Experience with ZT Warranty Service

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Daniel_Luzzi

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(I searched thr manufacturer specific subforum for ZT or Kershaw and couldn't, for the life of me, find them. Please move this to the appropriate subforum if necessary)

On to the good stuff...

I recently acquired a ZT 562cf and had a few issues with it. The main one being that there was significant amounts of lock-slip present. I sent the knife in on 3/18/16 through first class USPS mail. The knife was received on Monday by KAI USA. Expecting the ordinary warranty experience, I expected to wait a couple weeks to see my beauty again. Imagine my surprise when I see a package in my mailbox on Friday containing a brand new, in the box, 562cf. It was even shipped first-class.

I was so shocked by the insane turn-around time that I felt compelled to say something about it. That's it. Just wanted to express my experience with Zero Tolerance warranty service. Has anybody else experienced this kind of service? Is this a common thing with ZT or was this just a fluke? I fully expected to wait the stated two to three weeks for service and even then only expected a lock insert swap, not a brand new knife. Mind you, mine was quite well worn and had seen some pretty hard use.

What are your guys' thoughts on this?
 
The KAI related forums here were closed at their request, so this will be moved to Feedback.
General Knife Discussion is for discussing knives, not warranty, repair, customer service, etc.
 
Daniel_Luzzi said:
(I searched thr manufacturer specific subforum for ZT or Kershaw and couldn't, for the life of me, find them. Please move this to the appropriate subforum if necessary)

On to the good stuff...

I recently acquired a ZT 562cf and had a few issues with it. The main one being that there was significant amounts of lock-slip present. I sent the knife in on 3/18/16 through first class USPS mail. The knife was received on Monday by KAI USA. Expecting the ordinary warranty experience, I expected to wait a couple weeks to see my beauty again. Imagine my surprise when I see a package in my mailbox on Friday containing a brand new, in the box, 562cf. It was even shipped first-class.

I was so shocked by the insane turn-around time that I felt compelled to say something about it. That's it. Just wanted to express my experience with Zero Tolerance warranty service. Has anybody else experienced this kind of service? Is this a common thing with ZT or was this just a fluke? I fully expected to wait the stated two to three weeks for service and even then only expected a lock insert swap, not a brand new knife. Mind you, mine was quite well worn and had seen some pretty hard use.

What are your guys' thoughts on this?
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I've had similar experiences too, if it's one of their discontinued model they've contacted me if it can't be fixed they would ship me a new knife of similar value when mine was made
 
You'll have the odd bad experience shared here, but your experience seems to be the norm. They've always been great to me.
 
I actually have the opposite for my most recent ZT warranty service. I sent in a 566 to get a new torsion bar and because the detent had play while closed (could be felt with the torsion bar in). Took the normal few weeks to get it back, and when I got it back the edge I put on the blade was ground off, new edge around 60° inclusive, even though I explicitly stated the blade did not need sharpened, the lock bar was bent out a little for less detent pressure, a torsion bar was put in, and my left handed pocket clip was removed and replaced with a clip that has screws too short to go into the liner.

Does the Kershaw warranty department have a drinking problem or something? About half of their knives are done up right, the other half are sent back worse than before.
 
I was really pleased when I sprung the clip on my 801 that they sent me a new one for free and didn't make me send the knife or pay for anything. When I asked Spyderco for a similar service they told me
I would have to send the knife in. So a win for ZT in my book.
 
The pocket clip on my 562 broke and they sent me a new one within a week no questions asked.
 
Thanks for sharing your experience, Daniel.

How do you like the 562? I really like that one, and my son-in-law carries one as well.

best

mqqn
 
ZT's warranty service has been first class for the couple of issues I have had.:thumbup:
 
Yeah, KAI does warranty right. I remember shooting them an email asking about a specific part and if I shouod send the knife in. I got kind of annoyed because I waited for them to answer the email for several days. Well, they did answer it, with instructions on how to disassemble the knife and replace the part. Which had already shown up in the mail. Good stuff.
 
My personal experience with KAI has been nothing but positive. They even paid for me to ship a knife back once. I bought a new ZT0801 through mail order & the detent was so strong that it was basically impossible to flip. Spyderco, not so much. Same experiences as mentioned in previous posts.
 
dkb45 said:
Does the Kershaw warranty department have a drinking problem or something? About half of their knives are done up right, the other half are sent back worse than before.
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Are the knives being repaired by the drinkers the ones that are done up right?:D
 
dkb45 said:
Does the Kershaw warranty department have a drinking problem or something? About half of their knives are done up right, the other half are sent back worse than before.
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Half and half? I'm sure there are flukes every now and then, but half and half is a gross overestimate.
 
ZT has wowed me time and again. Both their products and service are something to be proud of.
 
My torsion bar broke on my 0566 recently. Sent them an email and they just informed me a new one is on the way. Good in my book!
 
My expierence with zero tolerance has always been pleasant. They've always sent me clips no questions asked. I've had a few models and at one time I bought a 770, 566 and a 301 at the same time. Deassisted all of them and ended up losing some of the hardware. Gave zt a call and the rep asked me if I wanted to send the knives in and they would return them to spec . I declined because I used the knives .

Within that week I receive a package with new pivots, torsion bars, screws and even clips for all 3 models, rep even followed up with me to ask if I got all my knives squared away and told me if I didn't to just send them in.
 
So I've got to say, I'm pretty disappointed in my first and likely only ZT purchase. I bought an 0450CF and the blade grinds are atrocious. Looking down the spine, the grinds are so uneven it looks like the blade curves to the right. When you look down the blade edge, one side of the blade looks to be convex ground and the other side hollow ground. I couldn't believe this had passed QC so I sent it in, unused and untouched, under warranty for a correctly ground blade. Elizabeth called and said it is well within tolerance but refused to give me the name of the person who evaluated the knife. Zero Tolerance knives? Please......

I'll update with pics when I get the knife back from ZT.
 
I've been pleased for the most part with KAI. Since these are mass produced knives it's often easier for them to replace the knife. Where things fall apart is putting any specific instructions, such as don't sharpen, don't remove the clip. They will either replace or put back in factory condition. They are not custom knife guys. They do pretty good with what they do.
 
EyeDog said:
I've been pleased for the most part with KAI. Since these are mass produced knives it's often easier for them to replace the knife. Where things fall apart is putting any specific instructions, such as don't sharpen, don't remove the clip. They will either replace or put back in factory condition. They are not custom knife guys. They do pretty good with what they do.
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Well, what they did in this case was to tell me I should be happy with the knife the way it is. I talked to Elizabeth in customer service who transferred me to Dan who transferred me to Josh. Josh is apparently the manager of the warranty department and he told me anyone would be happy to buy that knife. He said he could see the difference in grinds from one side to the other but the badly ground blade was within tolerance for them. I'm thinking they should change their name to Massive Tolerance. I asked him if he would be happy receiving that knife as a buyer and he had to lie through his teeth to say yes after stuttering about "well, not everyone would notice that", and "knife people have higher expectations than normal people" and that if he had bought that knife he'd just return it. Why? Why would he return it if there is nothing wrong with it? Sorry shill for a sorry company if you ask me.
 
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