can copy and paste for their own use:

"To everyone who knows of our company, and to all past, current, or prospective clients. My wife Ellie and I do not know how to properly run a business, balance books, create and work from a budget, or properly plan and execute product lines, and WE PERSONALLY have made many, many mistakes which have resulted in years of backlog. Also, we asked for payment up front, which we did not correctly manage, and misspent a lot of the money. I, Guy Dbag, and Ellie Dbag PERSONALLY and sincerely apologize. To clarify, the "We" in this statement refers to only myself, Guy Dbag, and my wife, Ellie Dbag. These issues are not the fault of ANY of our past, present, or prospective future employees, vendors, or professional partners. All blame lies squarely on myself, and my wife.

Instead of empty platitudes about "turning things around" and fluff language about "streamlining processes" or "implementing new work methodologies" or any other lingo that means absolutely nothing concrete, I will tell you what specifically we have done to get ourselves straightened out. Up until the moment I sat down to write this, my employees and I have worked million hour days to get every single order we have ever had up to this moment filled, and shipped. At this point, we have zeroed our books out, and delivered every single knife that we have been paid for. No one should be without a knife at this point, if you did not receive your knife or knives, please contact me immediately so we can get you that knife, or an immediate refund, whichever you prefer. There will be NO "restocking fee", as I now understand it's essentially fraudulent to charge a restocking fee on something that was never created, something for which, again I, Guy Dbag personally apologize.

From this moment forward, we will ask for a 15% deposit on all new orders, and will operate with transparency. We will complete entire runs of knives before we start building so much as a prototype of a different or new model, ensuring that we won't have customers who are waiting for old or current products, watching as we turn our hands instead to new products instead of building what they paid for. We now understand there are only 24 hours in a day, and we cannot be in multiple places at once, nor can we build multiple models at once. We have other steps in our manufacturing and making processes to iron out, which I, Guy Dbag will personally implement and oversee, and I will reach out with another newsletter defining in detail exactly what those are once they are finalized."

I could go on, but I think everyone gets the point. If Guy and Ellie actually released a statement along these exact lines, and I do mean exactly, they just might get somewhere. Ellie needs to can the use of the royal "We" in all her emails, and hey, I know why they do it, because she thinks it makes them sound like a big, professional business concern that's a relevant, valid, solid, dependable, corporate entity instead of what they actually are: a husband and wife team with like, three employees who are years behind on orders of an extremely simple product to make, not friggin' Benchmade or Busse. Jerry has always made it clear in all his communication with fans and customers that HE, JERRY BUSSE is at the helm.

Apologize. Can the royal "We" BS, make people whole, change your whole business model, and then shut up, and do the job. Simple as that.
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This assumes that they are merely incompetent. I see no evidence of that.
 
I am not a type of person who airs out his dirty laundry publicly. However, I am at the end of my rope with this company. Unfortunately, my very first post here will be a complaint. ☹

I was one of the many people who had been waiting for a knife. I ordered the knife well over a year ago... which I did with some hesitation. I placed the order because I was assured by the owner that they were getting knives out the door much faster than years before. After placing the order, I was surprised (not shocked) to see the company estimated delivery to be 3-4 months.

This was a stone of disappointment at the top of a very high hill....

Survive! had indicated to me in their last production update that the shipping estimate would be another 30-45 days of waiting. The situation had become more than unacceptable. 2 Weeks ago, according to the owner, the knife has been finished and is just sitting there. They can't send it out because they are unable to get a simple kydex sheath finished, and too cheap to send the knife in advance. As of last week, the knife was about 8 months late, I could have a kydex sheath made in less than a week by a local manufacture, who could really use the support more than them.

I have since asked multiple times for a refund with no avail.

I' probably would have waited out the next couple weeks, but after the company posted their recent “explanation” video the other day to address a thread on this site (this one??) ... it only made me more upset. I would typically restrict airing out my grievances privately, but I fear doing so would only put potential customers in the same predicament as myself. Which is the purpose of this post. A warning to people interested in placing an order with this business.

The impression I received from the video was twofold. One, the owner seemed all too eager to blame other people for his lack of business acumen and to take full responsibility. AND two, which upset me the most, was when he inadvertently admitted that the company uses customer payments for their capital investments. The following day after watching the video, I noticed the knife model I ordered will be available on Blade HQ soon.... which means my unintended “investment” into the company went directly to their transition into becoming a manufacture of production knives.

One year ago, I thought that I ordered a craft made knife of value. However, my knife purchase had depreciated financially and intrinsically before I even received it. What’s more, the company has benefited by my purchase, and my frustrations through the delay, by using my payment as a no interest loan to increase their market share further driving down the knife’s perceived/actual value. The company strives for the highest quality product yet has completely lost sight that quality is not the knife's only value. The tiny degree of quality over their competitors does not bring any advantage when their reputation keeps skeptical customers from buying in the first place. For all their cost saving measures, it seems to cost them more in the end.
 
Blackswanoutdoors said:
I am not a type of person who airs out his dirty laundry publicly. However, I am at the end of my rope with this company. Unfortunately, my very first post here will be a complaint. ☹

I was one of the many people who had been waiting for a knife. I ordered the knife well over a year ago... which I did with some hesitation. I placed the order because I was assured by the owner that they were getting knives out the door much faster than years before. After placing the order, I was surprised (not shocked) to see the company estimated delivery to be 3-4 months.

This was a stone of disappointment at the top of a very high hill....

Survive! had indicated to me in their last production update that the shipping estimate would be another 30-45 days of waiting. The situation had become more than unacceptable. 2 Weeks ago, according to the owner, the knife has been finished and is just sitting there. They can't send it out because they are unable to get a simple kydex sheath finished, and too cheap to send the knife in advance. As of last week, the knife was about 8 months late, I could have a kydex sheath made in less than a week by a local manufacture, who could really use the support more than them.

I have since asked multiple times for a refund with no avail.

I' probably would have waited out the next couple weeks, but after the company posted their recent “explanation” video the other day to address a thread on this site (this one??) ... it only made me more upset. I would typically restrict airing out my grievances privately, but I fear doing so would only put potential customers in the same predicament as myself. Which is the purpose of this post. A warning to people interested in placing an order with this business.

The impression I received from the video was twofold. One, the owner seemed all too eager to blame other people for his lack of business acumen and to take full responsibility. AND two, which upset me the most, was when he inadvertently admitted that the company uses customer payments for their capital investments. The following day after watching the video, I noticed the knife model I ordered will be available on Blade HQ soon.... which means my unintended “investment” into the company went directly to their transition into becoming a manufacture of production knives.

One year ago, I thought that I ordered a craft made knife of value. However, my knife purchase had depreciated financially and intrinsically before I even received it. What’s more, the company has benefited by my purchase, and my frustrations through the delay, by using my payment as a no interest loan to increase their market share further driving down the knife’s perceived/actual value. The company strives for the highest quality product yet has completely lost sight that quality is not the knife's only value. The tiny degree of quality over their competitors does not bring any advantage when their reputation keeps skeptical customers from buying in the first place. For all their cost saving measures, it seems to cost them more in the end.
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Sounds like you should try to get your money back through other means.
 
unwisefool said:
Sounds like you should try to get your money back through other means.
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Yeah, if they do no refund by COB tomorrow, I'll have to try the BBB. I don't have the luxury of time to keep writing emails and calling for this... One email should be sufficient, two is annoying, three is unprofessional, four is ludicrous, five is clearly avoidance.
 
I watched some of that video. I have no idea at all so I'll ask-
Did that look like knife making equipment? For all I know they could be making rubber bands in that place and sk rented it as a video set for an hour.
 
Blackswanoutdoors said:
...At this point all I'd like is my $$ back and move on. But was so disappointed when I heard they can supply BHQ, but not their direct customers.
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Have they actually supplied any knives to BHQ? Or could we expect to see "coming soon" for a couple of years as some sort of free advertising for S?Knives.

Hanne762 said:
I watched some of that video. I have no idea at all so I'll ask-
Did that look like knife making equipment? For all I know they could be making rubber bands in that place and sk rented it as a video set for an hour.
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Haha! I wondered the same thing. I'm old fashioned, and don't know how modern CNC stuff works, but that whole shop looked suspiciously clean to me.

Lotta talking and no knife making
 
Blackswanoutdoors said:
Yeah, if they do no refund by COB tomorrow, I'll have to try the BBB. I don't have the luxury of time to keep writing emails and calling for this... One email should be sufficient, two is annoying, three is unprofessional, four is ludicrous, five is clearly avoidance.
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BBB seems to be the best option to get them to refund. I would encourage you to also file a complaint with the FTC.
 
Blackswanoutdoors said:
The impression I received from the video was twofold. One, the owner seemed all too eager to blame other people for his lack of business acumen and to take full responsibility. AND two, which upset me the most, was when he inadvertently admitted that the company uses customer payments for their capital investments. The following day after watching the video, I noticed the knife model I ordered will be available on Blade HQ soon.... which means my unintended “investment” into the company went directly to their transition into becoming a manufacture of production knives.
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Interesting that you saw that. Aomeone asked over in the comments of that video (as rockspydre) if they were producing knives for Blade HQ before they had delivered all the knives customers had ordered. Or asked something to that effect. His response:

"We are working on something with Blade HQ but there is nothing to publicly talk about yet, which is why we didn't mention it. Everything they're ordering is part of an ongoing production run and won't cause any delay in folks receiving their orders. It is extremely important to both Blade HQ and SURVIVE! to have longstanding orders fulfilled before launching any sort of dealer program. Our relationship with Blade HQ is part of an effort to streamline our production down to a few core models and get our house back in order."

So.... I wonder how SOON Blade HQ is getting any knives. I mean... soon IS relative with Survive...
 
If things go as stated BHQ should have theirs sometime after Dec. there will be an interesting time to see if the ship has been righted.
 
Blackswanoutdoors said:
...At this point all I'd like is my $$ back and move on. But was so disappointed when I heard they can supply BHQ, but not their direct customers.
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Have you contacted the financial institution you used to pay? Like paypal, credit card company, bank, etc...

Years ago, paypal got so many charge backs, cases, and complaints that they limited survives account and froze their assets. There was that whole mysterious investor who posted after loaning them a load of cash. That resulted in a major "we've changed!" proclamation with a plan that resulted in no better delivery times years later as compared to then.


That's another shoe. Complaints to government and other agencies only go so far with a relatively small, and niche, scammer like survive. They need to hear it from financial institution. The modern scammer has to deal with financial institutions these days where their ancestors had the luxury of dealing with mostly cash. If the companies people use to pay take notice and get involved, they won't mess around and things happen.

Contact your financial institution if survive still owes you a knife.

Not sure if they still take PayPal, but in any situation involving PayPal, check with the bank you used through PayPal, not just PayPal themselves. Your bank may give you satisfaction if paypal will not.
 
GAGL said:
can you point out where they admit of being a ponzi or is this your interpretation?
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You see a lot of criminals admit to their scamming ways while engaged in a actively successful scam? Why do they have to admit to in it in order for you to believe it is true? Prisons are full of people that won't admit to their wrongdoing.

edit: will you ever point out where i was allegedly shilling for SK,so i can better myself?
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Right here^
calling people names without backing it up is not what forums are meant for
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You insulted us all as "boomers" with no evidence we are as such. Is that what forums are meant for?
 
I
craytab said:
Have you contacted the financial institution you used to pay? Like paypal, credit card company, bank, etc...

Years ago, paypal got so many charge backs, cases, and complaints that they limited survives account and froze their assets. There was that whole mysterious investor who posted after loaning them a load of cash. That resulted in a major "we've changed!" proclamation with a plan that resulted in no better delivery times years later as compared to then.


That's another shoe. Complaints to government and other agencies only go so far with a relatively small, and niche, scammer like survive. They need to hear it from financial institution. The modern scammer has to deal with financial institutions these days where their ancestors had the luxury of dealing with mostly cash. If the companies people use to pay take notice and get involved, they won't mess around and things happen.

Contact your financial institution if survive still owes you a knife.

Not sure if they still take PayPal, but in any situation involving PayPal, check with the bank you used through PayPal, not just PayPal themselves. Your bank may give you satisfaction if paypal will not.
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No, but good suggestion. Hopefully they refund today.
 
I w
dogboye said:
Interesting that you saw that. Aomeone asked over in the comments of that video (as rockspydre) if they were producing knives for Blade HQ before they had delivered all the knives customers had ordered. Or asked something to that effect. His response:

"We are working on something with Blade HQ but there is nothing to publicly talk about yet, which is why we didn't mention it. Everything they're ordering is part of an ongoing production run and won't cause any delay in folks receiving their orders. It is extremely important to both Blade HQ and SURVIVE! to have longstanding orders fulfilled before launching any sort of dealer program. Our relationship with Blade HQ is part of an effort to streamline our production down to a few core models and get our house back in order."

So.... I wonder how SOON Blade HQ is getting any knives. I mean... soon IS relative with Survive...
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I would imagine that BHQ would be getting the knives around the same time the orders for the 4.5 come out, as they produce one model at a time in batches. I'd doubt they would start advertising if they did not think they were going to get the knives.

If the pre-order people are feeling the delay, I'd imagine this would be true for BHQ... I was told my knife was actually done, but sitting there not shopping because of delays for the sheath design with an outside company.... or something along those lines. They always seem to be a victim of an other company's fuck up.
 
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