I sent my lemon Kimber back to my dealer and asked for my money back. The dealer refused to refund my money but he told Kimber to fix the pistol or he would drop the line and no longer be a Master Dealer. Well, a Kimber representative called me today.
Our conversation was a joke until I told the guy I had contacted a couple of the better gunsmiths in the country and told him what I had learned. The Kimber representative gave me a run around, then finally admitted that the Gold Match can experience failures to feed and they know some pistols have chambers that are too tight. He also admitted the slide stop problem is well known. Furthermore, he admitted that on the rare pistol the - - and + + tolerances might not “line up” and you can have some severe slide lock problems. At least they admitted they made a damn lemon and I was the unlucky sap that got it. Just like my dealer, Kimber refused to refund any or part of my money or pay for my shipping the first time around. He did offer to have the boys at the custom shop throw an extra magazine in the box. After all these hassles and $35.00 bucks shipping, one of Kimber’s crappy magazines as an apology and reimbursement just doesn’t trip my trigger. He also told me to just avoid ammo that won’t feed. I quote the guy, “Just because the pistol won’t feed Remington ball ammo is no reason to expect a refund or exchange”. It is obvious that they will not take the time required to do some handwork. He told me he will have the guys in the custom shop be sure it will shoot what ever they have on hand without failure by shooting "...30 to 40 rounds."
The guy also told me my dealer can’t ship the gun in or it would void the warranty. Yikes, I have to get the pistol back from the dealer (100 miles away) and send it in myself since the warranty extends to the consumer and the dealer can not be involved. Time for round two. At the conclusion of round two, Kimber decided to send for a “call tag” and have UPS pick the pistol up from my dealer.
From all of my conversations with Kimber and gunsmiths who have fixed them I have learned a couple of things. First, Kimber’s carry guns are probably fantastic with very few bad ones out there. However, they tried to build a Wilson or Baer equivalent in the Gold Match and just didn’t get the job done. Want a carry gun? Get a Kimber and you will be OK. Want a target gun? Get a Baer, Brown, Wilson, Rock River, anything but Kimber.
So what next? Well, I am sending the pistol back to Kimber so I can get the free magazine. When I get the pistol back I think I’ll send it to Brian, I know he can fix it and he won’t jerk me around.
Our conversation was a joke until I told the guy I had contacted a couple of the better gunsmiths in the country and told him what I had learned. The Kimber representative gave me a run around, then finally admitted that the Gold Match can experience failures to feed and they know some pistols have chambers that are too tight. He also admitted the slide stop problem is well known. Furthermore, he admitted that on the rare pistol the - - and + + tolerances might not “line up” and you can have some severe slide lock problems. At least they admitted they made a damn lemon and I was the unlucky sap that got it. Just like my dealer, Kimber refused to refund any or part of my money or pay for my shipping the first time around. He did offer to have the boys at the custom shop throw an extra magazine in the box. After all these hassles and $35.00 bucks shipping, one of Kimber’s crappy magazines as an apology and reimbursement just doesn’t trip my trigger. He also told me to just avoid ammo that won’t feed. I quote the guy, “Just because the pistol won’t feed Remington ball ammo is no reason to expect a refund or exchange”. It is obvious that they will not take the time required to do some handwork. He told me he will have the guys in the custom shop be sure it will shoot what ever they have on hand without failure by shooting "...30 to 40 rounds."
The guy also told me my dealer can’t ship the gun in or it would void the warranty. Yikes, I have to get the pistol back from the dealer (100 miles away) and send it in myself since the warranty extends to the consumer and the dealer can not be involved. Time for round two. At the conclusion of round two, Kimber decided to send for a “call tag” and have UPS pick the pistol up from my dealer.
From all of my conversations with Kimber and gunsmiths who have fixed them I have learned a couple of things. First, Kimber’s carry guns are probably fantastic with very few bad ones out there. However, they tried to build a Wilson or Baer equivalent in the Gold Match and just didn’t get the job done. Want a carry gun? Get a Kimber and you will be OK. Want a target gun? Get a Baer, Brown, Wilson, Rock River, anything but Kimber.
So what next? Well, I am sending the pistol back to Kimber so I can get the free magazine. When I get the pistol back I think I’ll send it to Brian, I know he can fix it and he won’t jerk me around.
