Edwarethered
Active Member
So I have a Thompson/Center Dimension rifle chambered in 30-06 that I generally regard as the worst firearms purchase i'll probably ever make, but that's not the motivation behind this rant.
My big issue here is that I have had nothing but a hard time dealing with T/C customer service, which surprised me seeing as how it all goes through Smith and Wesson. Figured a company that has been around as long as them would have warranty work, communication and customer service down. Maybe they do but just don't give a damn about the T/C line. Either way, I won't be buying another of either.
Here's the sequence of events so far. I bought the rifle used from a friend, who bought it from some jackass he knows. It looked unused at the time.
After that I mounted up a nice Zeiss scope on the sucker and commenced to try to sight it in. Well, the groupings I was getting on this rifle were between 2.5" and 8" (tried several different boxes of ammo) at 100yrds. Considering that the rifle was advertised to shoot 1MOA out the box, I figured something had to be wrong. Checked the scope by mounting it on a friend's Remington 700, low and behold, I was shooting 1" groups with the same scope and ammo on a different rifle. So I set out to find T/C's support and warranty contact number online.
When I found the number, I also found out that there was a recall on the safety switch. So I called them up, and low and behold, they have no records at all, of what rifles they've checked out for the recall. You'd figure that would be easy to keep track of by serial number, but apparently not. Only way to tell was to look for a pit mark they put on the side of the switch of the rifles they checked for the issue. Surprise Surprise, mine didn't have one. So I set about trying to get the return label sent to me from T/C. Requested the label the first time, and they said it would take 7 to 10 business days for me to get the label. No big deal right?
Well, business day 10 came, and there was no label.
So I called back to see if they had my address correct and to confirm there wasn't a communication error that resulted in it going to the wrong address. Well, they apparently don't keep any records of what labels they send out, or even that someone requested one. So it all started back over. I spent the next 8 months requesting a return label every time it didn't show up after the 10 business days until I finally got a helpful person on the customer service line, and she emailed me the label while we were still on the phone and informed me that after the receive the rifle, it will be 6 to 8 weeks to check out the safety switch and the accuracy issue. Considering I just tried for 8 months to get a label, 8 weeks wouldn't be bad at all I thought. Well, it's past 8 weeks currently, and they don't even know if any work has been performed on my rifle AT ALL or atleast if they did, they wouldn't tell me. They even asked me what the issue was with the rifle, and didn't have anything in their records about the problem it was having. Despite all the phone calls, the letter enclosed in the box with the rifle as per the instructions with the return process, and a long ass email explaining the issues I've had with the rifle, the issues I've had with getting the return label and recommending the only person there who could seem to get me a label for a raise, they still have no record of what the issue is? Seriously?
Am I the only person in the fucking country who expects a business that large to have their crap together better than this?
I'm not pissed about it going past their estimated service time. I get that, shit happens. But if you can't check the thing out is 6 to 8 weeks, don't tell me it'll be 6 to 8 weeks! And on top of that, atleast retain some sort of service record outside of "we received the rifle."
Basically as it stands, I really don't care for this rifle anymore, especially if it had to come with this much baggage. Going to wait it out and test it when it gets back. If it's still grouping like a shotgun, I'm going to have to track down someone who thinks they can fix it and sell it to them cheap. Hell, if they keep dragging their feet at T/C, I'm almost thinking about telling them to keep the fucking thing and just eating the cost of the money i dropped on that POS. $300 for a rifle sounded like one hell of a deal at that moment, now I think I should have just slammed my fingers in the car door instead. Probably wouldn't have pissed me off as bad and I wouldn't have had to play phone tag with customer service for nearly a damned year.
As of today, I've been told they'll look into the status of the rifle, and call me on Tuesday(not the first time I've been told they would call, might be the first time they actually call me though) to tell me what's going on. They'll call meon the phone number they have on file for me, along with my address and name, and SN on the rifle. They have all that but nothing as to why they have the rifle, or what's been done to it so far. That make sense to anyone?
Sorry, Had to get this shit out. Now that the rant is out of the way, If any of ya'll have had dealings with S&W or T/C fixing your firearms, is this typical of their level of service or did I just hit the jackpot on BS?
My big issue here is that I have had nothing but a hard time dealing with T/C customer service, which surprised me seeing as how it all goes through Smith and Wesson. Figured a company that has been around as long as them would have warranty work, communication and customer service down. Maybe they do but just don't give a damn about the T/C line. Either way, I won't be buying another of either.
Here's the sequence of events so far. I bought the rifle used from a friend, who bought it from some jackass he knows. It looked unused at the time.
After that I mounted up a nice Zeiss scope on the sucker and commenced to try to sight it in. Well, the groupings I was getting on this rifle were between 2.5" and 8" (tried several different boxes of ammo) at 100yrds. Considering that the rifle was advertised to shoot 1MOA out the box, I figured something had to be wrong. Checked the scope by mounting it on a friend's Remington 700, low and behold, I was shooting 1" groups with the same scope and ammo on a different rifle. So I set out to find T/C's support and warranty contact number online.
When I found the number, I also found out that there was a recall on the safety switch. So I called them up, and low and behold, they have no records at all, of what rifles they've checked out for the recall. You'd figure that would be easy to keep track of by serial number, but apparently not. Only way to tell was to look for a pit mark they put on the side of the switch of the rifles they checked for the issue. Surprise Surprise, mine didn't have one. So I set about trying to get the return label sent to me from T/C. Requested the label the first time, and they said it would take 7 to 10 business days for me to get the label. No big deal right?
Well, business day 10 came, and there was no label.
So I called back to see if they had my address correct and to confirm there wasn't a communication error that resulted in it going to the wrong address. Well, they apparently don't keep any records of what labels they send out, or even that someone requested one. So it all started back over. I spent the next 8 months requesting a return label every time it didn't show up after the 10 business days until I finally got a helpful person on the customer service line, and she emailed me the label while we were still on the phone and informed me that after the receive the rifle, it will be 6 to 8 weeks to check out the safety switch and the accuracy issue. Considering I just tried for 8 months to get a label, 8 weeks wouldn't be bad at all I thought. Well, it's past 8 weeks currently, and they don't even know if any work has been performed on my rifle AT ALL or atleast if they did, they wouldn't tell me. They even asked me what the issue was with the rifle, and didn't have anything in their records about the problem it was having. Despite all the phone calls, the letter enclosed in the box with the rifle as per the instructions with the return process, and a long ass email explaining the issues I've had with the rifle, the issues I've had with getting the return label and recommending the only person there who could seem to get me a label for a raise, they still have no record of what the issue is? Seriously?
Am I the only person in the fucking country who expects a business that large to have their crap together better than this?
I'm not pissed about it going past their estimated service time. I get that, shit happens. But if you can't check the thing out is 6 to 8 weeks, don't tell me it'll be 6 to 8 weeks! And on top of that, atleast retain some sort of service record outside of "we received the rifle."
Basically as it stands, I really don't care for this rifle anymore, especially if it had to come with this much baggage. Going to wait it out and test it when it gets back. If it's still grouping like a shotgun, I'm going to have to track down someone who thinks they can fix it and sell it to them cheap. Hell, if they keep dragging their feet at T/C, I'm almost thinking about telling them to keep the fucking thing and just eating the cost of the money i dropped on that POS. $300 for a rifle sounded like one hell of a deal at that moment, now I think I should have just slammed my fingers in the car door instead. Probably wouldn't have pissed me off as bad and I wouldn't have had to play phone tag with customer service for nearly a damned year.
As of today, I've been told they'll look into the status of the rifle, and call me on Tuesday(not the first time I've been told they would call, might be the first time they actually call me though) to tell me what's going on. They'll call meon the phone number they have on file for me, along with my address and name, and SN on the rifle. They have all that but nothing as to why they have the rifle, or what's been done to it so far. That make sense to anyone?
Sorry, Had to get this shit out. Now that the rant is out of the way, If any of ya'll have had dealings with S&W or T/C fixing your firearms, is this typical of their level of service or did I just hit the jackpot on BS?
