Recent S&W Customer Service experience

[Jamie Jackson]

First, a little back-story.

My estranged sister came for a visit on Oct. 7^th. Hadn’t seen her in over 10 years. Life and such happens.

She brought me a revolver our father gave her in 1987 when she first moved to Atlanta. It’s a S&W model 67-1, made in 1978.

Great pairing for my Model 15!!  Awesome! (Pics below) (The model 15 was a $400.00 GB purchase, $450.00 after shipping and such))

I took it apart and cleaned and oiled the internals. It was actually quite clean, just dry, as it had been wrapped in a towel and stored in a drawer all those years.

I don’t know if she’s ever fired it and doubt my father did very much as even though he carried a gun, he wasn’t generally a shooter. My sister is not a shooter, so talisman effect...

Great double DA action trigger (I rarely shoot SA)! The sights were well regulated to 158 gr .38 spls. It easily set off CCI, Winchester, Federal, and SA primers. J

On my 2^nd, maybe 3^rd range trip the following week and approximately 200 rds through it I emptied the cylinder and closed it up. My shooting bud (an RSO at the indoor range) wanted to see it. I opened the cylinder, showed empty, closed the cylinder and  the hammer & trigger were locked up tight. Trigger frozen and hammer could not be pulled back. Again cylinder opened easily. WTF?

I took it apart when I got home. Nothing would budge as far as the hammer/trigger goes. The rebound slide was back slightly and it too wouldn’t budge. Darn!!

As I didn’t want to ruin it (I can change out springs and parts but I am not a revolver-smith…I know my limitations.) I called S&W Customer Service. A very nice and helpful lady in Maryville answered my call. It’s fantastic being able to talk with someone local and that loves their job.

 She promptly emailed me a shipping label to return the 67 to the Mother ship in MA. All revolver repairs are still being done in MA for the time being, but hopefully in Maryville within a couple of years.

This was Oct. 13^th…yep, Friday the 13^th! So off I went to FedEx. Painless and simple process. Positive interaction. So far so good…

A couple of days later I received an email from S&W with the Repair number saying they’d be in touch.

I fully expected to wait several weeks as we all read about on the interwebs.

But I received email notification for FedEx Monday the 30^th that a shipping label had been created from the Mother ship.

I phoned them (S&W) Tuesday morning. Again very friendly and helpful gentleman in Maryville. He looked up the repair number and told me that my 67 had been sent over to the Performance Center and they replaced the broken hammer nose bushing and that there would be no charge and they were happy to do it.

My model 67 was delivered to my home, signature required of course, by FedEx Thursday afternoon.

So less than 3 weeks and no out of pocket expense.

I am very impressed with S&W and very happy to have them in TN.

Looking forward to S&W completing the move of the next couple of years.

Excellent customer service experience all the way around.

Now, time to get this 67 back to the range!

 

S&W Model 15 and model 67

 

10 yards

25 yards

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Jamie Jackson
photo problems

[FUJIMO]

57 minutes ago, Jamie Jackson said:

First, a little back-story.

My estranged sister came for a visit on Oct. 7^th. Hadn’t seen her in over 10 years. Life and such happens.

She brought me a revolver our father gave her in 1987 when she first moved to Atlanta. It’s a S&W model 67-1, made in 1978.

Great pairing for my Model 15!!  Awesome! (Pics below) (The model 15 was a $400.00 GB purchase, $450.00 after shipping and such))

I took it apart and cleaned and oiled the internals. It was actually quite clean, just dry, as it had been wrapped in a towel and stored in a drawer all those years.

I don’t know if she’s ever fired it and doubt my father did very much as even though he carried a gun, he wasn’t generally a shooter. My sister is not a shooter, so talisman effect...

Great double DA action trigger (I rarely shoot SA)! The sights were well regulated to 158 gr .38 spls. It easily set off CCI, Winchester, Federal, and SA primers. J

On my 2^nd, maybe 3^rd range trip the following week and approximately 200 rds through it I emptied the cylinder and closed it up. My shooting bud (an RSO at the indoor range) wanted to see it. I opened the cylinder, showed empty, closed the cylinder and  the hammer & trigger were locked up tight. Trigger frozen and hammer could not be pulled back. Again cylinder opened easily. WTF?

I took it apart when I got home. Nothing would budge as far as the hammer/trigger goes. The rebound slide was back slightly and it too wouldn’t budge. Darn!!

As I didn’t want to ruin it (I can change out springs and parts but I am not a revolver-smith…I know my limitations.) I called S&W Customer Service. A very nice and helpful lady in Maryville answered my call. It’s fantastic being able to talk with someone local and that loves their job.

 She promptly emailed me a shipping label to return the 67 to the Mother ship in MA. All revolver repairs are still being done in MA for the time being, but hopefully in Maryville within a couple of years.

This was Oct. 13^th…yep, Friday the 13^th! So off I went to FedEx. Painless and simple process. Positive interaction. So far so good…

A couple of days later I received an email from S&W with the Repair number saying they’d be in touch.

I fully expected to wait several weeks as we all read about on the interwebs.

But I received email notification for FedEx Monday the 30^th that a shipping label had been created from the Mother ship.

I phoned them (S&W) Tuesday morning. Again very friendly and helpful gentleman in Maryville. He looked up the repair number and told me that my 67 had been sent over to the Performance Center and they replaced the broken hammer nose bushing and that there would be no charge and they were happy to do it.

My model 67 was delivered to my home, signature required of course, by FedEx Thursday afternoon.

So less than 3 weeks and no out of pocket expense.

I am very impressed with S&W and very happy to have them in TN.

Looking forward to S&W completing the move of the next couple of years.

Excellent customer service experience all the way around.

Now, time to get this 67 back to the range!

 

S&W Model 15 and model 67

 

10 yards

25 yards

 

Great story and great pics JJ

[A.J. Holst]

Jamie,

No charge to repair an old revolver?

Seems better than craftsman tools when Sears was still in business!

Glad to hear of excellent customer service coming out of Maryville 

[Jamie Jackson]

Thank you @FUJIMO.

I am very fortunate.

 

@A.J. Holst

I was totally surprised by that. I completely expected to have to pay. Actually the lady I first talked with said the repair center would notify me of the charge, if any.

Hopefully this move and influx of new employees will continue to positively effect all aspects of the company.

[krunchnik]

They(S&W) do brag about lifetime warranty-I am glad to see them honoring it-

Nice revolvers-I have a couple myself-

[Tom B]

Back when I lived in CT and had my FFL, I had bought a Model 37 nickel, the airweight.

The trigger was very notchy, it was bad enough that I sent it back to them to look at.

When I got it back, not only was it super smooth but it felt like they gave it a nice trigger job, the ppull felt a lot lighter.

But the best part was, they polished, or buffed out the gun and it came back looking like polished stainless.

Glad to hear the company is still taking care of its customers. And I still have that revolver.

[TripleGGG]

What a great pistol to receive. Gorgeous.

One of the reasons I am a Smith & Wesson fanatic (I may have 1 or 2) is their exemplary customer service. I have never had a bad experience. 

Edited November 4, 2023 by TripleGGG

[Jamie Jackson]

6 minutes ago, TripleGGG said:

What a great pistol to receive. Gorgeous.

One of the reasons I am a Smith & Wesson fanatic (I may have 1 or 2) is their exemplary customer service. I have never had a bad experience. 

I am doubly Blessed my friend.

My father passed in Sept. 2006 and I never even knew this revolver existed until the visit from my sister.

And yeah, you may have one or two Smith's.  Discerning tastes. 

[Jamie Jackson]

That's awesome @Tom B.

This is only my second interaction with Smith's customer service , the first being around 1988 for a called upgrade/preventative maintenance on my 686 done at Clark's.

Needless to say I am impressed. 

[Sleep profit]

Glad you had such a great experience  really good to hear gun looks great also love what looks to be Tyler T Grips.  Good shooting to on target. 

[Jamie Jackson]

Thank you.

Yes sir, BK's on the 15, but Tyler's on the 67. She deserved them. 

[Sleep profit]

I have Tyler on my model 19 made it more accurate for me big fan of them 

[Grayfox54]

Great gun and a great story. In all my years of shooting S&W revolver, I've only had to ship one home. But that was better than 20 years ago. As I remember, the experience wasn't bad. 

However, over on big blue, horror stories about S&W's customer service abound. Hopefully the move to Maryville has changed all that. 

Congratulations on a fine revolver. 

[Jamie Jackson]

Thank you all for the kind words.

@Sleep profit

I've been a fan of Tyler's a long time. They've been either challenging to find or pretty expensive to purchase for quite a while now. iirc Melvin Tyler passed a number of years ago, other family, possibly people outside the family, took over and their website lists as "Tomahawk Grips" now, but still show up on Google under Tyler.

Perhaps someone knows the story better than I do and can offer their input.

I only had a few Tyler K/N frame size stuck back, but several BK grip adapters in my parts drawer.

I have a nostalgic leaning to the Tyler's of course, but the BK are very well made and I'm quite happy with them.

That said, Tomahawk/Tyler have a statement on their website from 8/17/23 that they have a website that will accept credit cards "coming soon". It's snail mail, checks, and money orders and wait....wait...wait...right now. Time will tell.

 

BK: (Fast shipping every time I've ordered...Paypal iirc)

https://bkgrips.com/store/

 

@Grayfox54

I read on the Big Blue and yes! They can be a critical bunch over there LOL

Thankfully there's some knowledgeable and helpful folks there too.  

Fingers crossed for the "New" S&W plant. They seem to be off to a good start. 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Jamie Jackson

[Grayfox54]

I like the T-grip and have them on several of my guns. Never got around to trying BKs, but always heard good things about them. But as age and arthritis work on my hands, I find that I'm better off with a more hand filling style of grip on my revolvers. 

Last I heard the guy who took over Tyler was running it as a part time business and was spotty at that. Working only when he had time and felt like it. They still take orders, but it may be many months, possibly a year before you get it. Communication is also a big problem as they don't answer phone calls or e-mails. Ordering anything now is questionable at best. 

[gregintenn]

That’s a handsome pair of revolver and some good shooting!

[Jamie Jackson]

Thank you Greg. I'm happy to have them.

On the shooting... the 10 yards should be repeatable as I normally practice 5-15 yards.

But 25 yds? I put that down to well zeroed sights and a good DA trigger. I can't shoot SA nor stage a DA trigger worth a darn. And I can't see for crap...need trifocals <sigh>, so I just aim at 6 o'clock on the black, roll 3 shots and run the target back to see if I hit the paper LOL. It's sad when a fella needs a spotting scope for the indoor range.

On the grip adapters. My shooting buddy reminded me we picked up some Tyler "clones essentially" for a place called Robertson's Trading Post, near Jackson, TN (iirc) from an E-Bay auction back in March. Jac did the purchase so I don't know the details. but they work great and look like the silver colored Tyler's.

I hope someone picks up and moves forward with Tyler's, but I guess time will tell.