Monday, September 04, 2006

Knitpicks Options (first thoughts)

Literally as I was walking out the door for the airport to head to Minneapolis last week my package of Knitpicks Options arrived that I ordered for my birthday. Now since I've been back I've been incredibly focused on the Big Move so I haven't had much of a chance to play with them. Yesterday, Paul was very sick and spent most of the day in bed. I couldn't do much else so I decided to get the needles out and give them a try. Well, I have to admit I'm off to a rocky start. I really like the weight, balance and sharpness of the needle tips, however I'm a little disappointed in the cables.

I ordered 3 packs
(2 cables per pack) of different cable lengths and 3 of 6 do not screw into the needles properly. One cord you can visually see the damage to the threads (how did that get past Quality Assurance?). Two cords do not have visual damage, but refuse to go all the way to the bottom at the same place on both. I've tried multiple needle tips.

I left a message for Knitpicks customer service (as they are closed in honor of Labor Day -- that's labour without the "u") and I hope to hear from them tomorrow. I hope they send me new cords for free without making me return the old ones. Although I don't see that happening. I'm sure I'll have to pay some sort of duty or tax or whatnot to return $8 worth of cables. Sigh!

EDIT: Since I didn't hear from knitpicks yesterday, I gave them another call today (Wednesday 9/6). My interaction with customer service was... strange. I felt like I had to guess what information she wanted from me (plus she had a runny nose and she kept sniffing the snot back into her head. Gross!) which made me overcompensate with blathering niceness. Why I reacted this way I cannot say, but that's how I responded. Short story is that they are replacing my order for free and I don't have to send the broken cables back.

And there was great rejoicing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am a little nervous about ordering the Options needles now! THis is the third story I have heard of broken cables and bad joins. I have been a faithful customer of KnitPicks since they became their own yarn perveyors, but had a horrendous experience with customer service a few months back and shudder at the thought of having to repeat that. I have placed a yarn order and am now contemplating a needle order. do you feel it is worth the risk?