I first ordered a knife from Swisstool in mid 2015. It turned up quickly.

I ordered a second the following week, then found an alternative in a different colour on another site, and used their contact form to ask them to cancel it. I got a nice email back from a chap called Steven who said it was no problem and, he took care of it immediately.

We then got into an email chat about where I could get replacement scales (handles) for a knife I'd had for 30 years, and Steven was again very helpful, giving the details of the Victorinox distributor who he thought might be able to help me. He also seemed to know his stuff.

In 2016 I needed to replace a knife I'd lost. I ordered one from Swisstool, and it turned up quickly, but I wasn't a fan of the colour. I emailed them to let them know I'd like to return it, but got no reply. A couple of weeks later I tried the online contact form. Again, no reply.

Now, I felt this was out of character, so thought that perhaps I was dealing with a very small company and that perhaps Steven had some big "life" issues to deal with and the business had had to take a back seat (e.g. A death). I tried again a few weeks later, but still got no reply. I couldn't get through on the phone either (I tried a few times).

This was a bummer but not the end of the world. I decided to write it off and move on.

Then, last week, I wanted a new knife, and couldn't find anybody who stocked it other than Swisstool. That's how I ended up on this review site, and I thought "hmmm, perhaps I'm not alone". I decided to give Swisstool one last shot; at least they'd always sent me what I'd ordered, even if I couldn't get hold of them later.

The knife took 2 days to arrive, so today I decided to ring the number on the web site.

Steven picked up after 2 rings, and I explained I'd been trying to get in touch, and that I'd wanted to swap a knife that I'd bought 6 months earlier. He asked me my name so he could look up my order history, asked which knife it was, and then asked what I'd like to swap it for (which is a knife with costs £20 more).

Steven said he'd send the new knife out with a pre-paid envelope in which I could return the original, to save me the postage. In other words, I got first class customer service. There was no debate, and he didn't make feel even slightly guilty for asking to return it 6 months late. It was the epitome of the "absolutely, that's no problem at all" customer service experience.

Once this was all sorted I mentioned I'd checked for reviews of Swisstool online, and that others had said they'd had no reply to their messages. Perhaps they had a communication problem (e.g. Emails aren't getting through, or there's a badly configured spam filter). I believe Steven when he said he wasn't aware of any such issues. He said he'd get in touch with the people who handle the email and ask whether they could find my earlier email, to see what might have happened to it.

Given how helpful he was today, I do wonder whether he's been getting everybody's messages. He suggested I should phone, as they're always available on the phone. I said I'd tried and failed last year (multiple times), but perhaps the ******* number on the site is the first thing to try if you want to get in touch with them.

If this new knife doesn't turn up in the next few days, I'll be sure to come back here and say so!

And I hope this story is helpful to people.

(Reviewed by request)

There seemed to be a few moans about the service here, going back a few years. Not enough to call it a scam or anything at that level, just some unhappy customers. Then I found a bunch more, and more recently, here:

http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.swisstool.co.uk

There does seem to be an awful lot happening at this address. The parent company is called The Maybe Group, coincidentally also at this address, and their director is listed as one Hamid Moosavi, whose email address is at swisstool.co.uk and coincidentally also turns up as the address for Mr. Moosavi in his alter ego as technical contact for a site called bsgoa.com, the home of Bruce Smith's Gallery Of Amazements. Mr. Smith, a magician of repute, has a site created by Mr Moosavi and would have no other connection to this but for his email address, which is also listed as belonging to swisstool.co.uk, which I think we can speculate is run by the busy Mr. Moosavi. This led to finding Maybe Design Studio, Internet Web Design & Development company, in the same building as swisstool, along with Maybe Toys toys and games, M T Moosavi & Co Accountants, P A News Centres, Newsagents and off license, and The Streatham Bed Company. There's a photo of the storefront here if you're curious:

http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz_photos/RM9KNMPi5K4RM9ucIdlrAA?select=cFNBZ3fy8-_TOJAKAL-PrA

And according to the local authority the building also includes four apartments. Wow. So, a regular hive of activity, and given all that accounting and toy and game and bed sales and web design and newsagency, no wonder poor old swisstool gets a bit behind, sometimes. And that's important to knife enthusiasts, who are collectors of equal status to, say, numismatists or philatelists and, given the nature of their collections, are probably best not angered.