That's too bad that you've had such problems. We bought a bunch of packages (12). The very first blade I tried seemed to have a nick in it. I switched to the second blade and found it worked quite well. I've used about 4 other lades and have not had a problem and, in fact, I find they seem to last longer than the tried and true blades that come 5 in a pack. Also, as a side note, I frequently catch my dh using my rotary cutter to cut paper, even though he has his own cutter. I can't really complain too much as he's the one who bought all the blades.