S&W customer service experience

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psychohellbilly666

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Just thought I'd share a customer service experience with S&W.
Bought a new m&p shield on 12-1-14. Brand new. When I got it home I disassembled it like I do with all my guns. When I took it apart the guide rod spring came off the rod. Called for warranty service. Guy was polite but it appears s&w doesn't keep them on hand. Lol. So it will be 2 weeks now before I can carry or shoot my gun. 2 weeks for them to send one out. Outrageous. So I politely asked if they'd send out a spare mag to make up for it. Nope. They don't do that he said. He will send a second guide rid out though. ***.
I've had several dealings with other companies for warranty service or recalls. And I can say Sig, Ruger, Springfield and even Hi Point all go out of their way to make the customers feel special. Unfortunately I don't feel S&W does.
Will not be a return customer for s&w.
 
Try sending in a Kahr arms for the 3rd time because it won't fire and arguing with their people....they don't give out lolly pops or freebies either. With them you get some idiot telling you to fire at least 200 rounds through it to break it in before you consider it a warranty problem....and then try to keep your cool while you explain it another time to the guy that it WON'T FIRE. We went through this with my brother's gun. Lots of companies want to figure out what you are doing wrong or some way to blame the problem on you first instead of just fixing the problem.
Be thankful S&W has a good service dept and stands behind their products. We have a couple good companies like that out there and I appreciate and support them.
 
Try sending in a Kahr arms for the 3rd time because it won't fire and arguing with their people....they don't give out lolly pops or freebies either. With them you get some idiot telling you to fire at least 200 rounds through it to break it in before you consider it a warranty problem....and then try to keep your cool while you explain it another time to the guy that it WON'T FIRE. We went through this with my brother's gun. Lots of companies want to figure out what you are doing wrong or some way to blame the problem on you first instead of just fixing the problem.
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Oh! I really didn't need to hear that as I have a Kahr CW9 with a list of problems which it needs to go back to the mothership.
 
S & W service dept.

I have had no problem with SW service dept. My dealings were all revolver parts. Is it possible that your gun is such a new model extra parts have not
caught up with production. They always gave me prompt service. Some of
the other big companies won't answer letters to service dept. I think sometimes
it is the person you talk to. If they are having a bad day they take it out on the
customer.
 
I've had great luck with S&W customer service. They rebuilt an entire revolver for me with all new internals and new cylinder at no cost and the gun wasn't under warranty. They also just replaced the barrel for me in my Shield because there were defects in the feed ramp.

I don't understand how S&W not having the spare part you need right away or them refusing to give you a free magazine that you asked for is indicative of poor customer service. It's probably their best selling gun right now, it should be no surprise they are shot on spare parts. Hate to break it to you, but their job is not to make you feel special as you hoped for.
 
Boy what gall, agitated because they (S&W) did not shower a caller with free and expensive items, the pistol is broken...S&W will gladly give you a return label and repair it at no cost and then pay postage to get it back...really terrible CS... It is nice to be offered a gratuity when problems arise ( Brownells just gave me a $25 gift cert. because of an order screw up) but to request free merchandise is just a bit pushy. As long as the responsible party offers to repair the item at no charge you are out only the inconvience of travel and repair time.
 
They're job is to build a quality gun. The shield hasn't even been shot. The spring broke 10 minutes after getting it home. I would think a simple guide rod spring is something they would keep in stock. If for nothing else for warranty service.
And it's been my experience with the other manufacturers mentioned they offer a token for their screw ups.
 
How can you break a spring?
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The spring was supposed to be contained on the guide rod, so it was that retainer, and not the spring itself that broke.

It makes no sense at all they don't have the parts, since the guns are being built.
 
I've found S&W service to be excellent.

I had a 642 and modified it, taking out the internal lock. I don't know why but it eventually got to where I got a lot of "failure to fires), What ever I left in the lock got to moving and I couldn't fix it, probably because I didn't know what I was doing.

I sent it back to S&W, telling them "I screwed up the gun" and would pay for having it fixed. S&W sent the FedEx mailing label so I didn't pay for shipping.

I got a call from the Service Dept saying the gun couldn't be repaired. I says find how much to replace it. No Charge, it was under warranty.

Wait I says, I screwed up the gun and I should have to pay for my screw ups, Nope, it don't matter, its still covered by warranty.

Since it was a new gun and not my repaired gun S&W had to send it to a dealer.

So I screw up, S&W doesn't care, they give me a new gun, I just have to go to the dealer and pick it up.

It did cost though, I screwed up again by taking my wife with me when I went to pick up the gun. While filling out the paper work, wife finds a 637 she just couldn't live without.

She was looking for something else but decided on the Smith because of the Warranty.

Anyway, I've ordered lots of parts for lots of different guns over the years and I fail to see how waiting two weeks for parts is unreasonable.

The only place I've found that could match S&W's customer service is the CMP.
 
Since it was a new gun and not my repaired gun S&W had to send it to a dealer.
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Charter Arms replaced my Undercover (third time in since I bought it). 2014 production, different SN. It came straight to me.

It did cost though, I screwed up again by taking my wife with me when I went to pick up the gun. While filling out the paper work, wife finds a 637 she just couldn't live without.
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That's not a screw up. IMHO, YMMV.
 
The spring was supposed to be contained on the guide rod, so it was that retainer, and not the spring itself that broke.

It makes no sense at all they don't have the parts, since the guns are being built.
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manufacturing has the part, service dept ought to but doesn't at this instant. They may not be in the same location.

2 weeks? Yeah, it does kind of suck, but my advice would be to wait it out, get the part and move on.
 
And it's been my experience with the other manufacturers mentioned they offer a token for their screw ups.
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But didn't you break it while disassembling the gun? How is that their screw-up? Didn't they say they would also send a second guide rod too? Would a free hat have satisfied your demand for a token or just a free mag?

I feel for your disappointment. Hard to have new gun and not shoot it. But two weeks is not a long time for a free no questions asked, replacement part that may be temporarily out of stock. S&W's refusal to give you a $35 mag because you broke a part when disassembling, is not a sign of poor CS.
 
I didn't break it. The spring was never actually trapped on the rod. The end of the spring was flared out and when I removed it from the end of the slide it came off.
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And again I didn't break it. Point is it is beyond me that they're shipping complete guns. But I gotta wait two weeks for them to correct their faulty part.
It says to me they already have myomere but want to make more profit by selling more guns than replacing my part.
Why couldn't they give me the next guide rod produced. I'm sure it doesn't take 2 weeks to produce one.
 
I had the exact same issue. I just bought the shield a little over 2 weeks ago and I noticed the guide rod spring was bent, not apart like yours, and I called S&W customer service, and without asking any details or for my serial #, they offered to send me a new spring. No questions asked. It did take 2 weeks to get it, the customer service rep told me it would be about 10 days. I followed up with a call about 10 days into it, they looked up my info and told me that mine shipped that day. I just got it yesterday. Before the rep looked up my info, he immediately said that the springs were backordered.
I was happy with their service, I hadn't even filled out the registration form yet. I'm a fan.
 
Why couldn't they give me the next guide rod produced.(sic)
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Probably because they have better things to do. Distributors who order hundreds or thousands of guns a week are going to take priority over a customer who owns one of their guns.

It says to me they already have myomere (sic) but want to make more profit by selling more guns than replacing my part.
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They're a business. That's kind of what they do.
 
I have to say I'm surprised by how many of you are quick to dismiss the OP and write off his concerns as specious. Frankly, I think it's downright rude the way some people in this thread are assuming that the OP actually broke the part himself.

On the one hand, it's true that being forced to wait two weeks to receive a free replacement part is not exactly a bad customer service experience, nor do I think it deserves automatic compensation.

But I can certainly understand OP's frustration. He paid close to $400 for a new gun and received it with a broken part. And now the company that sold him a broken gun is making him wait for the new part. It's frustrating to receive a broken gun, and so I could understand why someone would feel they deserve compensation.
 
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