Poor Customer Service options '06 M&P 9mm

[SteadyHand]

I have to rant S&W isn't your father's S&W anymore. I sent in a 2006 model M&P FS9 for trigger grit evaluation/repair. Feels like it came out of a bag of children's play sand. Received it back today with a note that the trigger was 'repaired.'

Side note: even though it's a 'lifetime' warranty, I provided Credit Card details with a signed note of willingness (and eagerness) for S&W to replace trigger assembly parts with current M&P issue parts, no matter the cost, I was happy to pay.

A consensus in the house here is that they didn't do anything to the trigger. I called S&W CS. CS claims the old '06 models can't accept the new sear housing, and that S&W doesn't 'upgrade' pistols, even if the customer pays for the parts/labor. They simply won't do it. I begged them. They said no. I begged a manager, he said no and suggested I send it to an aftermarket smith.

I know I'm a small bucket of water in an ocean of S&W customers - but I have to say I'm done with S&W - I'll sell this cheap and not have another, ever. This isn't the company I once knew. Heartbreaking. I'm sure a renewed lifetime of badmouthing S&W will make me feel a bit better. Tacky guilt aside, I probably will simply take my grandma's advice "...if you don't have anything nice to say,....." and keep quiet (except this post).

 

[hardluk1]

Use to be there were many highly skilled people working with all firearm companies . Today there a few fairly highly skill people there and lots of people to install parts and if not a current product have no idea about whats what . Sort of like the tire change guy at a auto dealer or oil change guy . They not mechanics .

Your best bet since your willing to pay as contact Apex Tactical and ask them if they can cover your needs and do the upgrades yourself .

 

[Rick_A]

Policies are policies.

Stock triggers are unremarkable...even the good ones and especially not the old style.

Can you imagine the workload if they started upgrading all those old guns out there?

There's an aftermarket for a reason.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Policies are policies.

Stock triggers are unremarkable...even the good ones and especially not the old style.

Can you imagine the workload if they started upgrading all those old guns out there?

There's an aftermarket for a reason.

Amen to that.

If I stopped using products from companies I've had a disagreement with, I would have no water, no gas, no electricity, no car, no food.........

 

[shawn mccarver]

"Poor Customer Service options '06 M&P 9mm"

One option to S&W's poor customer service on its '06 M&P 9mm is to try customer service at Taurus, SIG Sauer or HK. . . .

 

[427mach1]

Your best bet since your willing to pay as contact Apex Tactical and ask them if they can cover your needs and do the upgrades yourself .

Apex will no longer modify existing housings to accept the larger sear plunger and spring. You can either purchase a later model sear housing block (check G & R Tactical) or modify it yourself. If you modify it yourself, you still have to find the larger spring and plunger.

 

[swsig]

You want yer good customer service? I've got yer good customer service right here: It's spelled R-U-G-E-R.

A few months ago, my 40 year old Ruger Standard developed serious FTE problems. I noticed that it had a slightly loose ejector. I sent it to Ruger and asked them to take a look at it. They replaced both the ejector (gunsmithing required), and the extractor mechanism for free, and paid for the return shipping. Turnaround time was a little over a week.

Now that's customer service!

 

[Rastoff]

Hmmm, I had a problem with a S&W gun once. I called them and they sent me a free shipping label. I shipped them my gun and got it back two weeks later, fixed. They paid for shipping both ways. I guess they're better than Ruger, huh?

I'll bet there's nothing wrong with your M&P. The "grit" you're referring to is just the slack. Proper trigger control will fix that issue. I've found the actual sear in every M&P I've held or used to be quite crisp and fairly creep free. Definitely too much over travel though.

 

[GKC]

Even a company with an overall excellent service record can fail to satisfy an individual customer...sometimes the customer is too demanding, sometimes the company doesn't do all it should, or sometimes it's a little of both.

As Shawn McCarver said, just try a few other companies (in my experience, Kimber, Taurus, and Beretta) and you will really appreciate S&W. I've owned a lot of guns, from a lot of manufacturers, and the hands down best service I've gotten is from S&W, Ruger, Springfield, and Armscor.

I have had an issue with S&W...several years ago, when they were offering the two magazines or $50 with an M&P purchase, I bought four (4) of them, so I submitted my forms for eight (8) magazines. It took over a year for me to get my magazines, due to various errors, delays, out of stock, etc. I finally did get them, plus two more for my inconvenience. Still, when it comes to actual problems with the guns...no issues whatsoever with S&W's service.

 

[Wishoot]

I've had pretty good luck with S&W's customer service in the past, but the issues have been pretty minor.

I have my very new M&P9 in S&W's shop right now and I'm hopeful they can fix this issue. We'll see....

 

[MichiganScott]

I'll bet there's nothing wrong with your M&P. The "grit" you're referring to is just the slack. Proper trigger control will fix that issue. I've found the actual sear in every M&P I've held or used to be quite crisp and fairly creep free. Definitely too much over travel though.

I started shooting S&W revolvers in 1974 and was trained to shoot them DA. Maybe it's just that I have put several hundred thousand rounds downrange DA, but I have never noticed the creep, grit, etc., that so many shooters complain about when they discuss M&P triggers..

FWIW, when I called Ford Motors the other days and asked them to update my 2006 truck to 2016 standards on my dime and was told to go buy a 2016 truck if I wanted 2016 standards. I'll never buy another Ford.

 

[rsrocket1]

I think the problem with the OP's request is that he is asking S&W for gunsmithing services and not for repairing a faulty firearm. I could ask Ruger, S&W, Glock or any other company to modify my already "in spec" gun and wouldn't be surprised to get a negative reply.

I would recommend the OP look for a gunsmith to do the mods for him for a fee of course (he was willing to pay anyway). G&R does sell the new trigger and sear housing with the larger spring. The downside is that you will have to wait for availability and place a $50+ order. Contact them first because it seems as if S&W is no longer selling parts that "require gunsmithing skills to install". Apex used to modify or exchange sear housing blocks, but it looks like they don't do that anymore either.

Anyway, I'll try to help you out if you are willing. The "grit" in the trigger pull has nothing to do with the size of the sear housing block spring. It is one of 2 things. The striker block is a radiused dome and as the trigger pushes it up, if the dome isn't smooth, it feels "gritty". Lots of trigger pulling (dry firing or simply shooting) will smooth it up. You can also remove the striker block and polish it up if you follow the Burwell pdf. Page 35 shows the relationship between the stock block and trigger bar.

This is what a striker block with 20,000 rounds looks like vs an Apex Ultimate Striker Block from the FSS trigger kit. Notice the smooth radius on the Apex striker block.

Now my 2011 M&P40 had just a slight amount of grit in the trigger pull when I bought it, but within a few thousand rounds, it was completely gone.

The bad news for someone without "gunsmithing" skills is that you have to remove the rear sight to get to the striker block. I had none before buying this gun and learned how to completely take apart the M&P as well as install the Apex FSS trigger kit on my own. It wasn't difficult for me to learn, then again I just replaced the axles of my Honda Odyssey last weekend with no more knowledge than reading forums and watching Youtube so YMMV.

Another potential source of "grittiness" could possibly come from burs left over from the machining process of the in the striker block channel.

The good news for you is that you can probably see if the grit in your trigger pull can be fixed by simply field stripping your gun and looking/feeling the striker block. If the striker block has sharp edges, that's probably where your "grit" comes from. If you push the striker block in manually and feel "grit", then you need to get rid of the machining burrs.

Eventually, both will smooth out so you really don't need to do anything more than shoot a lot or dry fire a lot.

A modified sear can reduce the trigger pull weight and the new Apex sear will help, but you need the new housing block with the larger spring for that. That's another story.

Hope that helps

 

[catcus-jack]

Sell it or give it away and buy a Sig P 320 it is good to go right out of the box.It has a trigger that shows just how crappy the M&P and Glock triggers really are.It is very accurate no need for aftermarket barrels or triggers.Use the money you save making the M&P shootable and buy more ammo for the P 320.Try one you won"t look back.

 

[Rick_A]

You want yer good customer service? I've got yer good customer service right here: It's spelled R-U-G-E-R.

A few months ago, my 40 year old Ruger Standard developed serious FTE problems. I noticed that it had a slightly loose ejector. I sent it to Ruger and asked them to take a look at it. They replaced both the ejector (gunsmithing required), and the extractor mechanism for free, and paid for the return shipping. Turnaround time was a little over a week.

Now that's customer service!

Most manufacturers are happy to fix stuff that's broken if there's still parts around to fix it.

Warranty departments will not modify parts or do custom work because you don't like it. There's custom shops for that. S&W has a Performance Center that can do upgrades as well, though in this case folks tend to prefer the aftermarket triggers.

 

[wingriderz]

Use to be there were many highly skilled people working with all firearm companies . Today there a few fairly highly skill people there and lots of people to install parts and if not a current product have no idea about whats what . Sort of like the tire change guy at a auto dealer or oil change guy . They not mechanics .

Your best bet since your willing to pay as contact Apex Tactical and ask them if they can cover your needs and do the upgrades yourself .

Best of luck to you on you gun issue. As far as cars that's. A huge. Issue.best advice. After 30 years on it stay at dealer. And still no guarantee you'll. Be ok . Stay away. From all the muffler brake stores . Owners are out to pick. Your pocket with un trained imbeciles.

 

[Fastbolt]

Some thoughts.

They probably checked the gun and put it within acceptable spec for its production vintage, parts-wise. That essentially means a M&P9 with a trigger that falls within the 6.5 lbs, +/- 2 lbs range. Some smoothness will occur with normal use.

Yes, the newer sear housing blocks have a slightly different outside shape and won't fit inside the earlier production frames (for which they can still order older SHB's for repair use).

If you want to spend the money, the Performance Center lists a M&P pistol package, which includes using their PC sear (now used in current production M&P's). Having them do the work, instead of an outside smith, probably means not adversely affecting your limited lifetime factory warranty.
http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/...4_750001_750051_775657_-1_757896_757896_image

 

[Scopes]

Doesn't this have to do with legalities, (aka, getting sued by a customer or victim), more than anything else? I think that is what S&W and everyone else has been forced to succumb to.

 

[Saudade]

Uh. 2006?? Did you buy this used? S&W offers warranty to the "original purchaser".

 

[SteadyHand]

Uh. 2006?? Did you buy this used? S&W offers warranty to the "original purchaser".

Nope. Bought it new, and I'm a federal LEO, so one would assume I would be in their bailiwick for customers....

I'm turned off by their unwillingness to upgrade within the same production era. The 2006 to 2015 M&Ps are not from a 'different' generation ala Glock or even H&K (e.g., USP vs. P30 vs. VP9), so the innards can be swapped out, and I steadfastly offered to pay for any such parts/labor. They simply refused and generically referred me to any private gunsmith, knowing it would void such warranty.

 

[Llando88]

Nope. Bought it new, and I'm a federal LEO, so one would assume I would be in their bailiwick for customers....

I'm turned off by their unwillingness to upgrade within the same production era. The 2006 to 2015 M&Ps are not from a 'different' generation ala Glock or even H&K (e.g., USP vs. P30 vs. VP9), so the innards can be swapped out, and I steadfastly offered to pay for any such parts/labor. They simply refused and generically referred me to any private gunsmith, knowing it would void such warranty.

With respect, I can understand S&W's position.

They warrant the pistol to work according to the original specifications for the lifetime of the pistol.

They have made a business decision not to offer "upgrade" services, for which they (rightly) referred you to a local gunsmith.

The fact you don't like that does not mean they have to do what you want, nor are they wrong.