Survive! Knives Forum Closed - What Changed?

[craytab]

Yes that is how it works for the makers here as well as individual sellers. If a package gets stolen, file a claim for the value. Insurance is for the seller.

I don't think USPS will pay out if they can prove they fulfilled their obligation.

 

[Southbay]

Not necessarily. If the USPS does its job and delivers the item correctly, it is not the seller or USPS fault is it gets stolen on your porch. The buyer needs to make sure their place of delivery is secure.

Now, who really knows what happened in the linked situation. Was it delivered correctly? If it was I doubt USPS would pay out. Did survive collect on the insurance? Who knows.

What we do know is that survive under insured and passed that mistake on to the customer. Very dumb and is a continuation of their idiotic business practices.

It’s possible that SK insured exactly as they said they would according to the terms posted on the site, against lost or damage in transit, not theft after delivery, see the terms on SK website, if that’s the case, it’s unlikely SK received any money from USPS.

 

[craytab]

It’s possible that SK insured exactly as they said they would according to the terms posted on the site, against lost or damage in transit, not theft after delivery, see the terms on SK website, if that’s the case, it’s unlikely SK received any money from USPS.

I doubt they got paid too. That said, the point I'm making is that the foolishly didn't fully insure themselves. Stupid.

 

[Casinostocks]

I haven't had one, so I'm sure everything I say will get shot down, but here's the thing for me;

I just don't get how they are so good. They're a production knife, made in parts by companies that produce parts and knives for lots of other companies, that's put together and finished in the smallest way (supposedly) by hand. But not even by someone whose name is famous as a Knifemaker or for their knifemaking skills! They have pretty normal materials, maybe a step above the typical mid range production knife but certainly not more than what you can get on a custom knife at the same price range. And all of that is totally separate from the prepay and wait time issues.
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They also have no business acting like a one man custom outfit either, although even a one man custom outfit might be able to do better with some business sense and vigor.
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It's still marketing, even when it's not BS (and I think it's partly BS even with some reputable companies). Claiming to have a lifetime unconditional warranty is worth more in increased consumer trust than the risk of loss of inventory. It's quite often a big marketing point.

You raise some very good points which I would like to comment on based on what I know or know of:

Grogimus and me have different hand types and sizes. His are like a friggin bear's paw and mine M+ / L- in glove size just shy of 9" in diameter. I have never owned the new GSO 4.1 in D3V as I never had one on preorder and also never was enthusiastic enough to seek one out on the secondary market but Grog did generously offer to send me his new gen 4.1 to try out which I may at some point still take him upon.

We have discussed the FK vs the newer GSO 4.1 in D3V. That FK fits my hand's profile better than it fits Grog's. The new FK 2.0 is going to have more swell on the handle as CPK continually doing handle scales experimentation and improvements. From what I've understood CPK will also be adding more swell and girth to newer handle scales of that pattern. I am sure that this will please some and then displease those who liked the original version better, ah well...

Guy started doing micro texturing on his newer handles that provide more grip which was specially good when it came to G10 but I honestly do not know how micro texturing G10 may affect the integrity and the general purpose of G10, because I had thought that G10 was not supposed to be porous. Cut a long story short, handle scales, blade shape, geometry and profiles fit different people and their purposes differently. We can disagree without being disagreeable so when Grog heaps praise on the new gen GSO 4.1, I take his word as it's just that great for HIM. As for me, after owning about a dozen or so GSOs and after comparisons to CPK, I found GSOs too repetitive and too bulbous for my tastes and purposes; basically elongated or shortened version of the same design. Nothing wrong with having a difference of opinion but at the same time, the GSOs were being offered at a much more advantageous price point for those who were more budget conscious, so again I do get the fit / finish / value argument even if I may not necessarily agree with it all.

What I have said above has anything to do with bad practices, malfeasance, lying, being very opaque and dodgy about orders and outlandish promises! We're just discussing two pattens and not the business models which might as well be from two different planets! Lastly, I totally agree with that last paragraph. You get what I was trying to say that it's more about marketing and building confidence rather than literal meaning of the words / phrase. After all, lifetime of whom and what?

 

[shinyedges]

Not necessarily. If the USPS does its job and delivers the item correctly, it is not the seller or USPS fault is it gets stolen on your porch. The buyer needs to make sure their place of delivery is secure.

Now, who really knows what happened in the linked situation. Was it delivered correctly? If it was I doubt USPS would pay out. Did survive collect on the insurance? Who knows.

What we do know is that survive under insured and passed that mistake on to the customer. Very dumb and is a continuation of their idiotic business practices.

You raise a good, but I'll say on more than one occasion people claim to have items delivered that the package is damaged and the product gone and file a claim.

 

[CataD]

People do overstate the importance of sway of BladeForums on the industry at times, but I think yours understating here.

It is possible, of course, that I've understated by writing that number. The number it came from me eyeballing the number of names/monikers I remember seeing at one time (peak time/many years ago..) in the S!K subforum. So, I don't think I've ever seen more than 200 members/names in that subforum. Also, if you want to take a look here: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/official-survivor-list-and-sign-up-thread.1289019/, you'll see that there are about 50 names on that list. Given, I'm not there so there probably (certainly?) were more ppl there than that, but not active enough to make the list. Again, that's a guesstimate; I would be curious though how many of S!K Facebook/Insta/non-social-media customers are actually registered on BF...

 

[Andy the Aussie]

I do not believe what happens on other forums is of great concern, for the owner of THIS site and I would suggest the vast majority of punters here, the fact that they have been shut down and (to what ever degree it is rated) their credibility diminished as a result, is good for THIS SITE and the membership here. If people are not intelligent enough to seek out information about their outstanding order away from an area where the conversation is more tightly controlled then more fool them. Fortunately the second thing that appears in a Google search for Survive Knives after their own website is Blade Forums, so anyone doing said research can read all this for themselves.

NO ONE brought this to Survive's door other than themselves and what I can "loosely" describe as poor payback to the faith and dollars many of their fans offered. In my book giving credit for refunds being given is barely a tick in the positive column as this is EXACTLY what they are SUPPOSE to do (thanks to their own failings), I also would argue that, having acknowledged error after error, "not a finest moment and the next not finest moment" that perhaps it was time to say there are certain knives that will not (unable ?) make it to production, cut them from the schedule and concentrate on what can conceivably be completed in months (not years !) refund those blades cut from the schedule or give the buyer the option to transfer their dollars to something that CAN BE MADE in a reasonable (months not years) amount of time. The shotgun approach to manufacture rightly or wrongly reeks of trying to keep everyone on the hook buy building confidence that a knife is just around the corner.

And finally, we should not kill and eat our own, this is all SURVIVE's doing (to reiterate the point) there is nothing to be celebrated in their demise (as when they do flame out people WILL be out money) nor in the camp conflicts of who was for or against here. Battle lines are not drawn or the damn like, the rest looks like school yard games.