Warranty department concerns

Yo Mama

Yo Mama

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2011
Messages
6,209
The warranty department for Spyderco over the last few years has denied claims on knives that should have been lifetime warranties. What normally happens is Sal gets involved and takes care of it which is very appreciated but should not have to happen.

Here is a recent Smock break where warranty said no where Sal says yes: https://www.reddit.com/r/knifeclub/s/UMUDx1Nk3S

It’s happened enough that I’ve stopped buying from Spyderco and I am not alone in fear that knives I spent good money on won’t be taken care of over the lifetime.

Sal I wanted to bring this to your attention because it seems you do the job the warranty department should be doing. I understand how this comes across but I think the way it’s set up right now doesn’t seem to be helpful.
 
Just a thought, and no value put either way, but just to keep in mind. We have limited info, you don't see all the negatives. What you do see is that the few who slip through the normal channel get grabbed by the owner. Now, I'm sure he's a busy guy, and if he's smart, he's not online a lot. The reality is that people who care reach out again in a second forum and there is a format for their claim to get caught and a second try given. Most companies in most industries wouldn't bother. Sal likely doesn't have the hours in the day to do it. So he has some trusted people looking for the misses. That to me suggests a very robust warranty system. Now, you spend your dollars as you see fit, I'm not here to convince either way. All I'm thinking is that you are seeing a number of second try claims getting looked after and holding it against a company, but almost no one does it like that, so the data has a bias. Most companies do not reach out like Spyderco does, hell KAI tried really hard for a while and got told by the internet that they were not welcome. Benchmade, depends on who's got time in a day. We live in a world where someone could get paid to spend all day doing internet customer service, and I know what I'd bill for that, so I'm not shocked when it's someone's side gig.
I guess what I'm saying is that odds are, Sal knows, and he has really good people making sure he knows, and all that goes into keeping his customers support team trained up. Now, I could be really wrong. He might be stumbling across these things at random, but if a dude his age has time to burn on reddit threads, then my entire view of the world is wrong. Not out of the realm of possibility, but come on, is he a busy guy or not? I'm sure Eric is doing a lot, but I've never seen a pic of Sal and thought "there's a guy who is easily entertained by memes"
 
Hi Yo Mama,

While I appreciate your comments and opinion, I thought to share some thought with you;

1. We do not and have never offered a lifetime warranty on our products. I don't know where you got that information. Our warranty is fairly simple. If you have a problem that we caused, we will repair or replace the model with no charge to you. If you have a problem that you caused, we will repair it if we can, but we'll charge you for the repair.

2. You may see a few issues brought up on the internet or forums, but that is a very small amount when you consider the hundreds of issues that we solve with customer satisfaction. Your comment is based on a very small fraction of the issues.

3. Charlynn has been managing our Warranty and Repair department for almost 20 years. She as proven to be an excellent Manager and while some issues might be in question, her decisions are based on company policy and are always proper. I work closely with her to make sure our customers are pleased.

4. 8 out of 10 complaints that we see on the forums are not telling the truth about the issue. A real PITA. When there is a legitimate issue, Charlynn and I will discuss the issue in detail to serve the customer.

I hope that alleviates some of your concerns.

sal
 
I've sent three knives back. Two were my fault and one was worn out. The two that were my fault were repaired like new. The one that was worn out was replaced.

During the process I'd emailed back and forth with Charlynn and she was excellent to deal with. Twelve out of ten stars.

I'll take my personal experience over a Reddit post.
 
Danke42 said:
I've sent three knives back. Two were my fault and one was worn out. The two that were my fault were repaired like new. The one that was worn out was replaced.

During the process I'd emailed back and forth with Charlynn and she was excellent to deal with. Twelve out of ten stars.

I'll take my personal experience over a Reddit post.
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There are plenty of experiences here on the forum. I just happened to pick a most recent one I came across on Reddit. I am glad that you had a good experience as you should
 
I've had the experience. Years ago I took a Caly 3.5 apart and found the pivot to be grooved from wear, like maybe the steel was too soft. I emailed the company to ask about it. I was told it was probably my fault for disassembling/assembling it wrong so that the blade had shifted. The groove itself disproved that since it showed the blade cycled on exactly one line without movement.

Anyway, I buy Spyderco knives still, and have lots of them since that, but with the explicit thought that the company offers no warranty. If a knife isn't worth the price given it comes without a warranty, it doesn't get bought. I always suggest that to people looking for knife recommendations as well: "Spyderco makes great knives, but know they don't have a warranty."

It is absolutely correct that there are tons of bad warranty posts, here, reddit, and Spyderco's own forum. It always comes back to CS blaming disassembly or overuse. CS just isn't Spyderco's best facet. You have to check the knife while it still can be returned to a dealer and hope/bet there won't be an issue that pops up much later.
 
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There's a big part of human nature involved in this I suspect. People tend to fixate on any negative interaction. You can see it on the news or social media.

If it bleeds it leads, a story about a bad experience is read and shared far beyond one about a good one to start and to follow people who have good experiences don't often write about it. People who have bad ones tell the world. Look at the number one post members in the GBU who post a rant and never return.
 
I'm lucky to have personal experience with Spyderco Customer Service and that's why I continue to buy their products. Two uses in about 30 years and both times perfect satisfaction. Great products get you in the door, great customer service keeps you in the room.
 
I’ve needed to use Spuderco’s warranty assistance twice.
On one occasion I was happily satisfied.
On one occasion I strongly disagreed with their opinion.
(Neither issue involved a catastrophic use failure, so I haven’t been down that road.)

I still enjoy Spyderco products. If I’m buying a knife these days, it probably has a red & black box.
I have much respect for a company doing a significant portion of their manufacturing in the USA, and dealing with the associated challenges.
I have much respect for a company culture that openly supports Military, LE, and First Responders.
I have much respect for knives that step up and work for cutting stuff.

Speaking of knives in general (and not signaling out Spyderco), I’ve learned to give any new knife a gental but thurough inspection. If something isnt to my satisfaction, it goes back immediately.

And to put all of this into perspective, I have a Sebenza 21 that’s made two victory laps Bosie for straightening things out.
Stuff happens.
 
I'm HAPPY WITH MY EXPERIENCE DISCUSSING MY QUESTIONABLE SPYDERCO ITEMS WITH WARRANTY AND THE OUTCOMES !
extremely rare in the ten years and more I have been buying Spydercos like a maniac.

What the warranty actually says is :
. . . like all tools Spyderco knives require proper maintenance . . .
. . . are subject to normal wear and tear .
. . . Knives and other products put to hard use for extended periods of time may eventually reach the end of their service life.

Don't be a dud !
That last is a phrase I put in from my child hood .

I've broken Craftsman tools from normal but intense daily use .
I didn't take advantage of the "life time" warranty because I was smart enough to know things eventually can wear out / fail .
I got my money's worth out of them . They helped me make a living .

PS: I used to sell very high end road racing bicycles in the eighties and nineties .
We started out with steel frames that had "life time " warranties being warrantied for the life of the CUSTOMER .
Failure was quite rare and when it happened the factory PAID THE LABOR TO HAVE THE PARTS SWAPPED OVER . No expense to the customer .

We eventually transitioned to , as I said top quality , heat treated aluminum frames warrantied for "life time" which in the fine print was THE LIFE OF THE FRAME which they considered to be five years . Especially the 7000 series frames with overly thick welds . Those were crap . The 6000 series T6 frames with resonably thin / flexible welds where SO MUCH better .
hahahahha
then
carbon fiber hit the road . (I hate carbon fiber bikes) .
I had guys """"""warrantying """""" their carbon fiber road bikes at an alarming rate in a couple years and this was by highly experienced and careful people who did not abuse them but just rode the hell out of them . Hundred mile days on pavement etc.
By this time the factory was demanding about a thousand dollars from the customer to make the transition (by this time these were bikes costing several thousand dollars ) .
I just sat back and laughed and rode my steel frame home in the evening .
 
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Sal Glesser said:
Hi Yo Mama,

While I appreciate your comments and opinion, I thought to share some thought with you;

1. We do not and have never offered a lifetime warranty on our products. I don't know where you got that information. Our warranty is fairly simple. If you have a problem that we caused, we will repair or replace the model with no charge to you. If you have a problem that you caused, we will repair it if we can, but we'll charge you for the repair.

2. You may see a few issues brought up on the internet or forums, but that is a very small amount when you consider the hundreds of issues that we solve with customer satisfaction. Your comment is based on a very small fraction of the issues.

3. Charlynn has been managing our Warranty and Repair department for almost 20 years. She as proven to be an excellent Manager and while some issues might be in question, her decisions are based on company policy and are always proper. I work closely with her to make sure our customers are pleased.

4. 8 out of 10 complaints that we see on the forums are not telling the truth about the issue. A real PITA. When there is a legitimate issue, Charlynn and I will discuss the issue in detail to serve the customer.

I hope that alleviates some of your concerns.

sal
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Really good to know about the lifetime warranty and semantics being different the warranty actually says the lifetime of the product. I admit I’ve always read it incorrectly then. Is there a standard of how the lifetime of the product is measured as I think that may give clarity?

Also, how do we know who caused the problem? If I’m cutting cardboard and the blade breaks is that my fault or Spyderco?

Why is Spyderco in the minority here for warranty? Benchmade, CRK, Protech, Buck, Medford, Emerson, ZT-Kershaw, TRM, Microtech all have true lifetime warranty and are US made on same price points.

A Spyderco knife is not cheap. I buy them vs a gas station knife for the warranty.
 
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By how the warranty is worded it appears the lifetime of the product is until it is worn out and should be retired.

Also, the reddit user conveniently didn't say what they were doing with the knife when it broke.

I have owned/used a dozen of Spydercos over the last 5 years without any failures or major issues.
 
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stillshot2 said:
By how the warranty is worded it appears the lifetime of the product is until it is worn out and should be retired.

Also, the reddit user conveniently didn't say what they were doing with the knife when it broke.

I have owned/used a dozen of Spydercos over the last 5 years without any failures or major issues.
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He does in the comments (both the original post and this one) since everyone assumed he was prying

https://www.reddit.com/r/knifeclub/comments/1llfpmk/comment/n01slsv
 
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I don't know who this person is or when the post was made. I spoke wit someone at the Blade show that said he was bending the knife by hand and it broke at the tang. He showed me pics of the break. I spoke with Charlynn after the show and as I remember, we decided to replace his knife. I don't know what happened after that. I'll forward this thread to Charlynn and follow up.

sal

"Loyalty before all else, except honor"
 
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I’ve personally never had any blade failures or other major issues with any of my Spydercos to date (touch wood!). And I have over 80 of them by now. Which is a good thing, I guess, as I’m half a world away which makes it problematic sending any of my Spydies back to Golden.

But I’ve had some occasions needing Customer Service, for example like missing body screws on a Centofante II that’s over 2 decades old, a snagged & broken pocket clip on an old Persian II, and a missing silver bug (dropped off) on a Centofante III. On all such occasions, Charlynn sourced (even for long discontinued models) and sent me the necessary replacement parts, totally free of charge. Complete with free tubes of Blue Loctite too. And all communication was via email only, no problems.

In my book, that’s pretty good Customer Service.
 
So, I want to put this in a different light. This is not going to be a nice way to put it, but I think it will be useful in a broad sense to many who might read it. Stories change with the telling. This is a fact, the research is there, I'm going to treat that as a given fact. To the point that when I teach first aid, I don't presume a student will not recognize a stoke, I presume they will, I focus more on how they tell the emergency dispatcher what they are seeing because I know someone who called for an ambulance, and it was delayed because they were not able to clearly explain what they saw. They told me later what happened, but I do not know how the dispatcher heard it. Yes, this is the extreme end. I know that in a different mood the message would have been different. But that doesn't matter.
In a CS situation, the first email might have been run through a grammar check, and that might have changed a word or two that would matter if we were to read it later, but we were not there, and in the reddit thread, we don't know how they worded it the first time. It's worse in type, because I've already edited a dozen or more parts of this, and not just for spelling, some people do, sometimes they only do when it matters to them, sometimes it's a bot that edits for them. Who knows, who cares. It changes the story. This is something we all have to get used to, not making a value judgment (here) it just is what it is. I think, that most of the problem here is just a change in how reddit is compared to three-four years ago, and a bit of credit to how one of the only privately owned knife companies of it's size still operating, still knows how to run CS, when we live in a world of venture capital slop. I get it, it's hard to re-calibrate, but they are an odd duck of a company full stop, not just in knives.
 
Rather than read stories, though, it's better to read the card that comes in the box that clearly states what is and is not covered, because it seems like a lot of complaints are based on wrong assumptions and a false sense of entitlement.
 
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