If you decide to buy from these AR builders who have the lifetime warranties which in truth are iffy, then make sure you shoot the gun in the nearest possible time right after getting it from your FFL dealer. That way you can find out the problem(s) and get back with them as soon as possible. Have your receipt ready at hand. Lifetime warranties are not a guarantee they may fix it.
Spike's Tactical Bad Experience Review
- Thread starter GRAPE-DRANK
- Start date
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GRAPE-DRANK
Member
Stag has just set themselves apart by offering complete uppers for the short-barelled market. Their SBR as far as I can tell are exact clones of what you see used in military and police. Their SBR barrels are 1/7 twist, chrome-lined, full-auto bolt carrier, etc. I believe that Stag standard length uppers are 1/9 and 1/8 twist if the twist rate is an issue.
I just like that Stag offers reasonably price SBR uppers. Seems to me their lowers are fine and I heard that when Smith & Wesson got into the AR business that Stag made Smith's rifles. Don't hold me to that though.
I have no preference of any AR brand.
Z-Michigan
Member
My problems with Palmetto State Armory:
1) I ordered two spare bolts. One bolt had a machining burr on a lug. I contacted them, they shipped me a replacement and a call tag, all was good.
2) I bought a complete upper in a 20" rifle setup. They assembled it with a round handguard retainer cap instead of triangular. This is acceptable but kinda weird. Not a big deal, and I didn't bother to contact them about it. From reading forums I wasn't the only one to get this and think it was weird.
3) From the same order as the bolts, I had also ordered a complete BCG. When I went to use it almost six months after buying it, I had function problems with the rifle. I discovered that the carrier had a poorly machined cam pin track, out of spec compared to all my other carriers. Switched to a DD BCG and the rifle worked perfectly from that day onward. I contacted PSA; this time they said I could ship it back on my dime for a replacement. I did, and instead of a replacement they "worked on" my defective BCG and sent it back to me looking heavily used, and with something jacked up so it was no longer possible to disassemble because the cam pin would not come out. I contacted them again, got promises of a replacement but then nothing happened for a month despite repeated attempts to contact. Finally I posted about the issue in another forum, and a few days later a PSA rep contacted me and I did finally get a replacement with a call tag for the defective one, but no reimbursement of my shipping costs for its first round trip back to them.
You can chalk it up to growing pains or whatever. I don't think they're bad, but I think there has been some ridiculous fawning over them in the last year as being the greatest new thing. They're just another company trying to get market share by offering low prices on stuff that claims high specs. I think they have had some QC and customer service issues.
1) I ordered two spare bolts. One bolt had a machining burr on a lug. I contacted them, they shipped me a replacement and a call tag, all was good.
2) I bought a complete upper in a 20" rifle setup. They assembled it with a round handguard retainer cap instead of triangular. This is acceptable but kinda weird. Not a big deal, and I didn't bother to contact them about it. From reading forums I wasn't the only one to get this and think it was weird.
3) From the same order as the bolts, I had also ordered a complete BCG. When I went to use it almost six months after buying it, I had function problems with the rifle. I discovered that the carrier had a poorly machined cam pin track, out of spec compared to all my other carriers. Switched to a DD BCG and the rifle worked perfectly from that day onward. I contacted PSA; this time they said I could ship it back on my dime for a replacement. I did, and instead of a replacement they "worked on" my defective BCG and sent it back to me looking heavily used, and with something jacked up so it was no longer possible to disassemble because the cam pin would not come out. I contacted them again, got promises of a replacement but then nothing happened for a month despite repeated attempts to contact. Finally I posted about the issue in another forum, and a few days later a PSA rep contacted me and I did finally get a replacement with a call tag for the defective one, but no reimbursement of my shipping costs for its first round trip back to them.
You can chalk it up to growing pains or whatever. I don't think they're bad, but I think there has been some ridiculous fawning over them in the last year as being the greatest new thing. They're just another company trying to get market share by offering low prices on stuff that claims high specs. I think they have had some QC and customer service issues.
GRAPE-DRANK
Member
A nice fella on another local forum I go to emailed Tom at Spikes and Tom said that they use grease on the threads and a fixture to install and stake them. I ask you all where is there any evidence of a stake boogering up the the threads? I took 4 photos.
4 angles:
4 angles:
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FlyinBryan
Member
is it just me or does it look oversized out near the end?
like tapered ala drill stem, but in reverse? maybe its just an optical illusion i suppose.
like tapered ala drill stem, but in reverse? maybe its just an optical illusion i suppose.
wasr10634unme
Member
good to know. customer service is also very important to me as i work part time retail at a pet store and take care of my customers.
GRAPE-DRANK
Member
Some warranty, the head of the warranty department accused me of boogering up the threads by dragging a stake pin or some such through it without even looking at it.
I feel better now that I have been vindicated by my peers in the firearms community. Lesson learned, I'll pass it on just like all the info that others have passed on to me.
GRAPE-DRANK
Member
You couldn't tell anything was wrong with it until you backed the castle nut off. The only reason I did that was to replace the end plate so that I could put an ambi-plate on for a 1 point sling.
Try to get hold of the manager of Spikes. Talk to him man to man and see what their socalled Lifetime Warranty will do to correct this. Let us know, its good you brought this up so many members here will be warned .If good comes out, our thumbs up to Spikes Tactical no hassle warranty. If not, let us know what will happen.
Cesiumsponge
Member
Colt, Daniel Defense, LMT, BCM, Larue have consistently good products. You will find it difficult to turn up complaints with these companies (politics aside, regarding Colt and mil/LE/civilian issues in the past). What complaints you do find, the companies tend to fix the matter very quickly. I've broken a LaRue mount (yes, they can be broken!) and they immediately shipped me a replacement with a prepaid tag to mail back the old one.
Why is Spikes using GREASE on the threads? Castle nuts spin on without any problem, dry. If you need grease to make the threads work, the female threads are too small or the male threads are too big and it requires grease and a wrench to thread on the nut. What that says about the company is, "if the parts aren't in spec, lube it up and force it on!" Staking the castle nut only displaces a little metal at the outer diameter of the part. It does not distort the threads. Sounds like a BS excuse to avoid responsibility. Check the AR-centric forums and you'll find a lot more on Spikes. Draw your own conclusions from research.
Why is Spikes using GREASE on the threads? Castle nuts spin on without any problem, dry. If you need grease to make the threads work, the female threads are too small or the male threads are too big and it requires grease and a wrench to thread on the nut. What that says about the company is, "if the parts aren't in spec, lube it up and force it on!" Staking the castle nut only displaces a little metal at the outer diameter of the part. It does not distort the threads. Sounds like a BS excuse to avoid responsibility. Check the AR-centric forums and you'll find a lot more on Spikes. Draw your own conclusions from research.
There are many forum members here also members of AR15.com . There should be good advise coming . Again, get hold of the manager at Spikes, they should make true their Lifetime Warranty into effect and not only in paper. Their reputation is at stake especially in a digitalized world we live in now. Communications run in split secs and reaches a global audience in matter of secs as well.
GRAPE-DRANK
Member
I posted this in a local forum that I am a member of. Someone has already contacted Tom on my behalf, so far to no avail.
http://www.vaguntrader.com/forums/u...450/Spike_s_Tactical_would_not_war#Post288450
unlimited4x4
Member
- Joined
- May 5, 2010
- Messages
- 236
Spikes Contact
Grape, contact Mr. Miller at Spikes directly and he should help. Send him all the photos and explain everything to him. Let us know how it goes. His email is below. It was great of a person to contact Mr. Miller on your behalf, but he needs to talk to You.
[email protected]
Grape, contact Mr. Miller at Spikes directly and he should help. Send him all the photos and explain everything to him. Let us know how it goes. His email is below. It was great of a person to contact Mr. Miller on your behalf, but he needs to talk to You.
[email protected]
For every company out there, there are occasional issues, especially when they have problems keeping up with demand. I believe Spikes might be going through some growing pains, as they blew up amazingly fast and have struggled with keeping up with demand. That's no excuse for getting bad customer service, but I would hesitate to demonize an entire company based off of one employee.
Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
Enough for now. Start a new thread after following the advice about making contact with Miller at Spike's.
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