Best place to send Pioneers for repair?

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I have a couple red cross pioneers, each with their own issues- weakening main blade backsprings (when compared to new models), ground down blades, or broken awls.  I asked my local Asian Vic agent to quote me on the refurb/repair, but they quoted sky high on a few more knives but had no idea on the pioneers (although they had a high starting price).  I can't blame them, they are more of a commerical operation than a customer service operation.

So I have a few questions:

1.  I have a USA address in addition to my current residence, so would it be better to send them to Vic NA or Vic Swiss HQ for an alox refurb?
2.  Does Vic change weakening backsprings under warranty?
3.  How much does Vic charge for non warranty blade replacement on Pioneers?
4.  Is this a bad idea, will they send me new Pioneers instead (no no no)?

Thanks for the advice!

[playsguitars]

Er...don't Victorinox products come with a limited lifetime warranty? Would yours be covered since that sounds like an issue that has to do with general useage?

[gustophersmob]

Skip Vics US center.  I sent in a red pioneer to them twice to fix for the same issues you're having and all they did was clean it.  Finally gave it away on here.

I don't know if Vic in Switzerland would refurb or replace, it would be worth an email to them to find out.

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The Taipei office was less than helpful and now the Swiss office is referring me back to the Taipei office. 



Not so happy about Vic, the Taipei office only cares about high dollar stuff, they don't want to be bothered with the core products of Victorinox.

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I have decided to send them to the Swiss office to get the ball rolling, it seems smurffooting around is not really very effective.  I remember seeing someone linking to the correct Vic Warranty form, but I can no longer find it. Does anyone have such a link.  The best I could find was for cutlery, but I suppose it will do:

http://hosted.where2getit.com/victorinoxrepair/CutleryRepairForm.pdf

Cheers!

[papercut]

Sent them to Iback and got them back repaired!  Ibach is the place for alox repairs.

Use this knowledge only for good please.

[Marius]

 

Any photos before and after? It would be interesting to see.

 

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Before:

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After:





Basically they changed a few blades, and few other tools (lost the +Pat on the Elinox though) and got some snap back.  I sent them in mostly for new springs, but it is not clear they changed those, but many tools were replaced.  Two mangled brass keyrings were switched to the new nickel versions (which is not great lookswise, but better functionally). 

Pay special attention to how the fixed the bail and filled on the old holes.  Snazzy!  Also they kept the Elinox blade upon request and sharpened it up proper way (and buffed away stains).  It may be that they changes all the awls, they look very new. 

Again, only use this knowledge for good.  PM me for the repair bill. 

[Marius]

Excellent! Congrats that you finally got this solved to your satisfaction. Is great to see this.

[Ross]

Thanks great work - I am also pleased for you to get them fixed.

[rmagralha]

They did the exactly the same for my woodsman with old cross. They replaced the main blade only as the saw was ok and kept the same scales.

If they had some spare scales with the old cross would be great....at least for me, I know some people that like the used look of vintage alox....