WARNING! Defective Federal Ammo!

[writerinmo]

I had two primer-only rounds in one 100-pack of 9mm WWB, I don't buy them now. I have yet to have any problems with Federal, Blazer brass, PMC or Remington but I'm sure someone somewhere has. I inspect before loading, but don't go as far as to weigh each round, although if the trend of bad ammo continues it might not be too far off where I do.

 

[jtiggidy]

I think it's a bit silly to "boycott" a ammo company because of two supposedly defective rounds. If you continue with expectations like this you can also expect that soon you will not have any manufacturers left to choose from.

I also agree with Federal's response to this issue.. if they honored every single request for free boxes of ammo for every single bad round they would no longer be in the business of selling ammo, they would be busy giving it away. Lets be realistic, most of the complaints would not be legitimate.

When I buy Federal champion or bulk ammo I understand that I am not buying match grade perfection and expect to have some slight variance or defects. Honesly, I have VERY FEW problems with federal champion/bulk which makes it a great value in my eyes. In this case based on the round in question and how they are packaged I suspect something was dropped on the box somewhere between federal and the walmart shelf. They dont ship them with the double clam shell foam case and could easily be compressed, did you inspect the inside of the foam box cavity for the round in question? ** Nevermind I just realized that champions come with the 1/2 plastic tray's with makes it even more probable. **

 

[elano]

That's terrable! I did not expect this from federal.

 

[LANDMAN4389]

I had a problem with some Federal .22lr bulk ammo a while back. I contacted Federal and they sent me a shipping label, sent the ammo back and received double back what I had sent in.

I've had nothing but a good experience with Federal. Maybe you just spoke with the wrong person.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Only 2 rounds? Chunk them and get on with your life. Not a good idea to try to blackmail the manufacturer over 2 round trying to get an entire box free.

 

[J_L_A]

So....is the cartidge in the middle safe to shoot?
I know the one on the left is not.... but I have a box of Remington that kind of looks like the middle bullet compared to my Federal and Winchester .

 

[MachIVshooter]

seating variations of a few thou can dramatically affect SAAMI

I know what you mean, but SAAMI is the Sporting Arms & Ammunition Manufacturer's Institute; Bullet setback will not affect them

http://www.saami.org/

 

[Claude Clay]

good example of why one should keep their eyes on their hands when loading.

despite fault, its your self and your equipment that lack of attention can cause ill events.

glad your ok. im gonna go with your did not really set out to 'threaten' them--their poor response to your problem likely lead to your having to feel mistreated and you spoke off the cuff, so to speak.

 

[pockets]

you didn't receive bad customer service. Unless you got a warranty with your ammunition saying otherwise, they are not obligated to pay for your return of the items to them, especially when the purported defective rounds many have been damaged after they left the factory.
The folks at federal asked you to return the ammo for their examination and said that they would make good on the problem if the ammo was defective. I don't see anything wrong there with their customer service.

this! +1

.

 

[animator]

Dang, they have machines and sensors that'll blow small and or discolored potato chips off the line before packaging etc. You'd think that with something that'll blow your hand off, they'd at least employ some of this technology.

Who's to say that they don't? If that damage happened after it left the factory, there's not much the factory can do about it.


Should they start bubble-wrapping each and every round to prevent shipping damage? Do you want to pay for that extra packaging and waste? Do you want to spend the extra time to unwrap each and every round? They've done what is reasonably expected to deliver goods to their consumers, and to expect more would be selfish in this case.


Out of the millions upon millions of rounds that this company produces, consider that even with a fault rate of .001%, there are still going to be a few thousand bad rounds that will end up in some consumer's hands over time.


I can't call this bad customer service.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Who's to say that they don't? If that damage happened after it left the factory, there's not much the factory can do about it.


Should they start bubble-wrapping each and every round to prevent shipping damage?.

It seems that plausible deniability is the name of the game these days. What is "is"?
Who's do say that they do? Are you?
It'd take a semi rolling over it to do that.
Have you seen some of the other threads? Are you saying there's an invisible gnome cold chiselling brass etc? nevermind

 

[RickMD]

This post certainly won't discourage me from buying Federal. If they replaced two rounds with a free box, every scam artist in the world would be busy bumping bullets deeper into the cases and claiming free ammunition and shipping. To me, this is akin to buying a new car, having a malfunction with a door lock, and demanding GM replace the entire car.

 

[animator]

It seems that plausible deniability is the name of the game these days. What is "is"?
Who's do say that they do? Are you?
It'd take a semi rolling over it to do that.
Have you seen some of the other threads? Are you saying there's an invisible gnome cold chiselling brass etc? nevermind

Are you kidding me?


To say that a mass manufacturer of ammunition doesn't have some sort of fail-safe QC method is ludicrous.


No mechanical method is perfect, and no human is perfect, so things are occasionally going to slip by, but to think that the company doesn't at least put a good amount of effort into preventing it, is ignorant.


And I can guarantee you that it would not take a semi truck driving over a box of ammo to reproduce that. In fact, I could reproduce that with a few drops from no higher than standing height...

This post certainly won't discourage me from buying Federal. If they replaced two rounds with a free box, every scam artist in the world would be busy bumping bullets deeper into the cases and claiming free ammunition and shipping. To me, this is akin to buying a new car, having a malfunction with a door lock, and demanding GM replace the entire car.

^ This guy gets it.

 

[Certaindeaf]

^
True. One cannot prove a negative.
The better and more "provable" manufacturing throughputs are, the harder it is for a "customer" to make a claim/sledge a $2 garage sale Rockchucker for full redemption than without.
What were you going on about?

 

[bubba15301]

take it back to wally world

 

[WinThePennant]

I had some Wally World Federal Champion do the same thing. I've never seen that before.

 

[HGM22]

"Getting it" is realizing that the several hundred+ dollars a customer will spend lifetime on ammo trumps $10 worth of ammo (less, actually, since that's retail price). Keep customers happy and they will keep coming back to put more money in your pocket.

Now, of course there will be scam artists, but I really think there are far fewer of them out there than some seem to think. If you haven't noticed, MANY companies from Frito-Lay to Hi-Point are opening themselves up to scammers by their guarantees and should long ago have closed their doors having been bled dry according to some of the logic posted.

And, even if there are a bunch out there, they'd have to cost the company more in scams than the company will lose by pissing off customers.

 

[GLOOB]

They aren't going to "make a deal" over the phone to give you more than you're entitled to. Cuz the person you're talking to 1. isn't authorized to do that, and 2. this could lead to abuse or more liability than they want to take on.

See, if they don't make any promises to you, they don't take on liability. It they receive a couple defective rounds from a single customer that month, they might send them a free crate of ammo. Woohoo, everyone's happy. Or.... they might receive 2 defective rounds from 20,000 different customers that month. Doh. So they start replacing the defective rounds, only. Which is all they're really obligated to do.

If they start making promises to certain customers over the phone, then everyone else will also expect the same treatment.

Then there's the potential abuse issue. A setback round isn't exactly difficult to make yourself. If limited, sure, they'll probably take care of you. But if they get a lot of setback rounds and they're suspicious, it's much better if they haven't made promises.

In general it's better to just send back defective stuff with the product ID and see what happens.