Freeze on letters

Absalom

Absalom

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I haven't seen anyone commenting on this yet. I'm posting this in this subforum since this time period generates by far the most letter requests, including all of mine.

I just noticed this today. Does anyone know since when this has been in effect? Has anyone gotten their check back yet?

Just curious.
 

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My check cleared on June 8, 2015. I was expecting the Letter in approximately another two months since the backlog seems to take about 6 months.

Does anyone know something New and/or Different? This is to add to the timeline?
 
Well, that figures. Just when I was going to send in for one on my recent 3rd model 44.
 
Well, dang.
I was just about to send off for a letter on my 52
 
I suspect it is the reasonable thing to do but what about being entrepreneurial minded like most of business and expand capacity to meet demand? The historian/s that do the work are not getting any younger and demand for letters is growing even from the non-collectors, folks want to know the history of their gun as a peek into the past even if it is not rare or unique. Why not take on some young apprentices to " learn um the business" so to speak and start generating interest from the next generation. We face the same phenomena in my BMW motorcycle club, at the annual rally we see fewer new younger members and only us old guys participanting. As a club we are not staying contemporary and our activities are still geared to us geezers and we wonder why our member numbers are dropping. So instead of embracing the GS or S1000RR riders we keep catering to R65 guys or the RT crowd.

I get that it is probably a loss leader for Smith to offer this service but find a way to use it as a marketing tool and how about digitizing the service. Yes it is nice to have the hard copy but what if you could streamline the process through digitization and still leave a nice letter as an option for us old guys. Why simply shut down the service and turn away customers who may never come back.

My greatgrand dad ran a fixit shop in the middle of Los Angeles in the 1920s and my granddad continued it until the 70s when it was more profitable to sell the land and retire. But his approach was to never turn a customer away no matter what it took. I remember to this day that as a kid I would help him out just taking in items or helping him move things around so that he was drawing in customers.

Fix it shops ran their course with the advancement of technology but with handguns that will not happen.....so grow the business S&W not shut it down.
 
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Of course, it could be that Roy intends to retire. But, regardless, S & W should have a succession plan in place.

BUT, before everyone gets a bit panicky, perhaps S & W is making things easier for Roy this time of year, as I think he goes to Italy about annually and it usually is around this time of year, if I am not mistaken.
 
I have requests in the queue for three letters. Sent the check in early August, and it cleared promptly. I had hoped to send three more for RMs that need letters, but I guess I will wait and see how things go with the three I already requested: a very early TL, a NRM, and a 1950 .357 possibly attributed to an Air Force general.
 
H Richard said:
The only thing I am afraid of is that Roy is retiring from the Historian position, and S&W have made no provisions to replace him.
Click to expand...

That has been my concern too. Roy is a superb historian, but one man in his office who gets so little support that he has to hand-address the return envelopes is not a sustainable business model. Now it is my understanding from the contributions of others to previous discussions here that Roy actually owns a lot of the records. I hope he gets to be part of a plan how to continue this once he does have to step back.

Now you can say about Colt what you want, but spinning off Colt Archives LLC as a separate entity seems to work. Yes, their prices seem like highway robbery, but there is a historian and two assistants, all very knowledgeable; I've spoken to all three, and one of the assistants is a member on the Colt Forum and answers general questions about letters, the records and the archives. There would be no worries were someone to leave; they would likely just hire someone else, as they have in the past.

Obviously, I have no idea what letter prices would be necessary to make some more sustainable model like this palatable to S&W.
 
I've felt, for sometime, that the Factory letters were a labor of love on Mr. Jinks part. It can't be a money maker for him or Smith and Wesson.

As Mr. Jinks may be nearing a well deserved retirement, we can only hope that he can find and train one or two folks to keep his department running. If so I would expect an increase in fees.
 
I think we need to express our concern for the continuation of this service by S&W to their Customer Service Department.

Here is a link you can use to do just that: Send a Message

I have already done so by expressing my pleasure with this service from past Letter of Authenticity and requested the service be continued by S&W.
 
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What is the current best guess as to wait times for already submitted requests?

I sent in a request on June 12 of this year for an early 30's vintage 2nd model hand ejector with a 5" barrel, which means I'm sitting at 4 months.

If you recently received a letter, when did you send in the request?

Thanks
 
I spoke with Roy Jinks via e-mail EARLIER TODAY when I heard about Smith & Wesson suspending factory letters for the time being. According to HIM, he is NOT retiring. What Smith & Wesson is doing I suppose is anyone's guess. Roy said he has no plans to retire at the moment and intends to be around unless Smith & Wesson has plans they haven't told anybody yet. I told him I was mailing in my letter and my check this afternoon for my 1914-vintage Model of 1905 and I don't care if it takes 4,5, or 6 months to receive a letter. Roy informed me that currently the wait time once received is 20 weeks. I said fine. He said Smith and Wesson may return my check, he didn't know. I told him he couldn't leave until mine was processed and in the return mail.
 
bobbyz said:
I spoke with Roy Jinks via e-mail EARLIER TODAY when I heard about Smith & Wesson suspending factory letters for the time being. According to HIM, he is NOT retiring.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for this update on the situation. I'm sure all members appreciate it.
 
It will likely come to pass someday that the S&W records will have to be digitized for more rapid and automated retrieval. I sort of wonder if something like the procedure used by Colt could be adopted, wherein S&W could have a website accessible by anyone where a SN can be entered and a listing of possible models and likely year of shipment (or production) pops up. For those unaware of it, look here: Colt Firearm Serial Number Lookup - Year of Manufacture

That might take care of many of those inquiries in which "how old is this gun?" is the primary object of interest and thereby cut back on a lot of manual labor in gathering the information required for a letter.
 
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And I wholeheartedly agree, but many apparently believe that any and every S&W is worthy of a letter, and who am I to say that they are incorrect? I feel that there are some very legitimate reasons for lettering, or at least for justifying the $50 cost, but not all that many.
 
I would hate to see the letters discontinued, however, it seems ridiculous to me that Mr. Jinks has no assistant. If the cost of a letter needed to raise to cover that position so be it. if the information is that important to someone,man little extra money should be no impediment.
 
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I'm willing to stand corrected if someone like Roy or who actually works with Roy has data to confirm this, but I just find this idea (which is accepted as fact by a lot of people in these letter discussion threads) of hordes of people frivolously ordering letters just for the heck of it and clogging up the process not particularly compelling. If you look at the backlog (the figure of 800 gets mentioned frequently), that's minuscule compared to the total number of guns S&W has produced. I'd be surprised if even one percent of all S&W guns have ever been lettered. I bought, shot and carried S&W revolvers for over 30 years without ever knowing about the letters, and I suspect the vast majority of current owners are in the same position. So I would just give that (comparatively) very small group the benefit of the doubt and assume that most letter requesters know what they are doing and value the info they will get.
 
I told Roy Jinks today via e-mail that if Smith & Wesson wanted to double or even triple their price for a factory letter I myself would still consider it a bargain. Colt can charge upwards of $300 on certain models and the last letter I ordered over a decade ago for a Colt 1911 was right at $100 if I remember correctly. $50 for a Smith & Wesson factory letter is a bargain in today's collecting world. I've lettered many over the years and do so because I like to see just where they ended up after leaving Springfield. Two in particular that stand out were both 38 Hand Ejectors, Military & Police, pre-Model 10's. I had one several years back that was shipped to the New York City Police Department in 1946 and another that I still own that was shipped to a prison in Kentucky in 1921. To me, $50 was well spent and I truly value Roy's professionalism and expert knowledge. If he did retire, which he says he isn't, he would be hard to replace.
 
The "freeze" on factory letters may or may not be, all I know is I sent $50 to Smith & Wesson about two weeks ago and my check was cashed which, in my opinion, means Roy has another one to research. :)
 
bobbyz said:
The "freeze" on factory letters may or may not be, all I know is I sent $50 to Smith & Wesson about two weeks ago and my check was cashed which, in my opinion, means Roy has another one to research. :)
Click to expand...

Well, there is an old German saying that nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked. I doubt they'll waste money on postage to send checks back only to get them back three months from now. I'm sure your request just went to the bottom of the pile, and Roy will get to it when he gets to it. The website announcement just deprives you of the right to complain if it takes longer than you like ;).
 
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