Current state of warranty repairs at smith

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crestoncowboy

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I figured I'd make a brief report for anyone who is thinking about sending one in and dreading the wait, or just don't know what to expect. Not looking to debate just inform anyone who is curious

Gun is a 329 pd, somewhere between 3-500 rounds, maybe 100 magnums. Returned because of a problem with the cylinder latch. The frame is starting to show wear from being battered in the light gun but not bad, I mentioned it to them but if they don't think it's a problem I'll just complain about it the next time it goes back to them. I just can't these guns taking much use, I bought two, to have on the farm and hunting, and I didn't buy i them for every day shooting. Anyway the gun isn't the problem, it is what I expected. A woods defense/ deer gun that I can't tell I'm even wearing. I fully expect it to make a few trips to smith, hence the backup.(plus I never thought smith would make them this long)

8-23 I emailed them and stated the problem. Got a response the next day. Stated a 5 week turn around time.

8-24 I sent the info they wanted.

8-30 They sent the pre paid and insured tracking label. (There was a weekend in between there)

9-5 (just busy and in no real hurry) dropped the gun off at fed-ex. The Manager had to check it to see that it was unloaded. She did so by looking down the barrel. Then after being shown how to open the cylinder, again tuned it upside down and looked up the barrel.

9-7. Gun was signed for by smith and Wesson

So far Smith has been good to deal with. No issues. Fed-ex shipping was good, gun handling, not so much. I think the average owner putting the gun in the box,(I even put the red ring that came in the gun in the cylinder to show it was unloaded) then it not seeing daylight until the gunsmith opens it would be a far safer option, but I'm sure the policy means well. And I'm glad fedex still ships guns from private individuals. Overall I'm happy so far

I'll update when anything changes.

Mods, if this thread type is discouraged I apologize
 
9-13 I recieved an email from smith, stating my handgun was recieved and is being processed
 
9-24 recieved an email from fed-ex my gun shipped back to me.

Still not one word from S&W. I'll wait until I see any documentation they ship back with the gun to see what they say.... if anything
 
9-26 recieved gun at my door. It came with the old broken latch in a baggy, and a letter stating
"repaired cylinder latch"
"Repaired yolk"

No wasted words I suppose. Took 20 days from the time they recieved the gun. So pretty good turnaround. No correspondence whatsoever from anyone though. Good service is better than bad but friendly service I guess. I'm content with the experience. Certainly didn't go above and beyond, but they held up their end of the warranty. Overall I'd recommend them to a friend
 
I had to send back my 66-2; found out their lifetime warranty doesn't apply to guns made prior to 1989, so it cost me. It also took almost 2 months to get back to the repair area. Had I known it wasn''t covered, I would have opted for a local smith to do the work. Hope yours doesn't take as long!
 
George P said:
I had to send back my 66-2; found out their lifetime warranty doesn't apply to guns made prior to 1989, so it cost me. It also took almost 2 months to get back to the repair area. Had I known it wasn''t covered, I would have opted for a local smith to do the work. Hope yours doesn't take as long!
Click to expand...
That was news to me. What was the issue, and what did S&W charge?
 
Your turnaround was 20 days , mine was about 85 ; obviously there has been a significant improvement in that regard. 20 days is pretty darned good. Communication - an essential component of customer service - is apparently still minimal unfortunately. Perhaps they will improve on that next.

Glad it worked out for you.
 
Yeah, it actually got delivered at 830 pm. The fed ex guy called and said he was at my driveway but was scared to come up it in the dark. So I drove down and met him. I actually thought it would go to the "go postal" (a terrible name to ship a gun from btw) store that I shipped it from.

Smith and Wesson shipped and insured both ways. Like i said I'm happy with the service and turnaround, at least an email or phone call from a human would be nice, the three emails i got were computer generated asking for info. I'm curious what "repair yolk" was. To be fair i didn't call and try to talk to anyone either, I was confident they would fix the problem and it seems they have. I know that when I'm doing a repair i don't exactly speed up because someone is asking questions or complaining. I'll shoot it tomorrow maybe, it is a mediocre shooter (I own two, neither shoots like my 29 or a redhawk, or even my cheap Taurus sadly) anyway so I figure it's as good as it was. I did swap out my front sight for the factory one when I sent it in. So I may give the fiber optic another chance. No way I'd go back to that V rear though.

Overall I'd recommend Smith and Wesson, but I would no longer recommend the 329pd. A model 69 or 29/629 or redhawk would be a far better choice if one wants a 44 and can only afford one...IMHO
 
crestoncowboy said:
Yeah, it actually got delivered at 830 pm. The fed ex guy called and said he was at my driveway but was scared to come up it in the dark. So I drove down and met him. I actually thought it would go to the "go postal" (a terrible name to ship a gun from btw) store that I shipped it from.

Smith and Wesson shipped and insured both ways. Like i said I'm happy with the service and turnaround, at least an email or phone call from a human would be nice, the three emails i got were computer generated asking for info. I'm curious what "repair yolk" was. To be fair i didn't call and try to talk to anyone either, I was confident they would fix the problem and it seems they have. I know that when I'm doing a repair i don't exactly speed up because someone is asking questions or complaining. I'll shoot it tomorrow maybe, it is a mediocre shooter (I own two, neither shoots like my 29 or a redhawk, or even my cheap Taurus sadly) anyway so I figure it's as good as it was. I did swap out my front sight for the factory one when I sent it in. So I may give the fiber optic another chance. No way I'd go back to that V rear though.

Overall I'd recommend Smith and Wesson, but I would no longer recommend the 329pd. A model 69 or 29/629 or redhawk would be a far better choice if one wants a 44 and can only afford one...IMHO
Click to expand...

That new model 69 seems like a great gun, ball detent lockup, light weight and in the l-frame package. I'll give up one round capacity for it's handiness any day.
 
As for then not calling you I'm not surprised. Ruger does the same thing, I had to call and get an update on what was going on. The repair for my gp100 took extra long because I sent it in right before the 4th of July and didn't realize they shut down, so I was curious to why it was taking so long when they have a fast reputation.. I'm in the thought process that if you want to know what's going on,give them a shout.but that may be because of my job. I work at as a Deere dealer as a tech and the only time we will call you is estimate approval ,further parts approval that was not on the estinate, or for payment/delivery. Unless the customer specifical requests updates. We will call to let people know if there will be a long delay in the repair though. With warranty repairs we don't usually update you at all,just get it done and call you to schedule delivery or tell you it's done. However if you call and want to know the status , ask questions , or want to talk directly a tech explaining whats going on and other recomnendations we will be more than happy to update you and explain anything you want to know.
 
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crestoncowboy said:
Overall I'd recommend Smith and Wesson, but I would no longer recommend the 329pd. A model 69 or 29/629 or redhawk would be a far better choice if one wants a 44 and can only afford one...IMHO
Click to expand...

Kinda the same thing I've heard from most folks that have or have had one of those "Air-Lite" .44s. My oldest son had one for a while for a back-up while hunting elk with his bow. Anything much above standard .44 specials was just brutal. Traded it in on a nice 1911.
 
Like I said though, I can wear it all day and not notice it at all. There really is no comparison. If I could get 2k maybe even 1k rounds reliably I'd just send it back and use the backup one. But I'm afraid it's just not going to happen. The recoil is definitely the worst ive felt, considerably worse than the 500 or 460 which I consider harsh but comfortable to shoot for many rounds, but it's not terrible either. Both of mine wear x- frame grips which helps. The wood grips it came with are flat out uncomfortable. I shot 24 Remington magnums when I got the first gun with those and it left a bruise. Ive never had that happen with any other gun
 
S&W uses two day shipping and get a huge volume discount (I used to run Logistics for a company and did the contract negotiations). I am sure the labor cost was the majority. Point is though, even if it cost me the same, I would have preferred to find and use a local gunsmith as I am sure it would not have taken the time to just get looked at, let alone fixed that it took from S&W
 
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