viewtopic.php?f=5&t=88169
I was never a huge Cold Steel fan but liked what I owned for them. Which, at the time, was a few of their south african made machetes and a pair of large Voyagers I eventually gifted to co-workers at an old security job.
With that announcement I took another look at their offerings, thinking that may be my last chance to snag some models before quality dropped.
Since that post in 2020 I've bought multiple SRK's, SRK Compacts, and Recon Tantos. I think I originally paid $40 shipped for a compact off ebay, and between $45 & $50 for the two larger models. For that price I figured why not try all three sizes and see which worked best for me?
All of them arrived essentially perfect, save for my last SRK, and OD green model.
The knife itself looked great as you can see. Black and green is my favorite color combo, so I was really excited to buy the SRK & Compact in this configuration.
However, when I drew the knife out of the sheath, it required a lot of force. At least 10 times the force my others took to unsheath.
I inspected the sheath a little closer and realized it shipped to me bent near the opening. You can see my users sheath on top with paracord and the new sheath on bottom with the bend.
I contacted customer service by email using the form on their website.
Waited a week, no response. Wasn't looking good.
So I tried calling their customer service, and the lady I spoke to was incredibly helpful. Her name was Caralyn B.
Often in these sorts of situations I get a response like "send XYZ email address additional info and we'll get back to you when we get back to you."
Caralyn insisted I email her the required info while she kept me on the line because she wanted to get things handled then and there.
So I re-send the order receipt, the photo of the sheath I posted above, describe the issue etc.
She says typically they'd do a return for the entire product and replace everything, not just the sheath, but when she searched the OD Green SKU it was out of stock.
As I mentioned this is my favorite color combo so I didn't want to exchange for another black, or a tan one. I asked her if it was possible to just return the sheath for a new one. All SRK's except the limited run orange use the same color sheath so I figured it was worth asking.
She said she'd check with her supervisor.
She came back and said keep the knife and sheath, we're sending you a brand new SRK with sheath instead of having me return it for a different color.
I know it's not a super expensive model but I was surprised at how generously they took care of me as a customer. I thanked her multiple times and told her I'd mention this fantastic customer service on a few websites, because I really appreciated the positive interaction.
In fact, I'm going to order another one of these today.
Seems like Cold Steel is in good hands still. The performance of my newer colored handled SRK's and SRKC's seems identical to my older black SK5 models as far as the knives go. I found a site selling the compact for $27 and the SRK for $31, and at those prices they're an incredible value for a simple no frills work horse.
