Thread: Brand New Dovo Razor Chips! Help!

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

They were just looking for ways to blame you for what happened and hoped you would just go away.

What makes you say that?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Very poor customer service though.

He is not a customer. The business relationship is between him and whoever sold him that razor. Not him and Dovo. Bit like buying a Mercedes in the US, then contacting Daimler in Stuttgart - why would you do that?

Originally Posted by Lynn

Most of the time unless a blade is really dinged, it is not a big problem to fix the little chips or damage that is done.

Well, I have seen and owned only a fraction of the numbers you give, but still more than the casual customer. I have yet to see proof of the wild allegations made against Dovo.

A prime example is this abomination of a thread, in which the inventor of all things shaving, the great and colourful J*el, calls all new Dovos "high priced - crap quality razors" (New Dovo's - POS'? - Badger & Blade). Funnily enough, he never named the retailer (although B&B prides itself of denouncing vendors publicly as part of their board culture), nor did he post pictures.

Oh yeah. Nowhere in that endless, mindless thread did anyone explain to me what the exact legal requirements in the US are for filing a complaint with a manufacturer when the business relationship is between you and the retailer.

In short:

1. I do not believe any of these allegations. A razor's edge is as brittle as glass, and similarly fragile. Especially the hollow ground Dovos. A little pressure will go a long way as far as chipping is concerned.
2. Even if the razor were faulty, you would have to settle that problem with whoever sold you that razor.
3. The one time I approached Dovo direct (having been introduced by a retailer), they were friendly and helpful.

I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but it strikes me as odd that threads such as this occur on US boards. I did a quick survey on a German board, and nobody could confirm the problems described by the OP in this thread and various straight shaving "professionals" over at B&B.

And no, I do not work for Dovo. Nor do I work for a retailer. I just happen to like Dovo razors, and especially my SRD 6/8 Bismarck, the latter being so good that I just traded my Le Grelot 6/8 1/4 hollow.

I cannot say whether it was defective or not but I do know that it is rather easy to damage an edge by accident. Especially on a hollow ground razors.

Their strop excuse is a bit of a cop-out though. They should have asked for a picture instead of the strop itself. I have seen this with some retailers too btw. In their mind, Dovo is the be-all-end-all of shaving, and nothing can ever be as good as Dovo

Originally Posted by Bruno

They should have asked for a picture instead of the strop itself.

Well, it's been a few days since this thread was started. The original poster still has a post count of 1. I am still waiting for her to present proof (ie pictures). Without pictures, this has never happened for all I care.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I have seen this with some retailers too btw. In their mind, Dovo is the be-all-end-all of shaving, and nothing can ever be as good as Dovo

I would be most wary of any retailer pushing one product only. No matter if it's Dovo, TI, Böker, Puma... you name it. However, in my personal experience, Dovo razors are exceptionally good, and their QA has got excellent over the last couple of years.

A year or 2 ago I was sorting through the Dovo collection at Taylor of Old Bond Street in Londen, and I was rather disappointed in the pinning and the general quality of the scales.

I cannot make a judgement on their general blade quality, and perhaps 12 or so razors don't qualify as a statistically significant sample group, but 'exceptionally good' is not the adjective I'd use.

there is NO way that proper stropping of a blade would chip it, or case a chip to fall off....actually, i take that back....you might have the only blade in the universe that has ever, and will ever do that.....

with the edge of a shave ready blade being so fine, its possible to accidentally catch the edge on the strop itself and chip it, its also possible to flip the blade over and bump it on a metal lug on the strop and not necessarily realise it, its possible...and i could go on and on and on.....

i can completely understand why dovo would ask you to send the strop - if, as you claim, the damage was done by stropping, they could very easily detect improper stropping technique leading to razor damage based on markings on the strop itself (thereby voiding their very reasonable warranty).

further, with regard to warranty claim, i would upload a pic here first, and there are a lot of people who could give a quick summation of whether re-honing would resolve the problem.

assuming the damage isnt actually that bad, but its enough to make the razor no longer shave ready, suggest you simply send it out to Lynn or someone else you are comfortable with, and have it made shave ready for you again. alternatively, if you are really unhappy with dovo, feel free to send it to me and i will enjoy it on your boyfriend's behalf.

as a side note, it seems a lot of people have been bagging dovo a bit recently. my experience with them has only ever been positive and i have been purchasing new razors from their resellers consistently over the past 10 years.

Originally Posted by bigbadbike2

I recently (2 months ago) purchased a DOVO as well and a chip came out of it while stropping. The company (DOVO), after blaming me for improper stropping, asked for me to ship the razor along with my strop before considering upholding the warrantee. I refused to send my strop across the world, first because I need it to shave and second thinking it would be ruined in the process. I did express that the strop was an Heirloom strop hand made by Anthony Miller who is highly regarded. They replied that since the strop is not a DOVO strop it does not maintain the correct quality and could have caused the chipping. Everyone who has used an Heirloom strop knows that they are top quality and it has never chipped any other razor I own. Since DOVO refuses to uphold its guarantee and has disrespected me in such a manor, I will never own ANYTHING from this company again.

-LCT

BTW It took four emails, one quite nasty from me, and speaking to three different people before getting to that point.

i find it "interesting" that your first post on this forum involves you coming out swinging at dovo.....

Okay gents, I think we need to simmer down here. There are two things at play - the OP, obviously a very caring a loving girlfriend is new here and needs some advice about the razor she got for her boyfriend. A picture would be really helpful, but I think we need to not scare her off with broad claims that the boyfriend must have done something wrong. Let's not jump to conclusions here, and let's do our gentlemanly best to help out the lady who is trying to do good by her boyfriend.

The other issue is with a follow-up poster leaning into Dovo - and while a perfectly valid topic of conversation, I don't think we should do it in a thread where the OP actually needs help.

Let's not try to scare new members away here...right?

Just my $0.02

Mark

Originally Posted by Milton Man

Let's not try to scare new members away here...right?

I agree. The other discussion belongs elsewhere

Martita I hope you will contact the vendor if you haven't already to see what they can do for you

Too early to say anything yet. Until pic;s shows up then will be a lot easier to guide you.
Lastly It is really not a big deal to fix chips.
Just make sure your boyfriend strop it right.Not to hit sinks so on.( Or he will have chips always)