PROBLEMS with my S&W .357 686 Plus

[shawn mccarver]

I have never had a problem with their customer service. Nor have i ever been on hold for longer than five minutes. Keep us informed.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

I agree. I don't know where or what time you folks are calling, but keep in mind S&W does NOT have 24 hour customer service. They are on Eastern time. I called them last week and was speaking to a live person in less than 5 minutes.

I have never, ever initiated any contact with them by email. I prefer live people. Emails are for follow-up with the assigned technician or some manager, in my opinion.

The preference of people on this Forum to use email first always amazes me. I guess it is easier, but if the various posters on here are to be believed, I cannot believe anyone would do it. As to email response from them, have you checked you spam folder? Some do and find they got a same or next day response and did not know it. Most do not admit it as it makes them look silly after the public rant on this and who knows how many other forums.

Again, as I said in my post up near the top, this happens. It always causes all sorts of "stop the presses" reactions, but you see this with Ruger Super Redhawks, widely touted as very strong revolvers, you see it with one-piece and with two piece S&W barrels.

To my knowledge, in the few incidents I have seen, I have not seen any complaint of an injury, whether with this type of failure or a cylinder and top strap blow off caused by an idiot reloader.

It is not fun, to be sure, to have this happen and to be without your revolver, but it will be fixed without question.

As to keeping the barrel - well I suppose the paranoia level runs high with some people. There is no need - take pictures, and then send it all off to S&W. They WILL fix it, as I said in Post #6 above.

By the way, everyone waits for a shipping label, and I would too given the high cost of next day air shipments. In the old days - and now if you don't mind paying - you can pack it, ship it by FedEx or UPS, including a letter explaining the issue and they will fix it without question. Be sure to include a letter with your shipping address and phone number. You do not need S&W's permission or a return authorization to send it back like some of the customer unfriendly gun companies.

 

[lineman23]

man your luck is horrible. I hope s & w will do right by you. I just posted this morning about my new 627 that won't shoot. I was on hold with customer service for 34 minutes myself. still waiting on shipping label. good luck

 

[Edu]

I was about to bid on a 686 Plus on GunBroker, and found this thread. Honestly, I do not know what is more shocking, the catastrophic failure of the gun or the reaction of some forum members, some laughing, others saying "it's normal", "happens from time to time". To a great extent I think this sort of reaction explains a lot of the problems with American manufacturing. The only good news reading the posts was that the former quality control executive was livid, because seriously, if he were not, we should give up all manufacturing in our country.

I bet Toyota sells more Corollas than S&W sells 686 Plus revolvers. Corollas are vastly more complex than a revolver. Have you heard about the wheels falling off on a new Corolla? And, if it did happen, it is guaranteed that Toyota would stop the production line until they got to the root cause of the problem and vanquished any vestige of it.

I posted in another thread about a brand new S&W 327 snub from the Performance Center that I bought recently. The gun sounds like a can of Coke with a bb inside. I bought it on GunBroker so I only noticed the issue after I got it. Maybe my fault. I never imagined a S&W from its 'Lexus' division would sound like that. Anyway, I found the thread after a Google search for 'Smith & Wesson rattling noise'. You see people bringing up the issue everywhere. I posted in the thread that I had the same problem. Needless to say, there were a litany of replies "this is normal" and jokes about the $1,200 gun. Maybe it is a joke, at the expense of buyers like me. Notice that what these people call 'normal' is that the rattling noise is not a defect, therefore it must be 'normal'. They do not fathom that a bad design may be bad even if it is defect-free from the production line. I do not want to turn this thread into a rattling noise one, but suffice to say that I sent a video to S&W of the issue, comparing the 327's bizarre noise to that of a 617 (no noise), and here is what S&W told me: "I had several of my coworkers review your video. We are all in agreement that what you are hearing is the floating hammer block and that there are no issues with your gun at all. That is normal for that model." You see, it's the "floating hammer block", so it is all fine! We can put men in the moon but we cannot design a floating hammer block in a scandium frame that does not sound like a rattlesnake?? Give me a break. I asked the agent to forward the video to Mark P. Smith, their VP of Manufacturing, to see if he agreed that that is 'normal'. I never heard back. Mind you, this is a gun from Smith & Wesson's luxury division, if you will. Can you imagine Lexus or BMW putting out a vehicle where the automatic transmission sounds like a rattlesnake, you bring the new car to the dealer to ask what is wrong with that and they tell you “our mechanics all agree, it’s normal”?

A barrel flying off a new gun with factory ammo should be an event that happens once every 10,000 years from any production line. If it is a problem with line workers, fix the line workers or design an assembly process that is idiot-proof. There are way more AR-15’s out there, compared to S&W 686’s, and how often do you hear of AR-15 barrels flying off a new gun? S&W has been making revolvers forever, some much stronger than a .357 magnum, and it cannot properly attach a barrel every once in a while? There is something very wrong going on, but whatever it is, it is not acceptable. I am afraid the root of the problem is that there are too many of these “this is normal” folks working at Smith & Wesson.

 

[silvershot]

Well that is very refreshing to hear, I just want my gun back to the way it was lol.

Ah you will be getting a whole new gun from S&W, I guarantee it.

Glad nobody was hurt. I have only seen this happen on a Taurus revolver, rare but it happens to them all I guess.

 

[silvershot]

I was about to bid on a 686 Plus on GunBroker, and found this thread. Honestly, I do not know what is more shocking, the catastrophic failure of the gun or the reaction of some forum members, some laughing, others saying "it's normal", "happens from time to time". To a great extent I think this sort of reaction explains a lot of the problems with American manufacturing. The only good news reading the posts was that the former quality control executive was livid, because seriously, if he were not, we should give up all manufacturing in our country.

I bet Toyota sells more Corollas than S&W sells 686 Plus revolvers. Corollas are vastly more complex than a revolver. Have you heard about the wheels falling off on a new Corolla? And, if it did happen, it is guaranteed that Toyota would stop the production line until they got to the root cause of the problem and vanquished any vestige of it.

I posted in another thread about a brand new S&W 327 snub from the Performance Center that I bought recently. The gun sounds like a can of Coke with a bb inside. I bought it on GunBroker so I only noticed the issue after I got it. Maybe my fault. I never imagined a S&W from its 'Lexus' division would sound like that. Anyway, I found the thread after a Google search for 'Smith & Wesson rattling noise'. You see people bringing up the issue everywhere. I posted in the thread that I had the same problem. Needless to say, there were a litany of replies "this is normal" and jokes about the $1,200 gun. Maybe it is a joke, at the expense of buyers like me. Notice that what these people call 'normal' is that the rattling noise is not a defect, therefore it must be 'normal'. They do not fathom that a bad design may be bad even if it is defect-free from the production line. I do not want to turn this thread into a rattling noise one, but suffice to say that I sent a video to S&W of the issue, comparing the 327's bizarre noise to that of a 617 (no noise), and here is what S&W told me: "I had several of my coworkers review your video. We are all in agreement that what you are hearing is the floating hammer block and that there are no issues with your gun at all. That is normal for that model." You see, it's the "floating hammer block", so it is all fine! We can put men in the moon but we cannot design a floating hammer block in a scandium frame that does not sound like a rattlesnake?? Give me a break. I asked the agent to forward the video to Mark P. Smith, their VP of Manufacturing, to see if he agreed that that is 'normal'. I never heard back. Mind you, this is a gun from Smith & Wesson's luxury division, if you will. Can you imagine Lexus or BMW putting out a vehicle where the automatic transmission sounds like a rattlesnake, you bring the new car to the dealer to ask what is wrong with that and they tell you “our mechanics all agree, it’s normal”?

A barrel flying off a new gun with factory ammo should be an event that happens once every 10,000 years from any production line. If it is a problem with line workers, fix the line workers or design an assembly process that is idiot-proof. There are way more AR-15’s out there, compared to S&W 686’s, and how often do you hear of AR-15 barrels flying off a new gun? S&W has been making revolvers forever, some much stronger than a .357 magnum, and it cannot properly attach a barrel every once in a while? There is something very wrong going on, but whatever it is, it is not acceptable. I am afraid the root of the problem is that there are too many of these “this is normal” folks working at Smith & Wesson.

Do not refrain from buying a new or used 686 because of this story or any other, there are millions of other 686s out there that have never had a failure of any kind. I have both a no dash and a -6 and they have thousands of rounds through them all grains high and low and not one issue with either.

 

[smike308]

Was there ever a resolution to this? It seems as if the OP has "gone dark". No update since last spring.

 

[Practical]

2nd post: As a past quality exec and later on a senior exec of a Fortune 50, I'm dumb founded at the "to get along you've got to go along" attitude expressed here. I'm not making anyone wrong and understand wanting to "just get 'my' ___ fixed."

But this has happened before: how often, what were the failure and fault modes, and how safe are current and past units coming off the production line? In my long career as a manufacturing leader and senior exec, the attitude here is usually what leads to catastrophic consequences from single mode, intolerant failures. Someday, this company and one or more of its customers (and perhaps innocent by-standers) will suffer a preventable and serious disaster.

In the world of consumer products and consumer capital goods, manufacturers do a risk:frequency:impact tradeoff, the results of which all too frequently have led to some unbelievable and totally preventable accidents (being kind in calling these accidents). We know this isn't an isolated event and we know it continues to happen . . . when will and what will the consumer reaction be when the inevitable occurs? Same question for S&W.

This speaks volumes about S&W's culture and it's leadership, and I for one find it wanting in many ways.

This is the second and last post for me on this subject, though I'm uncertain I can just walk away . . . having visited crash sites that cover several square miles, the smell of disaster is something I find difficult to simply pass over as "business as usual."

Take care,

I am an engineer and have worked in engineering for 20+ years. ALL products and projects have defects. If you were a QA manager you would not be acting as you are, you would have an understanding of the manufacturing and quality processes AND failure rates that might occur.

Get your gun fixed and deal with it.

 

[silvershot]

Was there ever a resolution to this? It seems as if the OP has "gone dark". No update since last spring.

I didn't even notice the original date of thread.

This is what I dislike about forums most, a interesting thread and the OP goes into witness protection. I don't know how many times I've found a thread that would of helped me whether it was about tech, autos or whatever, and the final solutions or outcomes are never posted because the OP never follows through with competing their thread.

Hope he makes it back but being it's been 6 months I doubt he will. Jail, dead maybe a move to a commune? We'll probably never know.

 

[K-9]

I'd also like to know of the outcome. Regardless of what it is, S&W needs to examine their QC.

 

[smike308]

It may be that S&W silenced him.

 

[nawilson]

It may be that S&W silenced him.

Probably... by giving him a new gun. I find it frustrating, too, that people join the forum, post a complaint, and then vanish. It is probably just the nature of the beast because they are now satisfied, but I sure would like some closure.

Who knows... maybe the guy that assembled the gun has been reading all the complaints about canted barrels, tried to prevent it, and went too far.

Seriously, though it "shouldn't" happen at all, defects are inevitable in any human endeavor. I think the internet increases the perception of defect frequency.

 

[Jaymo]

Shoulda bought a Ruger Redhawk. They've never had that prob....oh, wait.

 

[gboling]

Did I see a crack in the recoil shield? In the two pictures showing the front view of the recoil shield it appears that there is a crack.

 

[rtbaron]

Called S&W today to get some info on having a trigger job done and was told that they are so backed up that there would be an 8 month wait to have the work done. Hope your problem takes a priority for them.

 

[snowman]

To those who would like a report from the OP: Why not send the gentleman a PM, telling him that it's customary and helpful to other members in a thread like this for the initiator to send updates? Who knows; maybe he's just not aware of forum etiquette.

Regards,
Andy

 

[nawilson]

To those who would like a report from the OP: Why not send the gentleman a PM, telling him that it's customary and helpful to other members in a thread like this for the initiator to send updates? Who knows; maybe he's just not aware of forum etiquette.

Regards,
Andy

That is an excellent idea, but he hasn't been active since 15 MAR, and that was two days after he joined...

 

[Mister_Smith]

Smith & Wesson will make this right, most likely they will replace the entire gun. They replace a gun for me and it only had cosmetic defects, serious cosmetic defects but they replaced the entire gun.

The entire gun industry is very busy, Smith is running 24/7 building guns. The longest I ever waited on hold was around 20 minutes, but keep trying, my shortest waits are during their morning hours, 8 am or so on, I've waited around 5 minutes.

They'll send you a free shipping label to return the gun (keep all your photos of the busted gun), and let Smith make it right for you. Hope it all works out...

 

[ladder13]

I was about to bid on a 686 Plus on GunBroker, and found this thread. Honestly, I do not know what is more shocking, the catastrophic failure of the gun or the reaction of some forum members, some laughing, others saying "it's normal", "happens from time to time". To a great extent I think this sort of reaction explains a lot of the problems with American manufacturing. The only good news reading the posts was that the former quality control executive was livid, because seriously, if he were not, we should give up all manufacturing in our country.

I bet Toyota sells more Corollas than S&W sells 686 Plus revolvers. Corollas are vastly more complex than a revolver. Have you heard about the wheels falling off on a new Corolla? And, if it did happen, it is guaranteed that Toyota would stop the production line until they got to the root cause of the problem and vanquished any vestige of it.

I posted in another thread about a brand new S&W 327 snub from the Performance Center that I bought recently. The gun sounds like a can of Coke with a bb inside. I bought it on GunBroker so I only noticed the issue after I got it. Maybe my fault. I never imagined a S&W from its 'Lexus' division would sound like that. Anyway, I found the thread after a Google search for 'Smith & Wesson rattling noise'. You see people bringing up the issue everywhere. I posted in the thread that I had the same problem. Needless to say, there were a litany of replies "this is normal" and jokes about the $1,200 gun. Maybe it is a joke, at the expense of buyers like me. Notice that what these people call 'normal' is that the rattling noise is not a defect, therefore it must be 'normal'. They do not fathom that a bad design may be bad even if it is defect-free from the production line. I do not want to turn this thread into a rattling noise one, but suffice to say that I sent a video to S&W of the issue, comparing the 327's bizarre noise to that of a 617 (no noise), and here is what S&W told me: "I had several of my coworkers review your video. We are all in agreement that what you are hearing is the floating hammer block and that there are no issues with your gun at all. That is normal for that model." You see, it's the "floating hammer block", so it is all fine! We can put men in the moon but we cannot design a floating hammer block in a scandium frame that does not sound like a rattlesnake?? Give me a break. I asked the agent to forward the video to Mark P. Smith, their VP of Manufacturing, to see if he agreed that that is 'normal'. I never heard back. Mind you, this is a gun from Smith & Wesson's luxury division, if you will. Can you imagine Lexus or BMW putting out a vehicle where the automatic transmission sounds like a rattlesnake, you bring the new car to the dealer to ask what is wrong with that and they tell you “our mechanics all agree, it’s normal”?

A barrel flying off a new gun with factory ammo should be an event that happens once every 10,000 years from any production line. If it is a problem with line workers, fix the line workers or design an assembly process that is idiot-proof. There are way more AR-15’s out there, compared to S&W 686’s, and how often do you hear of AR-15 barrels flying off a new gun? S&W has been making revolvers forever, some much stronger than a .357 magnum, and it cannot properly attach a barrel every once in a while? There is something very wrong going on, but whatever it is, it is not acceptable. I am afraid the root of the problem is that there are too many of these “this is normal” folks working at Smith & Wesson.

So Lexus has no warranty, none needed, right? I guess they can close their service dept.
Toyota had a problem for many years with oiling issues in their engines. I guess they just couldn't get it right. This is just ONE case, quoted below. Going on for a long time..They've had more problems in 2007 Toyota's.
My friend was a mechanic for BMW, he said it stood for Big Money Wasted.





"Toyota Motor Corp., plagued for years by claims that engines in some of its most popular vehicles were subject to damaging oil sludge buildup, has settled a class-action lawsuit over the issue.
The agreement, approved Wednesday in a suit filed in 2001 in state court in Louisiana, covers about 3.5 million 1997-2002 model year Toyota and Lexus vehicles."

 

[kaaskop49]

Seems as though he posted only to air his issue. Statistics show 7 posts, and only on this thread.

 

[dkleiner]

I am planning to buy a new 686 or 686 Plus, so I am reviving this thread.