When to speak and when to keep it to yourself...

archieblue

archieblue

Joined
Mar 19, 2001
Messages
3,156
I was just considering the thought of Customer Service. There are some knifemakers with unbelievable customer service... I mean UNBELIEVABLE customer service. Let me give a MADE UP examlpe.

You forget to maintain your knife and it gets rusty. You send it in to get fixed and the company desides to replace it for free.

Do you count your blessings and thank you thank you thank you to the company, or do you come to BF and tell EVERYBODY they too (with a similar problem) can send in their knife and get it fixed FOR FREE!!!!

On one end of the spectrum, you are paying respect to the company... but on the other... you posibly cause them trouble... What do you think?
 
Most people would not even consider that by telling everyone on BladeForums of their good fortune that they might indeed be doing the manufacturer a disservice. You do bring up a good point though. There is nothing wrong with reporting that you got excellent customer service, but personally I would not pass on that I had gotten the knife replaced for free. This is something that was between myself and the company and may not be done the next time. I do not feel that it is fair to the manufacturer to put them under pressure to do the same every time they receive an abused or poorly cared for knife. That is something that they should be able to determine on a case per case basis.
 
You forget to maintain your knife and it gets rusty. You send it in to get fixed and the company desides to replace it for free.
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The decision about when to speak up and when to keep to yourself starts earlier than you think. If I neglected my knife and it rusted because of my negligence, I would not send it in for replacement to begin with.

But, that aside, we see way to many complaining threads here and not enough praise threads. Whenever I get exceptional service from anyone or any business, I always make a point of praising them for it.
 
I belive in honesty with the manufacturer first and above all. I have received some ' above and beyond' service simply by stating exactly what i did. I also enclosed in one instance a check to cover a non warranty repair.
The wording of my compliments always tells of the good service without going into details.
guy
 
Now wait, guys. Maybe the knife rusted because the protective coating was applied incorrectly. We don't know without looking at the knife.

Then again, some manufacturers have "No BS" guarantees. Dillon Precision is one such company. One client found a Dillon press in a dump. The press had been in a house fire and the original owner had just thrown it away. Dillon re-built the press.

Was that a loss to Dillon? Yes and no. It was a loss for that particular press, but the good will that gesture made probably sold many presses. Let the comapny decide. You're the client, send the knife back to their customer service department for evaluation.
 
I think I know which knife and manufacturer he's talking about. I have been wondering myself if when a company participates in the forum they are subceptable to "black Mail" of sorts, "give me great customer service or I'm telling" kind of thing.

I'm trusting that the maker/manufacturer would not replace it unless it really was a problem on their end, and that they would tell the customer sorry forget it if it wasn't.
 
I think these forums have a powerful influence on the customer service of manufacturers. I think it is important to praise a company for good service and let people know when you get bad service.

-- Dizos
 
My favorite true story, and I've used it in the knife world and outside of it, is of a demolition technician who was making final checks on explosive charges they'd set to take down an old building. The explosion had been scheduled and the time was fast approaching. As he made his checks, he dropped his Benchmade knife into one of the holes in which one of the charges was installed. He knew that to get the knife out safely would take to long. He had to abandon his knife. After the explosion, while checking the site for any possible unexploded materials, what should he find but the remains of his knife. He sent it in to Benchmade. They sent him a new knife under their LifeSharp warranty. Most warranties don't cover user misuse, abuse, and neglect. I really can't think of much more user abuse, misuse or neglect than to blow your knife up with high explosives. But Benchmade covered it.

I've seen the remains of a Benchmade AFCK that was accidentally dropped into a roaring campfire. The next day, after the fire was out, the owner retrieved what was left of his knife and sent it in to BM. BM replaced it under their LifeSharp warranty. This is only slightly less misuse, abuse, and neglect than high explosives.

And I know of another case where a man found a BM Nimravus (sp?) in the middle of a road. It'd obviously been there for some time. It'd been run over, ground into the pavement, etc. He sent it in and BM fixed it up for him.

A friend of mine found a Leatherman PST on the bottom of a stream while out fly fishing. It'd obviously been there for some time, was covered with rust, etc. He dropped it by the factory and they cleaned it all up, replaced parts that were beyond salvage, etc., all for free under their warranty.

Companies buy a lot of good will when they do things like this.

Unfortunately, we don't hear about these sorts of things often enough. All to often, it seems that all we hear about is problems. It think it's right to report the good too.
 
A long time ago, I made the mistake of letting a friend sharpen my Buck Duke on a commercial power sharpener. When I got it back, half the blade had dissapeared. I sent it to Buck, telling them what happened and asked for a price to buy a new blade because it was my fault. They replaced the blade and cleaned up the whole knife and wouldnt take any payment for it.
 
Why don't you just speak of the manufacturer in a high regard and not mention the replacement knife... kill to birds with one stone.
 
Go ahead and tell the whole story. You know what manufacturers spend on advertising? Give them the praise they deserve.

I think they do it for three good reasons. Obviously, it makes them look good to customers who might wonder how serious the warrantee is. But these are also knife knuts, and I think they get a good feeling out of fixing a knife that looks beyond repair. When they replace an irreparably damaged knife, they've had a chance to see what it takes to destroy one, and what parts held up better than others. it's the same as Volvo going to the scene of auto crashes, to investigate the weak spots in their construction.
 
Originally posted by lifter4Him
A long time ago, I made the mistake of letting a friend sharpen my Buck Duke on a commercial power sharpener...They replaced the blade and cleaned up the whole knife and wouldnt take any payment for it.
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Buck has always been noted for their outstanding customer service and Lifetime Warranty. Have you ever read the Warranty Registration forms that come with every new Buck sold? With the mention of WHO their Senior Management Partner is, I would be highly surprised if I ever heard anything bad about them.
 
Well, I don't think that crowing about good customers service is wrong. I've delt with a number of knife makers and knife companies and I would say that mostly they bend over backwards to keep their customers happy. I think that this type of service is the norm. You wouldn't happen to be talking about the guy in the CRK forum that is getting his blade replaced for free? I've done some pretty stupid things with knives and for the most part I've been well taken care of.:cool: :eek: :D ;) :p
 
I've received "above and beyond the call of service" from a couple of different manufacturers. Both occasions happened rather early in my knifenuttedness. The manufacturers went far beyond any warranty. I’ve praised both companies for their customer service, but have not disclosed the details. It just wouldn’t be right to tell everybody, and have them expect the same level of service. I’ve just told people that the manufacturer went far beyond the warranty to make things good. You sometimes get the right customer representative on the right day, and get incredible service. Sometimes you don’t, and get standard warranty coverage. I chock it up to people being human; one thing that makes this hobby so interesting.
 
I've recieved exceptional Customer Service from 2 major production companies, and I am about try a third, I see nothing wrong with standing behind a quality product, and if QC does their job right, than standing behind a warranty would not be an issue, the few that slipped by QC won't put a hurtin' on the companies budgets, so why not talkup excellent service, this goes along way in deciding what I carry, tools can break, If I use it for it's intended purpose and it breaks, fix it, if that's what your warranty says.
 
Angie at Benchmade ROCKS!

I loaned my two week old 941D2CF to an idiot at a trade show who cut a live AC cord with it causing major arcing damage to the cutting edge. I sent the knife in requesting an estimate for replacing or re-grinding the blade. Angie called to ask if I really wanted it reground which would have removed a lot of steel and changed the blade shape dramatically. The other option was to replace the blade, but the replacement would no longer be marked 107 of 500. I opted to have the blade replaced and asked her to advise me as to pricing. She sait she'd get back to me. I didn't get a phone call from her, but a couple days later my knife showed up with a new D2 polished blade at no charge!

I offered to pay and admitted that there was in no way a warranty issue and they fixed it anyway. I can't say they will do it for someone else, but they sure took care of me.

jmx
 
Originally posted by jmxcpter
I loaned my two week old 941D2CF to an idiot at a trade show who cut a live AC cord with it causing major arcing damage to the cutting edge.
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ROTFL :D :D

This really happened? I'm sorry you didn't get a video.
"America's stoopidest knifeknuts"
 
I have never heard of a bad experience with a service dept. knife factory. I beleive the knife factories are just like the rest of the real knife world, they WANT to make it right. That's the kind of people you find in THIS business. I sold one of my knives to a fellow that gave it to his brother as a gift. I reminded him the knife was not stainless and to tell his brother how to take care of it. Well, about a year later the guy that bought the knife brought it back to me and asked me if I could fix it. What he dropped out of the sack hardly resembled the mirror polished silver inlaid handled knife, and it was still covered with some blood and gut slime and rusted to hell. I asked him what the hell happened to the knife. Guy told me his brother was visiting him at his house and he spotted the knife lying the the bed of the truck where his brother had tossed it months before, right after deer season. All I could do was buff the blade some and refinish the handle. The fellow paid me $375 for the knife when he bought it.I told him I wasn't going to grind the blade down to nothing because the pits were so deep. He was really upset with his brother for the way he treated the knife, of course, and didn't expect a new one because of stupidity. His brother didn't even bother to clean the knife after he gutted his deer, just tossed it in the back of the truck and blew it off. I wonder if he would have done that if he knew what his bro paid for the knife. This same fellow had me make two more knives for him, and his brother didn't get one!
 
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