Terrible Quality Control - Shoddy

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1

As a proud owner of a product that costs more than what the typical South African makes in a month a few comments.

The good or excellent:
The Vice / Clamp - Excellent.
Construction of the Vice - Excellent.

The REALLY Poor
After owning the system for 3 weeks:
The Leather is peeling from the paddle literally
The diamonds seem to lifting from the paddle there is visible movement when pressing on the edges of the diamond with the centre being glued real well. This creates a very nice belly on the diamond now.

So my Question really is, Why make a world class product and then use sticky tape and chewing gum to shoddily assemble the paddles?

This is really crap when looking at what you pay for the product and as it stands now I;ll advise anyone looking to buy the product to stay away, it is great for the first three weeks and then you are stuck with your thumb up your ass.

400 grit side is lifting at the edges - seeing this on both 100/200 and 400/600 paddles

The two strops:

Last note, Im working with the local SA Dealer but I’m dying to hear if anyone else is experiencing similar frustrations with the quality of the paddles.

Regards,
Albertus

Attachments:

2

Welcome! Sorry to hear about you having issues right out the gate.

WEPS has outstanding customer service, arguably the best I’ve ever dealt with personally. They’ll be the ones that can and will make things right. I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone :slight_smile:

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The tape they use is heap-big strong medicine. Ask anyone who has tried to remove a plate. I suspect something went wrong here - maybe the blocks had been stored in an unfriendly environment.

In any case, WE will quickly make things right for you. Call them on Monday and point them to your post.

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Only issue I had was my fault - I made the mistake of sliding a kang strop into the travel case when still damp from spraying… peeled up half of the leather quickly… didn’t notice until taking it out of the case later. I’d call that an unfriendly environment.

Easy to glue back down: apply adhesive, hold flat compression for awhile - and never a problem since.

The case is gathering dust because I have a permanent workstation set up. If I go mobile with the kit, the leather/balsa will go in the case dry and wrapped in plastic.

Just call WE and they’ll resolve.

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I think it poor taste to complain here if you haven’t called WE already to express to them your problems. No product is perfect, but I measure a company by its ability to recover and make things right vs whether they were 100% out of the gate 100% of the time…God knows I am not that perfect.

Call them up, deal with them, and if they do not handle it appropriately, then perhaps report back your experience.

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Hi all,

thanks for the responses, I have no issues with customer support here and from what I have read before purchase, WE is a company that stands by its product.

  • I just want to single out wepsflana here:

I think you are a wanker for not reading the ENTIRE post.I’m quoting myself here:
“Last note, Im working with the local SA Dealer but I’m dying to hear if anyone else is experiencing similar frustrations with the quality of the paddles.”

so @wepsfIana this means that I contacted the local South African Agent first and explained the issue and sent the photographs. or do I need to attach a small picture to explain the situation here, or are you still following.

In general I do not see it as being unreasonable to expect a 400 USD product not to fall apart after 3 weeks. nor do I see at as poor to taste to highlight the question on a forum such as this one.

Albert.

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No, your expectations aren’t reasonable, but your title to the thread of " History of Terrible Quality Control - Shoddy" was more than a little over the top. I’m sorry, but I think you’re labeling the wrong fellow as the wanker here.

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@tcmeyer

Can you please re-read the topic and explain where you saw the word history in there ?

I never made an historical claim - 3 weeks is hardly history.

The topic is simply: Terrible Quality Control - Shoddy and I’m standing by the statement. as I have not had much joy from either WE or the local seller in SA yet.

When responding to a topic the heading reads: Topic History of:Terrible Quality Control - Shoddy.

Read carefully mate - it seems reading before responding is something in short supply on this forum.

All the best

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Aloha Albert,

From what I’ve seen here on the forum, when I problem pops up people usually post the issue and follow that up with a question such as “has anyone else seen this issue”. I personally have never seen this type of issue pop up on the forum so categorically I would label it under unfortunate anomaly that you just happen to draw the short straw on.

Regardless of its a more common problem or a fluke issue, without fail in ever case Ive witnessed(myself included) is the issue has been resolved in a timely, polite, courteous, an exceptional manner by the people at Wicked Edge. I would think, they in return would hope we could try to treat them with the same level of respect as well.

WE owners I believe could be some of the fussiest people on the planet(again myself included), as you can see from posts where we are discussion fractional angle variances, etc, etc…The amazing thing is the Company is listening and responds to our concerns and our feedback.This is unusual with a product(and the World in general?) , and in a very real sense we are the last line of defense for something slipping through quality control…even on a one time basis.

So lastly Id say, sorry for the bad luck and thank you for bringing it to the attention of the forums. Regardless of if its a widespread issue or not, it is something to be aware of and look out for in the future.

~Cliff

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Hi Cliff,

I Agree with everything you said fully, Making this sort of investment in terms of South African Rand to the US Dollar made this purchase quite expensive, add on top of that customs duties and taxes and a 400 odd USD purchase becomes 600 or even 700 very quickly.

I did a lot of research and WE customer service came out tops every time on all discussions and forums.

I will admit that I’m brash and I have never in my life sugar coated anything nor will I ever, I get paid for my expertise and my opinion not my ability to sugar coat a crappy situation so I call it as I see it.

My main point of irritation on a forum like this enters when individuals jump on a band wagon and make a statement or form a conclusion by only reading some of the post and not all of the post or pulling outlandish claims out of thin air - History ?? anyone.

I would love to get the issue resolved, as movement on a diamond plate kind of takes the precision out of the product name.

As the managing partner of a Services Company, I’m painfully aware of customer satisfaction and quality control. I do not lie awake at night about the 99 products that I ship faultless because my QC is working, I lie awake at night worrying about the 1 that my QC is missing, and this seems to be the case here.

Regardless of how something like this happens, I stand by the fact that I did not buy a gatco for a few dollars here, I’m expecting a solid product with solid backing for the price paid.

I would love to hear someone from WE chiming in.

Anyway - I have my own customers that is waiting.

All the best

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Regarding below, fair enough and I didn’t see that part. Glad you are working with them; however, I am not sure that will be your quickest remedy vs contacting WE themselves.

Additionally, what came off as very objectionable is the following:
“This is really crap when looking at what you pay for the product and as it stands now I;ll advise anyone looking to buy the product to stay away, it is great for the first three weeks and then you are stuck with your thumb up your ass.”

There is just no need for that type of vitriol, especially when you do not have an answer back from the company yet

Hope that clarifies.

[quote quote=“AlbertV” post=21685]so @wepsfIana this means that I contacted the local South African Agent first and explained the issue and sent the photographs. or do I need to attach a small picture to explain the situation here, or are you still following.

In general I do not see it as being unreasonable to expect a 400 USD product not to fall apart after 3 weeks. nor do I see at as poor to taste to highlight the question on a forum such as this one.

Albert.[/quote]

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There’s nothing wrong with venting your frustration on this forum. You’re not the first to do it and won’t be the last. There have been problems that folks have brought up over the years ranging from slop in the guide rods, bent diamond stones, diamond stones not fully coated, cracked ceramics, problem strops to a new vise that comes a little bent. The list goes on. I completely understand being upset about spending that amount of money on a product that appears to fall apart so quickly. I did notice a bit of bandwagon bashing which is a first that I’ve seen for this forum. Its not like that here which is why many people choose to keep coming back. I’d say to message Clay directly if your dealer isn’t providing you with a solution

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Hi wepsflana,

Vitriol ? I do not deal in vitriol. I pointed out the low blows already - they came from this forum, not me.

if you feel that it was harsh lets look at the facts, Ill try to sugar coat it so that I do not offend anyone.

Ill keep the numbers round

Fact 1 Spent $400 on a wicked edge
Fact 2 Sharpened 2 Knives
Fact 3 This equates to a cost of $200 per knife sharpened when the paddles came apart. (on any return on investment this is shocking)
Fact 4 I will make sure my voice is heard when someone asks about the wicked edge and what I currently think of it.
Fact 5 A whole work day is now almost done in SA - no response from the local reseller. (WE own team is not doing themselves any favours here)

Some other interesting Facts

Fact 6: I Live in South Africa, where we are blessed with many things but, a good postal system is not one of them, just quickly sending a defective part back is not an option, it will cost me at least another $65 - $75 (budget around $100) to ship to the US.

Fact 7: Sometimes the postal workers strike for 3+ months - that means everything shipped stands still, gets pillaged or stolen in a postal warehouse.

Fact 8: Round trip i’m looking at the very best at 2 - 3 months, at worst 6+ months to get this resolved, now this is Africa after all so I don’t expect miracles, but, I’m not in the mood to spend any more money on an already very expensive piece kit to get what I was promised when i bought it.

So yes, I’m really pissed off, and I will state again, it is crap that you buy a $400 product and after three weeks things come apart and I will put my head on a block to state that if you were stuck in this situation you too will feel you are stuck with your thumb up your ass.

Have a good one.

14

Have you called Wicked Edge yet? (Not your local dealer, Wicked Edge?)

From https://www.wickededgeusa.com/contact-us/

Wicked Edge
3 Caliente Rd., Suite 8
Santa Fe, NM 87508

877-616-9911 (It appears, in my browser, that you can use Skype to call them free.)


Let us know how that goes.
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I would hope that the dealer in South Africa would have some inventory and that Wicked Edge would direct him to make the situation right by replacing the defective parts out of his inventory. That’s why manufacturers have dealers in international markets. The dealer should be taking care of all the warranty, tariff and shipping issues. In such situations, the customer should expect to be treated as if he were located in Arizona. Yes, he should expect longer shipping times, but I would expect that he paid the dealer the premium for the transatlantic shipping costs already.

Just to be clear, if a customer in a country without a dealer buys a product from the US, for example, he should expect to pay the shipping costs on all replacement parts. It isn’t the manufacturer’s fault that the buyer lives half-way around the world. This is an excellent example of why. The shipping costs are almost as much as the part itself. In most cases where there is no refurbish value in the failed part, the dealers don’t usually require return shipment.

Please be acutely aware that this is strictly the opinion of another customer, not necessarily the position of Wicked Edge.

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There’s nothing WE can do for this gentleman. He knows who to contact. I suggest closing this thread and possibly getting back to talking about how to make things sharp?.. Maybe?

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Agreed.

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[quote quote=“wepsflana” post=21693]Regarding below, fair enough and I didn’t see that part. Glad you are working with them; however, I am not sure that will be your quickest remedy vs contacting WE themselves.

Additionally, what came off as very objectionable is the following:
“This is really crap when looking at what you pay for the product and as it stands now I;ll advise anyone looking to buy the product to stay away, it is great for the first three weeks and then you are stuck with your thumb up your ass.”

There is just no need for that type of vitriol, especially when you do not have an answer back from the company yet

Hope that clarifies.

[quote quote=“AlbertV” post=21685]so @wepsfIana this means that I contacted the local South African Agent first and explained the issue and sent the photographs. or do I need to attach a small picture to explain the situation here, or are you still following.

In general I do not see it as being unreasonable to expect a 400 USD product not to fall apart after 3 weeks. nor do I see at as poor to taste to highlight the question on a forum such as this one.

Albert.[/quote][/quote]

I agree… this is not the way to get something accomplished and comes across as very abrasive. While it would be extremely frustrating dealing with everything you have to deal with Albert, why not just pick up the phone and make a phone call to Wicked Edge instead of complaining on a forum? And yes, I did read your entire post… the rest of it is good and informative to see if others have experienced the problems you were experiencing, but when it got to this point it was a complaint when in fact, you should have contacted Wicked Edge to see if they would make it right first.

QC issues are something you must be aware of (dealing in the industry yourself) and these kind of things can be problematic when you live in a foreign country (of course you are aware of that). Before I buy a product, normally, i do extensive researching of both the product and company, and even the local dealer to see if they are jam up people… I don’t know about your local dealer, but the Wicked Edge team WILL get you taken care of, even if it means $ out of their pocket - they have done it time and time again. But you have to be patient living in another country, which, if that is not something you are willing to be in issues like this then maybe you shouldn’t order something from the states? just a thought.

I have made complaints similar to the one you made above… but when i do it is because the company basically told me to get lost and wouldn’t make the problem right, after I brought it to their attention. You haven’t even given their customer service a chance. This doesn’t have to do with sugar coating anything either… As I stated you could have simply pointed out the problem/facts, without sugar coating it,and requested help or advise.

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Hi All,

Thanks for the feedback.

The intention was to highlight a frustration but also to try and see if anyone else had similar issues.

If I come across as abrasive, my apologies, yes i’m blunt, yes I call a spade a spade I guess thats just me.

I do not advocate that the manufacturer should pick up cost for shipping,I merely stated I’m in no mood to spend more money or waiting 3,4,5,6 months to have the issue resolved.

To add to my growing frustration after sending another mail to the local dealer asking for a convenient time to drop by I only get a blank mail back.

I agree that after I was really fuming I tend to see a pattern here that I might have the 1/100 with a problem and that everyone on the forum feels strongly about an excellent product backed by company that cares.

Lastly I agree - lets close this thread, Although my frustration levels is really high, I will bite my lip and try to get this resolved.

I will however like to open another thread and ask a few questions hoping that WE representatives would chime in, because as a reseller and technology partner of different technologies and products, If I want to be reseller I have to apply, Send details about my business, sales forecasts, demonstrate my ability to service customers etc. I would like to know how this is done at WE.

All the best.

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Before we close the thread, I’d like to jump in. I’m sorry to be coming to the party late, I was out yesterday with a gruesome tooth extraction. Thanks Josh for the heads-up via email and thank you to everyone that jumped on. AlbertV, I’m really sorry to hear about your experience. Can you tell me which of our dealers you purchased from? If they have the parts you need in stock, we’ll make sure they get your swapped out right away and then deal with them. If not, we’ll get you new parts on the way ASAP so that your down time is a minimum. In the interim, you can peel the leather off, scrape out the glue and re-glue the leather in place with hot glue. Your diamond plates will work well for you while you’re waiting. They won’t be perfect, but they’ll still produce great edges if you care to use them. If not, I understand. For any future issues, the guys responding to this thread are right - please contact us directly right away and we’ll do everything we can to take care of you.