Victorinox customer service.

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
17,501
Soooo, I have this old waiter around, and I use it at times because sometimes, not very often, the blade of the executive is just not enough. Like carving some Texas BBQribs to separate the rack, or cutting a baguette out in the woods for a picnic with my better half of almost a half century. Slicing up a nice Jarlsburg to go on said bread. So my old waiter gets carried and that it has a corkscrew is grave on the taters for opening that bottle of Rhine wine.

But somewhere along the way, I lost the little screw driver that was in the corkscrew. So I call the number in Connecticut to order a newline. Like 2 dollars, nothing to break the back. Nice lady on the other end says, yes they are in stock, she'll send me one. I go to give her my credit card number and she says no, don't worry about it, we'll just send yo one. Wow.

But the wow isn't done yet. Today the little padded envelope arrives and inside are three of them, with a nice hand written not, telling to keep the spares in case I loose another one.

WOW! That was the big WOW. Not one, not two, but three new little spare eye glass screw drivers from Victorinox. Victorinox is right up there with Buck and Leatherman for customer service.
 
I have to present a somewhat dissonant experience.... It wasn't bad, but it was also far from excellent.

I was recently passed along a Vic Champion by a relative. It was in really bad shape, most notably it had the can opener broken and the inline screwdriver stripped. I submitted photos via their website and asked them how much to fix it. Their reply was to send it in and they would take care of it. Only after I send it in then sent me an estimate of $16 (incl. tax) to fix and $5 to send it back otherwise. Would you be happy with that? Why couldn't they have told me when I asked the first time? That's just like a bait-and-switch tactic. Between sending spending another $5 and getting nowhere and paying $16 to have it fixed, I bit the bullet.

So, I get it back and *most of it* is really nice. They had replaced scales and a number of tools that looked old, but they left the freaking stripped inline screwdriver. Really!! They send back a knife that looks quite good but don't replace the stripped inline screwdriver? So I contacted them and told them that they hadn't done that, even though I specifically asked for it in the notes I sent with the knife! So, I need to send it back again... They even pre-authorized the $5 service fee on the credit card, although they did not go through with it. Once I got it back the second time, it looks really nice but that's it. I don't know about y'all but I really hate when I have to foot the bill for someone else's mistakes. I don't care how much it is, if I'm responsible for a mistake, then I own it. I expect others to do the same.

Ok, so all in all I spent about $25 between shipping charges (twice) and their repair fee. Their repair fee is totally fair, that's not the issue. It is that I would have rather them being up-front and transparent about things. I asked for the estimate because I'm not that keen on having a Vic Champion but since I got it from family... In fact, if I knew it was going to cost this amount, I probably would have modded it myself or spent the money to buy some other ones for parts.
 
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gotta agree that hidden cost
can burst the bubble.
shippping / insurance more often
than not, isn't worth the trouble
for worn and tired low cost budget knives.
 
gotta agree that hidden cost
can burst the bubble.
shippping / insurance more often
than not, isn't worth the trouble
for worn and tired low cost budget knives.

That's what I was thinking. Unless the knife has some sentimental value or is no longer produced, it seems like just getting another one is the way to go.
 
I have a Swisschamp sitting here. I didn't pay much for it and it's in great shape mostly but the older case hardened file's practically shot. While I'm happy to pay for a replacement, I'm reluctant to send it in because the knive has the grey magnifier and I know I'll get a non-matching stainless file in return. It might be different for vintage knives sometimes but Vic only replaces the worn parts of current knives with the new versions.
 
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