What is wrong with Spyderco customer service?

[Danke]

Sorry if I was one who seemed hostile. I was just being blunt. I also offered what useful advice I could.

You came in saying you were upset, using lots of exclamation points and the thread title is inflammatory. You followed that up with passive aggressive comments. I think considering the tone you started the conversation with most of us are being very helpful. This is a good group of people who will help when they can. I hope you can work something out.

I would term your response as "Laconic" Conveying all the critical info without a lot of extra flowery prose.

I guess if you want you can add in an extra line at the start. "Hello dear friend hope this quote of your post on the web finds you and yours well I read your post and have these thoughts etc." Doesn't seem practical though.

To answer the original question of "What is wrong with Spyderco customer serivce", that can be summed up with Nothing. Nothing is wrong.

[JRinFL]

Every business in the 21 Century needs to be using a CRM package of some kind. Auto responses of "We have received your email..." are in fact useful. The customer knows the email made it through and will be responded to in a timely manner. The CRM will notify the correct department and will age the tickets so they don't get forgotten. Relying on the same person to do the support job and answer the phone/email is no longer sufficient nor efficient.

It's easy to spend other peoples money eh? :D

By the way how is Fla treating you? My brother is moving down there soon.

I love spending other peoples money, I should run for office! In the long run the CRM will save money, but it is a cost upfront.

FL is better than the pundits will tell you, but that's OK as we are keeping it a secret...shh!

[JRinFL]

Let's remember that English may not be the OPs first or even second language, so please make allowances for that.

Every business in the 21 Century needs to be using a CRM package of some kind. Auto responses of "We have received your email..." are in fact useful. The customer knows the email made it through and will be responded to in a timely manner. The CRM will notify the correct department and will age the tickets so they don't get forgotten. Relying on the same person to do the support job and answer the phone/email is no longer sufficient nor efficient.

Yeah we have auto-replies on all our mail I get minim one freak out response every week from someone who doesn't understand "We will contact you during our normal business hours"; next thing you know they're headed for a bridge with someone in the trunk like that Eminem song.

LOL. Imagine the phone calls they a fielding now though! :eek:

[ladybug93]

Every business in the 21 Century needs to be using a CRM package of some kind. Auto responses of "We have received your email..." are in fact useful. The customer knows the email made it through and will be responded to in a timely manner. The CRM will notify the correct department and will age the tickets so they don't get forgotten. Relying on the same person to do the support job and answer the phone/email is no longer sufficient nor efficient.

It's easy to spend other peoples money eh? :D

By the way how is Fla treating you? My brother is moving down there soon.

I love spending other peoples money, I should run for office! In the long run the CRM will save money, but it is a cost upfront.

FL is better than the pundits will tell you, but that's OK as we are keeping it a secret...shh!

the problem with those auto emails is that the customer still expects a follow-up and spyderco is not very good with emails in my experience. i know it's a small company, but the op is right. it's a little odd to see such a (relatively) small business that serves international customers and has factories in multiple countries. they could definitely use staff members that handle emails, making the website more user friendly, and creating a stronger social media presence. /raiseshand

[Menipo]

the problem with those auto emails is that the customer still expects a follow-up and spyderco is not very good with emails in my experience. i know it's a small company, but the op is right. it's a little odd to see such a (relatively) small business that serves international customers and has factories in multiple countries. they could definitely use staff members that handle emails, making the website more user friendly, and creating a stronger social media presence. /raiseshand

Perhaps if we did not ask Spyderco to make 176 variations of each model and design knives that also forecast the weather or allow the owner to calculate integrals, they would have a little more time to respond to emails. :D

Answering the OP's question, there is nothing wrong with Spyderco customer service in my experience. I am also an international customer and have always received first class service.

And as a recommendation for the OP, next time instead of leaving a "hard" message with a provocative title in the hope that a member of the team will read it and answer you, send a forum PM to one of the members of the team. It is more effective and makes a lot less noise. Just a recommendation, as I said.

[James Y]

I would like to add that in the future, it may be prudent to hold off on making any online purchases if you know that a move is imminent.

That said, I don't know OP's situation, and if OP's need to move came about suddenly or not.

Jim

[Evil D]

They deliberately screwed you over.





Ok seriously though, something probably does need improved with the email system because it's at the very least more successful to call and speak to them vs email.

[Matus]

OK, let me add a different perspective. I obviously don't know how the Spyderco customer and sale service is structured. But for many companies it is actually pretty complicated to delay an order or do some customization (like merging orders, etc.). Because this means that in the large volume of orders that are mostly handled semi-automatically you need to pick that one single order out by hand, put it on a separate shelf with a post-it note about the status of the order and what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. SOME large companies can do this up to certain extend and SOME very little companies can do this up to some extend. But for the very most this is a complete nightmare and it makes the order-processing efforts explode and also considerably increases the chance that a mistake will be done.

A few months back I ordered a knife from QC and just few days later (when the order was still being processed) asked per E-Mail whether I could add another item to the order. I got a polite reply explaining that unfortunately this was not possible, because they are not set up to accommodate changes to existing orders.

Now - I am not saying that Spyderco could not get better with answering emails, but I understand why that is a hard thing to do - it costs a LOT of time. I would rather see an option to call via WhatsApp or similar, so that non US customers do not have to pay those expensive phone calls.

[VooDooChild]

LITERALLY COMPLAINING THAT YOUR ORDER SHIPPED WITHIN 1 DAY!!!!

This is entirely on you.

[dkelley661]

You can please some of the people some of the time, never all the people all the time. I echo VooDooChild's post.

[The Meat man]

It's unfortunate. There was probably not much Spyderco could have done about your package even if you had gotten ahold of them in time.

That said, three emails sent with no replies is not good, either. It could have been an oversight, I suppose, or maybe they are just that backed up. In either case, there's probably room for improvement on Spyderco's end and I don't blame you for asking about it.

Hope your knife finds its way to you eventually!

[Chuck James]

Hi,

I have contacted Spyderco customer service using the "contact" page of the website right after successfully ordering the latest Mule. I have kindly asked if it is possible to keep my order until the 22nd before sending it out as I will be moving to a new address on the 22nd. This is my first-time overseas purchase from Spyderco so I do not know how long would it take, there will be some time required for customs clearance as well. So, I thought it will be better to be late than sorry, as I will not able to collect the item if it goes to the wrong address. I did not receive a response in few hours and then replies to the e-mail confirming my order just to be sure they notice my concern before sending it out. Today I got a notification saying my order is shipped!!! It is quite likely that I will not able to get it! I also tried to contact Spyderco during the factory second, but back then did not get a response to my question. So, in total, the customer service responded to my questions/concerns ZERO out of THREE times. I have always thought Spyderco was a professional company, respected them and supported them by buying their products. So needless to say I am quite upset about this!

The answer to your question is very simple....Nothing.

You created this problem, good luck getting it worked out.

[Murat_Cyp]

I am really amazed at how I garbled myself and got so many harsh responses as a result of this.

So, I will try to explain why I was agitated so much that I need the urge to create this thread.

Firstly, I am not angry with Spyderco for sending my order out fast! I appreciate it whether it works for me or not.

Secondly, I would not be angry with Spyderco if they told me that they will not able to hold my order. That is understandable.

Lastly, I felt upset because as a loyal customer I have felt ignored. Not the first time but the second time in a row! And yes, I thought I deserved a response whether fast or a slow one. I still did not get a response from Spyderco and I do not think I will get any time in the future. My intention for creating this thread was to bring this up, as I do not think this an appropriate attitude for a high-calibre company like Spyderco. I said this out loud because I care for Spyderco, I like their product and I want to continue to buy. I could simply walk away and not bother with Spyderco anymore. But I realise now that many of you are happy with how things are. For me, I simply do not want to call, because my line does not allow that (the apps that I have checked for the international call are not free) and most importantly I got anxious while I talk and can not express myself clearly (I stutter) since English is not my main language. So, I much prefer communicating by writing.

I appreciate all the advice given in this thread by fellow forum members whether it is delivered smoothly or bluntly. I will try to sort this out with my local post office once I know which local courier will deal with my order. Hopefully, I will be able to see this via the tracking information and able to collect my first (hopefully not the last as I am looking forward to the Z-wear version) mule.

[Murat_Cyp]

Hi,

I have contacted Spyderco customer service using the "contact" page of the website right after successfully ordering the latest Mule. I have kindly asked if it is possible to keep my order until the 22nd before sending it out as I will be moving to a new address on the 22nd. This is my first-time overseas purchase from Spyderco so I do not know how long would it take, there will be some time required for customs clearance as well. So, I thought it will be better to be late than sorry, as I will not able to collect the item if it goes to the wrong address. I did not receive a response in few hours and then replies to the e-mail confirming my order just to be sure they notice my concern before sending it out. Today I got a notification saying my order is shipped!!! It is quite likely that I will not able to get it! I also tried to contact Spyderco during the factory second, but back then did not get a response to my question. So, in total, the customer service responded to my questions/concerns ZERO out of THREE times. I have always thought Spyderco was a professional company, respected them and supported them by buying their products. So needless to say I am quite upset about this!

The answer to your question is very simple....Nothing.

You created this problem, good luck getting it worked out.

I respectfully disagree.

If a company puts a message box for customers to leave a message as a way of communication, then naturally, the customer will expect a response, if he/she does not get it, then it will be a problem. Obviously, this is not a problem I have created.

[SG89]

This forum for a lot of us is a happy little corner of the internet and when someone posts an inflammatory thread title we all turn protective. I hope you are able to get your knife and that you stay on the forum and see that this is a rather nice place to be. I understand that you are not able to call and 3 unanswered emails is pretty frustrating.

[M Sea]

Have you tried reaching on social media? Just a thought not sure if that works or not with Spyderco but I needed to send a knife back to another manufacturer and had a few emails/calls not returned but reached out on social media and it got handled quickly.

[Chuck James]

Hi,

I have contacted Spyderco customer service using the "contact" page of the website right after successfully ordering the latest Mule. I have kindly asked if it is possible to keep my order until the 22nd before sending it out as I will be moving to a new address on the 22nd. This is my first-time overseas purchase from Spyderco so I do not know how long would it take, there will be some time required for customs clearance as well. So, I thought it will be better to be late than sorry, as I will not able to collect the item if it goes to the wrong address. I did not receive a response in few hours and then replies to the e-mail confirming my order just to be sure they notice my concern before sending it out. Today I got a notification saying my order is shipped!!! It is quite likely that I will not able to get it! I also tried to contact Spyderco during the factory second, but back then did not get a response to my question. So, in total, the customer service responded to my questions/concerns ZERO out of THREE times. I have always thought Spyderco was a professional company, respected them and supported them by buying their products. So needless to say I am quite upset about this!

The answer to your question is very simple....Nothing.

You created this problem, good luck getting it worked out.

I respectfully disagree.

If a company puts a message box for customers to leave a message as a way of communication, then naturally, the customer will expect a response, if he/she does not get it, then it will be a problem. Obviously, this is not a problem I have created.

You ordered a mule knowing full well you are moving. This is the problem you created and set yourself up for headaches.

[Murat_Cyp]

Have you tried reaching on social media? Just a thought not sure if that works or not with Spyderco but I needed to send a knife back to another manufacturer and had a few emails/calls not returned but reached out on social media and it got handled quickly.

No, I have not thought of that. I thought the only place Spyderco would notice me for sure would be its own forum. So, I have posted here...

[Murat_Cyp]

This forum for a lot of us is a happy little corner of the internet and when someone posts an inflammatory thread title we all turn protective. I hope you are able to get your knife and that you stay on the forum and see that this is a rather nice place to be. I understand that you are not able to call and 3 unanswered emails is pretty frustrating.

Thanks for the constructive comment. I have been following the forum (not very frequently I must admit, hence my lack of understanding the forum dynamics) for quite long time as a guest and last two years as a member, and I think this is a very good form in terms of providing loads of informative posts regarding Spyderco products and steel related questions. So, I am not planning to leave just yet :)

[nerdlock]

I am really amazed at how I garbled myself and got so many harsh responses as a result of this.

So, I will try to explain why I was agitated so much that I need the urge to create this thread.

Firstly, I am not angry with Spyderco for sending my order out fast! I appreciate it whether it works for me or not.

Secondly, I would not be angry with Spyderco if they told me that they will not able to hold my order. That is understandable.

Lastly, I felt upset because as a loyal customer I have felt ignored. Not the first time but the second time in a row! And yes, I thought I deserved a response whether fast or a slow one. I still did not get a response from Spyderco and I do not think I will get any time in the future. My intention for creating this thread was to bring this up, as I do not think this an appropriate attitude for a high-calibre company like Spyderco. I said this out loud because I care for Spyderco, I like their product and I want to continue to buy. I could simply walk away and not bother with Spyderco anymore. But I realise now that many of you are happy with how things are. For me, I simply do not want to call, because my line does not allow that (the apps that I have checked for the international call are not free) and most importantly I got anxious while I talk and can not express myself clearly (I stutter) since English is not my main language. So, I much prefer communicating by writing.

I appreciate all the advice given in this thread by fellow forum members whether it is delivered smoothly or bluntly. I will try to sort this out with my local post office once I know which local courier will deal with my order. Hopefully, I will be able to see this via the tracking information and able to collect my first (hopefully not the last as I am looking forward to the Z-wear version) mule.

I can sympathize with this. I can be as eloquent as any native-born English speaker when I write, but sometimes when speaking, I stutter (because maybe you have to translate your intent from your native language to English on the fly).

I hope you get it sorted with your post office! Keep hold of the tracking info in your email, I think it will be invaluable and I believe your post office will have the resources to keep track of your package.