My email to the gunsmith:

On August 2 I picked up my barreled action and stock from you. At that time the barreled action was covered in oil. You said keep it oiled for awhile . After wiping the barrel off if is plain to see that it was totally reblued and not done very well at that.

I had brought you a brand new highly polished Daly barreled action in 7x57
in June. I asked specifically could the barrel be shortened 2" without
damaging the blueing. I was told yes you would just touch up the end of the
barrel. I said go ahead and cut it off and paint the stock. I was told 2
weeks. After 3 weeks I called I was told another week now I know you had
messed up the barrel and had to totally reblue it.

The barreled action I brought you had no polish lines. It now does. There
are also dull blue areas on the action. I would have never had the barrel
cut off if I had known you would reblue and mess up the rest of the barrel
and action. I used to blue for carters country back in the 70s so I know a
polish line when I see them.

His answer:
I am sorry about the problem you are having. But, sometimes no matter what you do, you can't make people happy. Unfortunately, we did scratch the end of your barrel when we took it out of the lathe. Most gunsmiths would have touched it up with "cold blue" and it would have rusted later. Instead of taking the "cheap" way out, we completely polished your barrel and re-dipped it in a factory hot blue solution. I felt this was the right thing to do even though we lost money. If you want - you can bring your rifle back in and we will polish and reblue it again. Customer satisfaction has always been important to us and that's how we have stayed in business for 25 years. Give me a call if you have any questions.

Am I wrong in thinking that telling me about the damage and reblue at the time of pickup would have been the right thing to do instead of hiding it. Now telling me how he lost money fixing his own error. Since they polished it and left lines in a new barrel I wouldn't expect a redo to be any better.

He is a local smith so if you Houston guys what a heads up PM me.

ramrod, the smith should have told you when it happened and ask you what you would like to do at that point. not try to hide it. as for as 25 years in business in the houston area hell in a city that size he can stay in business and make a good living for 25 years and never have a repeat customer.

Well I'm mixed on this one. Yeah, he should have told you what happened before you picked it up. But, he is offering to make it right. Mistakes happen, as long as he fixes it to your satisfaction I'd be ok with it.

Mind you, I'd still be pissed because of the inconvenience and time, but I'd be ok at the end of the day.

I have little faith that he can get it back to the way it was. He reblued it once and left polish lines. Why would a second time be any better? I know $hit happens. If he had been upfront about it I would have said do the best you can. The thing that really upsets me is that he tried to hide it and then instead of appologizing he tells me how he lost money and how some people are never happy. I will live with it. Most people won't notice.

If you don’t mind me asking, why did you choose this shop to begin with? Recommendation from a satisfied customer?

I would never send/take any of my rifles to anyone without some idea about their past work on similar jobs, and how they treat their customers.

Look at it this way...the guy could have just as easily told you to F-off and there ain’t much you could do about it. At least he was nice enough to offer to make things right for you.

I has a similar circumstance where the smith ground down one of the scope rings on my dad's!!! rifle. I only had the stock shortened and the cope moved back. My dad never noticed it, but the smith didn't telll me until I picked it up. No, not a big deal, but it wasn't even my rifle. I think for time's sake, they just do what needs to be done without "wasting" time calling the customer. At least he told me.

I do all of my own scopes now and if I use the smith again, I'll tell him to call me no matter what! Give explicit instructions and you should have a better transactions.

gunsmith should have called you about the problem and let you make the call about what to do to make it right. Things like this happen but he should have been up front with you.

Unfortunately, we all learn at some point that the "local gunsmith" (present company excluded, of course - even in a city the size of Houston - is not necessarily a specialist, but rather a jack of all trades and master of none. They are typically very good at replacing broken springs and over-buffing blued parts... and most of the time they can reassemble guns they've taken apart.

The gunsmith in question should have done a lot differently it sounds like - starting with notification to you of the problem.

I think you've learned a lesson about "gunsmiths." Unfortunately for you (and most of us at some point) it was learned the old fashion way.

Now find a real gunsmith - whose idea of quality mirrors yours - and get friendly with the local UPS shipper. From now on, avoid the local "gunsmith."

I understand how you feel. I have had local smith mess up a few of my guns. Some of these guys we even recommended. No I did not look at samples of their work. I should have. However, at least each of these guys admitted what they did and asked me what I wanted to do.

I'd send him a letter stating that he screwed it up once initially, then made it worse but trying to hide the re-blue and that you hold him resposible for making it right. I'd have the gun polished and reblued by someone that knows what they're doing and then send him the bill. I'd wait a week for him to pay it and then sue him for the amount in small claims court.

The guy may be offereing to "make it right" but he's also trying to call the customer a "whiner" in the second sentence of his response. I can accept a mistake from anybody as long as they acknowlege the error. Start telling me it's my problem that I'm not satisfied the crappy replacement blue and I'd probably have a hard time containing myself.

Rick,
The gunsmith is a large shop not a guy working out of his garage. He had done metal work for me 10 years ago. My recent work has been only to have them paint some fiberglass stocks. His work has been written up in several gun mags over the years. I normally send my metal work to a smith in ID but thought I would save time and since they were painting the stock have them cut the barrel off.

While I'm not happy that they scratched the barrel I know that stuff happens. What upsets me is he made the decision on how to fix it without asking. Then to make it far worse didn't bother to tell me about it at all. I have a real problem with someone that tries to hide their mistakes. We all make them. Own up to it. As was stated the last straw was to call me a "whiner" becasue I called him on it.

The rifle was a gift for my wife. She thinks it looks great I'm not going to raise the issue with her by taking the rifle apart and taking it back. She is chomping at the bit to put some lead through it. She will just never know. Likewise a majority of the people wouldn't notice that it was reblued. While it has an OK blue it isn't the high gloss factory. Maybe I see the lines more because I used to reblue (yes for money) and know how hard it is to get those last marks out.

I've learned. He will get no more of my metal work.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
I felt this was the right thing to do even though we lost money.

I always think it's strange when people take an altruistic stance about losing money when it's their fault.

I had the same experience with a roofer. It took him three additional strips to fix the the screw up he caused on his first trip and he whined about it costing him money.

I pay for my own mistakes, why do people think it's so special when they pay for theirs?.