I'm paying shipping one way the first time it went in. I sent a list of repairs and they completed all of them except Poi was still off after they filed the front sight. So I called and was sent a free return shipping label. they also included a set of rubber grips, a new front redesigned frame pin and a few nylon? washers they now put under the cylinder crane screw. They also replaced a few damaged parts in the ejector rod and worked the action a bit. The seller had shot it loose without realizing it. Some of those parts were peened from the recoil.
The 2nd time in they adjusted the sights again. We agreed that if we opened them up much more, we might go too far. There was talk of looking for an older barrel to replace it with, but they sent it back on their shipping again along with a wood Classic grip that needed a small touch up with my old barrel.
I called after checking the sights and they said they'd have to replace the barrel, but wouldn't pay shipping to them. They'd made an exception to their rules about older guns when they sent me the mailer. OK., so I sent it in. The tech called me saying he'd look around for an older barrel, as new ones are not interchangeable. I said, keep it a week or so. If you find a 6 shot .38 cylinder and barrel, do that. We were all patient and friendly with each other, and I still had hopes they would get it shooting straight. Then the tech told me he found an older barrel from the 90's and would polish and reblue it. I asked if he could do a few other things while it was all apart and he said he would if he could.
They will pay return shipping for the third time along with paying for me to return it once. I too am hoping the blue matches and this barrel will blow the X out of my first target at a reasonable range.
I can see the awkward situation concerning his Father's company, but the real problem would be all those years of poor quality while another company was in charge. I imagine they run into some real issues with those.
The real moral of this whole story is buy from friends or fellow shooters who will let you see exactly how the firearm performs. There will be fewer surprises that way. Auctions are for gamblers. As to on line purchases - especially new revolvers, I recommend Davidson's with their return policy if anything is wrong. They will refund or replace. I've had to do that twice with a S&W performance center 642 I tried buying.