HK -
I called them once years ago when the magazine was falling out of a friend's USP40 during firing. I figured the magazine release lever spring was bad. They sent me a new one, no charge. I told them it was for a used gun that someone else had bought and that I was just fixing it for him - they didn't care. They shipped the part out promptly and the gun has run fine ever since.
Kimber -
I Sent my Pro Carry back when a screw bushing got stripped out. They staked the new one in at an angle, and it was a full size bushing instead of a slim one like I prefer. I basically put it back in the safe for a few years because of the ordeal it was to get it shipped out the first time (no fault of Kimber there, that was UPS all the way). The gun has never been reliable and I finally got off my lazy butt and shipped it back to them for service on 12/14/07. They called me, explained what possible problems were, fixed it, and got it back to me before Christmas. Well, it was delivered before xmas anyway - UPS delivered it to the wrong address
The first two times it was shipped on my dime. I called them today because it still won't feed and extract reliably. This time they're paying shipping both ways. They've always been polite on the phone, I'm just not very happy with their actual gunsmithing abilities.
EAA -
Their policy is that you pay shipping both ways. If you call to ask about progress, your gun gets put on the bottom of the pile. That's pretty terrible policy if you ask me. My experience with them hasn't been bad though. The frame on my Witness Elite Match 10mm cracked after about 80 rounds. I called them and they said to send it in, which I did. The lady on the phone said not to send the $20 return postage because they'd be shipping out a new gun and would contact me for shipping info. Well, after over a month and no word from them, I called them today. The lady said that they were replacing the gun but they were waiting to get some more in and it would be about 3 weeks. She said not to worry about the $20, they'd cover it. The wait is killing me because I LOVE that gun, but I know it's hard to get them because it took me 9 months to find one in the first place.
I'm only out $10 shipping on that one as well. I convinced the FedEx guy to ship that one and the Kimber ground instead of air for a total cost of $19.63 instead of ~$80. Once again, the lady I've been speaking to at EAA has always been polite and I've never given her reason to act otherwise.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that many bad CS stories stem from someone calling the company up and having an attitude. Perhaps it's because people are mad about their guns breaking, or maybe it's because they're preparing for a battle after reading horror stories online. My policy is to be nice. It's worked for me so far.