A SAD tale of Ruger customer service

Out of my 40 something handguns, about half are Ruger and the others S&W. ALL of the Rugers were bought brand new and ALL of the Smiths were used.

None of the Smiths ever needed to go back to the factory. Only 2 Rugers did. In both cases they were returned within a week and they were perfect. Neither cost me a penny.

On another time I had a mag problem and the gentleman on the phone didn't even ask me for a serial number. He sent me 2 new mags and I got them in a few days.

Ruger is tops for me. Covid has screwed everything up for everyone.
 
Had two occasions to use Ruger customer service. Both times I got the arms back within 10 days. Works for me.
 
Never had a Ruger semiauto pistol but bought a GP100 a few years ago and it is a fine revolver as is my Blackhawk.
 
Sorry you hit a dud. I must be particularly blessed. I have only had reason to contact the CS departments of 2 firearms/ammo companies. Remington (X2) and Armscor. 2 positive, one frustrating.

1 bought one of the second issue R51s and two spare magazines. All three mags would either lock back with one round still in the mag or FTF on the last or next to last round. I sent them an e-mail and the next day got a reply asking for my address. Within a week I had 3 new mags. One of them didn't like the last round, either. Really wanted to like that gun, enjoyed shooting it but didn't trust it for carry. Second time was an e-mail asking that they consider a small change to the RM380 that would prevent unintentional disassembly. Snottiest response I ever got from a manufacturer.

Just before the great rimfire ammo drought of 2008 I bought 2 bricks of Armscor .22 LR from on of the online sellers. Cases bulged and FTE in all action types. Called them. Rep asked for a round count of what I had left and what I had paid initially. They sent me a shipping label and a check for the costs of the remaining ammo within a week.

Of course all of this was pre-COVID.
 
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BC38 said:
I can see what you mean. IF I were dealing with multiple people, or if the communication "ball got dropped" once, or maybe twice.

Neither of those were the case. I was dealing with the same person from start to finish, and they dropped the ball on communications MULTIPLE times.
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Don't assume that it was the customer service rep that dropped the ball... I imagine they only sent a message to the repair department asking for a status and they are the ones failing to respond. All the CS person can do is keep sending requests.

As a retired IT support technician that once manned "help desk" lines, I often did not have the time or opportunity to "bird dog" the requests I sent off to other support departments, especially if you're manning support lines that receive a high volume of calls on a daily basis.

Due to Covid-19 and distancing rules, many customer service departments have had to scale back the number of people that occupy the physical location they work in, which means more calls per CS person.

No telling what could be happening in the repair department that's causing angst for the CS people (and customers).

The number of people could have been reduced for Covid-19 reasons, illnesses, vacations... that have elongated times.

I know we always experienced resources getting stretched thin during the summer vacation months, followed by the Flu season.
 
BC38 said:
This is long, so bear with me.


I understand about COVID slowing things down, but an increase from 2 or 3 weeks total turnaround time to 11 weeks? That seems a bit excessive. Frankly the lack of communication was a big part of the problem. Waiting a week or two before answering a customer’s email, or failing to answer an email at all, is NOT my idea of outstanding customer service. Neither is promising things you don’t deliver (like shipping my magazine the next day). It is almost as if they are so used to getting the gun back into the customer’s hands quickly that they have never developed the communications skills or mechanisms – because they haven’t had to. It seems like now that the lead times are long enough that they need to communicate with the customer, they don’t know how.

So, in the final analysis, all's well that ends well. I am very satisfied with the final resolution. For $260 cash, a well used pistol I paid $140 for 2 years ago, and a $20 transfer fee I got a new-in-box 5.56 pistol that is selling on GunBroker (not just listing, actually SELLING) for $1,000. So I have no complaints there.

However, I think it is safe to say that Ruger customer service isn’t what it once was – at least not at this present time - and their products are just as subject to having "issues" as others.
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I deleted most of your screed-leaving the pertinent parts for my response.
It seems that you are the most upset over the fact that your e mails were not responded to within the hour and you were not given the personal touch of returned phone calls when you expected them.
What were the other two choices? It appears that you picked the most expensive one.
In the penultimate paragraph quoted, after all you wrote, you now have the temerity to state you are "very satisfied with the final resolution"
In your past paragraph uou again scold them for not being what they once were.
GIVE ME A BREAK. This is what I call a First world problem-otherwise known as a "Rich Folks" issue. You are not the only customer Ruger has. From your chronology it appears that some of the delay was waiting for your preferred replacement. I think the timetable set forth is perfectly acceptable in today's climate.
Why don't you grab a chainsaw and come on down here and put some of that pent up vitriol into some sawing.
Sheesh
 
CAJUNLAWYER said:
I deleted most of your screed-leaving the pertinent parts for my response.
It seems that you are the most upset over the fact that your e mails were not responded to within the hour and you were not given the personal touch of returned phone calls when you expected them.
What were the other two choices? It appears that you picked the most expensive one.
In the penultimate paragraph quoted, after all you wrote, you now have the temerity to state you are "very satisfied with the final resolution"
In your past paragraph uou again scold them for not being what they once were.
GIVE ME A BREAK. This is what I call a First world problem-otherwise known as a "Rich Folks" issue. You are not the only customer Ruger has. From your chronology it appears that some of the delay was waiting for your preferred replacement. I think the timetable set forth is perfectly acceptable in today's climate.
Why don't you grab a chainsaw and come on down here and put some of that pent up vitriol into some sawing.
Sheesh
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Why the outrage caj? Did I somehow piddle in your cornflakes?

Yeah, it is a first world problem. So is every problem discussed on this board. So? My "screed" as you call it is a simple chronology of events.

FWIW, I didn't expect every email to be responded to "within the hour" or even the same day for that matter. But I did expect them to be responded to. And a week or two with NO response isn't what I was expecting either - nor is it what I consider even decent customer service.

THEIR product was defective and blew up in my hand - presenting a real danger of personal injury to ME.

They never had to wait on me for anything. I replied to every email they bothered to send the same day I received it. Just as I do to emails from MY customers.

But of course I'm the one who is wrong for being upset when I had to email or them call two or three times on more than one occasion to get any response - once they had the defective handgun in their hands and we started the process? Yeah, OK, whatever...

And yes, I am satisfied with the value of what I received to resolve the issue. However, the fact that getting to that resolution was like pulling teeth, and took nearly 3 months is something I am NOT particularly happy with. I'll wager you wouldn't be either, but hey, it is easy to pass judgement from the sidelines, no skin off your nose, right?
 
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BC38 said:
THEIR product was defective and blew up in my hand - presenting a real danger of personal injury to ME.
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How do you you know it was their product and not the ammo? Ruger simply capitulated and sent you a new pistol, which is much cheaper than litigation.

I’m gonna guess you speak with a lot of restaurant managers . . .
 
Muss Muggins said:
How do you you know it was their product and not the ammo? Ruger simply capitulated and sent you a new pistol, which is much cheaper than litigation.

I’m gonna guess you speak with a lot of restaurant managers . . .
Click to expand...

As usual you are making assumptions for which you have no evidence. I actually seldom eat at restaurants, and I haven't asked to speak to a manager more than once or twice in my entire lifetime. I'm not one to complain without good cause. I believe this is the first poor customer service thread I've started here in over seven years on the board.

As for the pistol vs ammo, the ammo was an off the shelf box of Speer Lawman 115gr FMJ. I still have over half the box. How exactly do you propose the ammo could enable the gun to fire out of battery? I can see a defective round that didn't chamber properly keeping the action from closing all the way, but even then the gun should NOT have fired 1/8" or more out of battery.

P.S. I just checked seven of my other semi-auto pistols that were handy. 2 Tauruses, two S&Ws, one RIA, on Sig, and one Ruger. A mix of striker and hammer fired guns. A couple of them were able to release the sear with the slide slightly out of battery, but NONE of them would fire with the slide far enough out of battery for there to be a gap between the breech face and the barrel hood. So none of them would fire with a round partially extracted from the chamber - like the LC9 did.
 
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crazyphil said:
You were/are simply the victim of what the military, in days gone by,
referred to as a SNAFU. Situation Normal All Fouled Up.
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Quite possibly Phil.

For the record, the whole point of this post was not to say "WOE IS ME" or to slander Ruger.

The point was that even Ruger, who everyone lauds for their exceptional customer service, has their failures and fumbles, and foibles too.

People come on here and complain about S&W customer service, and they get attacked.

I post a factual account of a poor experience with Ruger customer as an example that their service isn't necessarily/always better than S&W's and what happens? I get attacked too.

Why is that? Are gun manufacturers supposed to be above criticism? Are we supposed to ignore and keep our mouths shut when they fail, just because they are on the right side of the 2nd Amendment?
 
Well, I don't see any replies attacking you. Maybe like me, others were a bit confused.

I read all the several hundred words of your explanation, only to get to the very end and see this:

BC38 said:
... all's well that ends well.

I am very satisfied with the final resolution.
Click to expand...

Huh??

My thought at the time was .... well, there's my time wasted if he's HAPPY!
 
hittman77 said:
Well, I don't see any replies attacking you. Maybe like me, others were a bit confused.

I read all the several hundred words of your explanation, only to get to the very end and see this:



Huh??

My thought at the time was .... well, there's my time wasted if he's HAPPY!
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Sorry if the original message was confusing.

As I said in the original post and have since re-stated to clarify, I am happy with what they gave me as a replacement. But that doesn't mean that their customer service deserved high marks - and that was the point.

And, maybe "attacked" was a poor choice of words. Maybe "criticized" would have been a better description.
 
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You mean with a round partially chambered, right, because a round partially extracted from the chamber, in theory, would have been fired, unless one was unloading the pistol . . .

BC38 said:
P.S. I just checked seven of my other semi-auto pistols that were handy. 2 Tauruses, two S&Ws, one RIA, on Sig, and one Ruger. A mix of striker and hammer fired guns. A couple of them were able to release the sear with the slide slightly out of battery, but NONE of them would fire with the slide far enough out of battery for there to be a gap between the breech face and the barrel hood. So none of them would fire with a round partially extracted from the chamber - like the LC9 did.
Click to expand...
 
BC38 said:
I post a factual account of a poor experience with Ruger customer as an example that their service isn't necessarily/always better than S&W's and what happens? I get attacked too.
Click to expand...

If you are referring to CAJUNLAWYER's post, you might want to cut him a little slack.....he just went through a hurricane and worse than that (to him maybe) LSU just urinated-away a football game to Missouri.:) I can relate a bit after watching Georgia put a stomp on my VOLS........I might have attacked someone on the forum too.:D

Don
 
HEY! Mizzou won that game with a terrific goal line stand while down three out of the starting four defensive linemen and their top three receivers . . . :D

woodsltc said:
If you are referring to CAJUNLAWYER's post, you might want to cut him a little slack.....he just went through a hurricane and worse than that (to him maybe) LSU just urinated-away a football game to Missouri.:) I can relate a bit after watching Georgia put a stomp on my VOLS........I might have attacked someone on the forum too.:D

Don
Click to expand...
 
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