CRKT horror story

[jamesq]

this happen a couple of years ago but the potential group buy brought back the bad taste in my mouth.

i was working for a shipping company on airport property at the time. during the day i would carry a half serrated crawford point guard. liked it really well but the clip would get loose and slide back and forth till i put loc-tite on it.

sooo, i went to work one night and halfway through the night i reached back and felt my knife still clipped to my pocket. my blood freakin' ran cold. you see, we had to go through metal detectors and the security guys were hard-asses and would have been happy to send me to jail and have me subsequently fired....i'm not sure how i got in with that hunk of metal in my pocket but all i can think is God was looking out for me. He watches over drunks and fools, so i've prolly got double coverage.

the blade was 3.25" or so and illegal on airport property at that length (3" is legal). i couldn't think of what to do for a while and finally decided to break off a quarter or half an inch of the blade and take it back out. went to the restroom and proceeded to break the blade in a stall door lock. snapped about 1/3 of an inch on first attempt. second attempt took it off at the hilt.
i wasn't too worried because i thought i could get a new blade sent to me.

i called the next day about getting a new blade. the girl i spoke with said," no problem. just send it in." i begged her to just send me a new blade but she said,"we'll have to fit it for you." didn't mention a price or anything. i paid about $6 to send it in. about three weeks pass and an envelope arrives. i'm thinking- hey, right on. well, i open it and inside is my still broken knife.
i called them as asked something to the effect of,"what the hell?!"
the guy i spoke to said, "we don't have spare blades laying around, but i can sell you a new knife at cost." i said, "thank you, but no thanks."

before the flaming starts; i understand i broke the damn thing on purpose and they aren't obligated to fix it for me. i was willing to pay for a new blade just not a new knife altogether at cost or not. it was just stupid on their part to waste my money and their's on shipping. so i swore them off and i've been real happy with the benchmade so far.

[hso]

To summarize-

You broke your knife intentionally to protect your job therby voiding any and all warrantees.

You called the manufacturer and asked to buy a replacement blade.

A clerk at the company told you that they would fix your knife for you if you sent it in.

You paid $6 in shipping to send the knife in.

They returned your knife to you at no charge saying that they couldn't replace the blade you intentionally broke.

They offered to sell a knife to you at cost (meaning they would make no profit) to replace the knife you intentionally broke the blade of.

It's their fault.

Most knife manufacturers will replace the entire knife under warrantee because it's cheaper and a better guarantee of quality than disassembling, cleaning, repairing, and reassembling a knife that's been used. That's why they don't have spare blades sitting around. When the knife doesn't warrant replacement due to obvious abuse they always send it back. You've allowed a clerk's mistake to poison your whole view of this company when the at cost price of the knife is about what you would have paid for a replacement blade.

[jamesq]

not just my job but also a felony record.....i was pretty clear in the story and the wrap up that i intentionlly broke the knife. nothing was wrong with the rest of the knife. i felt it was a waste to throw it away and go buy another one.
the problem was i paid $35 for the original. he wanted to sell me one-at cost- for $25. With shipping I would have spent the $35 I originally spent on the knife with a whole lot more hassle.
so yes, all it took was a clerk's mistake to get me to never use their products again. all she had to say was, "no, you broke it. it's not covered under warranty. you have to buy another one." i would have thought that was reasonable. her certainty that I should send it in, the wasted money, and the subsequent waiting is what pissed me off. I'm not saying it's their fault the friggin' knife broke. i am saying their customer service sucked.

[cabofdoom]

Originally posted by jamesq
... all she had to say was, "no, you broke it. it's not covered under warranty. you have to buy another one." i would have thought that was reasonable...

No where in your original post did you mention that you informed CRKT customer sevice that you intentionally broke the knife nor do you state that you were willing to purchase a blade, just that you wanted a new one. add to this that you post that
Originally posted by jamesq
... i begged her to just send me a new blade.. suggests that you surmised the inevitable outcome IF you sent in the knife.

I find it hard to believe that knowing this fact, CRKT would even imply that they would honor a warrenty.

Further more simple math says 1/3 of an inch is a bigger piece of knife than a 1/4 inch. Should have quit while you were ahead...at that point you were legal.

Another point to consider. If you sent in the knife in two pieces (tip and rest of knife) it would look like an accident and at the very least they could have reground the tip. But, without informing them that you intentionally broke it (again, back to your first post), sending in a knife in three pieces (guessing, not stating facts not in evidence) would imply to a person of average inteligence that some level of abuse took place, thus voiding the warrenty.

I think $6.00 was a cheap object lesson.

COD

[jamesq]

Originally posted by cabofdoom


No where in your original post did you mention that you informed CRKT customer sevice that you intentionally broke the knife nor do you state that you were willing to purchase a blade, just that you wanted a new one. add to this that you post that
suggests that you surmised the inevitable outcome IF you sent in the knife.

COD

when in doubt, think the worst...

sorry i wasn't more clear in my original post. i tried to condense the story so it wasn't too long and in doing so left out some important facts. my mistake.

no, i was very up front with the girl about what happened. when i told her why i broke the knife she replied, "that's kind of scary you made it through security with the knife." i thought, 'yeah kind of scary i almost ruined my life.' just to further clarify, i wasn't going through passenger screening but employee screening. this happened after sept. 11 so things had changed a bit hence the 'no bladed over 3" rule.'

i did offer to pay for a new blade (guess i shouldn't have assumed you guys could decipher that either) or pay them to fix it but she insisted i send it in for a warranty repair. if they wanted to charge for the repair, i do have a credit card, so i wasn't real concerned about sending it without a contract stating what would take place. i included a note (stating what happened) with my phone number on it. no call.

what was i supposed to do- ask to talk to a man? (didn't want to be a sexist.) she sounded like she knew what she was doing.

and i do know how to add (sort of). i couldn't remember the exact length of the blade. i looked it up and it was 3.5" http://www.crkt.com/ptguard.html it wasn't like i was in a shop where i could measure and cut to length. i couldn't even tell a coworker what i was doing. you never know who your friends are in situations like that. i didn't want to not take off enough. i only wanted to take off a little more when the whole thing broke. and taking the broken blade back out might have set off the metal detectors as they are more sensative than the entry detectors. their main concern is theft. you can have personal items like keys and knives but you have to put them in a tray and go through the detector and i didn't want to raise any eyebrows with broken knife pieces.

the point of my original post was: if you have a CRKT and you drop it and knock the tip off or drop it in the driveway and accidentally run over it and distort the handle (both fall under user negilgence), you might as well throw it away. i don't like disposable products. i like things that can be serviced. it's just my preference.

[Shootability]

I told Kershaw that I broke the tip off my knife using it incorrectly - they said send it back - 3 days later a new knife appeared. I used 1st class mail - less than $1.00 - now have 3 Kershaw knives and give them as presents. I think they made out well (I still think they do not hold an edge as well as Benchmade).

[jamesq]

that is pretty much what i was getting at. if i was wrongly told to send it in, i don't consider that my fault. if they bit the bullet on that knife, or even if they made me pay to fix it i would have bought others and recommended them to friends. but they basicly told me to get bent. and by 'cost' i think he meant dealer cost.

[Sword of Laban]

CRKT has always sent me replacement parts free of charge but I never had to replace the blade. I sent in my Leatherman PST1 when I broke the file prying something, told the truth and they sent me a new one back free of charge, it is not the same quality as the origional, much softer steel for the tools, but they did replace my error. Same with my Gerber, Gerber actually upgraded my tool to a newer and nicer model as I had the original Gerber tool and it lost a pivot, not my fault. I wont buy another Leatherman but I will buy Gerber or CRKT. I'm looking at some SOG blades right now.