I need to vent here about customer service.

[wickededge]

Hey guys, thanks for continuing to keep me in touch with how things look from your perspective. This kind of thing makes my blood boil and we will get it resolved ASAP. We’re bringing on a new person just to handle emails and shipping updates. I’m traveling this week at our factory in Vermont so I can’t get the new person started until early next week but I’ve let the crew at the office know that they need to take the first half of tomorrow and let everyone on the list know exactly where their order is. From there, we’ll implement some other changes immediately to how we handle the communications.

–Clay

-Clay

[craftyhack]

Hey guys, thanks for continuing to keep me in touch with how things look from your perspective. This kind of thing makes my blood boil and we will get it resolved ASAP. We’re bringing on a new person just to handle emails and shipping updates. I’m traveling this week at our factory in Vermont so I can’t get the new person started until early next week but I’ve let the crew at the office know that they need to take the first half of tomorrow and let everyone on the list know exactly where their order is. From there, we’ll implement some other changes immediately to how we handle the communications.

–Clay

Thanks Clay, I called for my orders as you mentioned I should do, except I did it this afternoon instead of Tues and left a VM(first time I have called where it has went to VM, but 1 out of 4 ain’t bad), will try again tomorrow AM.

[Chris]

I should qualify that because I have not seen it first hand, so I am endorsing it based solely on what I know about it from this website and Youtube presentations and forum feedback. It seems a very capable knife sharpening system and I still eagerly await it’s delivery. Once I get it in my hands and get to use it, I will give more on my feelings of support or lack of support.

Make sure we hear your experiences with the WEPS and post back here the minute it arrives. (please) 😉

I feel your pain Scott, I rely on email for nearly all my business communication.
When I don’t get a reply it hits me hard.

I’m guessing here, but taking an order without an item being “in-stock” might be the killer.
Many I know simply refuse to do it, as the wheels can fall off while we wait, (more often) helpless to speed things up as manufacturing and delivery times blow out.

But silence in the “e” world is an insult.
Some say to call and you always get someone to answer.
I would have thought an email is a lot less demanding of a persons time.

Considering an email can be read and actioned by someone sitting in front a multitude of devices from anywhere in the world, at any time of the day.
They would only need a hotline to the WE common database.

But I feel Clay is now aware how this has impacted “WE Central” and as the product begins to flow out the door, and smiles appear on people’s faces all around the world, we can dismiss this as a growing pain. 😉

Now where are my bloody new arms? (Coming via the Aussie Dealer, TonyJ) 😉

Chris.

[Scott]

Hi Tony,
Thanks for taking time to comment here. You bring up a couple of good points worth mentioning. The WEPS has become something of an overnight sensation in the knife community. A pretty impulsive and compulsive community if you read the posts on any of the many Blade Forums. And this is a pretty big community that spends a lot of money on their toys. One post I saw on BladeForum.com asking about “your EDC” or something to that effect had over a million, five hundred thousand views and hundreds of pages of posts many with pictures of very expensive knives. And self proclaimed “knife nuts” (I mean this in the nicest way) are legion around the world. That’s a lot of potential demand for sharpeners.

Good news and maybe not so good news if you are selling a knife sharpening system as good as WE and can not keep up with demand. Clay was brilliant to come up with this system, but even more so to be able to come up with a business model to bring it from concept to sales and distribution. His timing was impeccable, because there was a need for such a device and a strong and large customer base, and the internet only recently became available to anyone with a smart phone, smart pad or laptop. A new phenomenon which is exploding at about the same time that Clay came up with his great system. It’s what is referred to as a perfect storm. All factors coming together at the same time.

So it’s easy to see how the wheels can so easily come off the cart as the demand can overwhelm supply and create a lot of disgruntled customers and now the internet which was so kind to WE, can become a real problem. Anyone with one of those before mentioned smart devices can complain in posts on forums or YouTube to the same adoring audience that once embraced that great new company. Reputations can be smeared and destroyed much easier than they are built.

I sincerely wish Clay et.al. continued success and expansion. The potential is definitely there, but with sudden success and popularity, comes many land mines and problems that must be met and dealt with. One, specifically the one I mention in this thread is communication with customers and keeping customers happy. I vented about this in the nicest way I could and only because I think it is helpful to not just me and other customers, but because I think it is extremely important to WE to get ahead of this. Others may go off to other forums and become much more vehement with their complaints and that is how good reputations and potential future customers are lost. It is very hard to get that back once gone.

So I am a happy customer, I found out my WEPS is in route, but I waited and was patient enough to put up with several missed delivery estimates and made phone calls to check on my order status when my email was silent and no responses followed my email inquiries. I hope others will be as patient and understanding… probably some but definitely not all.

[craftyhack]

The odd thing is that I would expect most knife enthusiasts to understand. Kershaw 777 anyone :)?? 2 years and counting, although I have seen pics of the different components (big boxes of them), so they are getting there come day. And it isn’t unusual for there to be a LONG waiting list for YEARS on GOOD products, another example, the XM-18, I could go on and on. My point is that in this business, it is par for the course just because of how EASY it is for something ANYWHERE to go wrong, but the GOOD companies won’t send out crap, they fix it. Between the two options, I will wait as long as I have to, and just keep buying new EDCs as my old ones dull, so if anything I should be thankful to WE for giving me a good rationalization for buying more blades, AND I will have a nice stack waiting to be sharpened so as soon as I get my order, I will have plenty of opportunity to play with it!

As far as WE taking off, that totally rocks. Small business success (even with good products) is pretty rare, I am not gonna look for the number now, but I know that the ratio of failed small busniess start-ups to successful ones is SCARY, so thanks Clay for having the cojones and the drive to give it a shot anyway, and not giving up after the first tries didn’t work out!

If the number of memberships of all of the forums are any indication, you have a potentially very LARGE client base, and I bet quite a few don’t know of WE (although most should by now)… get ready, it won’t be easy to have the best angle sharpener on the planet to keep up :). If even one for every THOUSAND member of all of the forums bout one, you will sell thousands up on thousands of these things.

[Brian Ledford]

I just got a call from kyle letting me konw my arms and riser will ship tomorrow..

[craftyhack]

I just got the tracking number from Kyle from my Pro pack II and a TON of extras (only thing missing is the curved stones which are on back order), yay! Didn’t order any of those Japanese(?) wet stones yet, not ready for that. I also ordered several leather stop replacements(I expect to accidentally cut up a few as I am learning and accidentally stroke the wrong way :)) and extra tubes of diamond past 1 and .5 I think since the PPII comes with the micro ceramics. (save on shipping), and I have not yet read about leather vs. roo, vs. balsa enough to know if I will need/use them, which is fine, I have spend enough for now :D. PLus I mostly see clay demonstration with the leather, so I figure those are a good starting point for me. I called today and Kyle answered the phone, he was all alone today it sounds like, but he still TCB, good man! I *should* wrap this and put it under the tree for xmas, I would wait for xmas to open it, but forget that, I am not that patient :).

Sorry, I am rambling, just really excited!

[Fred Hermann]

I just saw the email confirming my order and the tracking number….
I’m excited! And I can agree that its ok to wait for something awesome. I spent 8 years and 4 redesigns for a custom reenactment helm. Compared to that, this was easy.

[Scott]

I just received a very nice email note from Kay Allison following up on my order. Without going into details, I will say that she was very concerned that WE did right by me and gave me her personal assurance that they would. I was given a tracking number for my order which UPS estimated to be delivered to me by Friday this week.

This is exactly what I hoped would happen by bringing this concern for customer communications into the light. So, congratulations to WE and thanks to Kay and Kyle for their excellent customer service response in my order and I hope that you all have a great experience with your purchase and delivery of your personal WEPS’s.

Best to all.

[Rob]

I’m so glad that everyone is getting their emails and notices about tracking numbers. I really am! I just wish that I would hear something. I talked to Kyle about three weeks ago and he told me that the rods would be in sometime next week. Like I said, this was three weeks ago. This is the third phone call I have made about the bars. Would someone please let me know something. I ordered the new arms and received them a good while ago, but still waiting on some kind of notice that the bars have been shipped.

Thanks,

Rmorris7

PS. I hate to cause a stink but I’m just frustrated.

[Rob]

Double post.

[Phillip Hyun]

I’d just like to chime in and say that while I had some of the same communication issues as I’ve read on here with the e-mails that seem to disappear into a black hole and voice mails left on a machine, I was able to communicate well with Clay through the private messages here on the forum! Also, Clay really went the extra mile in resolving my issue with the F&S and the eventual follow-through was outstanding. So, while I completely understand that they face a great challenge with production efficiency and manpower I have no doubt about their commitment to making sure that we the customers are happy with the product. I don’t mind having to wait when I know with 100% assurance that I will be taken care of.

[Phillip Hyun]

Did you send Clay a PM here on the forum? Worked for me!

[wickededge]

We had a really productive meeting this morning and are in the process of re-thinking some of our task assignments here to answer the growth we’re experiencing. We’re always chasing a moving target as the business grows and just about when we think we’ve got something squared away, the needs change. We’ll start implementing the changes this week and will definitely be staying in better touch with people.

-Clay

[craftyhack]

Thank’s for the update Clay! This is good stuff, I hope that the company stays as good as it is when you are a bazillionaire floating in one of your yachts in the Virgin Islands or where-ever and we are still here buyin stuff ;).

[Author]

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