Strider Knives - Horrible customer service so who cares about the lifetime warranty?

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3REDUCK

3REDUCK

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I'll try to keep this as short as possible and stick to the facts.

A few months ago I traded my Strider SnG to another forum member and was burned on the deal. With a lot of assistance from my fellow forumites, I was able to get my knife back from the thief. Here is the thread that concerning that episode:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743744

I was so happy to get the knife back and I wanted to give it some TLC so I sent it off to the Strider 'spa' for sharpening and lock bar tuning. (Yes, I know how to sharpen my own knives but that is another topic....).

I contacted the person who handles (handled?) the admin at Strider (Heather) and let her know I was sending it in and asked what was needed. She gave me the shipping address and said to include $15 for return delivery. No problem.

I sent it off via USPS, insured and with delivery confirmation (not signature confirmation). Three weeks later I contacted Strider. Heather was no longer there but I exchanged messages with Josh Lee who was now handling the admin. He said he had no record of receiving my knife.....

Checking the USPS tracking site, I realized that my knife was still at the post office near Strider. I called the post office and was told the knife was there, the address was correct (they knew about the Strider company), and that delivery had been attempted twice (once on a Saturday and once on a Monday) and an attempted delivery notice had been left both times. USPS won't attempt delivery more than two times. No one from Strider had bothered to pick up the package and USPS was about to return the package to me. I asked them to hold off one more week before returning it so that I could attempt to get someone from Strider to pick it up.

I contacted Josh Lee again and informed him of the situation with my knife and asked him to pick it up. I didn't get a response back from him so I contacted Mick Stider via pm on another forum. At first he said he would take care of it but the next day this is what he wrote to me:

"Its the USPS

They are such a pain in our ass.

They always try and deliver on Sat when we are not working, then hide the thing somewhere that THEY cant find it.

It usually ends up returned....and re sent via fed ex or something...

m "

That was the last I heard from Mick Strider. I contacted Josh Lee again and expressed my frustration and begged him to just go to the post office and pick up the knife. His response back was that Strider is a small company and they all wear many hats....so basically they were too busy to pick up the knife. My response was that I was going to have the knife sent back to me, I would never spend another dollar on a Strider product and would happily spend my money on other products from knife makers who appreciated the business and treated customers with some bit of respect. Here is Josh's response which he asked me to include in any forum post I created:

"We are here every M-F 7am to 4pm to accept packages. The post office's lack of service has nothing to do with us.

We cant be responsible for knives that we don't get. So I don't see how this is a lack of our customer service. So please include my response when posting on several forums that you participate on"

I am not sure how the post office dropped the ball since they attempted delivery twice and I don't understand how sending a package to them via any other delivery service would end in a better way. Yes, USPS did attempt to deliver on a Saturday but the second time was a Monday....and either way, they left notice. That is what UPS, FedEx, or anyone else would do...

In the end this is Josh's last statement after I had the knife returned back to me.....five weeks after I had sent it to Strider:

"I would like to settle this in any way that will make you a satisified customer.Realize that we are a small company in which every employee warrs several hats. If you wish to send the knife back we will fix it up and pay for the return shipping"

MMMMmmm.....So I should send it back when it was just sitting around the corner from Strider for four weeks and they didn't have the time to pick it up? I think not...
 
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Send it back with UPS (United Parcel Service), they only deliver M-F unless specified.

Josh@Strider said:
"I would like to settle this in any way that will make you a satisified customer.Realize that we are a small company in which every employee warrs several hats. If you wish to send the knife back we will fix it up and pay for the return shipping"
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This doesn't sounds like horrible CS to me.

If the PO did their job and attempted to re-deliver, there woudn't be a problem. I would be mad at them.
 
Delivery was attempted twice....once on a Saturday and once on a Monday. Both times an attempted delivery note was left. I informed both Josh and Mick of the situation and that USPS was not going to attempt delivery again and asked that someone please pick up the knife. They did not repond to my request.

The offer to take care of the knife was after I had the knife returned to me and informed them that I would be detailing my experiences on this forum and other forums I am active on.
 
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Something isn't right if delivery, in fact, was attempted on Monday during business hours. Someone would have been there. :confused:

It's a sad experience for sure. But I would give Strider another chance, and take advantage of Josh's offer. Change carriers though.
 
I know Josh and he's a stand up guy, if he told you to send it back he will take care of it.

The USPS does a great job but in instances like this they're not providing the customer service. Seems that someone would have been at Strider for the Monday delivery.

Win
 
a representative from strider should have just driven to the post office and picked up the package.

the usps is not responsible for strider's work schedule nor should they attempt delivery beyond what their policy and practices dictate.
 
Why should a customer send it back in when it was around the corner from them for four+ weeks and they chose not to get it? I realize this is the exception otherwise Strider would not still be in business but at least have some good communication with a customer and let me know what is going on. If USPS is a problem with Strider then they should inform customers not to use that service. I could just as easily used UPS, FedEX....whatever.

I am a manager and I deal with customer service on a daily basis. I know things happen and balls get dropped. I have more patience than most as long as I feel like I am being respected. If not then we have an issue.
 
I take it that none of the hats the employees wears is worn at the post office to drop off any kind of mail, or they would have been there at least once in the course of a month on regular business anyway.
 
I dont have a problem with shipping to Strider because I use UPS. I hate USPS and I would have no problem with this goverment subsidized bureacracy just disappearing from the face of the earth. Don't believe that crap when they say they tried to " Deliver" some lazy ass postman tool, stuck a notice in there buddle of mail and walked off. I really wish the members of the various knife forums would come to a group decision and quite using USPS as there mode of shipping. A lot less knives would be lost.
 
SkinnyDale said:
I dont have a problem with shipping to Strider because I use UPS. I hate USPS and I would have no problem with this goverment subsidized bureacracy just disappearing from the face of the earth. Don't believe that crap when they say they tried to " Deliver" some lazy ass postman tool, stuck a notice in there buddle of mail and walked off. I really wish the members of the various knife forums would come to a group decision and quite using USPS as there mode of shipping. A lot less knives would be lost.
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that's funny, because the only items that have ever been lost after i shipped were lost by ups and fedex.
 
And my knife wasn't lost....I knew exactly where it was. The problem was that no one from Strider was available to accept delivery and then no one made any attempt to pick it up from the post office.

I called that post office multiple times checking on the status of the knife and each time they verified it was there waiting to be picked up by someone from Strider. This isn't an USPS issue, they did exactly what they were supposed to do and were actually very friendly each time I called.
 
SkinnyDale, USPS ceased being a "goverment subsidized burea(u)cracy" in 1970, when it replaced the US Post Office Department.

USPS goes beyond what most ordinary delivery services provide by delivering on Saturday. Not USPS fault that other companies aren't able to match their commitment to reaching out to their customers.

I won't fault Strider for a 5 day work week, although the post office I managed was a seven day, 24 hour operation. Just don't think you can call this a defect in postal service.

It's too bad Strider only realized what they wanted to do for the customer after failing to get it done the easy way.
 
MORIMOTOM said:
a representative from strider should have just driven to the post office and picked up the package.

the usps is not responsible for strider's work schedule nor should they attempt delivery beyond what their policy and practices dictate.
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3REDUCK said:
I called that post office multiple times checking on the status of the knife and each time they verified it was there waiting to be picked up by someone from Strider.
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The USPS's job is to deliver the packages to the address, not force you to go and get them yourself.

I can sympathize with people's mailing issues, but really I have had the worst luck mailing USPS to businesses. Sometimes they leave notices, sometimes you get them, and most of the time they want you to go there, wait in line, and pick up your package. I'm sorry, I don't have 45 minutes to take out of my day. I work from eight to six, I'm not free when you're open.

For businesses I highly recommend FedEx or UPS. Home addresses USPS is fine.

I say give them another chance, send it back in.
 
Win Heger said:
I know Josh and he's a stand up guy, if he told you to send it back he will take care of it.

The USPS does a great job but in instances like this they're not providing the customer service. Seems that someone would have been at Strider for the Monday delivery.

Win
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+1

Josh is one of the good guys. Ship it back and Josh will do what he said he will do.
 
I know everyone is busy but to think that they didn't have time in an entire MONTH to go get the knife is a bit much to me.

I'm sure someone drove by the post office while out for lunch, or some other errand at least once.

It's wrong for them to expect the customer to do a dance and re-ship, plus be out the knife, just becuase they can't bother to go to the post office.

Not my idea of customer service and I don't get the "blame the post office" excuse. I'm sure if you sent them a check they would find the time to get to the bank during their office hours.
 
ohen cepel said:
I know everyone is busy but to think that they didn't have time in an entire MONTH to go get the knife is a bit much to me.

I'm sure someone drove by the post office while out for lunch, or some other errand at least once.

It's wrong for them to expect the customer to do a dance and re-ship, plus be out the knife, just becuase they can't bother to go to the post office.

Not my idea of customer service and I don't get the "blame the post office" excuse. I'm sure if you sent them a check they would find the time to get to the bank during their office hours.
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I don't cash checks during office hours. I stick them in the night depository. When I have to go into the bank it makes a severe impact on my day. I loose at least two hours between walking out the door and coming back.

What "blame the post office" excuse? It's not an excuse. The USPS is supposed to deliver the package to you, not the other way around.
 
Josh K said:
What "blame the post office" excuse? It's not an excuse. The USPS is supposed to deliver the package to you, not the other way around.
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The post office in NYC can get to every delivery point every day. In some rural areas, the post office can only provide a PO box for customers to come in when they can and pick up their own mail.

The post office says it made two attempts to deliver the knife to Strider. They will not make another automatic attempt to do so, although we used to send a package out again if the customer called to tell us they'd be there to receive it.

We also used to have non-Saturday-delivery (business) customers listed so we wouldn't waste time on the attempt.

If the post office did not make two legitimate attempts to deliver to Strider, then Strider should be contacting someone higher up and complaining. They sure know how to come here and complain when they don't like what's happening.

Let's also keep in mind that this is a customer and knife that had just been through a lousy experience already. When the next step began looking like another bad experience, it is not hard to see why the original poster was just fed up dealing with people who couldn't do right by him.
 
Mick has always been great to me... I've owned many Striders, some with kinks and others were perfect, but every time I've needed sommat from them they've always done their best to help me out...
 
I just missed a package the other day needing signature confirmation and the note left says in plain English that they attempted to deliver it, the tracking number, the date, time, and that I could pick the package up at my post office in the morning or if I wished I could go to the web address listed below and have the package redelivered. No mention of a limit to that. In some areas I know they automatically redeliver or attempt to once, and after that you can still call or get on the web site and enter the number and have it redelivered. Why a post office would rather keep a package and take up shelf space which is never usually enough to begin with rather than redeliver it if requested to is beyond me but okay. I've not run into that with my PO.

I don't see any reason to miss a package when you have a relationship with your post man. Most people do get on well with people they see everyday and businesses too but apparently not Strider. I know if I asked my mail man to bring me something I missed that he'd do it for me. He damn well better or he may not get his bottle of single malt come Christmas time! ;)

It sounds like Josh at least realized that Strider was not being very sympathetic with a customers situation or showing much consideration or care for an expensive product they make and that they tried to make up for that in the end. Unfortunately it also sounds like that attempt was a day late and a dollar short as far as the customer is concerned. Its a shame they didn't handle it better. Smaller companies are usually the ones that will go the extra mile in my experience. Its the big boys I expect to be abused from at times. You know the ones big enough to serve you but big enough to not give a $hit either! I tend to buy from smaller companies like Spyderco and others just because they are big enough to serve but still small enough to care. To me thats what makes it worth doing business with them even if they may cost a bit more to deal with at times compared to another company that is higher volume.

STR
 
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