Victorinox warranty experiences

[Crow]

I would like to hear, what kind of experiences everyone has had with Victorinox warranty service? And how it works in your country?

I personally have experiences with two different knifes.

First was Swisstool, that had been used heavily. Pliers vere broken, blade and awl was broken, saw dulled, scissors bent. I called Finnish service, and they gave me info what to do. Send them Swisstool, wait 7 days, and gained brand new one. Great and friendly cervice.
I put my Swisstool in with its pouch. They did not send me its pouch when it came. So i called and asked would they send me the pouch. They did send me brand new one instead.

Second was Swisschamp, and it was also heavily used. Pliers broken, awl and small blade broken. Scissors loose and phillips rounded. It was so stiff to open, i could break my nails for it. Only one scale was on it and no implements. Same thing with this called them monday morning, send to post same day. Wait till thursday, and gained new swisschamp. Again great and friendly cervice.

I talked with service a while and asked all kinds of questions, what oils they recommend etc. Wery friendly person.

Both times i had to fill form with my name, adress, and what has happened to it. Simple form that they emailed to me. Form had send in instructions on it. Very simple and easy service.

[Prof. Gadget]

I had found a Super Tinker at a flea market and sent it in, I got it back in about 3 weeks and they completely refirbished it. On their web site is a form that you can send in. It helps them to know what's wrong and how to go about fixing it.  Prof.

[Wilfried]

I would like to hear, what kind of experiences everyone has had with Victorinox warranty service? And how it works in your country?

I personally have experiences with two different knifes.

First was Swisstool, that had been used heavily. Pliers vere broken, blade and awl was broken, saw dulled, scissors bent. I called Finnish service, and they gave me info what to do. Send them Swisstool, wait 7 days, and gained brand new one. Great and friendly cervice.
I put my Swisstool in with its pouch. They did not send me its pouch when it came. So i called and asked would they send me the pouch. They did send me brand new one instead.

Second was Swisschamp, and it was also heavily used. Pliers broken, awl and small blade broken. Scissors loose and phillips rounded. It was so stiff to open, i could break my nails for it. Only one scale was on it and no implements. Same thing with this called them monday morning, send to post same day. Wait till thursday, and gained new swisschamp. Again great and friendly cervice.

I talked with service a while and asked all kinds of questions, what oils they recommend etc. Wery friendly person.

Both times i had to fill form with my name, adress, and what has happened to it. Simple form that they emailed to me. Form had send in instructions on it. Very simple and easy service.

I find this to be utterly astonishing!       

[Crow]

So do i Wilfried, so do i.

[JAfromMn]

You just reminded me i got a spirit I got to send in for repairs.

[Lynn LeFey]

I sent in an Explorer with messed up Phillips and a check for $5 (presumably for shipping costs).

About 10 days later, the knife showed up in the mail, refurbished. Easy and painless.

That's my only experience with Vic's service. I was very happy.

[captain spaulding]

I might be the only one who had a bad experience with victorinox's warranty service. Im going to try and keep this real short and leave out all the details. Basically i bought a brand new swisstool. The sheath it came with was defective and the button would not work at all. I called and the woman on the phone was very rude. She told me "you could just buy a new sheath"  I told her sure I could, but i just spend $80 on a brand new tool that came with a defective sheath so theres no way in hell im spending another $10 to replace something that should be working properly in the first place. She said thats fine they just need to see the sheath to make sure im not pulling a fast one on them which I understand. She wanted me to pay for shipping. At this point I was pissed off and refused to pay for shipping of any kind and requested a shipping label. She told me they do not do that AT ALL.  I told her i would handle it myself. I wrote a e-mail to someone higher up in the company and explained everything to her. She promptly called me the next day and took care of everything. Free shipping label and free replacement sheath. Simple as that. This is how it should have been handled in the first place. In the end it turned out great, but if I was not persistent and went over the original CS representatives head to get better service I would have been very unhappy. 

[neillcurrie]

I've returned two knives, one to Wenger(a broken backspring), one to Vic(I've forgotten why), in the last 4 months. Both with checks for shipping of $3 and $5 respectively.
Both times I got a brand new knife pretty quickly. In the case of the Vic they "upgraded" the replacement from a Waiter to a Compact.
I was very happy.

[AdmSlc]

I sent my fishermen in to get the fish scaler fixed that have broken off.  I sent a check in for five
dollars and filled out the form. It took probably three weeks before I got it back.  I was very pleased with what I got back.


-AdmSlc

[sticktodrum]

I also had a somewhat negative experience with Vic's service. I sent them my Spirit RT because the plier head was really sloppy and loose. Lateral wiggle, couldn't cut a wire at all. Sent it in with the proper paperwork and payment, and very clear notation on what the issue was.

It came back over two months later, with an invoice with a question mark on it, and nothing at all had been done to the tool. Same exactl wobbly plier head that can't cut wire.

Meh. After that, I'm skeptical of their service on Swisstools. I'm sure they're awesome with SAKs, but it seems that Victorinox and plier heads have some terrible disconnect as far as how they should actually function.

[Crow]

There seems some good and some bad experiences around. Mine has been good sofar.
I thought that service and postage is free worldwide?

[deputy tom]

One of my old Spartans had a broken spring. I sent it to Victorinox USA and they replaced the spring and shipped back within a month. tom.

[Osos]

In Poland we have Victorinox serwis. Replaced the spring, handles or other damage that are subject of complaint is for free, and finished with in max.2 weeks.

Last year I send more difficult case - handles was melted, spring was cracked, instead tweezers, was toothpick, but knife was old advertisment knife from some swiss shop, with engraving on handle and main blade. So I wrote that I don't want new model, I want this one, but repaired. After 1,5 months, knife come back to me. It was sended to Swiss serwis.
They change handles, make same engraving on it, blades was from old one, new tweezers and toothpick + old handle was sand back.
All of it was made for free!
(sorry for my english)

[RT1969]

They change handles, make same engraving on it, blades was from old one, new tweezers and toothpick + old handle was sand back.
All of it was made for free!
(sorry for my english)

I like that they tried to recreate the original scales. So you get new scales with the look of the old ones. That is how customer service should be! 

And do not worry about your english. I am no natural speaker and I understood you completly. As long as your sentences make sense, we overlook the spelling errors. 

[bren10man]

In late 2006, I sent my wife's Deluxe Tinker (first Christmas present I ever got her) to USA VIC warranty service.  Apparently, it got too close to a stove, and the scales melted, warped, etc. One corner of one scale was broken off.  Knife was usable, but nasty to look at.

I got a package back about 2 months later before Christmas.  Did it include a Deluxe Tinker?  Nope.  Instead, a brand new pre-1986 Champion.  I seized control of the knife, and went to Cabella's and got her a Wenger EVO-16. 

I call that a FAIR trade!!!  LOL

[JAfromMn]

You just reminded me i got a spirit I got to send in for repairs.

I just finished packing up my spirit to go back to vic she'll get mailed out tomorrow.

[JAfromMn]

You just reminded me i got a spirit I got to send in for repairs.

I just finished packing up my spirit to go back to vic she'll get mailed out tomorrow.

Mailed

I hope Vic takes good care of my tool.

[Crow]

I am sure it comes pretty and fixed back to you. You must tell us how it went, when it arrives. What was problem with it?

[AdmSlc]

Of all of my warranty experience Leatherman is the best by far. The only issue I had with Victorinox was the didn't clean the entire knife. I felt like other blades that were not in need of a warrantee service weren't even cleaned by Victorinox.


-AdmSlc

[JAfromMn]

I am sure it comes pretty and fixed back to you. You must tell us how it went, when it arrives. What was problem with it?

the Phillips was shot and the main blade would somehow not lock.

Il let you know when she is home.

[JAfromMn]

I got a phone call from victorinox this morning asking me what I wanted to do.

seems that there are no black oxide tools to replace mine with so I guess I'm stuck with a sliver one.

it should be mailed back to me tomorrow.

still in bummed that its not gonna be a black tool.

[tosh]

I got a phone call from victorinox this morning asking me what I wanted to do.

seems that there are no black oxide tools to replace mine with so I guess I'm stuck with a sliver one.

it should be mailed back to me tomorrow.

still in bummed that its not gonna be a black tool.

Why couldn't they just repair it?? At worst you'd have had a mix of S/S and B/O tools AKA "Panda" model 
And still be  a genuine Vic' too!!

[JAfromMn]

I got a phone call from victorinox this morning asking me what I wanted to do.

seems that there are no black oxide tools to replace mine with so I guess I'm stuck with a sliver one.

it should be mailed back to me tomorrow.

still in bummed that its not gonna be a black tool.

Why couldn't they just repair it?? At worst you'd have had a mix of S/S and B/O tools AKA "Panda" model 
And still be  a genuine Vic' too!!

I didn't think of that   

I do remember them telling me that they wanted to replace it not fix it soo I didn't have alot of options.

its cool I got a excuses to hunt down the black spirit x I've been waiting for awhile now.

[SublimetalMsG]

Makes me wonder if I can home brew black oxide kits lol. I would like to know how to do it. I've read that there is a way to use heat for oxide to take. Also I read about cold coating. I don't know what's better I imagine the heated one. I think leatherman does cold not sure about Vic. Would like to know though just out of curiosity

[lowtech]

Black Oxide on Stainless is involving nasty chemicals and nasty fuems, it´something you should do in a professionally ventilated and controlled area with protective gear.

BO on non-SS can be done with cold blueing/BO Kits with varying succes based on prep work and alloy of teh steel. In most cases it won´t be real black.

On topic: My experiences with the Vic warranty are only the best.

[Aloha]

I didnt want to start a new thread so I'll post here.  My roomie is sending in her spirit but I found the process a bit odd and tedious.  My experience has been with Leatherman and its simple and straight forward.  Print out a form and mail in your broken tool making sure to either mark sentimental or not depending on if you want your exact tool back or not.  No money needs to be sent or online form filled out. 

Victorinox has an online form to fill out ( ok seems reasonable ) but they wanted a Creditcard #  .  I guess they aren't taking checks anymore as payment for "handling" or whatever its for.  I find this totally lame and so far as compared to Leatherman's process bothersome.  She sent a tool ( CS4 ) into Leatherman and received a new one within a week or so. No CC info, no lenghty form to fill out, super straight forward and best of all FAST service. 

I will update you as to what exactly happens as a call will be made by her asking why the CC# is needed and can she pay another way. 


@JA hows you spirit??  What happend eventually with the "fix". 

[JAfromMn]

You just reminded me i got a spirit I got to send in for repairs.

I just finished packing up my spirit to go back to vic she'll get mailed out tomorrow.

Mailed

I hope Vic takes good care of my tool.

my spirit should be back any day.

I got to tell you all.

they don't stock Bo tools in there us warehouse so I'm getting a shiny new one for my black one.

also it took 3 phone calls to get it back to me.

I'm almost thinking they would have put it on q shelf and forgot about it.

I'm not impressed with vics warranty service USA.

next time Il send it to its Swiss home.

[Aloha]

I was reading how they didn't have a BO one, screw that GET ONE VIC!!!!  Unacceptable that you had to call 3 flipping times no less  .  I love my vics but so far I'm not impressed at all as compared to LM warranty.  Its also lame how long they take, don't they know we need our tools.  If they have a NA Vic then we should get the same service as we'd get from the home land.  We'll see how this all plays out but I'll be sure to keep you all informed.     

[JAfromMn]

Still no spirit


I'm about ready to just let them keep it.


what a pain in the Smurf.

I wish I had the time to deal with them but there open only when I'm working.

sucks.

pm me if you think you can help.

I'm about ready to give up.

did I say it sucks yet

it really sucks. I would have been better off keeping my broken tool.

[captain spaulding]

I know it's frustrating, but just be patient. Did they inform you it was sent out and on the way to you? If so how long ago was that? Sorry your having such a hard time with this.

Look at it this way. At least its not what I went through with CRKT. Over three months of back and forth just to get the right pocket clip.