Spyderco Warranty Questions

[jbake]

Hello all,

I recently had something happen that has never happened before: My Spyderco broke and I had to contact Customer Support.

I was doing some work around the house and I retrieved my waved delica from my pocket and... the blade fell out. I managed to find the domed side of the pivot pin and one washer. But the Torx screw and the other washer are long gone.

The strange thing is that I've never messed with the pivot in the knife. It's been perfect since day one. I'm assuming it just worked itself loose with repeated openings.

Anyway, I wrote customer service explaining what happened and naively asked if they could just send me the pivot pin screw and washers. I also asked if the part had originally been loctite'd from the factory.

I was kind of bummed when they wrote me back later that night saying that I would have to send the knife back in to get it repaired. But what really left me scratching my head was this sentence: "If the knife was not abused, we'll consider it for warranty."

What threw me was the word "consider".

So, I sent them an email back and asked them to explain what they meant:
"If the knife hasn't been abused (which it hasn't) why wouldn't you
automatically repair the knife under warranty?

I'm just a little confused as to why you would only "consider it for
warranty" if it hasn't been abused.

I may not fully understand what exactly it is that your warranty covers."

I also told them that I love Spyderco products, that I hadn't dealt with their service dept. before, and that I might not understand exactly what the warranty covered. Basically, I asked them to write me back with a clarification of what their warranty covered and how they decided whether or not to apply it.

I haven't heard back from them yet, but that was only a couple of days ago.

So I'm wondering... Has anyone here ever had Spyderco refuse to warranty a product that you thought should have been covered? I understand if a knife has been abused or misused it won't get taken care of.

I'm also wondering how you guys get them to send you parts out. I just read another thread about someone that stripped out their pivot pin and called to order new ones and they got some mailed to them for free. :confused:

[4 s ter]

jbake

I wouldn't worry about Spyderco just "considering" your knife for warranty repair. I've had experience before with the standard reply letters that get sent out not quite fitting the situation. From your description of the problem your knife obviously hasn't been abused, it just fell apart. I'm sure Spyderco W&R will take care of it for you. A telephone call might straighten things out quicker - and without your knife making the round trip to Golden.

[Harry White]

send it in and they'll fix it for you. its probably a standard letter -- don't fret over the choice of words. i've had two experiences with W&R, and both were stellar.

you may have to be patient though, as turnaround time for repairs can be as long as 8 weeks (though usually it doesn't take that long).

[Firefighter880]

jbake,

I agree with what the above two posters said. Send it in to Spyderco, and they will take care of you. Rather than just sending you a part, they probably want to check it out and make sure it's not some kind of freak defect, and make sure it won't happen again.

Also, if it is something that might not be fixable due to some sort of freak defect, under warranty they might send you a new one rather than chancing the blade falling out again. If this is the case, they have to make sure it wasn't caused by consumer abuse (ie, throwing it into a tree, stripping the pivot, etc, etc). I'm sure that is why they threw in the words "consider it for warranty" instead of just saying "we will replace it under warranty." If they state the latter, and then find some sort of consumer abuse/ misuse is present, they would have to go back on what they said, and that just wouldn't look good.

I'm sure you'll be fine. Spyderco is really good about fixing or replacing problems.

:spyder:

[s11ews]

i agree that they might want you to send i n the knife as it might not be something to do with the pin itself it could be something else

i think the only reason they sent me the pin for my dodo was because i was an idiot and stripped it rather than it just fell out

anyways even though you do have to send it off spydercos service is brilliant and it will come back good as the day it was born

hope your all well

sam :D

[The Deacon]

The problem with screws is they sometimes unscrew themselves, especially when used in pivots, where they are "twisted" every time the knife is opened and closed. Think giving Spyderco a phone call would be the best idea. If you're comfortable with the idea of fixing it yourself, they may very well send you the parts for free.

Agree the wording of the letter is probably a case of boilerplate generic text used for all inquires about parts and service. On the other hand, when parts are lost, as opposed to broken, how is a manufacturer suppose to distinguish whether it fell off (and is, at least arguably, a warranty issue) or was lost during "servicing" by the user. Not questioning your honesty jbake, just pointing out that there's more than one way of looking at things.

[jbake]

. . . . . . . . . .

[griff76]

[quote="jbake"]Well that's the question. Either way it looks like they have an "out" to just say, "Well, you probably unscrewed this and lost it so we're not going to replace it." There is no way I can prove what really happened.

They never replied back to my email that asked for more information / clarification - and I find that very disappointing. Ignoring folks is never a good way to run a customer service department or a helpdesk.

Jbake, I just sent in 4 spydies for the first time. I was really nervous about doing it. I e-mailed to see if they received the knives and got no response. I decided to call (good move) and got more information than I needed. They gave me an update on each knife and where they were when I only wanted to confirm that they actually got them.
As far as them having an "out", I don't think they take "out's" unless it is obvious abuse. I am having an old Jot Singh Khalsa replaced with a new knife. This knife is old and has been used heavily. My brother sent in an old delica to have reprofiled, not replaced, as he broke the tip. He clearly told them that he was misusing the knife when it happened. To his suprise he got a new delica. I don't think you have to worry about not being taken care of by Spyderco. Give them a call during the week. I am sure that e-mails don't take precidence over a live person on the phone at the moment. Good luck.

[The Deacon]

jbake, in case you are not aware of it Terry Trahan, the gentleman who was in charge of W&R, left Spyderco a few weeks back. They are a very small company and on top of that, some key staff, including Sal are in Europe at the moment. Kristi did post a while back that W&R was backlogged. Those factors, added together, may very well account for the lack of response to your emails. It does not excuse said lack of response, but does perhaps make it a bit easier to understand, and possibly to accept.

I will simply repeat the suggestion I made earlier. Assuming you feel capable of rebuilding the knife yoursefl, give SFO a call, see if they can send you the parts. W&R thinks in terms of servicing a knife, while for SFO the only issues would be whether they have them in stock, and what (if anything) they will cost you.

I was a bit luckier than you when the pivot on my R2 decided to come apart. The screw came out and landed rather noisily in my sink, so I noticed it before the hollow bolt had a chance to work its way out. Got double lucky in that the screw did not find its way down the open drain. Mr. Murphy must have been snoozing.

[TazKristi]

jbake,
The wording is not typical. Sounds like you received an email, not one of our letters. In short, it was a poor choice of words. We believe in a Fair and Proper warranty and strive to achieve that daily. I think you can find several examples where folks have received just that. In the end our goal is to make our ELUs happy while being fair. Do we make everyone happy? Probably not, but we'd be foolish to try.

Deacon is correct regarding our small staff being a bit smaller. We have several people helping out in W&R and we're working very hard to get a new full-time person back in that department. I apologize for the delays and appreciate your patience.

Kristi

[emann]

I don't nessesarily think that it was even a choice of poor wording. To me it sounds like it could've simply meant that if your knife wasn't abused we will consider it a warranty repair. I would've thought nothing of it and simply sent the knife in.