I believe that this forum and forums like it should be used to discuss concerns and best product practices. They are a tool for consumers to help each other and help manufacturers gain, retain or lose customers based on how they react to issues.
I for one do not agree with how the bent vice situation is being handled. This has been my first experience with WE. I think the customer support regarding the hardening issue has been excellent, however if it were my decision to make I would definitely not be sending out any vice jaws with potential problems once they were discovered. It is horrible to think that someone paying top dollar, $350 or more for a knife sharpener, would receive two bad vice jaw sets in a row. That is absolutely inexcusable to me and I don’t think frustrated would correctly describe me demeanor if that happened to me.
Why hasn’t the issue even been acknowledged publicly by WE? Why hasn’t there been a recall? Why isn’t’ whoever did the hardening being held responsible? If a third party didn’t harden the vice jaws correctly they should be paying for a full recall and taking the blame for all problem vices. If hey followed WE engineering instructions than WE should man up and take responsibility and recall all the potential problems.
These vices took months to ship. I’m sorry but with that kind of lead time you better get it right or do something about the problem if you don’t. Answering the phone and sending out a potentially defective replacement quickly doesn’t cut it for me at all.
Could I really place an order right now and receive an improperly hardened vice? That’s absolutely ridiculous to think that could occur and if I were deciding weather to spend $350 on this system and I happened to see this thread I would have second thoughts for sure. I’d be glad to know about the potential problem before deciding to place my order.