Warranty on AMSEC BF Gun safe

[12many]

Does any one know the warranty on the AMSEC BF line of gun safe? I can not find it in their literature. I am interested in the regular warranty, if any, if something just breaks. I read the warranty about if there is a fire or break in.

Does anyone know if the lock is covered?

Thanks.

 

[Brad Johnson]

http://www.amsecusa.com/service/PDF/InstructionWarrantyRev0206WebFormat.pdf

Brad

 

[12many]

Doh. I hate it when I look and can not find it and is was actually on the site. Thanks Brad.

From my reading, for a gun safe, it is 1 year parts and labor (including the lock) for items not related to a fire or breaking.

If that is correct, that does not seem that great.

Liberty, while not as good a safe, has a better warranty. 5 years on lock and lifetime on safe.

Perhaps I am missing something.

 

[CB900F]

12Many;

Manual combination dials, made in the USA by S&G or LaGard, have truly excellent reliability records. AMSEC themselves are a major player in the U.S. security container market & don't want to damage their reputation at all. Lockwork technology, the method by which the locking bolts operate, is not rocket science. It's about as esoteric as hanging laundry out to dry.

IMHO Liberty's longer warranty period speaks more to their profit margin than the quality of their work. In other words, it's a sales & marketing cost that they can easily afford.

900F

 

[Blacksmoke]

Beware of this company. I had a bad experience with Amsec and their warranty on a T-15 Composite Burglary/Fire safe I bought from a dealer in Albuquerque. This is a fairly expensive item $3K+. It weighs just over one ton. I started having problems with the door apparently one of the hinges was tweaked and needed to be tapped for a larger machine screw. I must have written ten letters to AmSec. They would not pay for repairs. They would not return telephone calls. They would not do anything about the problem which is getting worse. It seems I will have to do the repairs myself. It is a little tricky since it is the bottom hinge and getting under it is difficult.

So, it is not surprising that warranty information is lacking in their sales information. IMHO their credibility is nill. They certainly lost me as a customer and I have two of their safes!

I hate companies that refuse to honor their warranties.

 

[a1abdj]

Safe warranties are an interesting topic all on their own. Regardless of who makes the safe, there is very little that can go wrong. Most of the warranty work is lock related, and it's usually the lock companies (not the safe manufacturer) that picks up that tab. I do warranty work for a ton of manufacturers, and can probably count on one hand how many jobs I did last year that were not lock related.

As CB900F said above, the warranties are more geared towards marketing.

Many of these companies will probably be out of business 20 years from now when everybody starts to experience failures on their safes.

Beware of this company. I had a bad experience with Amsec and their warranty on a T-15 Composite Burglary/Fire safe I bought from a dealer in Albuquerque.

I am having a difficult time understanding your problem. AMSEC has welded hinges on their AMVAULT line (the TL rated composites). The only threaded item on a hinge is the adjustment pin that sits inside of the lower hinge block. Is that what you're talking about? If that's the case, it's not that difficult of a repair.

AMSEC is one of the largest safe manufacturers in the US, and has always gone above and beyond when any of my customers have needed anything.

I'm assuming you bought this safe new. Did you notify the dealer you purchased the safe from? If I sold a safe that had a problem that wasn't being addressed by the manufacturer, I would take it upon myself to fix the problem. Have they offered to fix it? Have they offered to go to bat for you to their distributor or straight to AMSEC?

If you would like to send me some photos and description of the problem, I'd be more than happy to call AMSEC for you.

 

[12many]

First let me say thank you to CB and A1 for all their helpful posts on this forum regarding safes (RSC). I have been researching safes in detail and this forum is a great source of information.

While each company is entitled to warranty as they wish and consumers can do as they wish, it still makes no sense to me, as a consumer, that the company that builds the better safe and charges for it would have a warranty that is 20% as long, 1 year verses 5 years.

While I agree that it is unlikely that anything will go wrong, I have the luck of Murphy.

If it is just good marketing, and the AMSEC safe is all but fool proof, then why wouldn't AMSEC provide a better warranty? They get all benefit of the marketing, plus, because their safe is so good, none of the cost of repairs.

It's not that I won't buy the AMSEC, but for the extra $1500, I feel like I ought to at least get the same warranty as the cheapo Liberty. Or 50% of the warranty time?

I think we will all agree that if something is to go wrong, it will most likely be with the lock. CB and A1 know infinetly more than I do, but based on my research, the electonic locks do go bad. They are electronics with a small motor or selenoid and unfortunatly stuff breaks. They are however, made by third party companies such as S&G and LeGard, so the company who makes the safe might not matter as much, unless one safe would 'stress' or bind the lock.

I wonder if the locks come with a seperate warranty?

 

[a1abdj]

While each company is entitled to warranty as they wish and consumers can do as they wish, it still makes no sense to me, as a consumer, that the company that builds the better safe and charges for it would have a warranty that is 20% as long, 1 year verses 5 years.

It makes no business sense (to a business that plans on staying in business) to offer a lifetime warranty on a mechanical item. Mechanical items will wear and break eventually given enough use or abuse. This is especially true on safes, as people tend to not have their safes serviced at regular intervals.

I'm waiting for all of the safes with internal hinges to start having problems to see how the gun safe manufacturers with lifetime warranties handle them. Internal hinges are non adjustable, difficult to access, and subject to greater force (due to leverage) than an external hinge. The more a door is opened and closed, the more the hinge wears. Sooner or later, the door will start to drag.

I agree with you though. If Ford offered a lifetime warranty on engines and transmissions, I'd probably buy nothing but Fords.

I wonder if the locks come with a seperate warranty?

They do, and the safe manufacturers typically exclude the locks from their own warranties.

When you call a safe manufacturer, and their CS rep diagnoses the problem as a lock failure (under warranty), they turn the problem over to the lock manufacturer.

The lock manufacturer will then contract a locksmith (who may or may not do work for the safe manufacturer) to deal with the issue.

I've also just read a few warranties offered by other gun safe manufacturers. They also only cover defects in workmanship or materials, it's not a full warranty that covers everything that could go wrong.

What some of them seem to be doing is extending the lock warranty for up to 5 years.

 

[dcoop]

I agree with you though. If Ford offered a lifetime warranty on engines and transmissions, I'd probably buy nothing but Fords.

You must drive Chrysler's

 

[MAKster]

Most warranties are a hand-holding measure. Companies whether they manufacture guns, cars, or safes offer warranties to make skeptical customers feel more comfortable with their purchase. For example, Hyundai started offering 10 year warranties in an attempt to overcome widespread concerns about the quality of their cars. Toyota or Honda don't need to include these incentives because people who buy their products are not worried about their reliability. Same with Glock. Whether or not you like Glock, their durability is not an issue. On the other hand, Taurus needs to offer a long warranty to overcome concerns about their quality. These warranties are largely feel good measures because no company could financially afford to make these promises if they actually had to pay out to more than a small percentage of customers. Same with any type of insurance. Extended warranties for products that do break frequently like laptops and HDTVs cost $200-300 extra.

 

[Blacksmoke]

a1abdj,
Thanks for offering to be of assistance. I am not sure what your connection to this is. Are you in the safe business? If you posted that info sorry I missed it.

Yes, safe was purchased new from a dealer in Albuquerque.

Yes, I told them about the problems. No, they were not interested in doing anything about it since Amsec would not pay for their time. They claimed it was AmSec's problem.

Yes, it is the hinge adjustment crew on the bottom hinge that is stripped out. A safe and lock guy I spoke with suggested that the screw hole be re=tapped to the next largest size. This means jacking up the open safe door and attempting to drill out and re=tap in a space of about 4 inches. Not my idea of an easy task.

Other problems:

some of the birdshot "stuffing" inside the safe walls leaked out into the safe interior. I picked up about four ounces by volume with a magnet. It is possible some of this material got into the bottom hinge and wore on it.

metal shavings were found inside the safe on the bottom shelf.

One of the shims used to level the safe slipped completely and the safe has moved about 1.5 inches. Since it weighs over one ton, I am not sure how it migrated. It is sitting on a porcelean tile floor with a concrete slab underneath.

The lock spring release bolt required me to add a shim other wise it would not actuate and the door would not lock.

Since the door is out of adjustment, it must be slammed pretty hard to get the bolt to relase and the door to lock. This constant slamming has caused a portion of the exterior fire material to chip off around the door frame. This creates a slight gap that hot gasses from a fire could enter the safe.

All of this was reported to Amsec in three letters. Their response was to contact a safe and lock tech about 70 miles away. He has no interest in a service call as Amsec's fee would not even cover his truck fuel. No one has responded to my telephone calls or my letters.

All in all, my opinion of Amsec is, well, not fit for display on a family friendly website. They are just another American corporation that will not honor their warranty. They have joined the ranks of Kitchen Aid, Compaq, Browning all companies that would not honor their warranty with us because it was inconvenient.

Sorry for the gripe but these experiences suck big time.

If you have any influence with Amsec I would like to get the door adjusted to plumb and level and get the spring release rod adjusted to proper fit.

Thanks for expressing some level of interest, That is more than the manufacturer or the dealer.

 

[beemerphile]

Based in large part on the advice of a1abdj and CB900F I bought a couple of AMSEC safes (a BF6030 for the long guns and a CSC3417 for the pistols). I am completely satisfied with them.

A Hyundai has a longer warranty than a Toyota, but that doesn't make it a better car. Michelin doesn't provide mileage warranties on their tires, but they outlast most brands. Warranty is one consideration, but it is not everything.

 

[atomchaser]

It would seem that if your AMSEC was in the Warranty period and AMSEC refused to fix, contacting a lawyer or the Attorney General's Office would be the next step.

I have an AMSEC that had electronic lock issue within the warranty period and had no problem with getting it fixed -- they had a local locksmith come out and install a new lock with a couple days of my claim.