My New Fusion 1911 and Experience

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Olympus

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I just wanted to take some time and share some photos of my new Fusion 1911 and provide my experience. This is basically just to provide any potential buyers or future buyers with an actual account from someone who had a full custom Fusion built.

I ordered my Fusion in early May of last year. That's when I sent my deposit, along with the specs for how I wanted my gun built. I was told that the build would take 6 months. I received my gun yesterday. Actual time from when I sent my deposit was about 10 1/2 months. I did NOT make any design changes during the course of production that would have lengthened the overall timeframe.

I had concerns from the beginning. About 3 or 4 months after placing my order, I emailed Bob to make a small change on the gun. I wanted to switch the fiber optic front sight color from green to red. I emailed and Bob sent an updated invoice with the corrected front sight color. When I looked at the invoice, it was for a completely different customer's gun. I immediately called and explained that Bob made the correction to someone else's gun invoice. He said he corrected the mistake.

About at the 6 month mark, I emailed Bob again and asked how the progress was for my gun. He emailed back and said it was almost done and asked that I send a copy of my FFL. So I send the copy and reply back asking to see if he can send me photos. He then replies asking which gun was mine again. I was like, ***? How did you just tell me my gun was almost ready and then immediately ask me which gun was mine again? So I reply back and tell him about my gun. His response was essentially, sorry, I got your gun mixed up with another customer's gun (again) and that mine wasn't nearly ready. So I went back to waiting.

More time went by and I'd send an email asking how it was going. I would not get a response. I'd one wait one more week then send another email, followed by a phone call.

Finally, I got email on a Saturday saying that my gun was done and the email included the photos I'm posting here. FINALLY, I thought. So I call Bob promptly on the following Monday morning and give him my credit card info to pay for the remaining balance. He said that he'll get the gun boxed up and shipped out to me. So I'm pumped! I'm watching for the UPS/FedEx man to show up all week. Surprise, surprise...nothing shows up all week long. So I wait until the next Monday, a week after I gave my credit card info, and try to call Bob first thing that morning about what's taking so long. No answer and I leave a message. I get an email reply about 4pm that day saying that it was being packaged and would be shipping out the next day (What the heck has it been doing the whole week before?). So I'm expecting 2nd day air like most handguns are shipped. I'm thinking it should be here by Thursday. Nope, nothing on Thursday. Ok, no big deal. It will be here by Friday for sure. Friday comes and goes and nothing arrives either. Then on Saturday, my regular mail carrier comes to the door with a package for me. My Fusion gun shipped regular USPS Priority Mail in a flat rate box. Looking at my gun invoice, I was charged $48 for shipping and the flat rate shipping box was $13 and some change.

After inspecting my pistol, I was moderately pleased. One pretty large thing was not done like I had requested. I requested the slide to have a flat top and I wanted the fine serrations with reveal. Then gun has the fine serrations with reveal, but top of the slide is not a flat top, it's rounded.

So I guess the moral of the story is that my experience was not ideal. It was not exactly pleasant, it was not exactly easy. Bob Serva at Fusion did not make me feel like my satisfaction was his goal. At best, his attitude to me seemed very lackadaisical and indifferent. The gun took a lot longer than I was originally told. Communication was sporadic and borderline poor. The finished product, while it appears to be a fine piece of craftsmanship, was not exactly 100% like I had ordered. It is what is. I can certainly say that I won't be going out of my way to recommend Fusion to any of my friends. While I'm not 100% thrilled with my purchase, I'm not angry either. I'm just kind of resigned I guess. I still got a great gun that was almost exactly like I wanted. It took longer than I expected, but it's here now and I'll be shooting it and enjoying it. I wont' be going out of my way to tell others not to do business with Fusion, but I also won't be recommending them to friends. I'm basically neutral in my feelings. My purpose in this thread is not to vent, not start an argument, not to cry about being treated poorly, or anything negative at all. I just wanted to provide the absolute facts about my experience with my build so that a potential buyer can get more information other than sunshine and rainbow reviews. I understand that my situation may be uncommon and I understand that there are a lot of happy Fusion owners as well. So my experience should not be the sole basis for someone deciding one way or another.

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So far, I have no complaint with the quality of gun. The recoil spring doesn't seem to want to come off the guide rod, but I"m sure I can get it off if I spend a little more time with it.
 
Thanks for the post Olympus maybe I am crazy for thinking that if I am going to get a custom gun I should get good "customer"service and everything I ordered done to it my specs if it is listed and feasible :banghead:
 
I honestly thought this was an old thread until I went back and looked at the date of the original post. I read a thread about a month ago (on another forum, I believe, but am not sure) of an almost carbon copy experience with Fusion.

Apparently, you are not the only one....
 
I know I can't be the only one. I've had probably 6 or 8 members on the 1911forum send me PMs about their bad experience with Fusion also. So I know I'm not alone, I just can't tell if I'm in the minority or the majority.
 
The time element doesn't surprise me. That seems to be a common theme with most gunsmiths and practically all 1911 smiths.

However...

I had one built a few years ago by a different smith. Took about twice as long as originally stated, but communication was good and the build was to my spec. Unfortunately, he retired.
 
That has to be very frustrating to spend money on a custom and not have it done as requested.

It does look really nice, and I imagine it will shoot well. Hate that it isn't exactly what you ordered.

The time frame doesn't surprise me, but one would think they could call it closer than that.
 
Beautiful gun, but bummer of a time it sounds. I've thought about ordering a 10mm from them, but I will consider carefully before doing so.
 
Beautiful gun, but bummer of a time it sounds. I've thought about ordering a 10mm from them, but I will consider carefully before doing so.

I would seriously give it some thought before you decide.

If I were to do it over again, I would strongly consider buying a new Dan Wesson Razorback 10mm and having it modified by someone like Dave Severns to the specs that I wanted.
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles. I had a negative dealing with Fusion in the past. I can not recommend them either.

Your 1911 looks great though!
 
Very nice looking gun.

Seems like many custom gunsmiths become victims of their own success. I worked for one in Sacramento many years ago, and he refused to take orders when he got to ninety days of work - he'd put potential customers on a waiting list, and when we caught up I'd call them. About 80% of the calls would hustle right over with a deposit and get the process started. Sometimes the waiting list was a couple year's worth....
 
That is a beautiful pistol Olympus. Thank You for posting about your experience with Fusion. While it isn't like I have the funds for custom build right now anyway I do know if I ever decide to have something like this done I will avoid Fusion like the plague. Reading your posts & reading an exchange Bob Serva had with a customer on the 1911 forum lets me know he is not someone I would care to do business with. Maybe your post will save someone else an unpleasant experience.
 
I have to chime in and agree that I also had problems with them. My gunsmith said the guns fittings were totally off. He said he would never work on that brand again.
 
Unfortunately, with guns being in high-demand across the board it's a seller's market. Even though you and (sounds like) many others have had issues with this company there are plenty of people that will still put down their money to get a custom gun. It looks like a fine weapon, but the fact that it isn't quite what you wanted is a down. I hope you can come to enjoy it regardless.

Be sure to give us the range report.
 
Took the new gun to the range today and literally had a blast. I put 150 rounds through the gun and it's scary accurate. No failures of any kind. I'm very pleased with the performance and how well it shoots. I did change the recoil spring to the 22lbs one. I had to use a small screwdriver to drive the other spring off the guide rod though. Looking forward to more range time.
 
Glad to hear it shoots well. Bob sounds like he needs an office assistant, because I don't think his business will stay afloat too much longer with customer service like that.
 
Well, it turns out there is more to the Fusion saga. I just received my credit card statement in the mail today, the statement that included my final payment for my gun. I typically just pay the bill and throw the statement away, but I thought I better look it over just in case there was a problem. And who would have guess, but there was!

Judging by my credit card statement, Bob Serva overcharged me by $57.90. I just called and left him a voicemail about this. I also sent an email. We'll see what the malfunction is this time. What a PITA this process has been.
 
Sorry to hear about the PITA this experience was for you!

The ONE good thing.....the pistol functions fine and is accurate!
(imagine going through what you did....and your pistol sucked on top of that :fire:)
 
Try Les Baer. Great service, gun exactly as you order and timely delivery. The accuracy is also better than most can shoot. Mine does 1.25" at 50 yards all day long. Got a question? They will get Les on the phone if they don't know.
 
Well, just got an email response from Bob. He sends me a new invoice and says that this is the one they were working off last. In looking at the invoice, I found that there was a charge for $57.90 for two additional mags. The funny thing is that I never requested two additional mags, ever, during the course of the build. And I did not receive two additional magazines when the gun was shipped to me. So my best guess is that some other customer requested two mags and the cost got added to my build instead of someone else's.

I replied back to Bob, explaining this exact thing to him. I also attached a copy of the last invoice sheet that he emailed me....clearly showing the REAL remaining balance and clearly showing that there was never an extra $57.90 charge for two additional magazines. I asked that my credit card be refunded the $57.90. We'll see how this plays out.
 
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