My Smith And Wesson Experience

[Mot45acp]

I traded for a 2nd hand 586 6" bbl. Beautiful piece. Upon firing the cylinder would bind up with Remington 125 gr JSP's. After some digging I found out this was a recall issue. Contacted Smith and Wesson, received shipping label within a week. I ship it off. Easy 'nuff right?

1 month goes by and I receive a letter stating $92.24 worth of repairs needed to be done.

I call and supposedly talk to the smith who is going to make the repairs. (Vito)
Timing, firing pin, bushing, forcing cones. I ask if these were the recall issues. He says the firing pin and bushing were. Then I ask if the lifetime warranty covers the other parts. He says yes, but not the labor.

I really like this gun so I pay by CC over the phone.

2 months later my ffl calls me with the gun (I know I dont have to use an ffl but I work during shipping hours) With the gun is a slip of paper on Smtih and Wesson letterhead stating it was the repairs made/total/receipt. It was blank

I go to fire my gun and it is flawless

3 month turnaround time, slow communication, but final outcome I have $392.24 total invested into a beautiful pre lock Smith. I will give em a 7 out of 10. I did not receive the 1 week turnaround that others have claimed, but I didnt have to do the Taurus dance. I wish they and other gun makers still did bluing like this. It looks like it will melt through your fingers.

ps dont start bashing Taurus its not about that.

 

[Deanimator]

I had a weird experience with S&W last year and this.

I sent them my 4" Model 29-2 .44 Magnum to have the forcing cone recut and the barrel set back. It had spit from the day I bought it used in the early '80s.

I got it back in a little over a month or so. When I got it back, it had a deep cut in the left side of the barrel, as if they'd misused some kind of tool or fixture when they took the barrel off.

I called them and they wanted to refinish the barrel, which would have been a total no-go, since it would have left a flat or dip in the barrel, or left the barrel asymmetrical on one side. I told them I wanted the barrel replaced. I wouldn't back down, so they finally gave in. I told them that under no circumstances were they to refinish the gun in any way without my expressed permission. I had been looking for replacement barrels until they told me they'd replace the damaged barrel with one of theirs.

The next day or so, I got an unexpected email from S&W saying that they didn't have any barrels, and were going to refinish the ENTIRE gun, contrary to what I told them. I got very hot and since I couldn't get hold of the person with whom I'd been dealing, I faxed them a blistering letter telling them that I'd sue if they refinished the gun in its present condition.

I finally got hold of the person with whom I'd been dealing and told her in no uncertain terms that their "solution" was completely unacceptable. I demanded that they replace the barrel, with a third party barrel if necessary. She said that they didn't use third party parts (something that's subsequently been called into question). I told them they needed to rethink that policy. After a day or so, they agreed to install a barrel which _I_ procured. I then went on a barrel hunt in the internet, finally finding two candidate barrels. Unfortunately, I couldn't find ANY barrels in the same condition as the one they'd damaged. I told them they needed to at least refinish the barrel. After they'd authorized me to purchase a replacement barrel, they kept pressuring me to let them grind their mistake out of the barrel. THAT got me pretty hot too, and I told the repairman who called to push that non-solution so. At that point, I'd already purchased the two barrels. I asked him if he expected me to pitch the barrel THEY had authorized me to purchase in Lake Erie.

I sent them the first barrel, which they rejected as having been set back too many times. I then sent them the second barrel, which they installed. I asked them when they planned to reblue the gun and or barrel. They said they wouldn't because I refused to let them grind the crap out of the original barrel. I told them to send the gun back and I put it in my lawyer's hands.

He communicated with their legal office the essential injustice of them ruining my original barrel, forcing ME to get a barrel, then refusing to return the gun to its original condition. He requested that the gun be refinished, and that I be compensated for barrel which they used.

After a considerable period of time, he got a communication from a Mr. Neil Gibree. Mr. Gibree instructed me to return the gun to them for complete refinishing. I got the gun back almost thirty days to the day from when I last returned it to them. It was professionally refinished (at least as well as they can these days), and I was compensated for the barrel they used. Until Mr. Gibree got involved, I got nearly a YEAR of run-around and attitude. After he got involved, it took barely thirty days to get something done.

The gun has -0- collector value now (I have the wooden presentation case, tools and manual for it), but at least it looks good. It's good for nothing but shooting ill-behaved people now, having less monetary value than a new Glock 22. I lost heavily in the deal, but at least when Mr. Gibree became involved a good faith effort was made to make me as whole as they could without replacing the gun. I wrote the president of S&W to tell him how much better Mr. Gibree made them look than anyone else I'd dealt with.

The whole thing's left a bad taste in my mouth, but at least at the end, somebody tried to do the right thing.