Which gun company seems to have the best and worst consumer service? I have heard a lot of crappy things about Ruger's, as well as Taurus's and a few complaints about S&W. Of course I haven't worked with these guys so I can't confirm this. What do ya'll think? Share a spooky horror story...

Winchester/Browning sucks.

Their guns are of shoddy quality and not accurate.

When I returned my .375 for failure to feed, at first they said the warranty was void because it had a muzzle brake. What B.S.!!

When I got my Taurus Raging Bull, the factory ammo got stuck in the cylinder. The problem was the rear of the cylinder was slightly smaller than about 1/4" in. I sent it back, they fixed the problem and did a complete action tune and trigger job for free. Then returned within 3 weeks. I'm completely happy with it and them. The only thing I would want different is to not have the muzzle break.

Lar45,

It won't be difficult for a good gunsmith to cut the barrel of the RB to remove the muzzle break.

Lar45,

What about the muzzle break on your RB don't you like, the noise? LOL Do you know how much the trigger job you got would have cost? How light is the trigger now? I feel that in SA my trigger is light enough for hunting.

Ballisi-Cast has very good customer service. Smith and Wesson is not bad either. They sent me a free shipping lable to ship my 629 back and they are going to fix it for free.

One would have to look far and hard to beat Freedom Arm's customer service. I have two Model 83's of which I am not the original purchaser. However, both revolvers were sent back to the factory and all internal work was warrantied. I fell and scratched the frame and grip panel on another Model 83 and it was refinished gratis.

In my opinion, FA leaves the rest in the dust.

great rcbs and dillon worst lyman and magnum research.

Worst - CZ USA.

I have excellent CS from Springfield. Also good has been Kahr.
Mediocre is Kimber.

Jerry

I have personally had great customer service from Remington. I have a semi-auto 22mag, I think it's model 597? Anyways, first magazines were plastic and had a weak spring, wouldn't feed. I called and they sent me a couple more for free that had a stronger spring. Those started cracking after less than a year and called. they sent me free a couple of metal ones for replacement. Of course, it is a shit design of magazine, wish I had noticed that before buying, but other than that the rifle is awesome.

Taurus customer support leaves me unhappy. I dropped off my 38 ultralight revolver, the model 85 with titanium barrel shroud and cylinder with allow frame and a shaved hammer. On ejecting the cartridges the ejector was getting stuck so of course the cylinder couldn't be reloaded or closed. My shop examinded it and determined that they had cut the ejector rod? (rod that the star ejector actually runs on and the cylinder is on) wrong and sent it back to taurus.

it was a slow turnaround and they sent it back without any explanation at all! I have shot it quite a lot and the problem has not reoccurred, so guessing that they fixed it right. But damn, this is my carry gun and I would be a lot more comfortable with having an explanation of what was wrong, how it was fixed.

I had also dropped it the day I took it to the shop to look at the problem and scratch the end of the barrel shroud, they didn't try buffing it out or smoothing etc. which, if I sent somebody something designed for self defense with a defect that could have caused a huge problem if not found during practice, I would have cleaned up and put a nice note of apology about the defect in the manufacture.

In my opinion Glock has had the greatest service for me, namely the fact that I have never had to send mine in for anything! :-)

Red

Great: Remington, RCBS, Dillon and Thompson Center.

Horrible: UPS!!!! Anti-Gun bastards.

regards,
Graycg

THE BEST CONSUMER SERICE I'VE EVER SEEN WAS AT VOLQUARTSEN CUSTOMS. I AM TOTALLY IMPRESSED WITH THEIR GUN TECS AND SERVICE YOU GET AT CARROLL IA.

Of the ones I have personally Dealt with:

The Best: Sinclair Intl, Redding, RCBS, Oregon Trail Bullets, Wilson Combat.

The Worst: Ruger, Remington, Graf & Sons.

ZM

[ 07-17-2003, 07:17: Message edited by: Zeke ]

I sent a .410 Citori back to Browning because it was shooting 8-9" high and also right, had me wondering about my abilities. Anyway, after about four months here comes the brown truck. I opened the box with my shotgun in it and there was no invoice or letter, nothing to explain any repairs they had done. I called and was told that it was test fired and found to be within Brownings specs.
The barrels weren't straight. I bought that gun new in the box and it was never mistreated. How hard would would it have been to fit a new set of barrels and have a happy customer.Finally he said send it back and we'll retest it, when I mentioned that i'd lengthed the forcing cones, he choked on that one and proceded to tell me that i had just voided the warrantee. I said don't you have long cones in your trap guns?, he said yes but that was different because it was done at the factory. The overall experience left a lot to be desired. To be treated that way by one the largest gun companies in the world, left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess all over/unders are not created equal.
Dennis

I had great service from Browning and so-so from Outers. The foul-out I bought never told me when the gun was clean and I left it in the Browning way too long. When I sent the rifle back to Browning, they inspected it, glass bedded it, sent me new targets and never charged me a penny, even though it would have been my fault. The best part is they did it in two weeks, start to finish. That Micro-medallion now shoots 3/4". It always shot about 1" anyway, but they didn't have to do it.

Outers just said not to leave it past three hours and it's not their problem.

Winchester service sucked.

LarryS,
My "Foul Out" was just the opposite--it said everything was CLEAN as soon as it was hooked up. Customer Service tech was absolutely NO HELP.... Couldn't explain ANYTHING about the unit and made no effort to find someone who could. I've not used the unit since. Biggest waste of $60 I've every spent.... Gary T.

I have an Old Model Super Blackhawk that had a problem with the cylinder binding. Had it to 3 or 4 different smiths and they all said, "oh yeah, works fine, that'll be X dollars thank you very much" Wrong! Fnally got tired of all the bulshit excuses and sent it back to Ruger. At the time I had an old Mark I 22 that had been in a fire. What the hell, I figured I'd send it along too, just to see what they'd say. Well, I got a letter back from them saying they would not repair any firearm that had been damaged by fire or immersion, however, as a courtesy, they would replace the firearm at their cost ($100 at the time). Talk about make me an offer I can't refuse! That was it, no tax, no transfer, no questions asked and they even paid the shipping! I'd already replaced the gun but at that price I couldn't say no. I will say that they had the Blackhawk for over 4 months, though. But it came back good as new, no charge. Can't beat that. Don't know whether the replacement policy is still in effect.

magnum reseach sucks bigtime and couldnt care any less about you after the sale.
they are some losers

I had good luck with Interarms, the then importer for Walther, on a PPK that had a feeding problem. Also, had good luck with LW Seacamp on a commander that I had them covert to DA that also had "other issues". That was a LONG time ago. Don't know if either firm is still in business. Other than that, I haven't really had to deal with manufacturers. Just lucky I guess.

One thing that disappoints me is Remington's handlng of the 700 safety issue. Their website lists the affected models and year of manufacture. You'd think they'd throw in a serial number lookup system. What if you don't know when your rifle was made? I would think that would be easier than calling them up.

I've had good CS with RCBS, Leupold, Kolpin, Dillon, Browning, Sinclair and Cabelas. Bad luck with Grafs, Lyman and Redfield.

Kimber promised me they would send me a different front sight for my .45 auto. Today it arrived UPS....no charge.

Thanks Kimber.

I have had excellent customer service with RCBS, Beretta, and S&W. Two companies that broke me from sucking eggs are Remington and Ruger. I had six Remingtons and they screwed me over and now I have one. A 20 year old 700. No more Rugers until they make an excellent trigger. Nickels worth.

I have had excellent customer service from everyone I have had to use. Remington (replaced and bedded a McMillan stock on a 375 H&H KS), Ruger (replaced a cracked stock on a #1 with a beautiful piece of wood), S&W (replaced the barrel on my M29 that I had cut to 5" with a new 5" lugged barrel, refit everthing and re-nickled it all for free), Burris (rebuilt a used scope), Leupold (rebuilt two used scopes), Redding (custom tweaked a die), High-Tech Stocks (machined a used ADL style stock I picked up for a Ruger into a BDL style and shortened the forearm). Never have had a bad experience.