Smith & Wesson Customer Service - or Lack Threrof.

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Wouldn't surprise me that the folks you first get when calling CS are probably younger than the pistol you're having difficulty with.

Same goes for some of their 'Smith's,,,

Sounds like you might need the type of service above and beyond what many are finding in this 'remove and replace' world we all live in.

Folks that can provide that type of service are becoming more and more scarce.

Not sure what else one can do besides either hanging in there and waiting for S + W or take it to a 'Smith of your choice and pay him to look at it.
 
DesertVet said:
Let us know how it turns out?
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I sure will. Probably be a while.

Skgreen said:
Not sure what else one can do besides either hanging in there and waiting for S + W or take it to a 'Smith of your choice and pay him to look at it.
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Well , since I am already a month into S&W , I will ride it out and hope for the best for my 60 no dash. As to a "'Smith of your choice" , I have another revolver which I could use some work ; I am currently gathering information on several gunsmiths for future use. I'd like to have a "Go To" if and when the need arrives.
 
I had a S & W Highway Patrolman that needed work, called S & W was told it would take at least 6 weeks till they could evaluate the problem. I had a LGS do the work, much quicker. By contrast I sent a Model 83 back to Freedom Arms for a minor Problem and had it back in less than 2 weeks.
 
Been there, done that. 686 Pro series with a barrel that was apparently made on bring your chimp to work day. Century has put out better tubes than this. Gun also got light strikes at least once per cylender.

Took 4 months for them to fix it. Admittedly the barrel came back nice. Light strikes persisted.

Oh and they sent it back to the wrong address.

Traded it for a CZ P09 the other day. No more S&W for me.
 
Sorry to hear this story of a very large company that should be a lot better. I have never owned a S&W and may not ever after this. I have a Glock 19 that shot left and is a gen 2 given to me by my sister(retired D.C. detective). Tried everything to make sure it wasn't me. Sent it in and found the frame was cracked. They sent it back in a week with the whole gun rebuilt with only the barrel and slide being original. Gun is great now.
 
Glad to see someone other than Taurus getting run through the wringer. I like my smiths but I also start smelling BS a lot when people moan and groan with comparisons from one company to the next. It's all about the bottom dollar for some companies, and for others it's all about customer satisfaction. Figure out which one has the most loyal fan base and you find your answer.
 
I have had 2 CS relations with S&W. I bought a PC Shield 9 and the very first time, first round, I shot it the slide locked back and would NOT move. How it got out of the shop I don't know. I sent it in and 2 MONTHS later I got it back saying it was "deburred". It has been 100% since then. I had a 45 Shield PC that had a trigger that would not reset. Sent it in got it back 9 weeks later. It was NOT repaired. It still failed to reset. I called sent it back and 2 months later got it back. I sold it, disclosing the problem to the buyer. Bad slow service. I am through with S&W. Steyr on the other hand has excellent guns and better CS, they just don't advertise or have a large portfolio of guns. Glock also has EXCELLENT CS.
 
Waveski said:
3 weeks after sending the gun to them I called and asked if the firearm had been evaluated. After being on hold for 30 LONGGG minutes a polite rep told me that the piece was indeed in the system , and that an estimate would be determined in about ..... two months. Wait wait wait , I said - two months - just for the estimate??? Yes , he said. And how long on top of that will it take to be serviced , I asked. No definitive answer on that one. /QUOTE]

It is totally unacceptable for S&W to tie up your oersonal property for what may very well be in excess of six months for a repair service. This is an example of why I gave up sending firearms back for factory service or repairs.

That problem with the action binding can be resolved by a good gunsmith. I hand carry my own firearms to a good local gunsmith and describe the problem(s) I’m having in person and rely on his expertise to diagnose and fix the problem(s). I stay on top of the situation during the time that the gun is being evaluated and I want to approve all service & repair costs. After the work is done in usually about 6 weeks, I pick it up and reserve the right to bring it back if the gun doesn’t function properly. And I rarely have problems that require another trip to the gunsmith.

So if it costs me $60 - $80 thats better than sending my gun to a CS black hole and I don’t know or hear anything until they decide to tell me something, I think having a personal relationship with a professional who is working on something I may need sometime to save my own neck is worth the extra trouble and a few extra bucks out of my wallet!
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I've called them a few times about parts for mine the past few months. Wait time to speak to a tech-CS rep has been in the 15 minute range. Been spot on in providing part #'s.
 
Waveski said:
I am doing just that.
Not being smart ,take it apart and give it a good cleaning?

Model 60 no dash , early 80's I believe. Problem : action binding when trigger and/or hammer is about 3/4 drawn back. Gradually worsening. There is no cylinder friction. When working the action with sideplate removed my minimally trained eye could not detect the source of the binding , so - off to the Mother Ship. And , apparently , there it will stay for a prolonged period of time.
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How about a simple question to S&W customer service about the screw size for the front sight on a Victory...I took the sight off and want to fill the hole with a plug screw.

email answer: Unfortunately, we do not have that dimension available.
 
Update:

I received the estimate from S&W. In fairness I will point out that I was told that the wait time for the estimate would be 2 months ; it was in fact 5 1/2 weeks. That isn't mush to hang S&W's hat on , but again , to be fair.

The content of the estimate was very brief... Correct rough spot in action (which I knew about) and excessive cylinder play ( which I was not aware of) ,
$45 charge for inspection , $40 for repair for a total of $85.

Now , that is not a lot of money , but I wanted to know just what the corrective measures would consist of. The best they could do in response to my inquiries was to get 2 different people to read that same scant info over and over to me. They were very pleasant but unable to provide any meaningful information. So I ponied up the money ; we'll see how it turns out. I still hope to find out exactly what the smith(s) are going to do to the internals , and to the cylinder.
 
Sent my M29-2 back on April 27, 2018.
Estimate came in the mail on Friday the 13th. :confused: 7/13/18. 20180714_074513.jpg
Sending letter back to ok the repairs. Calling on the phone didnt work well. I hung up after waiting 3 minutes.

The Endurance Package should fix the cylinder rotating backwards after firing.
 
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Waveski said:
Update:

I received the estimate from S&W. In fairness I will point out that I was told that the wait time for the estimate would be 2 months ; it was in fact 5 1/2 weeks. That isn't mush to hang S&W's hat on , but again , to be fair.

The content of the estimate was very brief... Correct rough spot in action (which I knew about) and excessive cylinder play ( which I was not aware of) ,
$45 charge for inspection , $40 for repair for a total of $85.

Now , that is not a lot of money , but I wanted to know just what the corrective measures would consist of. The best they could do in response to my inquiries was to get 2 different people to read that same scant info over and over to me. They were very pleasant but unable to provide any meaningful information. So I ponied up the money ; we'll see how it turns out. I still hope to find out exactly what the smith(s) are going to do to the internals , and to the cylinder.
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Waveski said:
That certainly would make sense.

As to the service department being swamped , that does not speak well for product performance and reliability.

Long hold time on the phone , extremely slow turn around time , it all adds up to : Not Good.
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Went to a local reputable gunsmith last year to have a new sight installed on a lever .357 and a trigger job done on a new 77/44. Took about 5 months. Total cost for both was under $100 tho and both were done with excellent results/workmanship. Not really poor customer service, just demand for good work. Never once felt like coming here and snibbling about it. Odds are you coulda gone local for that type of simple non-warranty gun-smithing. Since it's not warranty work, like any other gunsmith, you have to wait your turn. Swamped service department also means swamped sales, not just poor quality and bad CS. The same smiths doing your work are also probably doing trigger jobs and performance packages......not just fixing lemons or shot out older guns. You have to consider that your gun is repairable and done fairly cheaply. Ain't gonna be so with so many other products 40 years old. Odds are it will still be repairable in another 40 years. As for if it was your only gun....... how is that S&Ws fault? Your 40 year old T.V. goes down and needs to be repaired, is it the dealers fault you have nuttin' else to watch until you get it back? Over the years I have dealt with S&W, Ruger, and Taurus CS. All have been great, none were what I would call convenient. Ship happens. We are not always the only one on the boat. If you gun comes back worse than when it left and takes 8 months to fix, then I'd say you have something to snibble about.
 
For what it's worth, my recoil spring on my Shield 45 broke apart. Emailed Smith via their website (had to enter my name, email address, etc), and a couple days later was emailed telling me that I had a new recoil spring in the mail on it's way to me.

They have great CS as far as I'm concerned, but YMMV.
 
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BUCK460XVR ---

"Odds are you coulda gone local for that type of simple non-warranty gun-smithing" - If I had a good local smith to turn to I would have done so. The only local guy I have is semi-retired and backlogged ; I thought I would try S&W.

"Swamped service department also means swamped sales, not just poor quality and bad CS." - A S&W rep told me that the backlog is primarily due to recalls and warranty work. That was not an unfounded conclusion on my part.

"As for if it was your only gun....... how is that S&Ws fault?" - If you were to read more closely - I never said that. What I did say is "what if" it were my only gun ... I would have to go out and buy a replacement , and the current state of affairs at S&W would cause me to consider a different brand.

"If you gun comes back worse than when it left and takes 8 months to fix, then I'd say you have something to snibble about." You and I clearly have different standards as to what constitutes good vs bad customer service.

"Snibble" ... new word for me.

The primary reason I logged in here today was to wrap this up. 243winxb , I guess I fared a little better that you did. You and I both sent our revolvers to S&W back in late April ; my 60 no dash arrived back to me yesterday. The action is now excellent. No end shake , no binding , trigger feels great. (I am grateful that the 'smith left my Wolff springs in place rather than replacing with stock ones ... ) My efforts to learn the exact nature of the repair work yielded 2 words : "hand skips". Not much info , but better than nothing.

In summary , the turnaround was just under 3 months , which is a few weeks less than I was told to expect. The service to the firearm appears to be well and properly done ; 20 rounds is not a very thorough test , but all appears to be A-OK. Communication was poor - I really wanted to know what the 'smith did to the internals , but inquiries along those lines went mostly unanswered. My first call resulted in a wait time of 30 minutes. Later call waits were not as long. The fee of $85 was very reasonable.
My edc is repaired and back in the holster. I am glad to have it. I hope that Smith&Wesson is able to improve turn around time and communications ; there is certainly room to do so.

End of snibbling.
 
Waveski said:
BUCK460XVR ---


"If you gun comes back worse than when it left and takes 8 months to fix, then I'd say you have something to snibble about." You and I clearly have different standards as to what constitutes good vs bad customer service.

"Snibble" ... new word for me.
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Apparently we do. I generally wait until I see how the situation is handled before I feel obligated to begin the snibbling and belittling. Some folks feel diffidently. Maybe being in a industry where I worked with customers on a daily basis, I realize the stuff does happen and sometimes expectations are varied. Whether it was due to my workmanship, the work of sub-contractors, vendors or products used issues, I always asked customers to have a little patience and wait till the problem was resolved before they got overtly negative. As in your case, for the most part, the issues were resolved and everyone happy. Many times there was a apology from those that thought they had to make the issue bigger than it was. The issue you had was not a production issue, more than likely a previous operator issue and 40 years of use, and possibly, abuse. Yet you were quick to claim the problem with having to not have your gun fixed in a matter of days instead of a few weeks, was because of the crap guns S&W produces. Without a response from S&W, I'll take your statement of what the rep told you with a grain of salt. Tho, with sales of handguns of just under a half million a year, even with a failure rate of 2%, that would make for 10,000 repairs a year. Yet we hear of only a very few actual complaints of failed service, more so, we hear of snibbling, before that service is or can be rendered.

Seems your problem was fixed well, in a very reasonable amount of time........even after all the snibbling. Kinda all I was sayin' in the first place. Just give 'em a legitimate chance.

As for the word "snibble", it's kinda like between a whine and a rant.
 
JTown said:
I had a S & W Highway Patrolman that needed work, called S & W was told it would take at least 6 weeks till they could evaluate the problem. I had a LGS do the work, much quicker. By contrast I sent a Model 83 back to Freedom Arms for a minor Problem and had it back in less than 2 weeks.
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FA not only puts out what is basically a semi-custom production gun, they also do not produce anything close to the number of guns S&W does. Statistics alone would tell you that.

I had sent my older 66 back, thinking it was covered under warranty. Seems that lifetime stuff doesn't apply to anything older than 1989. 6 weeks for an estimate, another 2-3 to repair and return; I was told they were really busy; probably fixing all of their new models that suck in the quality department.
 
buck460XVR said:
Yet you were quick to claim the problem with having to not have your gun fixed in a matter of days instead of a few weeks, was because of the crap guns S&W produces."

THE PORTION BELOW IS MINE , AND NOT INTENDED AS PART OF THE QUOTE FROM MR. BUCK...
Now , it is always best to be accurate when criticizing someone else's statements. You misrepresented what I said , which is not nice. I did repeat the information given to me by a S&W rep , which was that the current service back log is due , in large part , to a deluge of warranty and recall work. That is a statement of fact , not opinion. I did go on to say that such a back log is indicative of "large quantities of product put into the marketplace which are in need of correction" , but that too is a statement of fact , and stating it qualifies me as Captain Obvious.

It is clear that we are have opposing opinions on this issue. Setting aside the fact that several unflattering remarks were aimed in my general direction , I suggest that we call it a draw.
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I would expect SW to get it right for you. That is a long time to wait tho. The worst customer service experience i've ever had is with Rossi on a 92 lever action.
 
Called S&W this morning. They got my credit card info.

Told about summer shutdown for the 2 weeks. This year it's 20 July to 6 August.

Not going shooting in this weather, so not an issue.
 
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Waveski said:
I am doing just that.


Model 60 no dash , early 80's I believe. Problem : action binding when trigger and/or hammer is about 3/4 drawn back. Gradually worsening. There is no cylinder friction. When working the action with sideplate removed my minimally trained eye could not detect the source of the binding , so - off to the Mother Ship. And , apparently , there it will stay for a prolonged period of time.
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Just a note of caution, please do not opperate the action of your revolver with the side plate removed, the side plate supports the pins staked on the opposite side of the frame and may result in them to breaking loose and another trip back to repair a serious malfunction.
 
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