I haven't had to send any gun back but know people who have. Who is the best and worst in your experience?
Pat
Wilson Combat is #1 IMHO
HiPoint. Quick and no questions asked.
I think any company has been both if they have been in business long enough.
I have honestly had good luck with just about all of them. The standout for me is Ruger with their "unwritten" warranty.
Quote from: Intercooler on September 05 2016 01:53:29 PM MDT
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The standout for me is Ruger with their "unwritten" warranty.
I haven't had any experience with Ruger since I bought my first gun back around 1965 or so: a 41mag 6" Ruger Blackhawk. I sent it back with what I considered a serious problem, and they returned it "no trouble found". I'm still mad about that, fifty years later. But from more recent testimonials, they apparently cleaned up their act at some point between then and now.
Never sent one back. I tend to fix them myself. I also tend to buy lightly used and heavily discounted.
the only factories I have sent guns back to were S&W and Ruger. others went to a warranty designated shop. I had good experiences with Smith & Wesson. they do keep the guns long though. I sent a Ruger .44 mag carbine back. it fired out of battery, stuck firing pin, they claimed it was from over pressure and would only give me half off on any of their rifles. I wasn't satisfied.
The only gun that I've needed to send back for service is my Sig P938. The safety lever started to become loose after about 6 months of daily carry and routine range practice. I sent it back to Sig via Cabelas manufacturer warranty service, and two weeks later I got a call from them. Sig had determined that the cause of the loosening safety lever was a manufacturing defect in the frame, and sent me a brand new 938 as a replacement, and it was ready for me to pick up. No cost to me, no hassle, prompt turnaround.
I'm very impressed by both Cabelas service by way of handling the transfers, and Sig's prompt and honest customer service sending the replacement.
Years ago Sig replaced a 232 where the firing pin was impacting well off center of the primer. Sent it back, received new pistol shortly. That's pretty good in my book.
First hand experience these 3 are outstanding. they put customer satisfaction first.
Springfield Armory -Henry Rifles - Bond Arms
The only issue I ever had was my own fault with a little Ruger LCP where I had a casing blow out (over load for the heavy cast bullet, casing was of poor quality) it blew out the aftermarket magazine's guts, and also had a tiny/small crack with the grip frame. Ruger wouldn't sell me the frame even though it was a non serialized part. After speaking with the lady they issued a call tag, I mail them the pistol they fixed, tested and mailed it back no charge and sent a nice Ruger wipe down cloth... Huge + for them.
My G-29 (pre SF) where the factory recoil spring started slipping past the front of the plastic button...one call to Glock and they rushed out a new recoil spring assembly. Big + for them. Also over the years I told a few people who actually had case blow outs where their guns were damaged to contact Glock and they repaired by replacing damaged frames and other parts for small amounts of money.
In the 90's S&W had a recall on the grips for the 10xx series, they mailed out new grips at no charge, Big + for them.
Remington experience for my nephew was with his 870 pump after I contacted them, they sent new extractor and ejector at no cost. So big + for them as well.
Had to send my Gen4 G20 to Glock under warranty due to FTF with real power and up 10mm ammo, noted this on form when sending in.
Got back pistol with a "No Issues Found" note. Traded e-mails, come to find out, they fired "20 mags worth" of Blazer 200gr through it...essentially the opposite of what I stated the pistol was malfunctioning with. Essentially they sent an unreliable firearm back to their customer, and when realizing this, didn't offer to pay for shipping back to them so they could correct their mistake.
When I found out new followers were out, I had #3 and now #4 was out, I asked Glock first on their web form, then calling in explaining I'd wait 2-3 months after filling out web form and no followers, and then again after waiting a month or three I used the web form. In all three cases, no #4 followers to try and correct the FTF issue, no contact from Glock.
In short: Glock will turn your pistol around quickly. Whether they'll fix it or not, who knows...certainly cannot trust it's Glock Perfection. Vastly underwhelmed by their Customer Support, especially given their slogan.
Ruger in my experience. Top notch. Springfield Armory and Beretta are very good.
I've never had to use CS, but I read a lot of good things about S&W and Ruger customer service. Springfield, not so much. Nothing bad, just not as many kudos.
I had a very good experience with STI. I cracked a frame rail on my 9mm Trubor. I called STI, and they sent me a box and a shipping label. A few weeks later I had a new frame. No issues at all. :))
I purchased a Kimber Eclipse last year in 10mm and could not fire more than a few rounds in a row before FTF. I called Kimber and of course they wanted me to run 500 rounds through before dealing with it. That took a long time at 3-4 rounds per magazine, then drop the magazine and clear the feed area and start over again. At 500+ rounds It was no different so I called Kimber again and the service rep told me "...what do you expect its a 10mm." A few days and calls later I received a call from someone higher up saying I could send the gun in on their dime. I received the gun back with what looked to me like a different barrel, and had only occasional FTF for the next few hundred rounds. Now, a year or so later it seems to represent the Kimber name in accuracy and reliability.
They need to fire one (or maybe more) of their "triage" people!
The one and only time I've had to used customer service was on a brand new KelTec RFB (I don't usually buy KelTec guns, but, the RFB was the first .308 bullpup rifle available anywhere) . The empty shell casings were designed to slide down a metal chute out the front of the rifle (just like the FN FS2000). I had a spent casing get jammed in the chute. I sent KelTec an e-mail and they asked me to send them the metal chute, which I did. They sent me a new, larger metal chute which corrected the problem (no charge and no questions asked). On another occasion I lost my firing pin (lost it when it went airborne while I was disassembling it for cleaning) and contacted them to attempt to buy a replacement pin. Instead, they sent me a new pin free of charge. I'm not a big fan of their firearms, but, their customer service is outstanding.
Quote from: ram1000 on October 19 2016 02:09:44 PM MDT
I purchased a Kimber Eclipse last year in 10mm and could not fire more than a few rounds in a row before FTF. I called Kimber and of course they wanted me to run 500 rounds through before dealing with it. That took a long time at 3-4 rounds per magazine, then drop the magazine and clear the feed area and start over again. At 500+ rounds It was no different so I called Kimber again and the service rep told me "...what do you expect its a 10mm." A few days and calls later I received a call from someone higher up saying I could send the gun in on their dime. I received the gun back with what looked to me like a different barrel, and had only occasional FTF for the next few hundred rounds. Now, a year or so later it seems to represent the Kimber name in accuracy and reliability.
That's too bad. Sorry to hear that. I've owned and sold/traded several of their models for the last 10 years (including Pro Carry/Pro Raptor/Custom TLE/RL II in 10mm) and never had to call their customer service once. The only issues I ever had was a little small amount of rusting on the frame and I always dumped the Kimber supplied magazines which I replaced with Wilson Combat, Tripp Research, or Chip McCormack Powermags. Maybe their magazines were the problem? I didn't like them so I never used the Kimber mags and never had any FTF/FTE issues.
I in all the different brands I have owned, have never gotten a lemon or even one recall during a time when I owned them. But when I bought my glock 29, my kit didnt come with the modular backstraps and I Emailed glock and they sent me them no charge no questions asked.
only getting information, but, Springfield was top notch.
(my springer runs like a sewing machine)
Don't know which is 'best/worst' over all.....my own experience with both Ruger & Sig repair policies has been quite satisfactory.
Taurus was "F", and I refuse any further ownership of anything they ever built because of the total FAIL of their warranty policy.
No question, Henry Repeating Arms. When I bought mine the shop was telling me about a fellow who just bought one from them. Tied it to his Harley and proceeded to ride home. It came loose and dragged the octagon barrel on the way home. Negligence on his part and he didn't try to portray it any other way. Henry sent him a new rifle.
My Henry is a little over 5 years old. At that time period they had some issues with some of the rear sight elevator moving under recoil. Mine began to do that and they immediately sent me a new rear sight.
A few weeks back I removed the lever, bolt, and ejector to clean the bore. Upon reassembly, the original lever would not close all the way and would not engage the sear safety. I tried a large loop lever and it would. I called Henry and spoke to Pete and he immediately offered to either send me a shipping label or a new lever. I asked for the new lever. Immediately after calling them, I function checked it with dummy rounds. They wouldn't feed from the magazine tube. I called Pete back and told him not to bother sending the lever and something was blocking elevator from lowering to allow rounds to feed from the magazine tube. I completely disassembled and found that the tip of the front firing pin had broken off and wedged itself under the elevator. Pete sent me a shipping label and they will either replace the bolt and properly head space or simply replace the front firing pin. Anthony Imperato keeps his promise to make sure that Henry owners are 100% satisfied.
I have not had to deal with S&W, but from everything I have heard they are excellent with their lifetime service warranty. I have heard of several people who have sent their AR's back to them due to a high round count and a degradation of accuracy. S&W replaced the barrels (maybe other parts such as bolts?) and sent it back no question. My LGS sent a rental M&P 15 Sport with a very high round count to have the barrel replaced. They have told me numerous times how good the warranty service is with both S&W and Ruger.