Smith & Wesson Quoting 6-8 Week Repair of a Factory Defect on Brand New Gun

[TGO David]

9 hours ago, bubbadavis said:

I picked one up a few years ago. Really like it but it's a range toy for me. The out-of-box trigger is really nice.

Yeah, I’ve had two of them to date but HK proved how much they hated me by releasing the optics ready version and discovered the magic of 17rd magazines after I’d bought the second one. 

 

 

[bobsguns]

21 hours ago, TGO David said:

I kind of want one, though.  I think @bobsguns has been waging subliminal warfare.

Nah, were I to do that,  they'd send you back a Lorcin or Jennings!   

[johnwilliams5721]

I'm late to this thread, but I'll pile on since we're truth telling on S&W. Sorry to hear I'm not the only one having S&W problems, David.

I bought a Shield Plus in July. It has a problem with the slide stop getting stuck in the upright position which makes it a bear to get the slide to drop forward. Not exactly a feature valued in a carry pistol. I sent it back in the Fall and received it back around Thanksgiving. They had done nothing to the pistol. Despite the polite CS lady jotting down what was wrong with it and the required letter describing the problem enclosed with the pistol, the technician misconstrued the problem as the slide refusing to lock back according to the bill of work that came back with the pistol (the exact opposite of the problem). I called back and the CS fellow I spoke with seemed annoyed at first. It took some back and forth for him to understand the problem. It's been back in S&W's hands since the beginning of the month. Some of the time taken is my fault. I had some life drama and didn't take it to the range right away where I discovered the issue. Then I waited again over Christmas so FedEx didn't lose the pistol in a ravine outside of Memphis with the Christmas package rush. But the bottom line is this pistol should have never left the factory in this condition.

This was supposed to be an upgrade over my Shield V1 as my EDC, but it's fate is in limbo currently and not looking good. For a $700 pistol, my expectations have not been met.  

The Shield Plus had made it onto a coworkers short list for his next purchase, but he smartly delayed purchasing during this drama. After mine came back still malfunctioning, he crossed it off his list entirely and bought a Sig ... which had a problem of its own. Can't win for losing.

[TGO David]

37 minutes ago, johnwilliams5721 said:

This was supposed to be an upgrade over my Shield V1 as my EDC, but it's fate is in limbo currently and not looking good. For a $700 pistol, my expectations have not been met.  

The Shield Plus had made it onto a coworkers short list for his next purchase, but he smartly delayed purchasing during this drama. After mine came back still malfunctioning, he crossed it off his list entirely and bought a Sig ... which had a problem of its own. Can't win for losing.

I hate to hear about the Shield and the Sig, but I am sadly not surprised.  All of these manufacturers seem to be struggling to balance the pursuit of profitability with providing quality products and services.  I don't think it will get better anytime soon.  At best I think we can just hope that the situation doesn't deteriorate any more than it already has.  It's going to take decades for industry -- in general -- to climb out of the hole it is presently in.

More than 12 years ago I interacted with Smith & Wesson customer service to get some parts for an early M&P that I owned.  That experience was top-notch and lightning fast.

Granted, if they got it right in this current interaction, they will have actually returned the gun to me four weeks ahead of their stated schedule.  I can't complain too much about that even though I would have preferred that the estimate been four weeks and they returned it in half of that.  But I'll take what I got.

I just hope that my M&P arrives and that the work that they have done is satisfactory.

 

[Snaveba]

What SIG did he buy? And what was the problem (if you know)?

[TGO David]

27 minutes ago, Snaveba said:

What SIG did he buy? And what was the problem (if you know)?

Good conversation for another thread? 

 

[Snaveba]

1 minute ago, TGO David said:

Good conversation for another thread? 

 

Probably

[Snaveba]

Because threads are never high jacked here 

[bobsguns]

2 hours ago, johnwilliams5721 said:

I bought a Shield Plus in July. It has a problem with the slide stop getting stuck in the upright position

I once had a gun that did that. Too much metal on the inside of the slide stop where the mag hits it, causing it to rise from the bullet casing instead of the mag. Chances are they loaded a single rd, closed the slide & fired it. The slide locked back & they pronounced it within specs. I can understand that if it happened like that. 

Sometimes the folks answering the phone(s) don't know how to walk someone through the problem where everyone is on the same page. Sadly, I think that happened with you. 

There's SO much pressure placed on the production people to shove product out the door these days that too many get away when they shouldn't. I've seen Beretta become the worst of this, sadly. Off-center barrels in the slide, all sorts of scuffs & machine tool marks on the barrels, just all sorts of issues. Beretta has denied most of those warranty claims according to their owners, which would infuriate me. Even sadder is almost all of these issues have happened since their move to TN. 

I've learned to not to give up completely on a brand despite an issue with one gun. Now if a mfgr treated me badly (Galco!) on the fix, then that's a different story. 

For the record, I've always thought the Shield & M&P series were cheaply made guns. This is another reason I love my H&K's. One gets what one pays for, usually.

My .o2

[TGO David]

4 hours ago, Snaveba said:

Probably

 

4 hours ago, Snaveba said:

Because threads are never high jacked here 

 

We have thread pirates here. sir. 

 

[TGO David]

Update 21-FEB-2022

 

Five weeks after I shipped it and four weeks after Smith & Wesson checked it into their systems, my new Optics-Ready M&P M2.0 Compact arrived back home today.  And it appears that all is well.

Rejoicing has occurred.

 

A quick glance at the letter provided inside of the carton showed that Smith and Wesson opted to take the best and most efficient path to resolution and simply replaced the slide with one that hadn't been bunged-up.  The new slide has optics mounting screws that aren't cross-threaded and that are appropriately easy to install and remove.  I tried it a few times to be sure, and feel that S&W probably did the same before shipping it back out.

 

All said, I am satisfied with the quality of the repair and, again, must recognize that they completed the work sooner than they originally estimated.  In fact, they completed sooner than they even told me they would when I checked on the gun just six-days ago.  When I contacted them last Tuesday, they were estimating that a gunsmith would see it this week which itself would have been 2-3 weeks sooner than originally predicted.  They beat that estimate by a week and beat the overall estimate by three weeks.  Not bad.

But I will stick to my guns and say it's not good either.  This whole thing could have been avoided with some simple quality assurance checks before the gun ever left the factory in the first place, and that more than just a couple of weeks for a service of this nature is not as good as it could or should be.  While I am glad to have it back and am happy that it didn't require a full two-months to return to me, I still think something like this should only take 1-2 weeks, at most, to resolve.

I'll grudgingly give them a pass since we live in these unprecedented times (let's all gag a little at reading that) in which the US Government competes against industry and makes it viable for laborers to sit on their butts at home rather than join the workforce.

 

But, hey... BIG THANKS to the technicians and service people at Smith & Wesson who ARE showing up for work!   Were it not for them, this gun would still be sitting in a pile somewhere.

 

 

Now, I need to put an optic on this thing and see how it runs.  I'm starting to feel some of the same excitement that I did when I first opened the box a month ago.  With, you know, that whole delay in there.

 

[gun sane]

I'm glad the problem's resolved, but sorry it ever came up.  Returning to DEFCON 4.

[bobsguns]

I'm HIGHLY disappointed TGO David didn't get back a 1st Gen Sigma instead. 

[papa61]

thanks for the update David. good that it was squared away as quickly as it was. hope you have no more issues with it.

[TGO David]

43 minutes ago, bobsguns said:

I'm HIGHLY disappointed TGO David didn't get back a 1st Gen Sigma instead. 

[MacGyver]

1 hour ago, bobsguns said:

I'm HIGHLY disappointed TGO David didn't get back a 1st Gen Sigma instead. 

First time I pulled the trigger on one of those I got it back as far as I could and had to readjust my grip and try again.  It must have been a 20 pound pull.

That said, the guy that owned that thing took it down to CIS and did a 1000 round defensive pistol course with it.  I thought Todd was going to cry he was laughing so hard.  It made it, though.  To my knowledge it’s still going strong. 

[bobsguns]

23 hours ago, MacGyver said:

First time I pulled the trigger on one of those I got it back as far as I could and had to readjust my grip and try again.  It must have been a 20 pound pull.

 

The 1st Gen Sigma is without a doubt THE biggest stinker S&W has EVER made. It made the Colt Double Eagle or the All-American 2000 look like $10K custom guns, IMO. Which means it's just PERFECT for TGO David!!!!!!!!!!!!   

[TGO David]

5 minutes ago, bobsguns said:

 

The 1st Gen Sigma is without a doubt THE biggest stinker S&W has EVER made. It made the Colt Double Eagle or the All-American 2000 look like $10K custom guns, IMO. Which means it's just PERFECT for TGO David!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

 

Don't break a hip reaching for a punchline or your next mediocre Teutonic snob blaster, Bob.

[bobsguns]

11 hours ago, TGO David said:

Don't break a hip reaching for a punchline or your next mediocre Teutonic snob blaster, Bob.

 

My hips are fine, thankyouverymuch.

Nor are my H&K's, nor are they ever going to be, "mediocre". That criteria is reserved for the Smith autos (except for the Model 41), Rugers of all persuasions, so on & so forth. 

Seriously, you buy a mid-tier pistol with a so-so rep, which has a thousand or more aftermarket parts made/sold to "improve" it & you're surprised & disappointed when it fails? You should immediately shop for a new Fiat car. You'll love those!   

[deerslayer]

1 hour ago, bobsguns said:

 

My hips are fine, thankyouverymuch.

Nor are my H&K's, nor are they ever going to be, "mediocre". That criteria is reserved for the Smith autos (except for the Model 41), Rugers of all persuasions, so on & so forth. 

Seriously, you buy a mid-tier pistol with a so-so rep, which has a thousand or more aftermarket parts made/sold to "improve" it & you're surprised & disappointed when it fails? You should immediately shop for a new Fiat car. You'll love those!   

I once borrowed a friend's HK USP and to call it mediocre would be an insult to mediocre guns.  The DA trigger pull did enhance my grip strength, however.  

[gun sane]

This conversation almost makes me afraid to admit that I often rely upon a Taurus TCP.  

[Moped]

2 hours ago, gun sane said:

This conversation almost makes me afraid to admit that I often rely upon a Taurus TCP.  

As long as it's reliable for you, what anyone else thinks doesn't matter. And it didn't break the bank to purchase it.

[TGO David]

6 hours ago, bobsguns said:

Nor are my H&K's, nor are they ever going to be, "mediocre". That criteria is reserved for the Smith autos (except for the Model 41), Rugers of all persuasions, so on & so forth. 

Seriously, you buy a mid-tier pistol with a so-so rep, which has a thousand or more aftermarket parts made/sold to "improve" it & you're surprised & disappointed when it fails? You should immediately shop for a new Fiat car. You'll love those!   

 

Bob, I want to start by thanking you for increasing my enjoyment of this M&P.  Seriously.  You've made owning this one even better than I could have imagined.  Being totally frank with you, that is probably the only thing you've increased the enjoyment of around here.

This isn't my first M&P nor is it the only one in my house.  I think we have about seven of them right now between my wife and myself, and except for this issue of cross-threaded optics mounting screws, none of them have caused me any trouble.  We have put actual thousands of rounds through them in a variety of high round-count defensive pistol classes over the past 14-years, in the mud, in the heat, in the rain and bone dry.  They've always just worked and always had more than acceptable accuracy. 

I say this because you've basically disparaged a whole section of your fellow gun owners on TGO and I don't want anyone else to read your bull#### believe for a second that they should feel bad about their own choice of gun any more than other VP9 owners should feel bad because one of them makes dickish statements on a forum.

 

But, back to how you've increased my enjoyment of this particular M&P.  The last thing I really needed was another M&P, but since folks were raving about the incremental improvements of this recent evolution, I thought I might as well pick one up and give it a go. 

I also thought it would be fun to put an optic on it and go hurt some feelings of other gun snobs at the range by bringing a mid-tier pistol with a so-so rep and, without adding thousands of aftermarket parts to it, and outshooting some of them on qualification drills.

Can't wait!  

 

Anyway, stop disparaging everyone else and enjoy that VP9, Bob.  Not every gun has an anus at the end of the slide, but HK certainly knows how to cater to their niche. 

 

(This is the anus at the end of the VP9.  It's not the anus at the end of the gun that you might have thought I was referring to.)

 

 

[Snaveba]

I think I’m gonna put on my Nomex…..

[hipower]

5 hours ago, deerslayer said:

I once borrowed a friend's HK USP and to call it mediocre would be an insult to mediocre guns.  The DA trigger pull did enhance my grip strength, however.  

I must admit to owning a VP9 Tactical. It's been a safe queen since I bought it. The trigger seems pretty good on it. But I still prefer my Caniks and Walthers. LOL.

My weak hands can handle those.