HTM Madd Maxx 5.5 Problems and Customer Complaint

Z

Z Bacon

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2011
Messages
106
I've been stewing about my HTM Madd Maxx for a long time. I got it for Christmas a few years ago and I thought it was the coolest knife I'd seen in a long time. It was stiff at first, but some oil fixed that. It performed well, for the first two months of owning it. Then several serious problems arose. First, it developed really bad up-down blade play. I emailed BladeHQ about getting a replacement, but I had already sharpened it and so that was not possible. I can understand that. Then, however, I sent several feedback forms directly to HTM Knives and never got any response. Their site even says you can email customer care but they don't post an email. This was before I knew about BladeForums. After waiting for six months, I decided to try to fix it myself by stretching the lock bar. Then the second problem showed up. Several of the screws stripped as I was disassembling the knife. They obviously weren't hardened properly, if at all. One of the screw heads stripped so badly that I couldn't take it out at all. After getting the knife apart, I found out just how small the washers are. I mean SMALL! Only .335" diameter with a .186" pivot pin. The pivot pin itself had very coarse threads, making minute pivot adjustments impossible. The final serious problem is the quality of the finish. Several of the holes drilled through the handle material still had burrs, all of the counterbored holes for the screws on the handle are off-center, and the blade still has machining marks. None of this is worth what the knife costs. HTM doesn't seem to care that they sent out a bad product at all. Has anyone else had any of these problems? Is there anything I can do about it?
 
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Sorry to hear about your experience with the Madd Maxx 5.5 you got a few years ago. HTM was indeed having some QC issues around that period, particularly with some of their knives developing up-and-down blade play, which have been discussed at various points elsewhere on the forum and subsequently fixed.

In terms of customer service, did you try contacting HTM via phone? I'm not sure what technical issues caused the email form through the website when you tried it a few years ago, but for as long as HTM has been around, they've had someone who, in addition to administrative/billing responsibilities, can be reached at the main phone number (on the website) during normal business hours. Even now, just give them a call and arrange to send the knife in for Darrel and the crew to fix.
 
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Z Bacon -
Its Lacey - after seeing this post we feel horrible that you're having such a bad experience with such a great knife. We would like for you to send it to us for repairs:
12034 S Profit Row
Forney, TX 75126

We'll take care of the above mentioned issues as well as any that we may see. Look forward to hearing from you on this.
 
My guess would be to include a short description of the problems the knife is having along with your contact info. FWIW I have had a few HTM products and they were great. Your experience is not the norm with them, except for the short period where they were having issues. From what I understand they now have those issues resolved, and they put out really great knives. Hope it all works out for you!
 
I sent the knife in but I haven't heard back about it in almost a month. I know it arrived, I shipped it with a tracking number. Should I call and ask about it?
 
Z Bacon said:
I sent the knife in but I haven't heard back about it in almost a month. I know it arrived, I shipped it with a tracking number. Should I call and ask about it?
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Yep, give 'em a buzz to see what's happening.
 
Z-
We received the knife last week and my guys have it on the repair bench. Last week was rough for North Texas with a massive ice storm blowing through and we're playing catch-up to days missed, please bear with us. I will let you know what's going on as best I can.

If you need anything please email me direct at lacey@darrelralph.com - if not for DDR I wouldn't see these posts!

Thanks & Have a great day -
Lacey
 
I am having similar issues with my madd maxx as well, I sent an email to lacey, so I hope to hear back soon.
 
Are these two issues with older versions? I'm very interested in buying one of them but for the money there is no way I'll bite if there's still issues. I'm about to take the plunge on a gunhammer titanium and c.f. and I've takes to Darrel about it and he's confident I will be happy. I guess I just want to hear others opinions, but to be he seems pretty stand up. Maybe there were issues in under past but I'm willing to give him/them a break and put it down to shit luck, growing pains, and maybe a lack of complete business understanding at the time. To me they appear to be very customer service oriented, at least now, and with the response on this thread I think that shows it. Comments? (Please leave opinion and conjecture from the past out....I've read the stories and don't care I am only interested in recent/newer knives thanks)
 
Got my Mad Maxx 5.5 around New Year's time direct from a dealer. Still issues. Too lazy to deal with HTM to make it right for me. This is the second one I got. IMO, these knives should have never left the shop like that.
 
hotkey2000 said:
Got my Mad Maxx 5.5 around New Year's time direct from a dealer. Still issues. Too lazy to deal with HTM to make it right for me. This is the second one I got. IMO, these knives should have never left the shop like that.
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True they shouldn't have left the shop like that for that kind of price...but nevertheless...

You were able to get on here and make a post about it but not send an email?
 
I guess I can see the issue though. I mean, personally, if I paid around five hundred dollars for a knife then it sure as shit better have been looked over pretty damn carefully and ensured it was essentially perfect. If it isn't then I'd be livid. At that price I expect a lathe number of checks including by the pro who made it. Nothing should slip through the cracks at that price point but nobody is perfect but in a run of a couple hundred I'd expect an average of less than one knife to have an issue it needs to be sent back for.

And personally, spending that kind of money I'd be pissed if I had to be without my knife for a month or two because of am oversight. Also my sharpening of it should not stop it from being completely replaced if there is a problem.

These are just my views and not necessarily directed at htm or Darrel, as I believe any issues he had can definitely be forgiven if things have changed. I'll be finding out when my gun hammer ti arrives on Tuesday if quality control was good on a knife worth this much.
 
krprice84 said:
I guess I can see the issue though. I mean, personally, if I paid around five hundred dollars for a knife then it sure as shit better have been looked over pretty damn carefully and ensured it was essentially perfect. If it isn't then I'd be livid. At that price I expect a lathe number of checks including by the pro who made it. Nothing should slip through the cracks at that price point but nobody is perfect but in a run of a couple hundred I'd expect an average of less than one knife to have an issue it needs to be sent back for.

And personally, spending that kind of money I'd be pissed if I had to be without my knife for a month or two because of am oversight. Also my sharpening of it should not stop it from being completely replaced if there is a problem.

These are just my views and not necessarily directed at htm or Darrel, as I believe any issues he had can definitely be forgiven if things have changed. I'll be finding out when my gun hammer ti arrives on Tuesday if quality control was good on a knife worth this much.
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I'm interested to hear how it turns out, this one has caught my eye many times but I just haven't jumped as yet.
 
Will definitely post up when I get it. I talked to Darrel himself about it and he assures me I will be very happy with the knife itself and with the fit and finish of it. I am confident in that but I'll post up a quick review on it when I get it
 
Here's a link to my thread - i posted up the review of the Gunhammer and of the Kirby Lambert SNAP.

Sadly, they were horrible, to sum it up. An amazing number of problems with them, all of which realistically should have been caught by QC before the knife ever left the factory. I personally can't imagine that DR ever had his hands on these knives himself - it's just not remotely close to the quality i would expect from a guy like him (from what i hear and see). The design, cool as hell. If i could get one of these that was as perfect as would be required by the cost, i'd buy it in an instant. The only real design flaw I found is that on the carbon fiber side, the bearings ride right on the carbon fiber. In my mind, there should be a stainless or titanium (prefered) bearing race that is pressed or epoxied in place. Without a metal race, that carbon fiber is probably not going to last as long, i wouldn't think. Plus, the feeling that the knife had when opening and closing was almost a grinding feel. Given, i did find some metal flakes in the bearings on one side, but even after i cleaned them out and reassembled, it still didn't feel very nice. It also wouldn't close fully without pushing pretty good on it. This only happened when the pivot was tight enough to remove the blade play (if i had the pivot loose enough that it would close properly there was far too much blade play to be close to acceptable - on a knife of this class, zero blade play is all i can accept, especially when my hundred dollar spyderco has no blade play on it) - it was as though the blade was rubbing on something, though it clearly wasn't - i think there was a defect in the carbon fiber machining where the bearings are, and when it was tensioned properly, it caused binding of the bearings - yet another reason to use a metal race.

In conclusion, please read the post i made in the thread linked here if you want the whole story and review. The dealer i bought from is AMAZING - he took the knives back without question. he actually paid for my return shipping, and refunded my purchase price plus return shipping cost (initial shipping was free) as soon as the tracking number showed up in the system. I'm waiting on his approval to state the name of the dealer, because I'm not sure if he wants to be part of this debacle publicly, and i can respect that. If he's ok with it though, i think it is a shining example of awesome customer service. He took a hit of close to 40 bucks on these knives, and now has two knives which, in my opinion, are next to worthless (unless HTM will accept them back for credit or replacement, meaning even more cost to him).
 
krprice84 said:
Here's a link to my thread - i posted up the review of the Gunhammer and of the Kirby Lambert SNAP.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...amp-Kirby-Lambert-SNAP-Not-good-guys-not-good

Sadly, they were horrible, to sum it up. An amazing number of problems with them, all of which realistically should have been caught by QC before the knife ever left the factory. I personally can't imagine that DR ever had his hands on these knives himself - it's just not remotely close to the quality i would expect from a guy like him (from what i hear and see). The design, cool as hell. If i could get one of these that was as perfect as would be required by the cost, i'd buy it in an instant. The only real design flaw I found is that on the carbon fiber side, the bearings ride right on the carbon fiber. In my mind, there should be a stainless or titanium (prefered) bearing race that is pressed or epoxied in place. Without a metal race, that carbon fiber is probably not going to last as long, i wouldn't think. Plus, the feeling that the knife had when opening and closing was almost a grinding feel. Given, i did find some metal flakes in the bearings on one side, but even after i cleaned them out and reassembled, it still didn't feel very nice. It also wouldn't close fully without pushing pretty good on it. This only happened when the pivot was tight enough to remove the blade play (if i had the pivot loose enough that it would close properly there was far too much blade play to be close to acceptable - on a knife of this class, zero blade play is all i can accept, especially when my hundred dollar spyderco has no blade play on it) - it was as though the blade was rubbing on something, though it clearly wasn't - i think there was a defect in the carbon fiber machining where the bearings are, and when it was tensioned properly, it caused binding of the bearings - yet another reason to use a metal race.

In conclusion, please read the post i made in the thread linked here if you want the whole story and review. The dealer i bought from is AMAZING - he took the knives back without question. he actually paid for my return shipping, and refunded my purchase price plus return shipping cost (initial shipping was free) as soon as the tracking number showed up in the system. I'm waiting on his approval to state the name of the dealer, because I'm not sure if he wants to be part of this debacle publicly, and i can respect that. If he's ok with it though, i think it is a shining example of awesome customer service. He took a hit of close to 40 bucks on these knives, and now has two knives which, in my opinion, are next to worthless (unless HTM will accept them back for credit or replacement, meaning even more cost to him).
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Fixed it for ya, added the link ;)
 
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