Let me begin first by saying this blog post will probably sound as though I am beating up on Ruger just a bit. To some extent that may be true. But my motivation for today’s writing is not to smear an otherwise reputable company…quite the contrary. I feel companies who perform stellar customer service deserve our future support. And those that have some deficiencies deserve to take a little heat if that’s what it requires to improve their customer care performance.
About six years ago I decided to purchase my first over and under shotgun. I’ve never been a big O/U fan, but decided the time was probably right to own a gun I can take to the range and proudly display. At first I logically looked at the various Brownings on the market…but then a buddy of mine convinced me to take a closer look at the Ruger Red Label Satin Grey All-Weather. At first glance this gun seemed to appeal to me. Sharp looking, with the gold duck inlays, a true performer that by all appearances could take some rugged use in the field.
I purchased the gun after spending what I felt was a small fortune for a gun of any kind. Yet, I kept reminding myself that guns are a relatively good investment. The excitement of taking the gun out of the box, however, quickly disappeared once I got on the range. Misfire after misfire. How could this be? A brand new gun looking as fancy as this one…it’s supposed to perform, but it wasn’t. Out of every 10 shots I would take at least one or two would produce nothing at the muzzle-end. Not only was this new gun unreliable for shooting, I considered it to be downright dangerous.
I took the gun to a local authorized Ruger repair shop and nothing changed. Still performed lousy. My next step was to package it and send it in (at my own expense) to the factory under warranty repair. At this point I was truly disappointed…but willing to be patient to get a gun back in good working order. I waited, and waited, and waited. I called the factory and was told there would be a backlog. I then spoke to my dealer and he called the factory…but essentially was told the same thing.
Finally my frustration got the best of me. I called and spent a great deal of time on hold until finally a customer service person answered who was not at all helpful. Except I did learn one thing from her, however. What she told me was that the gun I mailed in had been on their shelf waiting repair for over three months and they hadn’t even opened the box yet to look at it. WHAT! Gosh, sure glad I sent it in UPS Blue paying a small fortune so they could get it quickly. Realizing I had spent about $1,500 for a new shotgun that has not worked correctly since I took it out of the box and then now learning the factory repair center is so cavalier to not even open the box even after 3 months setting on their shelf?
Needless to say I lost it. The pheasant hunting season was only weeks away and dammit I purchased that gun in the spring to use on my fall pheasant hunts. Suddenly it wasn’t looking very hopeful this would be a gun I’d get to use at all during that particular fall’s hunting season. I expressed my frustrations with customer service and then hung up to call my dealer friend. How could a responsible outdoors company treat their valued customers in such a shoddy manner. Made me wish I had looked at the new Browning guns a bit closer.
That’s when I did it. I called customer service back up and got another representative. This time I asked immediately to speak to a supervisor. When the customer service gal asked why…I told her that I wanted someone with enough corporate authority so I could quote them in my next article. She gladly put me in touch with her supervisor. I started off by asking for her name and the correct spelling, as well as her official title at Ruger. She reluctantly gave me all that information. I explained to her that I’m an outdoors writer on assignment going pheasant hunting in about a week in South Dakota. I further explained that the gun was intended to have prominent mention in my article whether it continues sitting on the shelves at the Ruger Repair Center or is in my hands out pheasant hunting. I reinforced to this person they will be quoted in the article reasoning that a writer has to develop a story one way or another. If they wanted to continue holding my unfixed gun I would gladly oblige that fact in my story.
Guess what? Over-nighted to me and arriving the next day was my shotgun all repaired and now functioning just fine. Somehow I don’t think it finally was my gun’s queue to get the necessary repairs. After a long overdue wait somebody finally felt motivated to avert what they saw could have been a bigger problem. I suppose it’s an instance of the squeaky wheel gets the grease sort of mentality.
And you know, therein lies one of the main problems with many in corporate America. It’s not just Ruger, but big companies are sometimes more than willing to let their customers get lost in the chaos of trying to maneuver through the system. Had I known the gun would sit for months on end without even getting looked at…I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen in the first place. I would have lit a fire under someone’s butt long before that amount of time had elapsed.
On the flip side of things I’ve heard stories about outdoor gear companies doing some fantastic customer service on their products. One such company that quickly comes to mind is Leupold. Oh, sure, you pay a bit extra for their optics…but the reputation of the company standing behind their quality somehow makes it a little easier to open up the pocketbook.
So, I’m anxious to hear some of your stories. What hunting or fishing companies have treated you fairly…or possibly unfairly? Of course, we can’t always base our impressions on one single experience, but then again if they don’t perform well the first time some can never be allowed to have a second chance. Let’s hear your thoughts.
© 2006 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.
I’m sorry you had such a terrible experience with Ruger’s customer service/repair dept. There are 5 Rugers here at the house and they have been nothing but reliable, accurate, and well built. I’ve never had the pleasure/displeasure of having to deal with Ruger for repairs or any other problem, and I hope I never have to. I do plan on purchasing another Ruger or two in the next year or so, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that I won’t require anything to be serviced or repaired. I hope yours is an isolated case and not the norm.
I do have some good and bad experiences of my own:
BAD:
Taurus: Taurus guns are supposed to come with a lifetime warranty, it even says so in the owner’s manual. What good is a warranty though if the manufacturer won’t stand behind it? I needed to send my M85-SS in for them to look over and make any necessary repairs because the cylinder fell out one time when I was preparing to clean it after a shooting session. I pressed the cylinder latch and the whole cylinder assembly fell out of the frame and onto the table. I had tried contacting Taurus several times by mail (with SASE enclosed) and email, all responses going ignored. I prefer mail because I have a hard copy of their response, not just a telephone conversation and short-hand notes. After several months I called them and got a response that was something along the lines of “Just send in via your dealer and insured and we’ll look at it when we have a chance.” The rep I talked to wasn’t rude, but wasn’t polite either. It was a careless attitude that turned me off. I ended up paying a local gunsmith to repair the gun, just to avoid the hassle of dealing with Taurus again. I will not purchase any Taurus products again because of this.
Knight & Hale: I had purchased a shock call kit from them that consisted of 3 calls, a cassette tape, and something else, I forget what though. I stored the calls in a neoprene call pouch in an air-conditioned house during the off season. The next season I opened the box and the calls that had lay against a rubber buck grunt had chemically melted against the rubber bellows of the one call. I have contacted Knight & Hale several times by U.S. Mail (again with SASE enclosed) and by email, and my complaints about their calls chemically melting against a rubber call and why there was no mention anywhere on the package that these calls should not come into contact with certain materials, went unanswered. All calls to them are put on hold and mysteriously I am always disconnected while on hold with them. I gather that they don’t want to stand behind their products or admit to using an inferior composite for their calls. I am through with this company and do not recommend their products to anyone.
GOOD:
Hornady: Very friendly and helpful whenever I have a question about their products. Always respond in a timely and courteous manner with more information than what I ask about.
Winchester/Olin: Same as Hornady.
Nosler: Same as Hornady.
Alliant Powder: Same as Hornady.
Quantum: I had an old casting rod that started loosing it’s line guides for no apparent reason. I contacted Quantum to see how much they would charge to repair my rod. They promptly sent me a new one at no charge, told me to toss the old one.
Birchwood-Casey: I simply sent them a letter telling them how pleased I was with their cleaning products and asked for a product catalog. Two days later UPS arrived unexpectedly with a package, they had sent me a catalog, a bunch of adhesive neon targets, a 5 oz jar of Bore Scrubber, and a 6 oz aerosol can of Sheath with a thank you note for taking my time to contact them.
Red Wing: I live about 45 miles away from the nearest Red Wing boot dealer. I bought a pair of Red Wing boots to wear for hunting and fishing, and had been thoughtless to pick up some boot care products to go with the new boots. I emailed Red Wing and asked if they had an online store where I could order some leather care products from them, since I didn’t want to drive all that way for just a few dollars worth of products, and I really wanted to only treat my boots with Red Wing leather care products. Red Wing’s head of marketing promptly contacted me saying that they were thinking about opening an online store, but had not yet done so. He asked for my address and promptly sent me a full-size container of every leather care product they make, free of charge.
There you can see I’ve had more good experiences with companies than bad. I hope the trend of putting the customer’s satisfaction up front continues. I think those that disregard legitimate complaints and do nothing to try and make reparations to dissatisfied customers are not only hurting themselves, but casting a foul shadow on the entire industry as a whole.
Have the same problem as you, with a red label shotgun. Can you tell me how it was fixed? I am in New Zealand and would like to explain to a gunsmith a possible cure. It has been to be fixed 3 times and no joy.
Cheers Duane Mclean.