S&W could do better

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audi403

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I bought a brand new 642 on Christmas eve last month, they had a good price and Smith had their wheelgun rebate that made it an even better deal. After the holiday I was cleaned it up and checked it out I see that firing pin is flopping in and out as I move the gun back and forth like there’s no spring holding it in the frame. I took the side plate off, took out the firing pin retainer pin out and popped out the firing pin and sure enough there is no spring. I called customer service when they opened back up on the 6th, no apology, no sorry for the trouble, nothing. I told the guy just send me the spring and I’ll take care of it.
Pretty surprised that it made it through quality control that way but the last time I bought a new J frame (637) the cylinder wouldn’t open on 3 of the 5 chambers and it had to go back to get repaired. Pretty much the same attitude last time as this time.
You’d think they’d want to get that spring out pretty quickly since it was a brand new gun and it’s saving them on shipping and labor to send it back for service but here we are 7 business days later and nothing.

I got this brand new cheaper than I could have picked one up used with shipping and FFL but I think this'll be my last new purchase.
 
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Well, revolvers arent cool anymore. Who cares about revolvers? Most assembling them probably know little about them, it was a Monday, or a Friday, or a Wednesday who knows.
Yes, S&W should absolutely do better. They already went to all the MIM, two peice barrels to make them cheaper to make so why wouldnt they hire cheap labor too. By the way, has anyone, ANYONE seen a reduction in the price of their new revolvers? Nor have I. Who is getting all of that saved money I wonder.
 
Nomadmax said:
It's a crying shame when a Taurus revolver is likely to be more reliable than a new production Smith.
Click to expand...

In reality, Taurus build quality and QC is 300 percent better now under new leadership that it has ever been....If I was not a Smithaholic I would have no trouble trusting the performance of Taurus nowdays
 
BillBro said:
Well, revolvers arent cool anymore. Who cares about revolvers? Most assembling them probably know little about them, it was a Monday, or a Friday, or a Wednesday who knows.
Yes, S&W should absolutely do better.
Click to expand...

Revolver are still cool, I think a lot depends on your age and perspective.

Yeah I get, it it's a spring, easily missed and still passed the function test so it made it out the door. Could've been a Monday or a Friday or any day in between but not giving two shi*s about customer service to me is still surprising.
 
I agree that S&W could do better. There is no excuse to charge customers boatloads of money for them to be testing guinea pigs. It took S&W two months to fix my brand new S&W 432UC. Check my post history for the issue, but it was severe enough that they just gave me a brand new replacement gun instead.
 
I’ve heard about their questionable QC more and more in recent years. My “newest” Smith was made in 1997 and I’m apprehensive to buy anything new from them but would love for that to change.
 
I don't understand why people still buy new smiths. It's no secret that quality control is non existent and customer service sucks.

I made this mistake once, never again.
 
I buy them because I prefer virgin guns. I don't want used firearms. If a new gun has problems, I will send it back over and over on their dime.
 
The last new Smith I purchased was the FPC when it came out and it had to go back because it didn't go bang...firing pin issue...so yeah they have problems.

I will say this about Taurus...I purchased the 856 Executive last year and I was impressed with what you get for $500. Fit and finish was great...nice pelican case...and it went bang. I only own one Taurus but its a good one.
 
BillBro said:
By the way, has anyone, ANYONE seen a reduction in the price of their new revolvers? Nor have I. Who is getting all of that saved money I wonder.
Click to expand...



There is no "saved money". :cool:

The price of steel is skyrocketing with no real end in sight. Just one example: I bought a boatload of Snap-On tools back in the mid-1980s. They were considered expensive then, they certainly were based on what I was making. About 4-5 years ago, I had to buy some more Snap-On tools. I kept all my old tool receipts & began looking at the price differences. It was both eye opening & insane.

Almost anything was 3-4 times as much. Didn't matter what it was: socket, wrench, ratchet, etc. All were way, way higher.

Heck, look at Jeeps. About 10 years ago, one could get a nice Wrangler with most of the bells & whistles (omitting lockers for the moment) in the upper $20Ks. Now, the same Jeep will be in the low-to-mid $40Ks.

Smith is not alone in their dilemma of soaring costs, obviously. But they also have absorbed the cost of moving a lot of their company to TN. No telling how much that ended up costing them, figuring the new bldg, land & moving costs.

I'm not smart enough to know how much of a revolver mfg Smith subs out to other mfgrs. But those shops also have rising costs & they want to keep their doors open & retain good people by paying them well. So their price(s) keeps going up as well.

Then you have the stockholders of S&W. They are most certainly wanting their stock dividends. They could give a fat rat's behind about leading the gun market, heritage or tradition. I'd bet that most stockholders are not gun people. Clearly, I don't know one way or another on this.

But if a stockholder gets a dividend of (let's say) $10 per share & then it drops to $5 per share due to whatever reasons. They're going to want to blame someone, so they put the heat on the Board of Directors, who in turn put heat on the CEO. First thing the CEO asks is, "Where can we cut costs?"

The answer to that is 1) Hire cheaper help. This almost always means said help is about 1/2 as good as the previous guy. 2) Change the gun design to save $$. Drop the pinned bbl? Done. Drop the recessed cylinder? Done. Use MIM parts? Done. Drop nice wood grips for cheap rubber ones? Done.

I'm not going to expound on the quality of work found in America these days. We all see it, feel it in the things we buy. Food, cars, appliances, doesn't matter what it is. We all experience the degradation of quality.

I won't pretend to know the mind of the guy who left the firing pin spring out. Maybe his dog just died? Maybe his wife just left him? Maybe he's just a snapperhead who does poor work?

I just wish the S&W CEO would be required to come in this forum & read some of the threads about his company. I believe it'd be an awakening. The sad part is, it wouldn't cost hardly anything (relatively speaking) to ramp up the QC efficiency, IMO.

My .o2
 
dben002 said:
In reality, Taurus build quality and QC is 300 percent better now under new leadership that it has ever been....If I was not a Smithaholic I would have no trouble trusting the performance of Taurus nowdays
Click to expand...

It's never been about the quality of a Taurus that held me back from them. It was about the accuracy.

A Korth or Janz isn't worth a bucket of spit if it's not accurate. Based on the Taurus I once owned & my late Dad's gun, they're no more accurate than a Ruger. And a Ruger is merely average in accuracy.

My .o2
 
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