Survive Knives

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The knife Whisperer

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I was wondering if anyone else is having problems with Survive knives. In April 2015 I took part in the Starter Program. This program requires one to pay up front for a knife to be manufactured. I'm not used to this but Survive Knives get a lot of glowing reviews. Now it is late January 2016 and still no sign of a knife. The knife I ordered is the GSO 5.1. They won't return my phone calls or Emails. Survive put in their newsletter that they hoped to get the knives shipped by Christmas. Still waiting! They advertise 13 different models but they all are in production, preorder, or out of stock. Not a good way of doing business. I do not recommend them. You can order a Swamp Rat of equal performance and get it way faster.
 
I was a early supporter of Survive! having getting in on their first run of GSO 10s years ago. But their problem is they can't stick to a deadline to save their lives. Promises of timelines for shipped knives are consistently broken and re-broken. I have since sold all of my SK blades (I had 4 or 5 at one time) because while they are very nice, I don't agree with how Guy runs his company. After all of their issues for getting knives to their customers they came up with this "starter program" where you have to pay for everything up front and then wait many months or years? over their expected delivery times. The company grew too fast and frankly their business format is something I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. The SK fanboys will be here soon to tell everyone it's worth the wait, a great deal, you should support a small USA knife business yada yada yada... But for me, there are plenty of other knife companies, US or not, that deliver quality fixed blades just as nice and don't treat their customers like they do.
 
It's a 3 person operation and each person has a certain duty to keep everything running. These people actually have lives outside of making knives.
Machines go down, materials get delayed and stuff sometimes happens just like it does in our regular lives. Be patient because your knife will show up eventually and I bet you'll like it.
 
As for you willythekid, I'm fairly new here but I remember reading stuff you posted about maybe a year or so ago about having to wait for a 3.5 or 4.1. I remember you throwing a temper tantrum because of this same issue but you seemed to shut up once your knife showed up.
I'd really like to see a list of these knives that you can get quickly that compare to a Survive! knife's super steel, price and level of quality.
I'll subscribe to this thread just so I can laugh at your response but I'm pretty sure it'll be nothing but crickets here.
 
Survive! stated up front that they would not guarantee any delivery date for "starter" orders. This was all over the order page, and discussed in detail on the Survive! sub-forum. I did not participate in the "starter" program for that very reason, and so did many others. However, you 100% knew what you were getting into.

Survive! posts daily on their subforum here. They are as transparent as any company I have ever seen in the knife industry. I agree that they are notorious for missing delivery forecasts, however they always deliver.

When it comes to communication, my experience is that they may take a few days to return e-mail / calls, but they always do eventually. If you have a problem waiting a few days for an e-mail, you should probably stop dealing with most of the small knife companies that make up a significant part of the knife industry. This is a craft business and Guy is an artisan / designer. He makes a product with great fit and finish, and a very refined design. Businesses like S!K are notoriously terrible customer service providers. In comparison to other companies their size and in their industry, S!K is actually doing great. Could S!K improve? Sure. They would probably be the first to admit it. However, it is all about perspective. All things considered, S!K is doing a great job.

One more thing; the GSO 5.1 knives are shipping as we speak. For you to say "no sign of a knife" is complete BS.

I am sorry that you are not happy about your S!K order. However, you were told from the beginning this was going to be a long wait.
 
ncrockclimb said:
Survive! stated up front that they would not guarantee any delivery date for "starter" orders. This was all over the order page, and discussed in detail on the Survive! sub-forum. I did not participate in the "starter" program for that very reason, and so did many others. However, you 100% knew what you were getting into.

Survive! posts daily on their subforum here. They are as transparent as any company I have ever seen in the knife industry. I agree that they are notorious for missing delivery forecasts, however they always deliver.

When it comes to communication, my experience is that they may take a few days to return e-mail / calls, but they always do eventually. If you have a problem waiting a few days for an e-mail, you should probably stop dealing with most of the small knife companies that make up a significant part of the knife industry. This is a craft business and Guy is an artisan / designer. He makes a product with great fit and finish, and a very refined design. Businesses like S!K are notoriously terrible customer service providers. In comparison to other companies their size and in their industry, S!K is actually doing great. Could S!K improve? Sure. They would probably be the first to admit it. However, it is all about perspective. All things considered, S!K is doing a great job.

One more thing; the GSO 5.1 knives are shipping as we speak. For you to say "no sign of a knife" is complete BS.

I am sorry that you are not happy about your S!K order. However, you were told from the beginning this was going to be a long wait.
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No dog in the fight, but I'm tired of people "defending" poor business practices time and over again, and the businesses who run continue poor practices under the guise of "family owned operation"/"three man shop"/"yada-yada". If you can't deliver what you promise or take inordinate and unreasonable time to deliver, you don't have a business to be in business. Its time these three-men operation to own up and employ more people, there is simply no excuse. In comparison to several small-shops, S!K is doing horrible, by the same yardstick. ;-)

I have stopped doing business with businesses that don't deliver as promised, or miss deadlines. My business is elsewhere.

@The knife Whisperer: I hope you get your knife as promised! Good luck.
 
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Are you an employee or an employer choombak?
I run my own constitution business and sometimes things go wrong that are out of my control. This is exactly why I understand and defend small businesses.
 
choombak said:
No dog in the fight, but I'm tired of people "defending" poor business practices time and over agaig, and the businesses who run continue poor practices under the guise of "family owned operation"/"three man shop"/"yada-yada". If you can't deliver what you promise or take inordinate and unreasonable time to deliver, you don't have a business to be in business. Its time these three-men operation to own up and employ more people, there is simply no excuse. In comparison to several small-shops, S!K is doing horrible, by the same yardstick. ;-)

I have stopped doing business with businesses that don't deliver as promised, or miss deadlines. My business is elsewhere.

@The knife Whisperer: I hope you get your knife as promised! Good luck.
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Survive has missed no deadlines. They always (read ALWAYS) tell you that there delivery time estimates are just that, estimates. If you aren't happy waiting for the product, then vote with your money and save it. I am not a survive fanboy, I don't even have any S! Knives right at the moment. That being said, I have owned them and I can tell you the product Guy delivers far exceeds swamp rat in fit and finish. Survive! Has explained that they could very well speed things up, sacrificing the attention to detail in the process.

Do I like waiting for my preorder? No. Was I made very much aware that it would be a wait? Yes. Was it made even MORE clear by many other people on this forum that Survive! has a record of long wait times? Absolutely. Instead of complaining, I had already taken that into consideration when I purchased a preorder.
 
If anyone from Survive! stops by and reads this please keep in mind that the the VAST majority of the people who are currently or anxiously waiting to be owners of Survive! knives do not feel the way the original poster does. You have passion and take pride in what you do. Don't let this diminish that in any way. Do what you need to do to be satisfied with the product you make and rest assured the results will be well received.
 
choombak said:
No dog in the fight, but I'm tired of people "defending" poor business practices time and over agaig, and the businesses who run continue poor practices under the guise of "family owned operation"/"three man shop"/"yada-yada". If you can't deliver what you promise or take inordinate and unreasonable time to deliver, you don't have a business to be in business. Its time these three-men operation to own up and employ more people, there is simply no excuse. In comparison to several small-shops, S!K is doing horrible, by the same yardstick. ;-)

I have stopped doing business with businesses that don't deliver as promised, or miss deadlines. My business is elsewhere.

@The knife Whisperer: I hope you get your knife as promised! Good luck.
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I would respectfully disagree. S!K didn't miss any deadlines; they NEVER guaranteed a delivery date. In fact, they repeatedly said that it would take a long time to fill the "starter" orders. They have offered estimated delivery dates after the "starter" campaign was over, and pretty consistently missed them. However, the have been 100% transparent about this and more than willing to communicate with their customers via their sub-forum, phone or e-mail (the last two might take a few days).

To some degree, I get where you and willythekid are coming from. You want immediate gratification or a more predictable timeline. I expect that too with most of my purchases. However, when dealing with a craft business, artist or (on occasion) a trade provider, I have different expectations. S!K and most of the small businesses in knife industry don't have the sophistication to meet your customer service expectations. However, from everything I have seen, S!K is very upfront about what you can expect when you place an order and they ALWAYS deliver. When considering the quality of the product, their transparency, and the CS provided by similar companies in this industry, I find the overall level of service provided S!K to be totally acceptable.

Everyone is free to vote with their $s. If you don't like S!K's business model, spend your $s somewhere else. However, I think the vilification of S!K in this thread is totally undeserved.
 
Never pay up front. Don't care how good the product is, how trustworthy the people are, how exclusive the blade is, don't pay up front. I'm all about the idea that I'd rather see a knife be delayed than be bad, but things happen, companies fail, things break down and it's always, always a bad idea to pay up front. I've got nothing but respect for Survive, they sounds like great people making great products, but the only things that don't have stiff, readily available competition in this market is stuff that's patent protected.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
Never pay up front. Don't care how good the product is, how trustworthy the people are, how exclusive the blade is, don't pay up front. I'm all about the idea that I'd rather see a knife be delayed than be bad, but things happen, companies fail, things break down and it's always, always a bad idea to pay up front. I've got nothing but respect for Survive, they sounds like great people making great products, but the only things that don't have stiff, readily available competition in this market is stuff that's patent protected.
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I have to agree with this, I paid up front for a Grimsmo Rask since they are a well respected company and it is over 2 months late and I have no recourse, due to Paypal policies, so I get everyone's frustration. They only seem to reply on Instagram, of which I do not have an account and have no interest in opening one, so I continue to wait. I am fairly sure that I will get my $675 knife but it is aggravating.

How many times have I seen the "don't pay up front" and still did so it is my bad. Sorry if I went OT.
 
I would never pay up front for anything unless I had the utmost confidence in the maker.
I have owned 100's of knives throughout the years and they're almost all gone after I got my hands on a Survive knife. This is just food for thought.
 
Standard78 said:
I would never pay up front for anything unless I had the utmost confidence in the maker.
I have owned 100's of knives throughout the years and they're almost all gone after I got my hands on a Survive knife. This is just food for thought.
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They sounds like fantastic blades, but I still will not pay up front. Once you do that you step out of the role of customer and into the role of investor, and if I'm going to invest I want significant return on my investment, because that's the reward for the risk of losing all of the money you invested if the company goes belly up. I'm not in the business of extending zero interest loans to be repaid by a product at some later date.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
They sounds like fantastic blades, but I still will not pay up front. Once you do that you step out of the role of customer and into the role of investor, and if I'm going to invest I want significant return on my investment, because that's the reward for the risk of losing all of the money you invested if the company goes belly up. I'm not in the business of extending zero interest loans to be repaid by a product at some later date.
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I guess I don't see it as a big gamble because of their price, plus I kinda like the thought of helping this company grow. This world would be pretty crappy if it didn't have dreamers or believers.
 
It just sounds like buyers remorse, because said buyer (not directed @OP) didn't see what they thought was a reasonable timeline meet. This goes back to what Survive! had posted on their website for the starter program. They directly asked for assistance to get up and going, in doing so they offered a quality product. They also were not bashful in admitting it was going to take an undetermined amount of time. Why is brought up so often when buyers are aware of this when they purchase? What is an unreasonable time line for them, is not always the same for others.

I purchased two knives from the starter program and didn't expect them to even start production for at least a year. Hell they were buying a new shop and equipment. You had to know that wasn't going to be done over night.

I'm not saying they can't improve, but that's the purpose of the starter campaign. To help S! get more on top of the orders. If you weren't willing to wait why'd you place an order saying you would?
 
I have ordered 2x neckers, a necker 2, a 3.5, 2 x 5.1s, and a 7/7 and RECEIVED every knife I ordered. Yeah they took a while. Survive! has always been upfront about the lenghty delivery. It just is what it is.

To ANYONE THAT IS THINKING OF ORDERING AN S!K... Do not order if you cant handle a lengthy wait time.
 
This all is why I'm waiting till they come up for direct sale on the site. I've either gleaned or asked for a bunch of information on here, and I've emailed survive concerning ordering and wait times. I'd like to own one of their knives, but I don't believe in paying up front. I don't for a second doubt that the people at survive knives are good people, but bad things can happen to good people too and I don't want to be an investor when my only return is a knife. I follow them on Instagram and have their product page up in a tab on my phone, I'm looking forward to when I'm able to order a knife that I don't have to wait an indeterminate amount of time for after paying upfront.
 
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