Reate K1 Flipper - Good knife. Challenging Support.

[Bryan J]

I wish I could report that I have but I have yet to receive the knife. Cranes received the knife via fedex from Reate on 10/12/21 (according to tracking number). I contacted Reate on the 19th and asked when the knife would be shipped and I received this response:


So who knows? They're writing their own story here. It's kind of sad. I've purchased a couple of high end knives now - a Herman Slim and a one-off CKF. That Russian knife cost almost 3 times the price of the K-1 and the comparison has made me appreciate the value and quality of the Reate but . . . . I started this repair inquiry mid-June, 4 months ago. I'd be an idiot to risk going through this again. . .

I agree--both that Reate makes quality knives and that this level of customer service is terrible. I can only imagine how frustrating the correspondence was (if you're not going to set up a base of customer support in the U.S., at least hire somebody who can read and write in English fluently enough to communicate effectively with your customers). Reate, regardless of how you respond to this customer, if it is true that:

1) it took your rep 6 weeks to determine they were unable to repair the knife, and
2) it took your China facility 3 months to determine you had no parts for the knife,

then you may not understand the importance of timely resolution of customer warranty issues; or perhaps you simply do not place much value on the customer service aspect of your business. If I were the customer, I would have preferred you tell me to go pound sand after a week, then have to wait for half a year to get my knife or money back. Good luck to the knife company who punishes a customer for purchasing a $500 knife!

 

[elde66]

Wow. Very interesting and sad story here. Appreciate you sharing (and detailing) it with us on the forum. The only Reate knives I personally own are Reate-manufactured knives such as Chaves. Based upon what I’ve read here, I’d never be inclined to purchase a Reate branded knife in the future. Hoping your final outcome is at least a satisfactory one.

 

[TimGee]

Wow. Very interesting and sad story here. Appreciate you sharing (and detailing) it with us on the forum. The only Reate knives I personally own are Reate-manufactured knives such as Chaves. Based upon what I’ve read here, I’d never be inclined to purchase a Reate branded knife in the future. Hoping your final outcome is at least a satisfactory one.

Yeah. It's not my intention to have Reate lose business. The makers of the knives don't deserve to lose sales becasue of what their customer service department is (isn't) doing. They're great knives from my experience and it's a real shame that they aren't buttoned up. I was just hoping to wake them up and help them see a serious problem in their business model - give them the chance to do the right thing.

 

[TimGee]

Hey all. I received the knife back on Monday, November 1st. It's in great shape. The knife is very sharp - very grabby on a finger nail and the edge looks perfect. Running the edge through my finger nail tip I can't detect any chips or burs. It's totally smooth from heal to tip. I think they ground down the back of the knife tip to fix the break. The action is very stiff but that's not a concern. I just need to adjust it. The lock back is dead solid which was my initial issue. There's no play in any direction when it's locked up. So this story is over. Problem solved. Thanks to Sandy Song at Reate for shepherding this issue along it's way. But it did take 4.5 months to complete. Here are some picts.

https://imgur.com/a/kComZo3

 

[Retlawman590]

Knife looks great, finally!

 

[zomik]

That's great that you were able to get this resolved, albeit with a bit of a headache, patience, time, and some pushing for them to act sooner. It's interesting how they remedied your lock bar issue by simply extending the new insert enough to reach the lock face again. That's probably all they really could have done, short of giving you an entirely new lock side scale, but I don't know why it took that long to do it. Even if they had to custom make it for you, 4.5 months of waiting and having the tip of the knife break during this whole process really sucks, especially when that knife costs several hundred dollars.
I've been dealing with their warranty service with a bit of a headache as well. Not nearly as bad as your experience, but it took me 4 months to finally get in contact with someone after trying their warranty email once and then sending a few messages over the course of two months to both of their Instagram pages too. I went back and tried the warranty email again and finally got through. Since then they've been pretty quick to respond. I've been in need of a new pivot for my Reate Iron after stripping it while trying to do maintenance. The titanium felt a bit soft and they used so much thread locker that I worried I wouldn't be able to remove it. Even after stripping the screw, I managed to remove it with a different tool thanks to the design of the pivot having these slits on the sides that allowed me to get enough torque to remove it. I was so bummed after taking the screw off, I put the knife back in my case and never even did the maintenance I initially wanted to do. I only cleaned out the thread locker from the pivot. I left the knife like that for about three months while trying to get a new set until I finally decided to pull it out recently and randomly tried to tighten it down with just the pressure of my thumb while torquing it. It actually managed to work and tighten down again all the way. The pivot is holding together strong, blade is centered, no play, and is good as new despite the pivot damage. Luckily now I got ahold of them and they're going to send me a new set for $15 shipped. Not too bad, I just wish they would have answered much sooner, but I probably should have pushed harder with the warranty emails. We all know their knives are quality, but I would definitely like to see the same level of quality in their customer service to continue maintaining these tools.

 

[gamma_nyc]

Wow, I am surprised at what sort of hassle Reate made with the warranty. Really that is not what I would have hoped for given their premium price and product.

Hopefully Reate learns the lesson that they need to back up their knives with good warranty support. Based on above thread it seems Reate designs their knives to be collectors pieces and not actually used?!!

 

[Bryan J]

I think the company is just young, that's all. Reate makes great, high quality knives that rival customs and they are able to do it in numbers that custom makers cannot. Hopefully the company will continue to improve. The product is awesome, they just need to work on the customer service piece.

 

[zomik]

Wow, I am surprised at what sort of hassle Reate made with the warranty. Really that is not what I would have hoped for given their premium price and product.

Hopefully Reate learns the lesson that they need to back up their knives with good warranty support. Based on above thread it seems Reate designs their knives to be collectors pieces and not actually used?!!

While it's true that Reate definitely needs to improve on their warranty support, I will give them the benefit of the doubt since they will come through for you.. eventually. It might just take some pushing, which isn't exactly what you want to have to do, but sometimes I think you have to due to the various barriers such as time zone differences, language, and being busy. I finally got my hardware delivered on September 29th. They gave me a tracking number and it was in the mailbox like 4 days later. They not only gave me the complete pivot set that I needed, but they also provided 2 spare pivot screws. So now I have a backup for my Reate Coyote as well since they use the same screw. It may have taken some time to get the hardware I needed, but they definitely came through in the end and I was very pleased. Reate's warranty rep Sandy Song was very nice and took care of everything once I finally got in touch with her. It just takes a little bit of time and patience.
I think one of the biggest issues they've faced when it comes to their warranty since they started is finding and having someone reliable stateside to handle small issues like mine or be an intermediary for issues like OP, which need to be sent back to China for actual warranty service. They're using Crane's Cutlery now for their intermediary, so it also depends on how long they take as well.
It's not that Reate's warranty is bad or nonexistent, since they'll still come through for you, especially for a Chinese manufacturer, you just have to come at it with a grain of patience and time. I think one of the things they rely on to offset a bit of their lacking warranty is the quality of their product along with providing spare hardware with the knife.
Bryan J makes a good point too. They're a young company and even though they make a high quality product, they still have some areas they need to work on in their business.

 

[Hackenslash]

I wonder how the knife is a year removed from the repair? What’s to stop the titanium lock bar to continue to deform? It seems like installing a longer lock-bar insert is a temporary fix at best.