Documented here is a picture of a Spyderco Paramilitary2 in M4 blade steel that has a deformed lockbar on the liner. The owner reports having vertical blade play and sent in his knife to Spyderco expecting it to be fixed or replaced.
Spyderco sent his knife back and it still has vertical blade play with a response claiming that the knife is by all accounts, the way it is supposed to be.
For the guys that argue that you are buying a blade for its warranty; this is quite a warranty policy you got there. Why not just make your product correctly the first time so I don't have to deal with customer service at all? Wouldn't that be a better approach?
If I have to pick up the phone, or send an email regarding a defect in the product, it's an auto-fail in my book. I'd rather just not have a warranty, and you can take 50% off of my order.
All I have to say is that my Chinese Paramilitary2 clone in titanium handles, and bearings does not have vertical blade play, no warranty, and only cost me $40ish.
Even with a titanium lockbar/liner (like on the clone that I have), it does not deform like this, and I know that titanium is quite soft, and probably should deform at some point, but on his, it's a steel liner. It should be able to take the abuse that it's marketed as being able to take. Spyderco should fix this, but refuses to.
This original poster has saved me about $110 as I no longer have any want for buying an authentic Spyderco Paramilitary2, not with this quality control fail, and certainly not with this failure by their customer service.