I can understand that, 460Kodiak; I really can. As a Rhino owner, I'm not concerned in the slightest - Pelo801 shot his gun pretty heavily, and eventually got it made right. (Again, brother, I'm so sorry to hear about the hassles you had to go through on the way - what a giant pain.) Mine has been shot quit a bit, but nowhere near that level: I feel pretty secure in thinking that it'll last me the rest of my life.
But I'm not sure that reading this thread would encourage me to go out and
spring for a Rhino if I didn't already have one. Not out of concern for the issue (this is the first time I've heard anything like this happening with one of these, and I've had mine for over four years), but because of the at least initially recalcitrant response from the company. Maybe that's because they get so few repairs that they don't know how to respond (hey, maybe that Maytag repairman would be a royal grump if you actually called him
), but I can sure see how Pelo801 would be left with a bad taste in his mouth.
What would have been the right way to handle it? As soon as those photos hit their inbox, have a return authorization emailed out. Either get the gun back to the man in one week or have a new replacement there for him (S&W has done that for me). Frankly, since Chiappa is a new player in the game, if I'd have been the manager there, I'd have sweetened the pot by sending Pelo801 some hats and t-shirts and stickers, as well as those hardwood stocks that he admired on this thread, just as a bonus.
I managed a gun store before I went to law school and I've seen how a little customer service can go a long way.
I hope you keep it, Pelo801, and I'm glad the ordeal is behind you. Thank you again for keeping us updated with it all; I'm sure it'll be very helpful to a lot of people.
