Sorry guys, I am going to sound a bit grumpy here, but here is my problem: what is the purpose of the Benchmade Information & Announcement section of this forum if they don't announce d**k! I mean, shouldn't we hear from them about the new limited editions and gold class models BEFORE they show up on eBay or on the "For sale" section of this forum?
On a broader aspect, what is the purpose of a knife company running its own forum if it does not communicate through it? Benchmade should get some inspiration (again?) from Spyderco with the way they run their own forum: that company, very often through the owner himself, makes announcements about upcoming releases and openly discusses ideas with the forum members.
What a difference with this forum: here they DELETE a whole thread because it contains a promise they made publicly and that they cannot keep.
Also, the Benchmade website itself could not be more useless: most of the latest releases are not listed and with the demise of the "hall of fame" it does not serve as a reference for past models either.
One may wonder if this is a deliberate strategy to confuse us, releasing products confidentially through one dealer or another, or if it is just plain incompetence.
I am sure everyone will have their say on this subject, me, I do not really care about Benchmade anymore...
By the way, the 907-91 is available on BladeHQ.

because they run a knife company that actually makes knives.
maybe they don't have time to play around and "chat" on the puter everyday. LOL

I completely understand where the OP is going with this.. The forum is a great way to communicate with US, the consumers, and besides putting out an occasional fire here BM corp has little to do with this forum. You see I also spend time at the spyderco forums and yes, its nice to see that Sal is constantly interacting with the members and posting info and requesting ideas about new products but that is not how BM runs they're company and the key word is THEY'RE company.. Could BM do a better job getting out announcements about upcoming LE's and Gold class releases, absolutely yes and I don't think they would argue with you on that one.. BM is hands down, no questions asked the finest in the business when you talk about products and Customer service and thats is truly whats most important. Yes, we would all love the opportunity to offer up input on upcoming models and new releases but its not gonna happen so lets enjoy the mere fact that BM does have this forum for us to hang out, buy and sell they're products and discuss what we like most about them, they're incredible knives. Every company has they're challenges and perhaps down the road BM may get more involved with us here but please dont ruin a great thing here. And for the record I think the recent deleting of posts and old threads etc was literally a dump to free up some bandwidth here.

And darko I wouldn't be surprised if spyderco is as big or even bigger than BM is..

quote:

Originally posted by knife_junky:


And darko I wouldn't be surprised if spyderco is as big or even bigger than BM is..

w/e

its their - not they're

Spyderco has a lot A LOT of their models manifactured in Japan. Made to order, they don't need to stop their regular production in Colorado to produce another sprint run of different color zytel handled Delica. While BM doesn't outsource their product, except for most of the Red Boxes, but that was a given from the start. It takes much more effort to produce a limited run at the cost of freezing regular production. IMO of course.

I never understood posts like the original post. If another company has what you need or offers what you want, then go with them. If I want interaction with an owner of a knife company I know which forum to go to. If I want sprint runs with the latest steel I know which company to buy from. If I want the best locking system on a folder paired up with top notch construction and materials I know where to go.

Go with what suits you, that is best thing to do. Whining about a company on it's own forum because it does not measure up to some standards you have arbitrarily set for it, that is just petty.

Just so you know I'm not typing this to be an a-hole as I have nothing against you. I'm just as tired of seeing these types of posts here as I am tired of seeing posts asking for an Axis lock spyderco over on their forums.

Looking forward to seeing you over at the spyder foums if you're done posting here.

My bad grammar is not my strong suit..

quote:

Originally posted by darko:

quote:

Originally posted by knife_junky:


And darko I wouldn't be surprised if spyderco is as big or even bigger than BM is..

w/e

its their - not they're

quote:

Go with what suits you, that is best thing to do. Whining about a company on it's own forum because it does not measure up to some standards you have arbitrarily set for it, that is just petty.

I disagree, I think this is the exact place to whine about the company and if Benchmade was smart they would constantly monitor the form for suggestions as to how their company is doing in the mind of the consumers....

...as you said they do offer a top notch product and service...but that does not mean they are the Jesus of corporate America...they're are always ways for a company to improve...and a forum, where the company interacts with consumers is a great tool to learn from.

In addition we have probably all heard of the 80/20 rule...well while the ratio may be somewhat exaggerated, that is not to say that people in this forum and other knife forums consume a large percentage of all products BM produces...why they are not advertising NPA to the forum is ridiculous, it is a simple and efficient move for their business to do such a thing.

Guys, I agree with most of the points you're making. Especially the new product announcement part, but you're missing one very important aspect of all of this. Per Benchmade this forum was created for us, the BM knuts to communicate, not for the BM-consumer interaction. It was said so many times. Most companies don't have any announcement system in place, at least being on the board we have a better chance of getting the news.

Nothing personal dude, but are you complaining about Benchmade to us, or complaining to Benchmade? I'm just not sure what you hope to accomplish here.