I dropped by BHQ's retail store Friday afternoon. I asked them if they had set aside any 0562 or 0562CF knives for retail sale over the counter. They had not. The three guys behind the counter said all knives are going straight out to fill pre-orders in the order they were received. They will not have any for sale either in the retail store or online until all pre-orders are filled. If you happen to catch their web site displaying In Stock, and are able to complete an order before the system registers Out of Stock again, you will be placed at the end of the pre-order list and will receive your knife after all pre-orders are processed.
They explained that the In Stock flipping to Out of Stock status, that I and others have observed on their web site, is an undesired byproduct of the way that their web store software has to be manipulated in order to fulfill the pre-orders. The guy explained that as the order fulfillment technicians process each pre-order, they have to place one knife at a time into their inventory, then "purchase" it on behalf of the pre-order customer (thus removing it from stock again) as they go through the process to charge the balance on the credit card and get it out the door. They run through this process over and over again as they complete each pre-order....one at a time...all day long. The fellows expressed frustration with how the knives were showing In Stock periodically and causing confusion. They repeatedly apologized for the limitations of their system.
What they're doing sounds like a giant pain to me and not very efficient, and must be imposed by their order fulfillment system. It does explain perfectly what we see on their web site.
Even though their web site shows the knives are In Stock from time to time, they assured me the knives are not available for sale at this time. The guys would not sell one to me, even though I had cash money sitting on the counter.
One fellow said they had received 50 knives that morning (Friday) but had a pre-order list of over 400 buyers they are making their way through.
I do not believe they are letting anyone cut in line in any way....believe me, I tried.
Oh, how I tried.
However, with a waiting list of over 400, I think it will take quite a long time to fill all those orders...especially if they're only receiving 50 at a time.
Suppose ZT is shipping out these knives in batches of no more than 50 to their retailers. I don't know this is the case, but may be how they are rationing a scarce product.
I would think 50 knives would fill all pre-orders at some smaller retailers, and leave some knives left for over the counter sales. We've had reports of retail sales.
50 knives is obviously a drop in a large bucket for a place that does the kind of volume that BHQ does.
In my opinion, and from what I observed and heard at their sales counter, BHQ is being fair with their sales. I didn't want them to be fair and had hoped they'd let me cut in line. They did not.
In the end, I'm going to wait until BHQ has one in their retail storefront for me to handle before I buy. I recognize I may have to wait a number of months.
So be it. I'll have to be satisfied with my other ZT knives in the meantime.
their customer service is second to none!
