[VaughnT]

As some of you might have heard, my Novak Extreme Duty adjustable sight blew up for the second time while I was finishing up a pistol shooting course. Great that it failed in training and not in a fight, but still disheartening.

Anyhow, a call to Novak's and some guy tells me that they have a fixed sight that will fit the adj cut. With tritium inserts, the cost is $90 and it can be to me in a few days (had to go out to Trijicon for inserts). Being between a rock and a hard place, I gave the fellow my credit card number and sat back to wait for the mail to do its thing.

Well, in talking around here, I kinda got the idea that it wasn't right for me to have to pay for replacing a failed product. I understand that anything can fail, but this was a design flaw and not abuse on my part. So I sent them a polite email saying just so. I don't mind paying for the tritium upgrade as that's a personal choice and not what I was using on the adj sight.

A couple of days go by and I hear nothing back from my email. I guess they get a lot of emails and didn't feel that responding with anything was really important.

Guess what shows up at my door this afternoon? My new sight. But, get this, not only is their a fixed rear sight with tritium, per my request, but there's a tritium-equipped front sight and a hand-written note apologizing for the failed sight and saying that there would be no charge to my card.

Now, don't I feel like a horse's ass! I can't get the sight to fit in the cut so I'll have to find a local smith to push it in, maybe file on it some, but I'll definitely be giving Novak's another email. This time they can bill my card for some of their magazines. And maybe they can work on my HiPower for me.

Didn't expect this, but that's usually what happens when I get my dander up.

Thanks for listening and I hope you guys (and Novaks) will forgive my earlier ranting. Words spoken in anger and frustration are often regretted.

[Jim Watson]

As long as you weren't abusive, don't feel bad about complaining. It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. These outfits have statistical quality control and they know they are going to have to replace a certain fraction of duds as being less expensive than making stuff better to begin with. But they are going to have to be quick about the replacement to get the reputation for "customer service."

I find it extremely interesting to note that Novak
1. Gets established with the most popular fixed pistol sight on the market.
2. Can't make it adjustable and so bring out a similar appearing adjustable that takes an extra mill cut.
3. Gets a complaint that your adjustable doesn't hold up.
4. Now have a fixed sight to fit the adjustable's cut.
Hmm. Do you think they tooled up for that one single fixed sight to go in your adjustable cut alone? I don't.

[VaughnT]

Good points, Mr. Watson. I've wondered about that, myself. I've never seen a recall notice and this isn't the first I've heard about the screws shearing off under recoil.

Wish I could fit the sight myself, but I don't have the files needed and am worried about screwing it up.

[Jim Watson]

I know what you mean.
I am NRA Mechanically Inept and leave anything beyond cleaning and spring replacement to my (fortunately) local gunsmith.