Warranty Experiences

[12DJ4]

Hey guys. Has anybody had an negative experiences with the Spyderco warranty dept.? I am very discouraged because I feel when I have had to contact the Warranty dept. they give me an attitude like I am bothering them. I sent a Gayle Bradley in to warranty because it was a brand new knife with tooling scratches on the blade and the chamfers on the spine were not symmetrical. They called me and told me it was "within tolerance" but they said that they did not think they could make me happy after they read my letter to them. They went on to say that the reason for the symmetry issue was that it is very difficult to do this on the spine of the knife and that no knife is perfect. They did give me a msrp credit to the Spyderco outlet but they really made it seem like they were going out of their way for me. I have dealt with other warranty departments with other companies and they bend over backwards for me. I own about 200 Spydercos and am ready to call it quits. I even wrote a certified letter to Sal and Eric but never heard back from them. I will say that I have noticed on other discussion sites that more people are experiencing this type of elite attitude for Spyderco.

[Tdog]

My limited experiences with the warranty department have been good. Issues were resolved timely with good communication from Spyderco. I also have a bunch-o Spydies and have never received one with tooling scratches on the blade. Is it possible the seller would replace the knife? As you know, the Taiwan fit and finish is among the best in production knives. Hope it works out for you. If you have 200 Spyderco's, it's obvious you understand how good the knives are. :spyder:

[The Deacon]

Out of a few hundred Spyderco I've purchased new, only four have ever needed W&R service. Two were repaired and returned promptly, one was replaced promptly, and one hasn't been sent in yet. That last is a Military with a loose lanyard tube that's been sitting on my desk a week or two waiting for me to get it packed up and shipped out. I'm confident that, once I get off my dead butt and send it in, my W&R experience will be the same as the first three. Of course I never returned one for trivial imperfections and have no idea what your letter contained, so I won't comment beyond that except to say that I worked in retail long enough to know that whoever coined the phase "the customer is always right" was living in a dream world.

[WCC]

I have a knife at the warranty department as we speak. It is an old Millie I bought and they are doing a re-serration on the blade – not a warranty repair but a request from me to get it back to original. The service and communication has been great and I cannot ask for anything more.

Just curious, but if you have 200 Spyderco knives you certainly must love Spyderco. So if you feel done in with one warranty repair why would you spite yourself by saying no-more? You also said you got a credit and if you feel that they went out of their way, then maybe you should consider yourself lucky. As they say it is a pretty thin ham that does not have two sides. I hope you get it sorted, but given the little info you presented, the fact that you got a credit and an explanation, maybe that is enough or maybe it is like they said and there’s just no satisfying you. :confused:

[MacLaren]

You received an MSRP Credit to the Outlet.
I'm not really sure I understand what the problem is then...

[bearfacedkiller]

I would probably return the knife to the seller instead of W&R if it was a brand new knife. I have always sort of thought that warranty and repair was for used knives and that new knives go back to the seller. In the end you got a full refund so I don't see why it is worth being upset. Water off a duck's back, ya know.

[bpahk]

I own close to 50 spydies but never had the need to send anything in. I wouldn't be able to get it shipped back from them anyway since I'm in ny. I'd try to swap with the retailer too if I were in that situation.

Considering that you own 200 of their product, you obviously think highly of their product quality too. Part of that quality is holding tight tolerances on their products--if they say something is within tolerance, it makes me think that you may be nitpicking a very minor cosmetic flaw (Pic is worth a thousand words). Clearly that matters to some more than others, but you're asking a group of spyderco enthusiasts to share their gripes about the company and the way they interact with their customers -- I doubt you're gonna get the kind of validation you're looking for, at least on this forum.

[MacLaren]

I would probably return the knife to the seller instead of W&R if it was a brand new knife. I have always sort of thought that warranty and repair was for used knives and that new knives go back to the seller. In the end you got a full refund so I don't see why it is worth being upset. Water off a duck's back, ya know.

This^
That's how I think of it as well...

[sal]

Hi 12DJ4,

Welcome to our forum and thanx much for all of the support. I must say it''s always disappointing to me to see a first post be a complaint, but I guess that's part of the job.

I did receive your letter sent to Eric and me, and you re on my agenda to write back to you today. Sorry for the delay, but between our traveling schedules and running a company, we're pretty busy guys and responding to long letters does cut into our schedules and has to be planned.

I do appreciate your taking the time to write and a long letter like yours that was hand written, takes even more time, which I respect. I would like to thank you for your support over the years. We greatly appreciate our customers and extend our best effort to try to create a good relationship.

I see that you decided to take the question to the public. That's ok, there really isn't anything that I would say to you privately that I wouldn't say publicly.

First I would like to say that we have a very good customer service group and I get 100 compliments for every complaint. In fact it surprises me that people will go out of their way to write letters to me complimenting our customer service.

You had mentioned in your letter that you expected flawless product. I doubt that is possible. I've been collecting knives for more than 60 years with many hundreds of knives and I have found very few to be flawless and they cost many times more than the Bradley. If fact, I believe I can honestly say that I have found very few "flawless" products from any company making anything. We do our best to create very good products, but I doubt there are many that are flawless.

Charlynn told me about your complaints and what she did to try to please you, but she didn't think she'd succeeded. Your letter showed she was accurate.

I will admit that we have lost a few customers because their expectations were beyond our abilities or not in accordance with out policies. I do remember one dispute that went on for 10 years, publicly, but I was finally able to convince the customer that we were honorable and always tried our best to please.

Customer service deals with hundreds of customers per week and I'm sure you will agree that an unhappy customer is not always the most pleasant person to deal with. I don't now what more we can do to please you, and we certainly would prefer to keep you as a customer, but we are not a custom shop. We are a production house with limitations.

So, how can we help you?

sal

[Evil D]

My only experience was with a Stretch that had some up and down play in the pivot. I sent it in just to see what their opinion of it was and they told me it was defective. It was a SE model and was no longer in production and they couldn't fix or replace it so I took a store credit and ordered a different knife. I've had dealings with Charlene many times for other inquiries and every time I've dealt with them it has been fast and direct and I got exactly what I asked for, and usually when my stuff comes in the mail it comes along with a bunch of other goodies like stickers and catalogues and such.

As for your knife in particular, I have seen grinds that were even and some that were not so even. They're right in that it's pretty difficult to get them all exactly perfect. In manufacturing there are tolerances that go both ways of every spec you can imagine. If you were to go so far as to get a caliper out and start measuring 100s of the same knife, I bet you wouldn't find two that had the same specs.

I don't blame you for wanting your knife to be as perfect as possible, but at some point you have to be realistic about what is reasonable and what is not reasonable. It sounds like maybe their idea of reasonable doesn't meet your idea of reasonable, and nobody can tell you you're wrong for that. Unfortunately that leads to a place where you have your store credit and you can try again or move on. Not everyone is happy with every product. It's an unfortunate reality of doing business.

The last two big purchases I made from Spyderco were pairs of the same two knives, both sprints/exclusives. I bought two because I wanted a user and a future backup. Both pairs of knives had differences between each of them, and I chose the ones I thought were "worse" as my user but in truth none of them are exactly perfectly symmetrical in every way. Things like hollow/saber grinds and swedges are almost always uneven with each other if you really look close enough.

[12DJ4]

You received an MSRP Credit to the Outlet.
I'm not really sure I understand what the problem is then...

This problems is that they gave me an attitude about it like they were doing me a favor. They were not doing me a favor. For the money I spent on the knife and being a loyal customer, I should not feel that way. Period! Whether they game me a credit or not. I do not want to deal with that if I need them in the future!

[12DJ4]

I would probably return the knife to the seller instead of W&R if it was a brand new knife. I have always sort of thought that warranty and repair was for used knives and that new knives go back to the seller. In the end you got a full refund so I don't see why it is worth being upset. Water off a duck's back, ya know.

I could not return it as it was a gift and the person bought the Bradley several months before giving it to me. Yes I got a credit but the attitude is what I am talking about.

[MacLaren]

You received an MSRP Credit to the Outlet.
I'm not really sure I understand what the problem is then...

This problems is that they gave me an attitude about it like they were doing me a favor. They were not doing me a favor. For the money I spent on the knife and being a loyal customer, I should not feel that way. Period! Whether they game me a credit or not. I do not want to deal with that if I need them in the future!

Understood.

[SpyderNut]

I've been collecting Spydercos for about 16 years now. In that time, I've had several knives that I sent in to the Warranty and Repair Department for minor things (mostly for a factory-fresh resharpening). I've had positive experiences on all of my encounters with W&R. There was one occasion where they couldn't fix a SS Rescue I sent in, but they communicated their reason and it was perfectly understandable why they couldn't fix it. I was not upset in the least.
I think it is a pretty awesome thing to have the Owner, Founder, and President of a company personally answer questions and otherwise trouble-shoot individual problems for his ELUs. Sal is a stand-up and honest gentleman who employs like-minded individuals at his facilities. Naturally, we are all human, and 100% perfection across the board from any company is a nearly impossible expectation, as I'm sure you know too. :)

[Blerv]

You received an MSRP Credit to the Outlet.
I'm not really sure I understand what the problem is then...

This problems is that they gave me an attitude about it like they were doing me a favor. They were not doing me a favor. For the money I spent on the knife and being a loyal customer, I should not feel that way. Period! Whether they game me a credit or not. I do not want to deal with that if I need them in the future!

I didn't read the letter but if you said you expected perfection they indeed did you a favor. They provided a no-questions-asked credit without receipt of purchase. This in the world of business is the highest caliber of customer service...Costco, Nordstrom, etc.

Communication is a process of sending and receiving information; implying and inferring is always involved. In business providing a credit with a dry response can be taken as an insult or a compliment (abrupt vs not pandering). It's efficient word use more likely than spiteful. In theory they only are required to say, "Your product is within spec, please pay for return shipping." They are responsible for their words and actions but cannot control your feelings.

If you have bought hundreds of perfect Spyderco knives without problem until this one, from a probability perspective, you should roll the dice again. Unless this is a unique situation with this model, or your perception of this particular model...the numbers are in your favor. Maybe find an understanding dealer and buy 10 and return 9 of them?

Personally, I've never received a "perfect" Spyderco knife. In fact, I can't think of a single product or experience that would be deemed "perfect". Any assessment of that would be from being elated and not objectively looking for flaws. I've had "perfect" nachos before but a couple margaritas tends to do that.

[Evil D]

So let me ask, in all sincerity and without any sarcastic undertones, wholeheartedly, what exactly would you like to accomplish with this thread?

At this point it sounds like customer service gave you a refund/store credit, though you feel like they gave you attitude (and to be fair, we don't know how Spyderco feels about your attitude in all this and I don't see them coming into this thread to bash on you). Sal himself has chimed in and apologized for your experience. So, if the community here can't help you feel better about this situation, and you're not happy with the credit or whatever attitude you felt you received, then we're sort of at an impasse.

[ChrisinHove]

You received an MSRP Credit to the Outlet.
I'm not really sure I understand what the problem is then...

This problems is that they gave me an attitude about it like they were doing me a favor. They were not doing me a favor. For the money I spent on the knife and being a loyal customer, I should not feel that way. Period! Whether they game me a credit or not. I do not want to deal with that if I need them in the future!

You go on to say that it was a gift.

Just saying.

[SG89]

You received an MSRP Credit to the Outlet.
I'm not really sure I understand what the problem is then...

This problems is that they gave me an attitude about it like they were doing me a favor. They were not doing me a favor. For the money I spent on the knife and being a loyal customer, I should not feel that way. Period! Whether they game me a credit or not. I do not want to deal with that if I need them in the future!

You go on to say that it was a gift.

Just saying.

Interesting...

[mrtodd777]

Somethings fishy...

[12DJ4]

I have a knife at the warranty department as we speak. It is an old Millie I bought and they are doing a re-serration on the blade – not a warranty repair but a request from me to get it back to original. The service and communication has been great and I cannot ask for anything more.

Just curious, but if you have 200 Spyderco knives you certainly must love Spyderco. So if you feel done in with one warranty repair why would you spite yourself by saying no-more? You also said you got a credit and if you feel that they went out of their way, then maybe you should consider yourself lucky. As they say it is a pretty thin ham that does not have two sides. I hope you get it sorted, but given the little info you presented, the fact that you got a credit and an explanation, maybe that is enough or maybe it is like they said and there’s just no satisfying you. :confused:

Sure they can satisfy me. Do not give me an attitude in the warranty dept. Simple! Lucky? Not in the least. It is called best practice to take care of the customer. I do not expect anything for free but I expect a quality product for my hard earned money.