In the first 3800 rounds with my Shield 9, I had 27 failures to eject or feed. Some were due to a defective recoil spring assembly, but they continued after that was fixed. During this period, I noticed my ejector had a wobble to it, and sent my Shield back to S&W to check it out. They pronounced my wobble to be in spec
, and sent it back without repair. I continued to have failures after that, but eventually, I got my Shield to run 1000 rounds without an issue. However, I had yet another FTE, which motivated me to rent a Shield .45. It was so obviously superior to the 9 in every way, that I bought one, tossed my 9 onto the shelf, and haven't looked back.
My advice: Ask S&W if they could substitute a Shield .45 for your lemon 9.