Your thoughts on OneBlade

Michael P, I have a OneBlade that works flawlessly and used to be their biggest supporter. I agree with you that they created a very good razor. However, their execution and the way they have treated people over the past several months goes far beyond the issues that Andrew has faced.

In light of that, I stand by what I said 100%. At least the last 25 pages of this thread go through what I'm talking about.

You may have read all of this and if that is the case then we disagree, which is fine. I also appreciate that your response to me made your point, yet was written in a courteous manner.

Thank you, Pete123 One of the things that I really appreciate about DFS is the level of discourse here, and I feel strongly that disagreeing should not be done disagreeably.

We agree more than not: That they have (at least in the past) created a good-and innovative-razor. That they seriously dropped the ball on customer care issues and quality control in some cases.

The degree to which they've done so, and whether this is merely a stumble or if they've 'fallen and can't get up', for me, remains to be seen.

I haven't shaven with mine for a couple of weeks, and took it out yesterday morning for a shave: Another member gave me a GEM he had despined (this looks like a complicated procedure to me, which should tell you something about my mechanical skill) and I wanted to establish a baseline. I have been shaving with razors that require a bit more attention to technique: The SE Asylum Rx, the 74mm gap Wolfman and .94mm gap Timeless, for example. I'm always amazed at the shave the OB gives me with no attention to technique, and this last shave was no exception.

For selfish reasons, I hope they stay in business so they can honor their 'lifetimes' guarantee if anything goes wrong with the ones I have.

Thanks again.

Michael P , I woke up this morning feeling that I may have been a bit harsh with them. The way people treat each other other matters to me and I get upset when I perceive that isn't happening. I have a customer who bought something from me a couple of weeks ago. They have a tremendous work load and are very busy. They wanted a redundant solution from another company and asked me to spec out the exact same solution.

We didn't know it at the time, but the two providers handle one spec differently, which was going to cost the customer $15,k more over two years. In trying to figure it out I went to the customer a couple of times and was told to do it by the specs. We finally figured it out and provided a proposal with the option to provide savings and an explanation that on one spec read differently, but provided what they needed with a little more info so the customer can decide.

I get paid a percentage of the total revenue, thus I risked irritating the customer in order to save money for them and make less myself.

So, when I see how OneBlade has handled their quality issues, including the appearance that they knowingly sold defective razors, I get upset.

In my view, they adopted a risky process for manufacturing and supply chain in order to maximize profit. Of course all companies have to make a profit, though in this case it looks more like greed to me. When the risk showed its ugly head, which was exacerbated by the distance of the supply chain and order quantity needed to make the process work, it looks to me like they did their best to pass the problem to their customers rather than take responsibility.

Having said all of that, they really did invent a better mousetrap. A properly made OneBlade is the perfect razor for someone who has been on cartridges their whole life. From the beginning, their target market has been wealthy executives that have been using cartridges. There is nothing negative or greedy about choosing that target market.

I think this post does a much better job of explaining my points than the original one you commented. The one above was laced with anger. In hindsight, I wouldn't have worded it the way I did.

They seemed to make a pretty big deal of hitting 4000 units sold and my estimate was that was the break-even for them recovering the $1 million of R&D. Its hard to know since they run so many promotions, but in general the retail markup is 100%. That being said, it looks like they became very greedy recently by cutting corners on quality and selling a product that does not live up to the marketing. I would like to see them go back to producing a quality product so that I can get one. I wish I would have bought one last Christmas when they didn't have theses issues, but I'll keep waiting. If it doesn't look like this gets sorted out, I won't buy one.

I guesstimate their cost at $100 per razor based on everything I've read. They sell directly, so they don't have a need to discount so the retailer can make a profit as well.

I think the issue I have with them is their profit motive, which is a good thing, has gone past the point of being good in the way I view the world.

They seemed to make a pretty big deal of hitting 4000 units sold and my estimate was that was the break-even for them recovering the $1 million of R&D.  Its hard to know since they run so many promotions, but in general the retail markup is 100%.  That being said, it looks like they became very greedy recently by cutting corners on quality and selling a product that does not live up to the marketing.  I would like to see them go back to producing a quality product so that I can get one.  I wish I would have bought one last Christmas when they didn't have theses issues, but I'll keep waiting.  If it doesn't look like this gets sorted out, I won't buy one.

Really? $1 million for r&d on a razor? Some people are gullible....

I created an account to chime in. I'm the guy who posted on Shavenook who received 2 replacement razors (in addition to the original, making a total of 3 razors) with a blade smile, and I was told that this is an intentional feature of the razor.

Obviously, I was not happy to find out that, after all of that, I was receiving faulty razors as I had suspected. Honestly, it was still a great razor, but it wasn't very efficient and I thought the smile was the problem (the blade gap in the middle of the smile is very small). I still used the smiling razor, though.

I just received and shaved with the new design. It is much better. There is no smile. There is a "float" to the blade as previously hinted by Andrew. This basically means that, instead of being too tight and making the blade smile, this design is about 0.05mm too loose and the blade can move around. The shave is exceptional, though. It is vastly more efficient.

I would say that I am happy. It took 3 months to get to this point, but to be fair they didn't have any non-faulty razors to give me in the intervening time, and the smiling oneblade was still my favorite razor and is now my second favorite.

I think the conspiracy theories on here might be a bit too far. They made a mistake. It took time to figure it out and fix it. It is an excellent razor.

Thanks,
Will

That floating blade is an interesting concept. It seems like so many other companies are going in the opposite direction to make the blade more rigid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I created an account to chime in. I'm the guy who posted on Shavenook who received 2 replacement razors (in addition to the original, making a total of 3 razors) with a blade smile, and I was told that this is an intentional feature of the razor.

Obviously, I was not happy to find out that, after all of that, I was receiving faulty razors as I had suspected. Honestly, it was still a great razor, but it wasn't very efficient and I thought the smile was the problem (the blade gap in the middle of the smile is very small). I still used the smiling razor, though.

I just received and shaved with the new design. It is much better. There is no smile. There is a "float" to the blade as previously hinted by Andrew. This basically means that, instead of being too tight and making the blade smile, this design is about 0.05mm too loose and the blade can move around. The shave is exceptional, though. It is vastly more efficient.

I would say that I am happy. It took 3 months to get to this point, but to be fair they didn't have any non-faulty razors to give me in the intervening time, and the smiling oneblade was still my favorite razor and is now my second favorite.

I think the conspiracy theories on here might be a bit too far. They made a mistake. It took time to figure it out and fix it. It is an excellent razor.

Thanks,
Will

Will, I'm glad you are here and hope we'll hear more from you. I can't say that I have seen any conspiracy theories in this thread. I would describe what I have read more as people calling out a company exhibiting negative behavior. In my view, OneBlade advising you that a high priced luxury razor is supposed to have a defect is negative behavior.

I don't know. A floating blade doesn't sound like a good concept to me at all, but if it works it works I guess. I just know I wouldn't want the blade moving side to side while shaving. Sounds dangerous.