Made the mistake of ordering a brand new Performance Center 627

[prairieviper]

Unacceptable. Poor quality control and manufacturing procedures should be the exception and not the rule. While inspecting your gun before purchasing is fine, the customer should reasonably expect there to not be problems, especially on a high dollar Performance Center revolver.

I feel your pain. There is nothing worse than having to send a gun in for repair, especially a brand new one. My 617-6 had problems with misfires due to light hits. It was so frequent that I had to send the gun back. On the good side, S&W was courteous, attentive, kept me informed and I had the gun back in 12 days. It has performed like a champ with every kind of ammo I want to feed it ever since.

 

[haywood]

I did not read the whole thread but I would start with the dealer and ask him what he could do about this.

 

[typetwelve]

My 627 Pro, purchased a few months ago, is currently back at the factory for the same horribly finished crown as yours. It's unbelievable to me that so many leave the factory that way.

Seriously, how does this keep happening?

Here was mind back in Jan:

Completely unacceptable.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

The front sight is in a dovetail, and just needs to be centered. The rear sight is windage adjustable, and should provide enough range to put point of impact on target. I am not sure what S&W's rational for having windage adjustment front and rear is. My 640Pro has redundant windage adjustment and none for elevation.

Best,
Rick

I understand that the front sight is in a dovetail but the sight itself is canted.

 

[gnystrom]

Don't worry, S&W will make it right with you. The customer service guy is well trained at being nonchalant. I am sure he has plenty of practice.
I am reminded of a new Mazda turbo I bought in the early 90's. I got it home and that night my daughters boyfriend moved his motor-scooter into the garage to keep it out of a brief thunderstorm. In an effort to avoid hitting it while backing up I scraped the entire side of my new car against the side of the garage. As I realized this was happening I drove forward in an attempt to stop the carnage hitting the scooter in the process and damaging the other side of the new car.
S*%t happens. It will go away.

 

[Anton Chigurh]

I did not read the whole thread but I would start with the dealer and ask him what he could do about this.

Well, he already returned it to S&W. About all a dealer would do is act as shipper/receiver to S&W, so you don't have to be at home or arrange for Uncle Buck to be there when FedEX comes knocking in a few weeks. That can be a pain. Guns are pretty much non-returnable once they are purchased.

 

[slabside2]

Nothing will change until we stop buying. It will only get worse if that's even possible. If you're on this forum you probably know what to look for in a revolver but many people new to guns and revolvers except a gun like that and think it's normal. There is always a newbie out there ready to buy and so it goes. Sad.

 

[haywood]

I don't buy new guns anymore. But, if I were looking over a gun to buy new or used and saw things like that........ Especially the grips one look at those grips and I would have handed it back to the store owner and said See ya.

 

[Lee's Landing Billy]

I have 120 handguns. I own 2 S&W revolvers made after 1982. I will not buy the products I see them turning out today. Guess what, they'll be fine without me! So we are both happy.

 

[riverrat38]

I understand that the front sight is in a dovetail but the sight itself is canted.

I had assumed that the sight looked canted because it was off center. If the dovetail is not cut square, the gun will need a new barrel. I don't see that they can "move" a dovetail. Or, maybe, the front sight itself is faulty. That would be easier to fix.
In either case, if they moved the front sight to the left to compensate for a fault, that is a bigger problem because it implies that they knew something was wrong and tried to fudge it "right"! Kind of like Volkswagen and their Diesel engines.

Best,
Rick

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

S&W needs to just go out of business. This way, hopefully someone who actually cares about quality can buy the patents and reproduce them again, properly.

You cannot turn back the clock. If we were still willing to pay for higher quality, S&W would still make higher quality. We have proven otherwise. Capitalism works both ways.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

Sorry OP had such a bad experience especially on a high cost product, but S&W will make it right.

 

[0311oldgrunt]

Sorry to see those defects, but thanks for the post as I will be looking a little closer, at the 629 PC light hunter I am to pick up next week. Hope I do not have bad dreams in the the mean time. Best of Luck with S&W.

 

[Buckeyebill]

I think the current situation on purchasing revolvers sight unseen is no longer an option for this consumer. Detailed inspection will be required in order to verify workmanship and quality. Buyer must beware. Too bad that it has come to this but it has.

Bill

 

[Gunhacker]

Another example that would drive me towards Ruger were I in the market for a brand new revolver.

Ruger is not what they once were either.. witness what the new model GP100's in .44 Special are being shipped out with, and this is not an isolated example.

I recently looked at one at my LGS and its front sight is the same way.

 

[Tom_R]

They owe you a brand new, perfect gun.

This is a Performance Center Revolver which means that it is supposed to be fitted and tuned by a master smith at the Factory.

But any master smith that spent a few minutes with that gun would not have let it go out the door like that.

So S&W made a mistake. Will they make it right?

It is very troubling seeing continued posts of this nature.

S&W is supposed to be the top of the heap.

 

[steelslaver]

Ruger is not what they once were either.. witness what the new model GP100's in .44 Special are being shipped out with, and this is not an isolated example.

I recently looked at one at my LGS and its front sight is the same way.

That is done so that the front sight cleans any debris from the holster every time you draw. Bigger joke is the only way to fix that is a new barrel or to remake the front sight assy. Can't recut the dovetail and use that sight. Somebody had to notice and say ship them that way.

But then there was a thread about some much older S&W J frames that the thumb piece struck the recoil shield on before it moved the bolt all the way forward to release the cylinder. Nothing like this or as common, but, even the old guns were not always perfect.

 

[buck460XVR]

What I have found is many times when a gun is "special ordered" or bought online, the incidence of poor quality rises dramatically. Seems many times guns are returned to the wholesaler for obvious reasons and then the gun is shipped back out again to the next unsuspecting customer. Seems that because many folks accept a firearm without really looking at it close, it's easier to just keep sending it out until someone accepts it as opposed to sending it back to the mothership right away.

Truth be told, S&W will make it right. Since the beginning of time there have been those products we figured were made on Monday morning or Friday afternoon. The true meaning of a quality company is the customer service one receives and a satisfying resolution when it is needed. As for the crown, I'd shoot it before making judgement. As for the rear sight being adjusted to compensate for the canted front.... someone else may have shot it and tried to adjust it. It certainly wasn't adjusted at the factory. They shoot the gun twice to make sure it fires, not for accuracy. Generally why you find only two dirty chambers when buying a new Smith.

 

[cgt4570]

Even the bottom grip frame corners are ground at an angle. I've round butted a few and it's not that hard to grind them perpendicular.

 

[Invictus357]

It would have been absolutely fantastic if you could have waited until the problems were fixed before you posted.

I've lost count how many times a poster on X forum whined how his new X is terrible. After weeks of updates on how X hasn't been made properly since 1962, he posts that his X is on the way back from the factory. He then says he will tell us all about how it went....tomorrow.

Around about this time the guy gets amnesia and forgets to tell the 100s following the thread how it went.