Customer Service Thread

General General Discussion
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I thought we had a consolidated customer service thread but couldn’t find it so guess I was wrong. Either way, I had a few recent interactions that I figured I’d share.

Wilson Combat: mentioned this one in another thread, but one of my four 9mm 1911 mags would cause occasional feed failures in my SA RO Elite. I reached out to them, they told me to send it in, and within maybe a week of them getting my malfunctioning magazine, I had a brand new one at my door. Pretty awesome for something that everyone considers a disposable item.

Radian: I bought the 15-22 upgrade kit right after they released and just got around to installing the safety but there was a problem with the cylinder. The hole either wasn’t cut deep enough or there was something stuck in it that was preventing the spring and plug from fully inserting to capture the safety lever on one side. My email was responded to the same day and the replacement cylinder was in the mail the same day I gave them my address. Just don’t use their website chat feature, I never got an answer from that.

Arc’teryx: I bought a Theta AR around 2010-2011. It served as a daily wear jacket for the first few years but didn’t see too much hard use aside from a few days of snowboarding (I suck so I fell a lot). The last several years it sat in my closet in Hawaii with very minimal use until December when I moved back CONUS and started wearing it almost every day again. I noticed that the waterproof seams were starting to separate from the jacket so I reached out for an RMA. It took a while in transit because I had to send it to them in WA, and then they sent it to another facility in Canada. It also took some time to get assessed, but was within the 4-6 week time period that they quoted me. I got an email form them today saying something along the lines of the Gore-Tex was separating from the fabric and it can’t be repaired. But, they believe that its still within the jacket’s expected lifespan so I’m basically getting store credit for the entire cost of the jacket, which was somewhere around $5-600. I didn’t abuse the hell out of that jacket but I definitely got a lot of use out of it over the past eight or nine years. Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if the humidity from sitting right beside our windows in HI for so long did something to the fabric. I’m pretty excited they’re covering it like they are - I love how all of my Arc’teryx stuff feels and performs so a great CS experience definitely helps offset the initial cost.

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I like that this seems to be a common theme with arcteryx in particular. I have a few items from them since they fit me and are high quality. I stayed warm in -22 weather ice fishing all day in my Theta AR with a Thorium AR under it. It’s good to know they’ll take care of me if I need it since the price of admission is a bit steep.

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Yeah I’d heard good things from a few people but didn’t want to get my hopes up. I’ll be spending the next few years at Carson so I’m definitely getting more stuff from them.

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I had an issue with my brand new Henry Big Boy. Took it apart, stripped even the roll pins, only got worse. Sent it to Henry as literally a bag of parts. They had it for a week or two, sent it back yesterday, no questions asked, brand new bolt, polished internals, smooth as butter.

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Colt: Sometime around the late 90s I took possession of a Colt HBar AR-15 that was AR15 marked with bayo lug etc.

It got dropped and after that I started to experience FTF issues. Tried a bunch of different magazines and realized something bad happened to the rifle itself. Sent it in to Colt for service / repair. Colt replaced the upper, barrel and bolt and returned it to me at no cost.

Rifle ran 100% after that. Only drawback was a color mismatch between upper and lower (grey / black) and I now had a push button forward assist rather than a teardrop forward assist. But not about to complain. Maybe one day I’ll track down the correct tear drop forward assist and swap it out.

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I posted this yesterday in the Sionics thread but may as well cross post since it fits here as well. This is regarding a new Sionics Patrol Three E rifle that I just bought.

[i]I took the rifle as pictured to the indoor range 5 min from my office on 4/5 to zero the optic and run a handful of 30rd mags through the gun to check function. I was working through the first magazine (Gen 2 PMag supplied by Sionics) of Speer 64gr GD making scope adjustments on 3 shot groups. After about 15rds I had a double-feed. After 4 more rounds I had another doublefeed. Then I had a failure to feed (fail to strip).

I switched to a 30rd Okay with Federal XM193 and the symptoms continued, then onto another Okay with XM193 which behaved the same.

I called the Sionics shop and told them what was going on. They immediately sent me a paid UPS label and I sent the gun off to them. Once they received it they called me to bring me up to speed. They said they took everything apart and the tolerances on the gas block and tube were within spec, but on the edge of the spec, so could be potential tolerance stacking issue.

They rebuilt with fresh parts and put some rounds through it at the shop with no issues. I don’t remember what all they said they were doing, but I think it was a different gas block, tube, and Springco blue buffer spring.

They asked if I was cool letting them keep it over the weekend so they could take it to the range and put more rounds through it. I told them they were welcome to wear it out - the more the better.

The following Monday they called to tell me they had put a bunch of mags through it with zero malfunctions, and they had videoed the gun to show me if I wanted it. They gave it to UPS that day and it I got it back Tuesday this week.

I went to the range today and re-zeroed the optic with 64gr GD (The Brownells isn’t QD but only needed 3 clicks of windage to return to zero). 30 rounds of GD through the PMag Sionics sent, and 5 Okays with XM193 with no issues. The medium contour barrel really controls heat well and doesn’t get too hot even after 6 mags. The two-stage trigger is very nice considering I’ve only shot Colt mil-spec triggers in the past.

The point of the story is that Sionics has absolutely incredible customer service and the guys (Josh and Stephen) were great to deal with and got me squared away in less time than it took UPS to get the gun from me to them. It’s quite a change of pace to call the Sionics shop and immediately speak to the same guys any time you dial them.

Also, always check and prove your gear no matter the manufacturer. Things happen.

Sionics is A+, highly recommended.[/i]

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I’m about to find out how good Vortex customer service and warranty is.

One week ago I purchased a new Razor Gen2 1-6E from my LGS. It will not hold zero at different magnifications. If zeroed at 6x at 50 yds, the group slips low and left about 2 inches at 3x; at 1x it’s off the paper. At 10 yds 1x is about 5 inches low and two left. I’ve checked mount (Scalarworks) and torque specs numerous times. Oddly, for the first 300+ rounds it seemed to work fine before the low left came out of the blue.

I’ll report back once I contact Vortex and hopefully get it addressed ASAP.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I sent an email to Sionics yesterday evening and got a phone call back from Josh in 30 minutes. I’m happy with the interaction and impressed by the promptness.

I sent an email to Trijicon about 5 minutes prior to that. Hopefully I hear back soon. Edit: still waiting as of 3 May. Email sent 25 Apr. Edit 2: Trijicon still no response as of 24 June. Sending again.

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Hard to believe a weapon intended for the intensities of combat would somehow start having issues after being dropped.

I did have a Mossberg 590 that fell from a sofa onto a hard floor and would not extract after that, though.

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I bought Arc’teryx specifically because of their rep. So far nothing but praise.

A few years ago I had a pair of Lowa waterproof shoes, the sole started to delaminate. After a couple rounds on email I sent them back to them at their request, they mailed me a brand new pair of the latest edition.

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Keen boots - I ordered a pair of Targhee EXP boots and they showed up with a couple manufacturing/QC issues. They immediately sent out a UPS return label and sent me another pair. Second pair showed up with some issue and they did it again. Fantastic customer service, but their QC is pretty awful on imported items. However, I ended up with a pair of their American Built boots and they seem good to go.

Altra running shoes - I had a couple issues with a pair of Superior 3.5s coming apart within like a month of wear. They sent me a new pair and told me to either hang on to the old ones or donate them because they can’t do anything with them.

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It was a bad drop.

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No doubt!

I dropped a BCM M4 from about waist high onto a concrete porch. The gun landed right on the elevation turret of the ACOG it was wearing and then clattered onto the bolt hold open side of the rifle. Both the rifle and the ACOG were fine. The ACOG didn’t even change zero. Six months later I traded that ACOG for something.

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Update.

Vortex has been nothing short of awesome with this situation. Both their Representative that is the contact with my local gun store and VortexOptics rep who is active on M4C.net have really bent over backwards to get me taken care of. I already received a new scope on Wednesday and shot it last night. I experienced no problems.

This is a complicated situation regarding ring torque recommendations of the mount manufacturer (Scalarworks) vs Vortex and potential damage caused by the higher mount torque recommended by Scalarworks. Scalarworks, has also been involved and awesome.

To help get clarity Vortex even purchased a Scalarworks mount ($400) to test their scopes with the mount themselves. My personal opinion is this just happened to be a bad scope. Either way Vortex took care of me but the fact they bought a mount to do additional testing so they have the new direct technical knowledge, is pretty cool.

Also, I purchased this scope from my local gun shop in our small town. They were also proactive in communicating with Vortex and helping to resolve this. A reminder of how small shops truly cater to customers - something you don’t much get anymore at big box stores or direct online purchases.

If you all are interested in following the drama there is a thread in the optics and mounts forum about the Scalarworks Leap mount where both Vortex and Scalarworks openly communicate.

Thank you Vortex, Scalarworks and my LGS.

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I’m surprised no one has mentioned Forward Controls Design (Duffy). Awesome customer service - even on other manufacturers stuff. :slight_smile:

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Euro Optic is good.
Good prices
Fast shipping
Good customer service/quick responses.

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Duffy has always taken superb care of me, both at BAD and FCD. That dude knows how to keep a customer happy over the long term.

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Some of the best CS I have seen is Rainier Arms. Awesome people to deal with.

And it was a total surprise to me but the people at AAC made a repair super easy and like totally fast. Spring on my can wore out and they replaced it and also did maintenance on my can and recoated it… all in under a a week.

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Roger’s CS is top notch. Dude responds to emails late at night within a few minutes. And the SBCG and 1815 are top notch, too. Edit: I just checked my mailbox and found another SBCG and 1815. I’m pretty sure I placed my order 2-3 days ago, so they don’t screw around with shipping, either. And the Accuwasher set showed up too, despite being out of stock on FCD’s website. I figured they would ship that separately, whenever.

Bonus: excellent discount for Mil/LE/First Responder

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Vortex, Hornady, RCBS, Dillon, Centurion Arms have all been excellent for me.