Warranty Work/Gunsmithing Problems

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glocksmith
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Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:04 am
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Warranty Work/Gunsmithing Problems

Post by glocksmith »

My Dad has a firearm which he purchased many years ago, and he recently discovered that it had been affected by the infamous "salt wood" that plagued many gunmakers around the late 1960's and early 1970's. He contacted the manufacturer - who agreed that the rifle needed to be sent to a service center for evaluation. The manufacturer provided two relatively local companies to whom he could send it. One company never responded at all, while the other agreed to take it. He shipped his firearm there in early-mid December. He heard nothing at all for several months...so he contacted them around March just to see if or when his firearm would be repaired. The person at the gunsmithing shop claimed that they were actively negotiating with the manufacturer to get approval to restock/repair the firearm, and that they were "on our side"...pushing to get the company to honor the warranty. Two months later, in mid-May my Dad emailed the manufacturer - and merely stated that while he didn't expect his gun to be a top priority, he simply wanted a yes or no on if it would be fixed. The manufacturer apologized that it was taking so long and said that they would check to see if the gunsmith had ordered parts....and that they would get back asap. Well, that was mid-May, two months ago and no one ever got back with him. I told my Dad that gunsmith shops have notoriously long backlogs...and that this particular job was not a high priority, or high dollar job. Still, he's starting to convince even the usually patient me...that something isn't kosher here.

Has anybody gone through this before? WITH WEATHERBY??? And is it unreasonable of us to be frustrated after almost 8 months of silence? I mean, if the company had sent him a replacement stock, he could easily drop the action into it.
Give em' Hell Pike!!!
Brian D.
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Re: Warranty Work/Gunsmithing Problems

Post by Brian D. »

Some gunsmiths are self-employed because there's no way anybody else would keep them around as an employee. I have very mixed experiences with that profession, to put it mildly. If you'd like, send along a PM as to which shop you're talking about, since you said it was relatively local. If they are on my "No way a gun is ever going to that guy again!" list, I'll share the info with you.
Quit worrying, hide your gun well, shut up, and CARRY that handgun!

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JimE
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Re: Warranty Work/Gunsmithing Problems

Post by JimE »

When you compare the number of firearms in circulation vs. the number of gunsmiths (good and bad), it's real easy to see the bottleneck.
It's more like 1 authorized Chevrolet warranty station for Ohio and Indiana.
Many of the gun companies do not do this work in-house, but farm it out like, the situation here, and may only have 5~10 "authorized" repair stations across the country.
I just went thru one with Remington. The shotgun was brand new, but had a chip out of the buttplate. They had us send it to a well known large gunsmith. It took them 3 trys
and 4 months just to get the the correct part out of Remington.
I have seen others take in excess of a year to get a problem handled (Taurus with the recall/court delays).
And if the firearm is not being produced now, obtaining parts can really frustrate everyone involved.
Handguns for the most part, are not as bad, especially if the factory is doing the repair,(Ruger, Smith, Springfield, Kimber) but still take 2 weeks to 2 months to turn around.
The days of the late Bud Brown type of local gunsmiths is quickly disappearing.
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Bruenor
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Re: Warranty Work/Gunsmithing Problems

Post by Bruenor »

I've had work sit at a gunsmith for a long time waiting to be worked on. I followed up regularly (but not excessively), to check the status and as a gentle reminder I was still waiting till the work was completed. I also had a gun smith reserve a spot in line for work on the pistol I shoot in competition every weekend. He called me when he had time open up and I brought it into the shop and dropped it off, picked it up the following day. I'm not going to say you can do that every time, but he understood since I was constantly using it I didn't want to be without for several months. Will I go back to him for future work ? You're darn right I will, but I won't unreasonably expect that treatment every time.

Springfield was a good experience for factory repair. Huge recall, long wait time, good communication and updates, along with something for my trouble.

Remington was a bad experience for factory repair. Huge recall, Long wait time, no communication, Bolt action rifle missing the bolt upon return. Had to go back for a second unsatisfactory repair.

Llama Comanche 44 Mag revolver - Out of production unable to locate parts. (PM if you know where to locate internals for this revolver)

Yep it's a mixed bag.
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glocksmith
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Re: Warranty Work/Gunsmithing Problems

Post by glocksmith »

Thank you for the replies everyone. Yes, sounds like a "mixed bag". I myself would draw a distinction between warranty work on a defective product from a manufacturer versus Bruenor's "elective surgery" on his competition pistol. A big operation like Weatherby, and their service centers should at least communicate at some point - as opposed to the customer having to do all the leg work. You go to the trouble of packing up your gun and shipping it off...you shouldn't have to wait 8 or 9 months without at least some sort of acknowledgment and ETA.
Give em' Hell Pike!!!
SMMAssociates
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Re: Warranty Work/Gunsmithing Problems

Post by SMMAssociates »

Couple of years back, I sent a 1911 to Colt for evaluation and (maybe) repair.

About four weeks later, I asked my dealer (he's the one who shipped it for me) if he'd seen it.

Turned out it was on a shelf in his back room....

His "shipping" department couldn't read or something like that.

NBD, but there was a note inside. Colt wanted to replace all of the gun's non-Colt parts, but couldn't/wouldn't warrant that it'd fix the gun.

(It wouldn't.... The frame had some serious issues that had nothing to do with those parts. $300+....)

Colt never called me - couldn't figure out which phone number to use, mine, my business phone, or the dealer's.

(Sold Morne the slide - almost perfect, or at least he hasn't dropped one of his kids or a large dog off yet - and put a Kimber .22 conversion kit on top. The .22 doesn't tax the bad frame enough to worry about. .45's did!)

Regards,
Stu.

(Why write a quick note when you can write a novel?)

(Why do those who claim to wish to protect me feel that the best way to do that is to disarm me?)

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