Originally Posted by CouchPotato

I got my Shield Plus back in mid December and after a month of testing it appears to be fixed.

I was unable to get the exact details on what they fixed in order to allow the striker and plunger to reset on their own.

I actually ended up having another customer service issue and as a result I had a large episode about it which caused them to send me some free stuff.

Here's that drama if you're interested:

Due to not being home for a week just before my repairs were completed, I called them to put a hold on shipping it. A week later I called back and learned the repairs were completed and was told when it would ship.

When it didn't ship out, the next week I called back to follow up and encountered a female customer service rep who had a massive attitude problem. From the onset of the conversation she had a tone and seemed annoyed that I would expect it to ship when I was told it would ship. She refused to provide her name, refused to reach out to the shipping department, and she refused to get a supervisor. After she raised her voice I raised mine, the call devolved, and eventually she dumped me into a voicemail.

That was the last straw, I had completely lost my patience with them, and expected to be compensated due to all of my time they've wasted, especially the time I've missed from work sending and receiving the gun back and forth over and over.

I called back and got the head of their customer service department on the phone, I've spoken with him before. I explained the situation I just had with the female customer service rep and then I reminded him of every single issue I've had with them throughout this whole debacle.

Because I know exactly how a call center should be run, which fundamentally is what his department is, I dove into his operational details and identified exactly why his department is not able to ensure good customer service.

Basically S&W completely relies on "team leads" to coach the other customer service reps and ultimately take over a call if it goes bad. I gave him some egregious examples, with names, of where no one stepped in on the call, especially the prior incident with Frank where the call devolved into an extended shouting match, no one took over the call, and ultimately Frank hung up.

I made it clear to him that all of his team leads aren't doing their jobs and aren't ensuring good customer service. Furthermore, S&W doesn't monitor or record phone calls for quality assurance. Having team leads that actually did their jobs would go a long way, but recording the calls would allow the company to be sure everyone is doing their jobs. I explained that there's no accountability in their customer service department.

When I was younger, I had some experience managing a call center, and I explained what accountability looks like.... specifically when a rep is on a call and raising their voice like that, I'd come over, physically take the phone away, mute the call, direct them to go sit in a side office, and then complete the call at their desk in front of everyone. After that I'd deal with the rep who got stuffed in the side office. Once you do that a couple times, you really don't have customer service problems after that, especially if people get fired.

Anyway...

After a bit of back and forth on a few points, he eventually offered me a full refund on my Shield Plus but then they'd be keeping the gun. I pointed out all of the OEM magazines I purchased and he offered a refund for those too. Then I detailed the $400+ worth of holsters that I've purchased however he wasn't willing to compensate me for those... as a result we had no deal.

He then offered me some S&W merch which consisted of shirts and hats along with their knives and flashlights...

I pointed out that I already planned to throw away the S&W branded clothing I had previously purchased and there was no way I'd be advertising their brand. Furthermore, I reminded him of the dollar value of the refund he just offered me and pointed out the dozens of dollars the merch was worth.

After a lot of back and forth, ultimately he caused my Shield Plus to ship that same day, he also sent me the optics ready slide, a new barrel, a tritium front sight, 5 magazines, and pinky extensions for the 10-round mags.

I'm content with that. Unless there's another problem with an item I purchased, I consider the matter to be closed.