My Heart Broke A Little Today

Didn't mean to imply that, and also note that this wouldn't be bad thing for me, that's how our economy works.... I feel Spyderco is run well, products are priced fairly, the knives I own (> 100) are clearly worth the money that I paid, in terms of material and quality (i.e., margin is not unreasonable), etc.
My mistake then!
 
I have had a couple of knives return to me untouched when I sent them in for warranty work. In both cases, the attitude of the companies turned me away from them for good. When I send something in for warranty work, I want it made right, not excuses.

This is bunk. :thumbsdown:
 
Everyday is a new day of learning! Good to know that spyderco warranty generally covers only knives of one year old and problems due to "normal wear" won't be covered. It sounds the backlock of OP's Police 4 has been worn normally to the point that up and down blade play is developed and according to this "normal wear" policy, it is not covered by the warranty.

I guess that I should either baby my Police 4 or dump it before this issue is developed.
 
I think customer service could be greatly enhanced by having extra common repair parts made at the time of the run so they are readily on hand for sale. Say for a run of 5,000 knives have an extra 500-1,000 sets of screws, locks, pins, etc. Total cost would be < 10% increase so there would be little impact to cost of knife but a huge improvement for customer service and especially to knife knuts who buy a lot of knives.
 
Last edited:
It would have been so easy for Spyderco to return it with an apology, and a note that the knife was out of warranty, and included a $10 coupon off the purchase of a new Spyderco knife. I'm sure that would have greased another sale for them.

Who is their marketing manager?
 
I think customer service could be greatly enhanced by having extra common repair parts made at the time of the run so they are readily on hand for sale. Say for a run of 5,000 knives have an extra 500-1,000 sets of screws, locks, pins, etc. Total cost would be < 10% increase so there would be little impact to cost of knife but a huge improvement for customer service and especially to knife knuts who buy a lot of knives.

Right. Buy a warehouse, stock it with hundreds of thousands of parts that you may or may not ever need. Get a knife back for repair and spend hours if not days trying to nail down exactly when and where it was made so you can match the correct parts to it. Makes perfect financial sense to me.

If Spyderco followed the advice they get here, they'd have gone bankrupt long ago.
 
Sorry for the bad experience, and not to question the OP at all, but I wonder if there was something going on with the knife outside of normal warranty parameters? I know I have had a knife replaced under warranty, pretty much no questions asked. Again, no offense here, all companies have some good and some bad warranty stories, but I have had 100% positive experiences with Spyderco's Customer Service, and most of what I have read about them is overwhelmingly positive.
 
I returned a Pro Hunter which was changed to Provenitor because another company was aready using that name. It needed sharpening and could not get it sharp even though I was using a Sharpmaker. Over two months go by I really just forgot about sending it in so give Spyderco a call. They put me on hold and came back and said they never receive it. I thanked them and hung thinking I will need to file a claim with USPS. I thought well never what I thought anyway a couple weeks later I notice something under mat on front porch. Well, It was a UPS box with my knife. It was not to much sharper than when I sent it off. This was around 1985 or 1986.
In 1990 ? I sent in a Starmate because it could be open one handed too tight. They sent this back to me in about 3 or 4 weeks. It was fixed and operated great. Next I sent in a UPK folder thinking the spring was weak but they sent back a month later it met the specs for this model. I own a lot of Spydecos 50-60 and I really like them and I will let readers here decide on customer service.
RKH
 
When I got home after work and opened the box my heart sank. There was a form letter basically stating it did not qualify for warranty repair or replacement.

They didn't even say why?

Well, I've voiced my opinion about Spyderco's "warranty" replacement services before -- not all that favorably and got serious push back about it from others here. My main complaint was that their communication skills were notably lacking. A response I got back from Sal here about that "explained" that that was because they only have 2 people working in the repair shop and it would take up too much of their time for them to do any better.

Not an acceptable response IMO.

As for the work itself, I sent in an older Endura which needed to be resharpened. They did a good job of that, even though it required shortening the blade by 1/16" of an inch and they were unable (or unwilling) to remove a noticeable "spot" on the blade which I couldn't remove w/a bench polisher. I also sent them a Starmate that I bought off the exchange that had a visible blemish (an indentation w/was not ground out in mfging) on the blade which they said they could not fix either; the seller gave me a refund when Spyderco said it couldn't/wouldn't fix it.

So, my feelings about Spyderco's warranty/repairs services are ambivalent and this story doesn't change my opinion about that, despite the fact that I am a fan of their knives and own over 125 of them.
 
Last edited:
125 soyderco knives? If I were Sal, I would consider setting up a statue of you in our showroom, or at least inviting you to our thanksgiving lunch every year. ;)
 
125 soyderco knives? If I were Sal, I would consider setting up a statue of you in our showroom, or at least inviting you to our thanksgiving lunch every year. ;)

That would be nice but I believe that there are others here who own even more Spydercos than I do.
 
Wow, I was out of touch today with a big work project and came back to a lot of good information. Thanks for all the responses.

I’m getting over the bitterness I was feeling yesterday. (A different new knife in the mail today helped a lot).

I work in an office and the hardest use any of my knives get is repeated opening and closing while watching other people rough it on Alone while sitting on my sofa. That’s why I am still a little miffed at the response I got. My Police 4 developed lock rock that not only moves but moves enough to make a clicking sound because of opening and closing and some veggies and steak.

I respect Spyderco knives as a whole based on the many other models I have and have owned from them and for their very extensive line and willingness to break the mold at times. This is the only knife that has ever had a problem and the only time I have ever sent a knife to anyone for warranty. Maybe it’s to be expected with this design or maybe mine is just a bad one. I’ve learned from this experience and yes I will buy another Spyderco at some point I’m sure, but I have lost faith in their warranty department because in my mind they dropped the ball this time.

Hopefully the Siren will not suffer the backlock issues because that’s one I’m certainly interested in.

Thanks again for all the responses.
 
Right. Buy a warehouse, stock it with hundreds of thousands of parts that you may or may not ever need. Get a knife back for repair and spend hours if not days trying to nail down exactly when and where it was made so you can match the correct parts to it. Makes perfect financial sense to me.

If Spyderco followed the advice they get here, they'd have gone bankrupt long ago.


Haha! Yeah never been done before. Nobody ever stocks extra parts for repairs! I am glad many, many manufacturers are more thoughtful and prepared than your approach of do nothing. That always works so well.

If one plans ahead to identify a model and variation then it is extremely simple. Without planning or preparation as you champion then yes giving great customer service is difficult. I’m glad some manufacturers, even of knives, do value customer service and spare parts and offer these for sale at minimal cost.

For myself, I would gladly pay 10% more per Spyderco knife if I knew spare parts were readily available. Seems poor business practice to me that if someone lost a clip or screw that it is just too bad. Buy a new knife or live with it? Just because Spyderco is successful with launching lots of variations now does not preclude them being and even greater success by adding great customer service.
 
So let me get this straight. By some of the logic I've read here....... because a company produces a bunch of models, in a bunch of steels, in a bunch of countries, in a bunch of factories they don't own, with a bunch different random parts that's an excuse to not honor your warranty or have good customer service.

Sounds like they need a better production strategy.

Seriously though companies like Buck and Kai have alot of different models from multiple countries and have great customer service.

BTW I do have a thread on this sub complimenting their CS
 
Last edited:
So let me get this straight. By some of the logic I've read here....... because a company produces a bunch of models, in a bunch of steels, in a bunch of countries, in a bunch of factories they don't own, with a bunch different random parts that's an excuse to not honor your warranty or have good customer service.

Sounds like they need a better production strategy.

Seriously though companies like Buck and Kai have alot of different models from multiple countries and have great customer service.

Not exactly. The knife's lock wear isn't considered warranty because the lockbar is a wear item on backlocks. I'm actually wondering if the rate of wear has a lot to do with the really hard K390 on that knife. Either way, it was deemed "normal wear" but they should have offered to repair it, IMO.

Spyderco isn't a bunch of dummies and I find it likely that they share parts among various knife models, and a lockbar should be an easy one. Standardization, manufacture engineering 101. Reduces inventory, unique dies/stamps, and reduces cost overall. They have a few police 4, sized models, but the lockbar doesn't even need to be unique to the police. I could see using some type of similar "blank" that is then made for each unique model.
 
Let me say this first, I like Spyderco knives(I've never had a bad one) and I think Sal is a great guy. I mentioned a new knife on here before and have had Sal answer the question and thanked me for my purchase. Never dealt with Spyderco's warranty dept. But I have sent in more than one over 30 year old Buck knife in for a blade replacement, along with a check upfront for what it is supposed to cost and several times they don't even charge me for the blade replacement. I always get my knife back, a new blade, sometimes a personal note telling me that they replaced something else like a lockbar or something. Most of the time, they send the check back and I get a discount card for a purchase off their website. I just think all companies should follow this example, but I think it is just the age we live in. Too many people with non legitimate claims probably try to get free knives and ruin it for everyone. Op, I am by no means comparing you with those people. I would have sent the knife that you described back as well.
 
If Spyderco followed the advice they get here, they'd have gone bankrupt long ago.

I don’t think it’s a lot to ask to make repairs on a knife that is still in their production line up and they often refuse to. Many other large scale production companies offer a better warranty and you don’t have to pay any more than you do for a Spyderco. A little loyalty towards your customers goes a long way (hence my admiration for companies like ESEE, ZT, and Benchmade). I consider myself a loyal Spyderco customer (I’m a hard user and I’ve probably owned 30 of their knives in the last 5 years), but don’t trust their CS/warranty due to my limited experiences with them. I will continue to buy their knives for what they are IN-HAND with a full expectation that, should something go wrong, there’s a healthy chance that I will be SOL in trying to get it fixed by Spyderco. As long as they put out a good product, I’ll keep using and buying replacements. I just accept that the product doesn’t have anyone willing to fix it if something goes wrong.
 
So let me get this straight. By some of the logic I've read here....... because a company produces a bunch of models, in a bunch of steels, in a bunch of countries, in a bunch of factories they don't own, with a bunch different random parts that's an excuse to not honor your warranty or have good customer service.

Sounds like they need a better production strategy.

Seriously though companies like Buck and Kai have alot of different models from multiple countries and have great customer service.

I like this and I'll bet that for current product, no matter where produced, Spyderco has replacement parts. But one thing that most of the complainers about warranty work on this post ignore is the timing issue of the knife sale. If I send back a Sprint knife that is five years old for warranty work I'd be tickled to death if Spyderco could actually fix it, unless it was something small and the base model is still in their standard catalog of knives. Very few warranties go out more than a year or two for most products, and many are only 90 days give or take. The best thing a company can do is send the knife back with a sorry, no longer in production and out of warranty, and send a little $10 coupon off the next purchase of a Spyderco knife. Easy peasey!
 
Not exactly. The knife's lock wear isn't considered warranty because the lockbar is a wear item on backlocks. I'm actually wondering if the rate of wear has a lot to do with the really hard K390 on that knife. Either way, it was deemed "normal wear" but they should have offered to repair it, IMO.

Spyderco isn't a bunch of dummies and I find it likely that they share parts among various knife models, and a lockbar should be an easy one. Standardization, manufacture engineering 101. Reduces inventory, unique dies/stamps, and reduces cost overall. They have a few police 4, sized models, but the lockbar doesn't even need to be unique to the police. I could see using some type of similar "blank" that is then made for each unique model.

I wasn't talking about anything you said. I completely understand why they didn't cover it but I don't understand the reasoning some use. Just say "that's the nature of this lock we are sorry for the inconveniences.....here's a sticker. Have a nice day" or something along those lines. Or like you said offered at cost to fix it.
 
I like this and I'll bet that for current product, no matter where produced, Spyderco has replacement parts. But one thing that most of the complainers about warranty work on this post ignore is the timing issue of the knife sale. If I send back a Sprint knife that is five years old for warranty work I'd be tickled to death if Spyderco could actually fix it, unless it was something small and the base model is still in their standard catalog of knives. Very few warranties go out more than a year or two for most products, and many are only 90 days give or take. The best thing a company can do is send the knife back with a sorry, no longer in production and out of warranty, and send a little $10 coupon off the next purchase of a Spyderco knife. Easy peasey!

The knife being discussed in the Op is a Police 4. It is not discontinued, correct? Also, while many other products (TVs, lawnmowers, computers, etc.) have a much shorter period of factory warranty, it is not the norm of folding knives.
 
Back
Top