Waranty Work

bigin

bigin

Joined
Sep 3, 2014
Messages
257
I am still a babe in the woods when it comes to selling. I have found that some folks buy a custom knife just to beat the living piss out of them. I design most of my knives around hunting. I don't build the end of the world zombie killers, but I do build them to the best of my ability. When someone tells me they want there money back because my 3" blade wouldn't baton through a 6" oak tree.... well. I'm not quite sure how to respond. I know that common sense isn't all that common anymore. I want everyone who pays for one of my knives to have the best knife I can build. Where do you draw the line. If someone purchase a knife and decides to try to beat it through a stove bolt then wants there money back its a no brainer. But if someone butchered three deer and felt they had to sharpen too much then what? What is your criteria for a legitimate return?
 
I used to tell my customers that they could have a refund for any reason if they were ever unhappy with one of my knives and I never had anyone take me up but other makers certainly have dealt with some odd folks. BUT, I had a guy bring a Damascus knife back to me a year ago because he fell off a ladder ( according to him) with his knife in the sheath in his back pocket and landed on it snapping it cleanly in half at the ricasso. I made no such warranty to him but I made him a new knife and was done with it. About three months later he called and asked for an appointment to meet me and I wondered what was next. He came to my home and bought three more knives on the spot. I am still puzzled but no longer offer replacement for any reason. I will decide if any problems are my fault.

The example you give is someone being unreasonable in my opinion. How long should a knife stay sharp? Who knows for sure. A California State Trapper ( state employee) uses one of my knives in 440C every day to cut up animals on the job and says the knife is great and needs sharpening only every week or so. What does that mean? I do not know and I bet no one else knows either. It probably won't happen very often that someone is unhappy with their purchase but unless he owns a radio station or newspaper I will not replace a knife if the complaint sounds unreasonable. Just my opinion. Trust your own best judgment and sense of fairness. If you deal with enough people you are going to run into someone like that eventually but I wouldn't let it give me an ulcer.
 
IMHO,
A warranty means you are sufficiently proud and confident in the quality of your knives, that you will stand behind them. It also assures the buyer that you plan on sticking around and doing business with them for a long time.

My warranty is simple - " I will repair any damage due to normal use, will repair chipped edges and tips, will resharpen the knife if needed, and will buff the handle as long as you own the knife. If I am unable to repair it, I will replace it."

If fix a lot of edges chipped by chopping stuff with a gyuto, sharpen a bunch of knives that the owner has never put to a stone, and buff a few handles that went through the dishwasher...but only once have I replaced a knife. We both knew he pried a cabinet door open on his boat with it when it broke, but I replaced it anyway. He has bought many knives since then. Pretty much 90% of my business is repeat business....so it is certainly worth it.
 
Sounds like you have a great warranty. When I purchase an item including knives I always check out the warranty, I may never use it but it still gives me confidence in the maker as well as the item. Also how a company/person handles a warranty issue is something I look at, everything is all smiles until there's a problem and then colors are shown. I tend to be a repeat customer if a company/person has a good warranty and good customer service after the sale. Just my 2¢
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
IMHO,
A warranty means you are sufficiently proud and confident in the quality of your knives, that you will stand behind them. It also assures the buyer that you plan on sticking around and doing business with them for a long time.

My warranty is simple - " I will repair any damage due to normal use, will repair chipped edges and tips, will resharpen the knife if needed, and will buff the handle as long as you own the knife. If I am unable to repair it, I will replace it."

If fix a lot of edges chipped by chopping stuff with a gyuto, sharpen a bunch of knives that the owner has never put to a stone, and buff a few handles that went through the dishwasher...but only once have I replaced a knife. We both knew he pried a cabinet door open on his boat with it when it broke, but I replaced it anyway. He has bought many knives since then. Pretty much 90% of my business is repeat business....so it is certainly worth it.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the info. Still trying to build my customer base and always try to keep my customers happy. But most of my sales are internet transactions, and... well its the internet. You never really know who you are dealing with.
 
In my opinion there is no such thing as "too good" of customer service. The trick for many is giving incredible customer service to difficult customers that they feel don't deserve it. Do it anyway, with a smile. Many difficult people know they are difficult and can be unreasonable. Treat them well and they can become a huge referral source for you.

In my business we closely track and analyze customer acquisition costs. In my industry each buying client represents a significant amount of income, but the idealogy applies to all businesses and scales. In this case, the cost of making a customer very happy may be some time making a repair or sharpening, or maybe rarely making them a new knife. A fairly high percentage will become repeat customers, and many will refer others to you. In the grand scheme of marketing, the costs involved in acquiring that business are typically a bargain.

Most of the time it pays you very well to swallow hard, turn down your pride, and take care of that difficult customer.
 
In accounting terms, warranty is always a liability hanging over your head waiting to happen.

something to consider is to charge enough to cover that possibility.


Look at Bussee, bulletproof warranty, knives thick as bricks so they likely don't break, but he charges enough that he can afford to hand out a replacement, or two, or three, or four and still be money ahead.
 
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I was hanging out with a knifemaker the other day who said he had an "Oklahoma Warranty." If you break the knife in two pieces, now you have two pieces. I'm all for fixing knives that I made that have problems. On the other hand, If you use it for a screwdriver and break the tip off, that's your fault, not mine. I'll regrind a tip and sharpen for free, but I'm not replacing the knife.
 
Jason Fry said:
"Oklahoma Warranty." If you break the knife in two pieces, now you have two pieces.
Click to expand...

If someone brought me a knife broken into two pieces, I would gladly warranty the knife.....I would bust out my welder and weld it back together ;0)
 
There is a sheet that goes with many of my knife warranty. It covers use and care. There is a caveat. I don't think it is on this computer, but the long and short of it is:
This is a fine quality cutting tool. It isn't a garden tool, a hatchet, a box cutter, a pry bar, or a screwdriver. Tools for those jobs can be bought for a buck at the dollar store. Fine quality knives will last a lifetime if used properly, and are often passed on for generations in japan.
 
My disclaimer is very much like Stacy's and Jason's. I specifically do not warranty against batonning, because there are just too many ways to do it wrong and really mess up a perfectly good knife. I don't warranty against dishwashers or glass/stone cutting boards either. Including a "care and maintenance sheet" like Stacy described is a very good idea. :thumbup:

As for the sharpening thing... unless the client or I suspect there's something really wrong with the HT (which hasn't happened yet, knock on wood), I simply offer free sharpening/cleaning/"fluff and buff" at any time, even for second- or third-hand owners... just pay shipping both ways.

I find that the vast majority of my customers understand what tools to use for which tasks. For a while I included a church-key bottle opener and a P-38-style can opener with each knife, as a not-so-subtle hint, but I ran out... I should really order another box of each ;)

I've only had one client return a knife for repair; it was a minor chip that sharpened right out. He said he "dropped it while showing it to a friend", and it "landed perfectly on a big piece of quartz, right on the edge". I found this odd, so I dropped the knife into a box of packing material a couple dozen times from various heights... and every single time it landed handle first. *shrug* It's not worth annoying a potential repeat customer to argue about it though, so I just sharpened it up, cut some stuff with it, honed it again and shipped it back at my expense.
 
You can't warranty stupidity, thats for sure.

Treat folks like you would like to be treated if the roles were reversed and you will rarely go wrong.
 
I guess I feel, that since I am trying to build a client base there really isn't any such thing as going too far to please a customer. I just don't want everyone to think that they pay for one blade and get it replace every time it gets a scratch. That would be as bad a business plan as making crap knives and treating customers poorly. Its a judgment call no matter how you look at it.
 
I put a common sense clause in my warranty after a customer batonned a skinner through pin knotted wood. Pin knots are like nails and the edge was damaged. The customer was furious that the edge had failed. "After your knife failed I went to the truck and got my Ontario chopper out and it did fine." He wouldn't even let me replace the knife. He sent it back, I re-sharpened it removing a small ding in the very very thin edge, and sold it again. I would have replaced it even though it was abuse if he had let me. I've replaced 3 knives now that were obvious abuse. Each time I could have pointed to the common sense clause and refused, but really, with those numbers it just doesn't make sense. Your warranty is your best marketing tool! Each of the customers above (except the first guy) have bought knives again and again. They went all over the forums spreading the word about how I went above and beyond, etc. I've not recieved any more abused tools from them either. Warranty work makes customers life long customers.
 
^I agree, good post and smart business mentality.
 
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