Spyderco Warranty & Repair / Customer Service - Response from Spyderco

[TazKristi]

There has been much discussion of late regarding Spyderco’s Warranty & Repair/Customer Service department. This is a response to multiple threads on both our own forum at Spyderco.com as well as here on BladeForums. Please forgive the length, but this is a convoluted topic and given the responses from some observers I felt it deserved a thorough reply.

Spyderco is a small family-owned business; we take great pride in what we do and we are passionate about both our products and our loyal customers. We believe in doing the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do. We have never been in business to be “big” business. We have a unique culture within our company and that shows in our products and in our commitment to our customers. Sal’s personal participation on the forums for years is proof of just how strong that commitment is.

The forums have always been a means for discussion about our products and Spyderco as a whole. We make every effort to be as transparent as we can be. In that spirit we have consistently welcomed both positive and negative feedback. That isn’t going to change, ever.

In recent weeks there has been an uptick in negative feedback pertaining to our Warranty/Repair/Customer Service department. Please realize that the following information is not to make any excuses but rather to paint a realistic picture of that department. Department is a misleading word; the “department” is one person. Charlynn has one of the most difficult positions within our (or any) company. On average Charlynn replies to over 800 e-mails, receives more than 1400 phone calls, handles 400 knives and processes 180 requests for various parts each month. Charlynn does receive some administrative support from time to time, but generally speaking she is a one-woman department. The unique skills and knowledge necessary to perform her job also make it extremely challenging for us to find other workers qualified to assist her.

Are we perfect? No. Is there room for improvement? Of course, there is always room for improvement. CQI (Constant Quality Improvement) is not just a philosophy applied to our products. It is applied in every part of Spyderco and includes our processes, our resources and our crew. No one on our crew wants to do something poorly but mistakes have happened and it’s only truthful to say that mistakes will happen again. Hopefully not the same mistakes, but you get the idea.

We do not discuss specific details of our interaction with our customers. We believe it is private and should be between our customer and Spyderco. We could write a best-seller though about some of the things we are told. Some customers choose to post details on forums but rarely do they ever post every detail. Typically it is only the details that suit their needs the most that get shared.

I have gone through each of the recent posts (on both forums) and personally reviewed all of the communication and notes. My responsibilities at Spyderco do not lie in W&R/Customer Service so it took a bit of time to complete (hence the delay in posting a response). Nearly every complaint posted recently is missing details. Those missing details reflect a different situation all together.

In the past week I’ve also tracked and verified multiple posts/threads by what appeared to be different people but in reality were all from the same person. He had a clear agenda and only wanted to accomplish one thing; that wasn’t a resolution to their “issues” with Spyderco.

I have also seen a post or two indicating that although someone had a positive experience of their own with us that the recent “rash” of issues has convinced them to sell off their Spyderco knives and pursue other brands. I find that to be a very curious response.

I would ask and respectfully suggest that prior to making a judgment on anything or anyone that you are not personally involved with please keep in mind that you are only hearing one side of what is probably a complex story. If anyone has a specific question, concern, complaint, etc. on Customer Service or any other issue we are happy to listen and will handle each issue appropriately and to the best of our ability. Again, we’re not perfect, but we will always be fair, proper and honest.

Kristi

[kbuzbee]

Pretty damned perfect from my perspective, Taz. I've only contacted W/R a couple times but each time was stellar.

Still, if Charlynn needs help, I'm in! I can be paid in Spydies

Good post!

Ken

[Studey]

Thank you for the response, Kristi. My confidence in Spyderco, both the company and products, has not been shaken. I appreciate the professional reply. :)

[Senate]

Well said Kristi.

i'm sure Spyderco's service to its customers is second to none, starting from the 30$ folder to the most expensive ones...
people just need to realize that this is a relatively small business and they cannot compare it to what they are used to nowadays with most modern products like computers or cellphones and their 3days repair on site services. we're talking knives that are assembled/ajusted/repaired by human hands not motherboard that are just replaced.

[tonydahose]

Pretty damned perfect from my perspective, Taz. I've only contacted W/R a couple times but each time was stellar.

Still, if Charlynn needs help, I'm in! I can be paid in Spydies

Good post!

Ken

I agree whole heartedly with Ken, I'll take charge of the Chicago Office, same payment plan :p in all seriousness Charlynn has always taken care of whatever i have needed so please give her a kudos from a satisfied customer.

[jackthedog]

Well said. My one WR experience was a positive one.

[Evil D]

It's little more than mob mentality. The internet gives that mob the power to reach far and wide, and it reaches many more naive impressionable minds who take what they see as reality, and in turn spread it to other like minded individuals who continue the cycle. Unfortunately this works for both good and negative feedback, and I think what we have here is more a problem with spreading the love as opposed to spreading the hate. I feel there are so many people spreading good experiences that the "mob" is more or less a fanboy mob who believe Spyderco can do no wrong, and even without having positive experiences of their own they will go around forum by forum spreading the love and preaching the good word about how Spyderco can do no wrong, when in fact they aren't perfect and can be bogged down by things like heavy demand and increased workload. Then you have an equally powerful backlash when just a few people have "negative" experiences and go around those forums preaching about how they were done so wrong by the big company who can do no wrong, and you get this sense of great injustice from a situation that is likely blown way out of proportion, but contrasts so strongly against all of the other positive experience stories that are seen in every other post, that you almost get a sense of betrayal. In short, like they say the bigger you are the harder you fall, and the more squeaky clean your reputation is, the bigger the stain is left from such a small negative experience. People have a preconceived expectation because of what they read and feel like they should be treated like royalty because it seems like everyone else gets that kind of treatment.

[JNewell]

Thank you for taking the time to respond, Kristi. My only contact with W&R has been extra clips now and then, all of which have been dealt with cheerfully, professionally and promptly. I wish I could say something about W&R service on knives, but in spite of the fact that I've been buying Spyderco knives since the mid-1990s, I have yet to have a knife that needed to return to Golden for service or repair. Oops - there was one: my younger son broke a bit of the tip off a D3 about ten years ago. For $5 the knife was resharpened so that the break basically disappeared and returned to us very quickly. Thank you! :spyder:

[Blerv]

In my years in the auto service industry it seems people expect more from those who make and service pocket knives.

A solid warranty for normal instances, friendly people, perhaps a delay in getting your knife back, what's the problem? You guys have an email and phone number for a reason. The one time I had to use W&R I didn't waste time on the forums.

* Box up knife with shipping label.
* Take picture of shipping label and send a comprehensive email to W&R saying it was on the way and my perceived concern.
* Response email received
* Followed up via email in 3 weeks to confirm status
* Response email received
* Received knife at week 4 (ish)

At any point if I didn't get the desired feedback I would have picked up the phone (or waited).

[jsveiga]

I never needed to use Spyderco's W&R - well, I did when I broke the tip of my Delica "1", but shipping it from Brazil for repair would be expensive and risky.

I did contact them for information on replacement clips, and the answer was quick, complete, and friendly.

Problems happen, and I'm confident that Spyderco tries to deal with them the best way they can. Unfortunately when customers get a perfect W&R service they rarely go public to praise it, but when a problem does happen, they believe that making it public will get them a quicker solution (and indeed for some companies that is true).

If you need more hands, I bet that if there's a "work for a week at Spyderco, get to know nice people and get paid in knives" plan, there will be a line of devotees at your door (heck, I would if I wasn't below the Equator). My sister *paid* to spend two weeks in an old-school winery in Italy working her fingers to the bone just to be around something she loves. People can volunteer to help just to be closer and contribute to what they love.

I volunteered to make revisions on the Spyderco website (basically correcting knife data on the specs tables), but understandably it was not accepted (I'm a sysadmin and I would consider that suspicious too); but with procedures in place to qualify and filter out the wackos, knife-obsessed, and maniacs, maybe there would be 2 or three of us left :p that could help out.

[Bladekeeper]

There's always those who feel that IMO there woes , problems/faulty knives deserve special treatment .
These are IMO opinion the same type of people who feel the world owes them a favour .
Your never going to please these guys .
Lets put in perspective its a for the most part a luxury item .
Ok many can't imagine life without using their knives in I stance they're spyderco.
In the case of military , fire rescue , sea rescue those involved in the whaling projects etc then ok IMO they're first in line.
But let's not forget , that there's countries where if you don't have cash and you need an ambulance tough luck .
There's those who without , power due to being in war zones operate on children using generators and primitive equipment.
I find it quite abhorrent that people have the arrogance to run down a business that does a lot of good .
In the above projects , and such as the warrior foundation etc .
Because their military has been sat waiting to be shipped for a few weeks .
Get a grip .
Sal in his 70s is taking personal time to answer pm forum questions and just say hi to us buyers/fans of his products.
Show a little respect I know its the tiny minority but if you read this post then I'd suggest going out in the real world.
Spend a day on a children's ward , watching the underpaid nurses knock their selves out for minimum pay.
With no want for recognition or praise .
Sorry for the rant but I can't bite my tounge when people complain about these things .
If you want to experience some customer service that stinks come to the uk and try to return done products your legally entitled to because they're faulty .
You'd think the employees of these companies huge multi conglomerates are paying you out of there own pocket .

[CarbonFiberNut]

I have also seen a post or two indicating that although someone had a positive experience of their own with us that the recent “rash” of issues has convinced them to sell off their Spyderco knives and pursue other brands. I find that to be a very curious response.

Curious? I find that to be an insane response. Someone is either trolling, or a fool. Selling off stuff you already own and theoretically like, because what some guy on the internet said, is just nuts.

If anyone else here thinks they might be having a "rash" of issues and doesn't want their Spyderco knives anymore, you can go ahead and send them my way. I'll make sure to use them hard and prove that they don't need warranty service in the first place.

[mikerestivo]

Two things:

1. When someone posts about a product or service complaint on any forum, you are only getting half of a story (yet some folks reading the post are naïve enough to take it as the gospel truth)

and

2. Anyone that goes all scorched-earth and sells off all of their collection of a brand due to a rash of service issues, perceived or not, is a doofus, but hey - that leaves more knives for me.

[4 s ter]

What? There are people on the internet who aren't completely and accurately truthful :eek:

My experience with Spyderco products and people has always been great, that's why I'm still a customer after more than a decade.

Thanks to Kristi, Charlynn, and others at Spyderco who are doing a great job.

[The Mastiff]

Thanks Kristi. Sorry you had to take time from your other responsibilities to talk to us about things we should already know better than to do. Speaking for me I'll try not to make the same mistakes over and over. Have a good weekend. :)

Joe & Finn ( now almost 11 years old BTW. :) )

[Dodge]

What? There are people on the internet who aren't completely and accurately truthful.

Ahh Bonjour...

Thanks Kristi, nail on the head!

[anagarika]

In my workplace, I also like to scrutiny any complaint to understand what went wrong. There were two cases where customer stated that the information was unclear and that the officer(s) had not kept what was promised. Upon checking the whole recording (some are 15 mins, some are 30 mins long), the conclusion I personally got was that the officer(s) did follow protocol and courteous. If the customer did not listen well and misinterpret what was being stated, it is only unfortunate. The most important thing is no one dropped the ball and improvement can be made from the experience.

Knowing Spyderco (and many of the previous interaction with forum member, all highly critical), I trust that Kristi has reviewed all the cases and her response here is general but informative.

Keep up the good work! It's a rare thing to know a company that still really cares.

[arnon]

Thanks

[Peter1960]

Well said Kristi! My greetings to you and Charlynn :)

[Kohbanang]

I can say only the best,have 3-4 problems with my knifes from Spyderco and always fiendly perfect help.
W & R is very helpfull and this to a state long way away from Golden!!!

Thanks to all make them possible
Great job Spydiecrew Thumbs up