First SAK for my oldest son

[macabee]

IMO a good first SAK for a youngster would be the DofE [Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme] SAK which has a good range of tools, but the knife blade has a rounded tip making it a lot safer for a first timer. It is mostly available from UK retailers.

[kirk13]

TG24,I know this aint a propper solution,but might help to put a smile back on TGjnrs face
http://www.edenwebshops.co.uk/en/pt/-victorinox-children-s-folder.htm

[bren10man]

I wanted a Champion when I saw it listed in JC Penny's 1980 Christmas Catalog.  I was 8.  Parents said "NO!  Too expensive!!".   I bought one 6 years later when I was 14...and now, I have at least 5, and have lost 2 (including, sadly, the 1st one, and it was stolen..DRAT!!).   

Instead, I got a cheap Japanese knock-off.  I have it, somewhere..........haven't seen it in years.  The corkscrew broke and the cross label on the scale fell off (yep, cheap).  But, it WORKED for an 8 year old kid in Cub Scouts!!!

My two girls will get SAKs at around 10, I think.   

[Top-Gear-24]

So, time for an update ...

Wednesday I called back to the Belgian Victorinox importer (tuesday they told me that the would look into it and call me back the same day, but like I suspected, they dind't, so I called them the next day ...).

And after a 40 minute phone-call ( ) I learned that one of them (the importer or the local store) had been lying to me.  Here's what both sides told me :

Store says that they ordered my two Spirits begin September.

Importer says they have not seen an order from my store untill 03 October, when they ordered a Spirit X (small coincidence ... I called the store on the 3th of October, a little annoyed, to ask if there was any news about the Spirits I ordered ... ).

Store says they haven't heard anything about my son's knife (My First Vic)

Importer says they received the broken "My First Vic" and send it to Switzerland, and the very same day they send another one back to the store.  They also said that the store suggested to send this knife back when they placed another order, but the importer told them that this would take too long, so they send it out that very day (25th August).

Store says they never received a replacement knife for my son.

Store says that the importer won't answer their phone-calls
I called them twice, and both times they answered right away.

So, Thursday after work I went to the store and asked them if there was any news on my Spirits or my son's knife.  Off course the person who was responsible for the Victorinox orders wasn't there, apparently she only works on tuesdays ... (wish I could say the same  ).   But the woman at the counter thought she had seen a delivery from Victoronix (I get my hopes up, briefly ...), but she couldn't find the delivery ...

Than she tried to get rid of me by saying that the order was placed and that they could only wait untill the importer delivered it.  She tried to find some paperwork on the orders they placed but couldn't find anything, not even the copy from the order form that I got from them when I ordered my 2 spirits.

Time for me to tell the nice lady that I spend 40 minutes on the phone with the importer where they told another story.  That they had never received an order untill the 3th of October, and that they send a new "My first Vic" back on the 25th of August ... The nice lady starts searching in her files and paperwork and after 2 minutes or so she says she can't find anything, but that she would ask her colleague to call me back on tuesday.  Than she realized that she wouldn't be at work herself on tuesday, so she wrote my information on a post-it and placed it with a bunch of other post-its under the keyboard of her computer, and told me once again that her colleague would call me back on tuesday ...  I wasn't so sure about that  .

So, again I can test my patience to see if someone calls me next tuesday, or not ...

But I must say that I'm starting to get the feeling that the importer is trying to do a good job, but that there's something going very wrong at my local store, I even asked the importer if there was another store near my home (I told her I wouldn't mind driving an hour or so) where they have Spirits in stock, but apparently nobody in Belgium wants to buy Swisstools or Spirits ... except me of course  .

(again, my apologies for any mistakes I typed, and for my rambling, but I have to get this off my chest  .  And if there"s one group of people who would understand my frustration in this whole ordeal, it's you guys  )

[ICanFixThat]

Wow!! That is one very sad story.  I really hope on Tuesday you get some good news.  If the girl only works one day a week it's no wonder things get lost and they don't know what is going on.

I really hope it turns out nice.  I'll second the suggestion of the DofE-Tool.  Maybe buy that model if you can track it down and keep it for a year after your son got his first vic back.  It will be an exciting update.  They may not be available for much longer though so that is why I suggest getting one while you can and keeping it for later.

It's great your supporting the local store, but man they better shape up.  Crossing fingers things work out well.

[Neil]

What a pile of dingos kidneys 

I say sod the local store and buy elsewhere next time!

[Top-Gear-24]

An update on the situation ...

Yesterday I got a text message from the store, saying that the new "my First Vic" for my son arrived at the store, so today I went there to pick it up (and because it was Tuesday today, I hoped to speak to the lady who orders their Victorinox stuff).

Well, my son now has a brand new First Vic (and a BIG smile on his face, which makes me happy as well  ).
The lady responsible for the Victorinox orders was there and she showed me the envelope in which the new knife arrived, and it was posted on Friday, the 7th of October, so just a few days after I started making some noise, coincidence ... ?  Maybe  .

Sadly, no news about the 2 Spirits I ordered, guess I still have to test my patience some more.

And after all this waiting and hoping that my new tools would arrive soon, I wanted to buy me something right now, so I decided that I would buy myself a black Supertool 300, to give me something for my patience, but guess what ...

No black Supertool 300 in stock, but they can order it for me (NOOOOOOO ....  ).

So I drove to another outdoor-shop near my home, and again, guess what ... no black Supertool in stock ...

I'm starting to think that I must be the only person in my country who buys more than one Multitool, or who wants to buy something else instead of a Leatherman Wave or Charge (the only tools that are widely available here).  So it seems my back-up plan (Black Supertool 300) will also take quite some time, and all I wanted was to go to a store, buy myself a nice black Supertool 300 to drool over untill my Spirit(s) arrive(s) (I doubt I will ever get my black Spirit this way, so I'm preparing myself for the fact that I will only get a Spirit X through the official Importer).

So, once again my appologies for my rambling (it's a bit like therapy for me) and for any mistakes I typed here, I'll keep you guys posted  .

P.S. If Leatherman or Victorinox would like to have a Belgian Importer who actually wants to sell and promote their stuff, please contact me by PM  .

[Gareth]

Well, it's great to hear your son is happy , just a shame about the rest of it.

[Mr. Whippy]

I can't understand that business model: Give the customer whatever you feel like, in a time frame measured in geologic time.


Very bizarre.

[Top-Gear-24]

If all goes well, I'll have a black Supertool 300 this friday, fingers crossed ...

And about the Vic Spirits, I'll be glad if I have one of them by Christmas  .

[Top-Gear-24]

Went to my local outdoorshop (not the one where I bought the "first Vic" for my son ...) to pick up my BO Supertool 300  .  A few days ago I also went there but they didn't have it, so I called the Belgian Leatherman Importer with one simple question: "where can I buy a black Supertool 300 ? " ...

I told the lady on the phone in which town I lived and she looked for shops near my home that might have the BO ST300, and she came up with the store that I visited the day before (which didn't have the BO ST 300).  I told her this and she suggested that she could send one along with an order for that store that was going to be send out the next day, so I would have it in my hands on friday.

And she kept her word,  so I must say that, this time, the Belgian Leatherman Importer provided great service  .

You can find some pictures here: http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,32051.0.html

And before I forget, last week I got a phonecall from the Belgian Victorinox importer, and they just wanted to know if I received the new "First Vic" they send to the store, and she also told me that my Vic Spirits should arrive at the end of October (if the black one was still available in Switzerland, else it would only be the Spirit X).  Fingers crossed ...

Looks like both companies made an effort this time, let's see if they can keep it up  .

[Neil]

Finally some light at the end of the tunnel. 

[Gareth]

Businesses that actually want to take your money?  Will wonders never cease?    Nice to hear they're doing something right.

[Top-Gear-24]

So, time for a small update,

Last week I called the Victorinox importer again to ask if there was any news on my Spirits, the man on the other side knew nothing about this, but he would ask his colleague and let her call me back the same day, or the day after.  So, 4 days later I hadn't heard anything and decided to call back myself, again I had to explain the whole story to the person on the other side and then he told me that he had to check his computer first, and after a few minutes he told me they send a Spirit X to my local store, and it should arrive on monday this week.

And again, nothing happened, still no Spirit X for me ...

I'm thinking about telling them to stick it where the sun don't shine (pardon my language) and buy myself another Leatherman ... I think I have waited long enough, I ordered these Spirits around the 18 of August, and we're now almost half November and still nothing ...

And on top of that, my computer died on me, so now I'm using an ancient laptop with a stunning 256 mb RAM, which freezes when he sees my own avatar moving around ... so no more lurking around here to "ease the pain" either ... Maybe I should just keep the money I wanted to spend on these Spirits and invest it in a new computer  .

[Gareth]

I almost can't believe the amount of trouble you've had with this.   Sadly I have to deal with various suppliers every week and it really isn't that incredible.  Inexcusable perhaps, but not incredible.

[Neil]

I think you've now done your duty as far as supporting local stores.  If their service is that bad they don't deserve to stay in business.

[Top-Gear-24]

After they missed an other delivery date, I decided that it was enough so I cancelled the order and invested the money (and some "extra" money ...) in a brand new Toshiba laptop ...

So now I'm back in business 

[Gareth]

I almost can't believe the run-around you've had over this lot.  

Anyway, how's the new laptop?

[Top-Gear-24]

I almost can't believe the run-around you've had over this lot.  

Anyway, how's the new laptop?

Shame about the two Spirits I ordered ... but the new laptop is awesome 

Off course, coming from an 8 year old pc with 1gig RAM anything new would be a major improvement, the last 3 weeks or so I even used my 12 year old laptop with 256 mb RAM, and loading a topic took about 10 minutes, if it didn't stall on me before the page was open ... (frustrating  ).  So I'm a very happy surfer now ...  .