Nothing will change that I loved my Safe Skies Cable Lock — but sadly, I now have to report that this lock has failed me. It reached its limit, so I have a use warning for you now.
The combo numbers still slide fabulously. The lock still looks almost brand new, even after using this lock daily for about 1 year and 5 months and even more when you add intermittent low use, for about 9 months after that heavy use.
I used this lock so much, opening and closing it several times a day for most of those 17 months.
However, one day months ago, during the low use time, while sliding the lock open, it failed me and it is no longer usable.
For security reasons, I will not report the failure or post a photo. But I do have a lesson to share.
I just need to warn you all that if your cable gets cramped or compromised in any way, to be ready with a new lock.
I strongly recommend that you only unlock it from the front. Do not twist it into a better position to unlock it.
I didn’t count how many more times I was able to use this lock, but I do know that I wish I’d bought a new lock immediately.
I am happy to report that trying to repeat this failure, and break it on purpose, I cannot easily to do. I do still feel this is a very good, safe and convenient lock.
Sadly, the company’s Customer Service person was angry with me for wanting to send them photos of the failure. As a tech person, press, and software/product beta tester, I consider this an important thing to do. They may too: they ask the locks be sent back to them. However, I am in Israel at this point so I thought sending the photos that I painstakingly took was a generous, good idea. Customer Service man was simply bothered by the idea of this.
About Safe Skies Lock replacement
I feel I got very good use out of my Safe Skies Cable Lock, so when I phoned them I wasn’t looking for a free replacement. However, when Customer Service guy told me immediately on my first call, that they will send me a replacement no matter where I am, I was impressed and thrilled.
The catch: You have to mail the broken lock back to them. Of course it is nice that they want to inspect it for failure — but when you are traveling, this is simply not viable. This is why I warn you to buy a new lock as soon as your lock appears compromised.
My upset is that the first time I called Customer Service man NEVER said that I had to return the lock! I’d said it failed and he said: no problem, we replace failed locks.
I was concerned with not costing them shipping to Israel and told him I would find a person in the US who is coming here, then call him back to have the replacement sent. Why did he NOT tell me I had to ship the lock back first?! And that then they would “inspect the lock” and determine whether they’d replace it.
I tried to save what I thought was a nice company, money.
I tried to help them make their product better. For that, I was told I was wasting their time.
And… I would have had a friend in NY buy a new one for me and bring it to me — if only I’d known they were not going to send me one as Customer Service man had claimed.
So while I like the lock, I can’t say I like the company.
I didn’t want this story to turn out this way. I wanted to be able to tell people that this is a great, caring company and that they cared about the failure and would look for ways to address it. (I didn’t even think about wanting to tell you they replaced the lock.) I like positive stories. I like to recommend products, not review them. It is difficult for me to post this. I am saddened to. But if I don’t, then I am not being fair to travelers who might consider my opinion. So it is with regret that I post this.
This does not, however, mean that I would not and will not still recommend this lock to travelers. I will.
I am now in the market for a new TSA Cable Lock.
I am very much not happy over this.