KnifeJoker website what a joke
- Thread starter Tigerden
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Just got the shipping notification e-mail from my pre-order.
MaxFactor
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Yeah they hyped it. They also took pre-orders on Instagram if you were following the hype. I had no issue getting in on the pre-order.
That said, I wholeheartedly understand the disappointment of missing out on a sprint. I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to purchase a hyped up knife only to have the site crash. The reality is that most of the smaller retailers' websites will never be able to handle the amount of traffic they get. Obviously the solution would be to choose another way of rolling out the drop but I can't say specifically what they should do. Pretty sure someone is always going to be disappointed when they don't get one of these highly limited sprint knives.
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It was just BS top to bottom. If you weren’t tuned in on IG you missed the pre order. Then when the big day came, the site not only couldn’t handle it at the first designated time, but at the 1 hour delay and then again at the 3 hour delay. When I finally got through it was another 35 minutes in and I had it in my cart only to lose out through the process. Yes I’m just sour grapes. But the website is also super clunky. Not sure who advises these small guys on process. If anyone noticed, they had no less than three different verification requirements once in your cart before you are allowed to checkout. Totally ridiculous to have to enter your age, then two additional check offs for acknowledgment of terms etc. maybe Spyderco should start vetting their clients to ensure they’re actually sophisticated enough to handle a hot drop rather than just selling to any guy running a “knife shop” out of his or her toughshed.
If you signed up on Knifejokers website you got an email about pre order open, that's how I found out and got my pre order in, I got my email in middle of the night 1:27am checked my email before work at 6am and got pre order in and was open till what 10 or 12. Didn't see IG thing, if you know drops are coming best be signed up on there website that's how you find when pre order is opened if your waiting for someone else to tell you, you're probably to late. These companies don't have there own servers the pay another company to host them. All the big companies have had problems on drops at some point. I don't care what drop it is Spyderco, Northwoods, always gonna be some upset.
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The solution is to simply order more units. The game has changes the last 5 years and there is a much higher demand for these sprints/exclusives. 1200 pieces is not enough anymore.
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Well according to the wiki page this one and St. Nicks were only in the mid-400s!
Anyway, maybe the pre-order is the way to go until everyone catches on and then preorder crashes too. With the popularity of social media and the rise of FOMO, it’s just tough out there. Better believe I’m dialed in for the upcoming two sprint/exclusives.
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Yes sprints and exclusives will run anywhere from 400-2000 pc and has been the case for some time now. My point was for the companys to acknowledge the new market and supply enough to satisfy the demand. I dont know the logistics behind it all but im sure its doable. Happy customers are good customers to have
Knifejoker, saint Nick's ordered 500, now take out quality control, collector club, spyderco employees have option for one also,you are left with remaining. Knifejoker and Saint Nick's I believe was in 430s after said and done.
Email Sign up on all the company's that do drops your interested in. Look for some future drops to be larger but demand is there, don't sleep on them.
Email Sign up on all the company's that do drops your interested in. Look for some future drops to be larger but demand is there, don't sleep on them.
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I assume it's the dealers choice on quantity?
If so, you'd think they'd do more on the initial runs seeing as how popular these dealer exclusives and Sprints have become.
If so, you'd think they'd do more on the initial runs seeing as how popular these dealer exclusives and Sprints have become.
Yes dealer choice, keep in mind allot of the time they are putting in these orders a year or more in advance, then have to wait till there turn, steel availability etc. Can be hard to gauge or guess what the hot item with be a year from now or longer, steel options always changing, handle options, and certain color coatings on blades only work with certain steels.
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I keep seeing people talk about the IG orders, yet they forget that there was 2 pre-order opportunities for this exclusive, the first of which lasted until 10am EST. The IG orders were before and during this time, giving one multiple avenues for purchase. If you missed this, it's 100% on you. Also, not every company has the ability to front the money for a 5,000 piece run; sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't (I've missed out on the vast majority of them), it's called an exclusive/sprint for a reason.
Really don't care much about the site crashing. Servers crap under load and it happens all the time. Even DLT had outage during their last run. That IMO is not unacceptable and is par for the course for many ecommerce sites.
What is unacceptable IMO is the IG orders. Pretty much gives people that's VIP/Inner Circle/FB group buddies guaranteed access to these exclusives, instead of buying on the site where other people order from. Obviously no server crashing there.
If you are active on IG, you'll see the usual people promoting these exclusives as if they work for Spyderco Marketing, and they never failed to get their hands on the exclusive every single run, they are part of some FB group inner circle. Some of them posted about their Shaman exclusive way before most people received their shipping notification. One of them even got an online shop(starts with Idaho***), and would put these exclusives for sales there or on IG after the dust has settled and people started going after another exclusive run.
I think these "VIP priority access" people who's helping to hype these exclusives/sprint on IG really hurts the reputation of the retailer and Spyderco in general. Any appearance of special treatment is aways gonna turn people off.
Disclaimer: I actually got 2 of this Joke-r of an exclusive, so i'm not some people crying here because of missed exclusives. I actually like knifejoker and i watched many of his videos on YT. Just sharing my observations here of the allegedly shady dealings on IG/FB. If he wanna pay for influencers in form of priority access to exclusive to hype this up that's fine, but as least call it out for what it is. Paid influencers are generally acceptable(YMMV), but buddy priority access is just going to hurt reputation.
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I think the biggest problem was that many people (myself included) were waiting for the window. I know I specifically planned my day around it and couldn't afford to just sit around waiting for it to get fixed. I checked as often as I could and ended up getting one in my cart, but the website crashed for me on checkout and so I lost the one I had. I think when the website was down for the original drop, putting it out even 24 hours to allow people to plan around the next drop schedule would have been the right choice instead of postponing a couple hours, having the website crash again, then arbitrarily start working 15 minutes later. Really leaves a bad taste in my mouth and many others I'm sure. Really no interest in dealing with Knife Joker in the future as a result, not when there's BladeHQ, Knife Center, DLT, etc. with more reliable servers and I feel like they would handle things differently if something like this happened.
Just my two cents worth. Sucks too because I really wanted a DLC Cruwear Shaman...
Just my two cents worth. Sucks too because I really wanted a DLC Cruwear Shaman...
@Sal Glesser - Dear Sir, I know you are reading, and I know you are probably not in the position to respond to thread like this, which is totally understandable. But perhaps this is a good discussion point for your management meetings. Perhaps it's time to evaluate what kinda value Spyderco is getting out of these exclusive/sprint run, whether the extra guaranteed revenue of the bulk order for exclusives is worth the potential dramas when situation like this happen, and the potential ding to Spyderco's brand image.
Perhaps you guys are doing everything right, and this is exactly the right move to drive demand and increase the exclusivity of Spyderco's brand image. Perhaps it's your differentiation points compared to other competitors(which i think is legit). But the community responses to the past few sprints/exclusive on forums and social media showed that there gotta be some opportunity cost here. Not trying to tell Spyderco how to do business, i'm sure you guys collect data and have answers to these already.
Perhaps it's worth considering alternatives, or a complementary solution - i.e. custom shop for popular Golden models(PM2, Para3, Shaman, Manix 2, Native etc.). For people missing out on the exclusives with great price(exclusives has the best bang for the buck IMO), perhaps they get to spend some extra premium and get the combo they wanted via custom shop. It's probably cheaper than the 150% markup on ebay. Even if it's 150% markup, people are probably more willing to pay this money to Spyderco than to the flipper from ebay.
Perhaps you guys are doing everything right, and this is exactly the right move to drive demand and increase the exclusivity of Spyderco's brand image. Perhaps it's your differentiation points compared to other competitors(which i think is legit). But the community responses to the past few sprints/exclusive on forums and social media showed that there gotta be some opportunity cost here. Not trying to tell Spyderco how to do business, i'm sure you guys collect data and have answers to these already.
Perhaps it's worth considering alternatives, or a complementary solution - i.e. custom shop for popular Golden models(PM2, Para3, Shaman, Manix 2, Native etc.). For people missing out on the exclusives with great price(exclusives has the best bang for the buck IMO), perhaps they get to spend some extra premium and get the combo they wanted via custom shop. It's probably cheaper than the 150% markup on ebay. Even if it's 150% markup, people are probably more willing to pay this money to Spyderco than to the flipper from ebay.
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Agree 100%. The issue is way beyond some people missing an exclusive or sprint run.
Spyderco has always been know for "playing fair". It's taken years and years of integrity and honest business practices to develop their company's reputation into the best in the business. I'd hate to see Instagram / Facebook "VIP priority access" tarnish that great reputation and loyal fan base.
It's extremely hard for a company to develop a great reputation and loyal fan base, it's even harder to rebuild it.
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Fair enough. I understand people are upset at the IG orders but there was no inner circle with special privileges. All one had to do was make an IG account, which takes less than 60 seconds, and simply make a comment that you wanted one. There was no special account; it was simply making a comment such as what we're doing now that anyone could have done. If people are still upset, I still refer to my comment that the first pre-order was up for hours and didn't end until 10am. The opportunity to get one of these via two separate pre-order events was there, regardless of the IG orders.
I'd think the option to pre-order would spread out the footprint and make ti a bit easier to get one since fewer people will be on the server the minute the sales start.
There will be a bunch more runs so when you miss a St Nicks or a Knife Joker DLT or Blade HQ will have one too.
And if you really hate the lolly scramble do not get into the rarer GECs and Northwoods knives.
Also for folks who did miss out I would watch the classifieds here since most of the time after a release like this you'll see a few of them come up for sale at non-flipper prices. Again though you have to be on your toes.
There will be a bunch more runs so when you miss a St Nicks or a Knife Joker DLT or Blade HQ will have one too.
And if you really hate the lolly scramble do not get into the rarer GECs and Northwoods knives.
Also for folks who did miss out I would watch the classifieds here since most of the time after a release like this you'll see a few of them come up for sale at non-flipper prices. Again though you have to be on your toes.
