spoonrobot
Enlightened
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2005
- Messages
- 396
Leatherman Wave, CHIPPED!!!
- Thread starter Gaffle
- Start date
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4SevensDeven
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2010
- Messages
- 2
I just sent in my leatherman Blast a few days ago. The entire locking mechanism on the one side just busted out! I wasn't even putting that much stress on it either is the scary part. I'm starting to doubt the leatherman "legacy". If they don't stop this "build cheaper to save money" thing, their company will probably go down.
LukeA
Flashlight Enthusiast
Happened to me in December. A flaw in the metal injection molded lock. It's not a good design. There's too tight a radius on the lock lever's pivots.
A month later they sent me back a barely refurbed POS with every tool dulled and abused. Not the brand new tool I sent in, not even close. I returned that one with a letter and got back a different but no better POS. I'm going to call and see what the limit of number of broken features that they will refurbish is on that model, break off every single tool, and send it in and claim that "The tool has sentimental value" the way the RMA sheet tells me I can so that they will fix it and not grab another POS from the bin.
At $10 a pop for shipping, this $40 multitool is certainly costing a hell of a lot more than a $30 Victorinox OHT and a separate $10 pair of pliers, neither of which have poorly-designed MIM parts.
I'm done buying Leatherman tools, at least as long as their designs, cost-cutting methods, and CS stink.
So you are saying you want great customer service and returns policy, but don't want to pay for it? What a shock.
How about you go buy a bit of tat off the internet direct from China, at disposable prices. When it fails, you can see just how good their returns policy is instead. If it even arrives in working order.
Hopefully there will still be enough people buying a good quality knife for a lot less than you could make one at home for, with a great warranty and fair customer service, and Leatherman, Gerber and every other decent brand out there won't have folded for lack of sales and joke warranty replacement repair bills.
But if not, I'm sure you'll be fine, having saved that $30.
How about you go buy a bit of tat off the internet direct from China, at disposable prices. When it fails, you can see just how good their returns policy is instead. If it even arrives in working order.
Hopefully there will still be enough people buying a good quality knife for a lot less than you could make one at home for, with a great warranty and fair customer service, and Leatherman, Gerber and every other decent brand out there won't have folded for lack of sales and joke warranty replacement repair bills.
But if not, I'm sure you'll be fine, having saved that $30.
I have been carrying my Pre2004 Wave Gen1 for over 7 years. Maybe even 8, 9 or 10 years (can't remember) - it's with me every day.
I use it for all tasks, sometimes I even abuse/misuse it - as needle nose pliers are not built for torquing. I used it as a Hammer, prybar.. whatever is need.
Once i snapped the little screwdriver because i had no torx bit on me. I told leathreman that I broke it off and it clearly was misuse. They replaced one half of the tool with new parts at no charge (though stating that it was not a warranty thing).
What else could you ask for?
I use it for all tasks, sometimes I even abuse/misuse it - as needle nose pliers are not built for torquing. I used it as a Hammer, prybar.. whatever is need.
Once i snapped the little screwdriver because i had no torx bit on me. I told leathreman that I broke it off and it clearly was misuse. They replaced one half of the tool with new parts at no charge (though stating that it was not a warranty thing).
What else could you ask for?
LukeA
Flashlight Enthusiast
What I said very clearly was that I expected, but did not receive, the quality of warranty service supposedly intrinsic to the Leatherman name.
Totally irrelevant.
The point of my post was that the level of warranty service of Leatherman is, in my experience, not up to the standard to which they openly aspire.
I do not know why expecting the replacement of a new, defective tool with a new, fully-functional tool would be considered a 'joke' by a rational person. Either you did not read my whole post or you did not comprehend it.
The $30 to which I referred was money I spent, not money I saved. That reading comprehension thing again. Well, either that or a poor reference to the ridiculous China tangent.
Thanks for playing.
Aebleskiver
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2011
- Messages
- 1
BTW, you don't get a brand new tool back from Leatherman when you return one under warranty.
The way their warranty processes work these days is that they collect all returns centrally, they are fully disassembled at the factory in Portland and then the good parts are refinished and assembled into 'new' refurbished tools, which are then shipped en-masse to distributors in different countries to do warranty exchanges for more broken ones.
It's very rare that a local distributor for Leatherman does any of their own repair work now. It's supposed to be cheaper and more efficient for Leatherman to do it this way.
If it's a special tool with sentimental value though, you can request special repair at the factory rather than a swap out.
The way their warranty processes work these days is that they collect all returns centrally, they are fully disassembled at the factory in Portland and then the good parts are refinished and assembled into 'new' refurbished tools, which are then shipped en-masse to distributors in different countries to do warranty exchanges for more broken ones.
It's very rare that a local distributor for Leatherman does any of their own repair work now. It's supposed to be cheaper and more efficient for Leatherman to do it this way.
If it's a special tool with sentimental value though, you can request special repair at the factory rather than a swap out.
Leatherman is an awesome company. All the stories in here are real confidence boosters in the Leatherman brand. Yeah, it seems like they break often, but at least they will repair it. I just ordered a SOG Powerlock, but my next multi tool will be a Leatherman, just because of their awesome warranty.
My first Leatherman was a PST. That one was made in Japan and worked just fine. It was stolen and I replaced it with a PST II and that one has been good too. Back then they only sold about 30,000 tools a year.
Today it must be a lot more than that and that is why a thread like this may give the wrong impression because there is no sense of proportion. What is important to know is how many failures there are per 100 or 1000 tools and not the absolute number of failures. The failure ratio could then give some sense of the likelyhood of an individual experiencing a failure.
Today it must be a lot more than that and that is why a thread like this may give the wrong impression because there is no sense of proportion. What is important to know is how many failures there are per 100 or 1000 tools and not the absolute number of failures. The failure ratio could then give some sense of the likelyhood of an individual experiencing a failure.
kaichu dento
Flashaholic
I think I've only broken three of them since getting my first PST in 1988, and although I have worn some of the others to the point of not wanting to use them anymore, will always carry a version of the Wave after having bought my first one of that model in 2001.
