I actually worked for Kryptonite for three months in their customer service department. It SUCKED. I went into the job thinking that it would be a really cool place to work...probably a ton of bikers who were all super healthy and into the job for more than just a pay check.
The reality was nothing like that. It was a super uptight office environment, mistakes were not tolerated, and no excuse was given, unless management screwed up, than well you know....things happen.
No one else biked to work, and most of the customer service department couldn't begin to relate to the customers, because they were all caravan driving soccer moms whose only contact with bicycling was when they yelled at the kids to get their K-Mart brand hot pink/white bike off of the lawn.
While working there,
-I've seen locks that were returned due to the warranty agreement that had been cut through with a torch. We used to receive at least once a week by mail.
-If you live in a high crime area, I wouldn't trust the U-Lock alone. They had by far the highest failure rate of any Kryptonite lock, outside of the crap that Kryptonite made for the big box stores.
-I frequently talked to customers in the Metro NYC area who wouldn't use anything less than the Motorcycle grade locks to secure they're bikes.
-The biggest idiots to deal with were the people who bought their Kyrptonite lock from Walmart, the Kryptonite locks they sell at Wally world are not the same locks they sell in a bike shop. They are a different low quality product line.
The worst were the people that buy the re-settable combination lock with the cable.
A vast majority of the phone calls regarding that lock is how to reset the combination if it's locked and can't remember the combination that they set. There was no way of resetting the lock. You can only reset the combination if the lock isn't actually locked. If you can't open the lock, you can't reset the lock.
People, particularily men, couldn't grasp the concept of why it might be a bad idea to design a re-settable combination lock, that would actually allow you to change the combination WHILE the lock is in use. If that was the case....it MUST be defective
The stupid lock caused more heart ache for people.
-Coolest customer ever was a Texan who had moved to New York City. He called at least weekly to fill out the insurance paperwork to have his bike replaced. He wasn't a scammer either. He lived in a bad part of NYC and just couldn't keep a bike, no matter what lock he used to lock it up. So he bought the Kryptonite locks and filed a claim for the theft. Kryptonite never paid out a large amount, but it was enough for him to go Wal-Mart and get another bike.
Everybody in the department knew his story by heart.
I think he was using the NYC Chain lock at the time and thieves still cut it. He had gotten so sick of his bike getting stolen that he only bought Wal-Mart quality bikes. Since he only had them about a week the quality never was really an issue. And he told me that he was sick of constantly replacing a good bike, so he always bought junkers.
He was never even mad about it.
-Dealing with people who had bikes stolen wasn't usually pleasant. Most people were pretty short tempered, even when they did stupid things with their bikes. Like using a NYC chain lock to lock a bike to a chain link fence....
And than complaining when their claim was denied by Kryptonite. Due to the fact that the lock didn't fail the fence did.
Yes you are culpable as to what you lock your bike to.
-There were people who scammed or tried to scam the warranty policy, they'd get a Wal-Mart bike stolen and yet file a report for a top of the line road bike. And to think Kryptonite wants to see a receipt for that $3,000 bike...hmm.