Shield Plus Potential Issue?

[ShallNotBeInfringed]

It's incomprehensible that it's gotten this far. At this point, the word incompetence is the only word that seems appropriate, and at Smith & Wesson there's multiple layers of incompetence stacked on top of each other....

That's incompetence, laziness, and negligence. This thread leaves me very black-pilled about S&W's currenrmt repairs and repair-technicians (they sure as heck ain't gunsmiths).

I am not optimistic about my firearm's service now. Agter the two returns I've head both have gone sidewYs and required multiple shipments to their "repair" center.

Why is the Thompson/S&W repair center's work now so shoddy?

I am sorry you had to go through all this... now I actually hope they do realize that I can easily make my private YouTube videos of my issue public (after reading this and watching the other 2023-shield buyer's video, I sincerely regret changing my mind about stating explicitly I would post the video if they screw up the repair)

If I receive back my gun back in anything but full working order - the video IS going up. AndI will add context, narration, Graphics. Etc, and will definitely include your story as well (if I have your your permission. Likewise the story of the other YouTube video from my post will be linked to and incuded partially in my video - he is yet another person having INEXCUSABLE problems and "service" performed on his Shield Plus variant.

Hopefully I get mine back in perfect working order and unblemished, but time will tell - and with what I am hearing, I'm anything but optimistic.

 

[ShallNotBeInfringed]

I got ahold of a friend's Shield Plus PC 3.1", the same model as mine, and my suspicion about the trigger bar and sear engagement appears to be confirmed.

So as to not provoke certain forum members, the yellow sear disconnect lever was used during takedown

When I look down the back of each frame, while the trigger is depressed, the back of the sear sits higher in my Shield Plus, and his sits lower, like in my Shield 2.0 PC.

As shown in the photos below, in my friend's Shield Plus, the trigger bar is fully engaging the sear with almost the entire face of the bar, just like in my Shield 2.0. In my Shield Plus, only the edge of the trigger bar is hitting the sear, and that edge is worn down.

The trigger bar design incorporates a loop that bends back around in order to create the face that hits the sear. In my Shield Plus, that loop sits noticeably closer to the body of the trigger bar than it does in my Shield 2.0 and my friend's Shield Plus.

Despite my issue, this troubleshooting process has given me an appreciation for the internal design of the M&P Shield. Despite being misaligned and digesting a shaving of metal, it's still a functional gun. The open design and the simplicity of the trigger bar may be a stoke of genius. It appears to be the reason why the Shield runs so reliably, as expected with a M&P, despite dirt, fowling, rust, etc.

My bar-alligment was just like yours, only worse: my trigger-bar was so far towards the side of the frame, that it barely had any engagement with the sear; so much so that it "clicked" past the sear instead of engaging it and dropping it when Ibpulled the trigger (the bar also easily drifted left and right with minimal force applied to it).

Thus, instead of the bar relasing the striker by engaging and lowering the sear, it clicked past it to the side of the sear... unless i pushed with a sideways force in the trigger to pull it closer to the sear.

I could reproduce the problem/sound woth the slide removed by putting my finger lightly on the sear and pulling the trigger - when I pulled the trigger it would simply snap past the sear instead of pushing on it to release striker

I pray that this is fixed when I get mine back.

 

[CouchPotato]

I got my Shield Plus back in mid December and after a month of testing it appears to be fixed.

I was unable to get the exact details on what they fixed in order to allow the striker and plunger to reset on their own.

I actually ended up having another customer service issue and as a result I had a large episode about it which caused them to send me some free stuff.

Here's that drama if you're interested:

Due to not being home for a week just before my repairs were completed, I called them to put a hold on shipping it. A week later I called back and learned the repairs were completed and was told when it would ship.

When it didn't ship out, the next week I called back to follow up and encountered a female customer service rep who had a massive attitude problem. From the onset of the conversation she had a tone and seemed annoyed that I would expect it to ship when I was told it would ship. She refused to provide her name, refused to reach out to the shipping department, and she refused to get a supervisor. After she raised her voice I raised mine, the call devolved, and eventually she dumped me into a voicemail.

That was the last straw, I had completely lost my patience with them, and expected to be compensated due to all of my time they've wasted, especially the time I've missed from work sending and receiving the gun back and forth over and over.

I called back and got the head of their customer service department on the phone, I've spoken with him before. I explained the situation I just had with the female customer service rep and then I reminded him of every single issue I've had with them throughout this whole debacle.

Because I know exactly how a call center should be run, which fundamentally is what his department is, I dove into his operational details and identified exactly why his department is not able to ensure good customer service.

Basically S&W completely relies on "team leads" to coach the other customer service reps and ultimately take over a call if it goes bad. I gave him some egregious examples, with names, of where no one stepped in on the call, especially the prior incident with Frank where the call devolved into an extended shouting match, no one took over the call, and ultimately Frank hung up.

I made it clear to him that all of his team leads aren't doing their jobs and aren't ensuring good customer service. Furthermore, S&W doesn't monitor or record phone calls for quality assurance. Having team leads that actually did their jobs would go a long way, but recording the calls would allow the company to be sure everyone is doing their jobs. I explained that there's no accountability in their customer service department.

When I was younger, I had some experience managing a call center, and I explained what accountability looks like.... specifically when a rep is on a call and raising their voice like that, I'd come over, physically take the phone away, mute the call, direct them to go sit in a side office, and then complete the call at their desk in front of everyone. After that I'd deal with the rep who got stuffed in the side office. Once you do that a couple times, you really don't have customer service problems after that, especially if people get fired.

Anyway...

After a bit of back and forth on a few points, he eventually offered me a full refund on my Shield Plus but then they'd be keeping the gun. I pointed out all of the OEM magazines I purchased and he offered a refund for those too. Then I detailed the $400+ worth of holsters that I've purchased however he wasn't willing to compensate me for those... as a result we had no deal.

He then offered me some S&W merch which consisted of shirts and hats along with their knives and flashlights...

I pointed out that I already planned to throw away the S&W branded clothing I had previously purchased and there was no way I'd be advertising their brand. Furthermore, I reminded him of the dollar value of the refund he just offered me and pointed out the dozens of dollars the merch was worth.

After a lot of back and forth, ultimately he caused my Shield Plus to ship that same day, he also sent me the optics ready slide, a new barrel, a tritium front sight, 5 magazines, and pinky extensions for the 10-round mags.

I'm content with that. Unless there's another problem with an item I purchased, I consider the matter to be closed.

 

[jeff jilek]

shield plus build questions

Hi all. my first post here in over a decade. I picked up a stripped shield plus lower, $20. I've got a shield .40 kit , $129, just arrived. is it worth to build and try to use a 9mag to feed .r0, buy a used barrel in 9mm or return the parts kit?

 

[gunny4053]

Hi all. my first post here in over a decade. I picked up a stripped shield plus lower, $20. I've got a shield .40 kit , $129, just arrived. is it worth to build and try to use a 9mag to feed .r0, buy a used barrel in 9mm or return the parts kit?

First, welcome. Second, not cool piggy backing on someone else's thread. You can start one of your own and will likely get more responses about your particular question. Shoot safe.

 

[Well Armed]

I got my Shield Plus back in mid December and after a month of testing it appears to be fixed.

I was unable to get the exact details on what they fixed in order to allow the striker and plunger to reset on their own.

I actually ended up having another customer service issue and as a result I had a large episode about it which caused them to send me some free stuff.

Here's that drama if you're interested:

Due to not being home for a week just before my repairs were completed, I called them to put a hold on shipping it. A week later I called back and learned the repairs were completed and was told when it would ship.

When it didn't ship out, the next week I called back to follow up and encountered a female customer service rep who had a massive attitude problem. From the onset of the conversation she had a tone and seemed annoyed that I would expect it to ship when I was told it would ship. She refused to provide her name, refused to reach out to the shipping department, and she refused to get a supervisor. After she raised her voice I raised mine, the call devolved, and eventually she dumped me into a voicemail.

That was the last straw, I had completely lost my patience with them, and expected to be compensated due to all of my time they've wasted, especially the time I've missed from work sending and receiving the gun back and forth over and over.

I called back and got the head of their customer service department on the phone, I've spoken with him before. I explained the situation I just had with the female customer service rep and then I reminded him of every single issue I've had with them throughout this whole debacle.

Because I know exactly how a call center should be run, which fundamentally is what his department is, I dove into his operational details and identified exactly why his department is not able to ensure good customer service.

Basically S&W completely relies on "team leads" to coach the other customer service reps and ultimately take over a call if it goes bad. I gave him some egregious examples, with names, of where no one stepped in on the call, especially the prior incident with Frank where the call devolved into an extended shouting match, no one took over the call, and ultimately Frank hung up.

I made it clear to him that all of his team leads aren't doing their jobs and aren't ensuring good customer service. Furthermore, S&W doesn't monitor or record phone calls for quality assurance. Having team leads that actually did their jobs would go a long way, but recording the calls would allow the company to be sure everyone is doing their jobs. I explained that there's no accountability in their customer service department.

When I was younger, I had some experience managing a call center, and I explained what accountability looks like.... specifically when a rep is on a call and raising their voice like that, I'd come over, physically take the phone away, mute the call, direct them to go sit in a side office, and then complete the call at their desk in front of everyone. After that I'd deal with the rep who got stuffed in the side office. Once you do that a couple times, you really don't have customer service problems after that, especially if people get fired.

Anyway...

After a bit of back and forth on a few points, he eventually offered me a full refund on my Shield Plus but then they'd be keeping the gun. I pointed out all of the OEM magazines I purchased and he offered a refund for those too. Then I detailed the $400+ worth of holsters that I've purchased however he wasn't willing to compensate me for those... as a result we had no deal.

He then offered me some S&W merch which consisted of shirts and hats along with their knives and flashlights...

I pointed out that I already planned to throw away the S&W branded clothing I had previously purchased and there was no way I'd be advertising their brand. Furthermore, I reminded him of the dollar value of the refund he just offered me and pointed out the dozens of dollars the merch was worth.

After a lot of back and forth, ultimately he caused my Shield Plus to ship that same day, he also sent me the optics ready slide, a new barrel, a tritium front sight, 5 magazines, and pinky extensions for the 10-round mags.

I'm content with that. Unless there's another problem with an item I purchased, I consider the matter to be closed.

You ever heard of a "bridezilla?" You remind me of a "customerzilla." You seem like the type to always find something wrong, always have something to complain about, and are never happy.

I'm sure you'll find something else wrong when your gun come in.

 

[CouchPotato]

You ever heard of a "bridezilla?" You remind me of a "customerzilla." You seem like the type to always find something wrong, always have something to complain about, and are never happy.

I'm sure you'll find something else wrong when your gun come in.

Looks like you didn't read the post, and like normal you jump in and want to argue like an idiot.

 

[Well Armed]

Looks like you didn't read the post, and like normal you jump in and want to argue like an idiot.

I don't think anyone reads your rants/novels anymore. Just being honest.

 

[CouchPotato]

I don't think anyone reads your rants/novels anymore. Just being honest.

Because you have difficulty seeing the perspective of others, I dont care what your uninformed opinions are or how annoyed you are with the length of my posts. No one made you read it.

No doubt others who are having problems like I did will read the thread, they'll want to know what the outcome was and how I got there.

With forum posts, Google picks up the thread easily and ranks the search result highly if relevant. The details and length helps with the ranking in the search result. Presently, my threads here and in another forum are the #1 and #4 search result for the query M&P Shield Plus Problems.

Because others who have had similar experiences with S&W have reached out to me, I know exactly what S&W did for them, which is significantly less (by a lot) than what was given to me.

Going forward, people who experience a string of defects, repair mistakes, product damage, and customer service failures will know that they don't have to settle for some cheap merch. More is possible and they definitely deserve more.

In terms of being customer-zilla... you have no idea. Honestly, I was just getting warmed up. Thankfully, the customer service supervisor made things right and my Shield Plus was fixed this time.

People who roll over and quietly dissappear are the exact people who enable companies to treat customers like garbage.

 

[metroplex]

I used a flat head screwdriver to gently bend the "candy cane" out towards the sear on my new Shield Plus. The first I noticed was it wasn't quite aligned with the sear engagement so only part of the sear was being contacted by the candy cane. I was trying to figure out why my Shield Plus OR was jittering left when the striker was released and came across this (I think I figured out how to mitigate the jittering and its with more off-hand/support hand grip pressure specifically at the front of the receiver).

So out of the box the non-PC flat trigger was 4.75 lb, and with some cleaning and dry firing, it was down to 4.5 lb. With the candy cane aligned, its now 4 lb.

While it matches the weight of my M&P 2.0 OR flat-trigger, it is neither as crisp nor clean. On the M&P 2.0 full sized (non-PC), the sight picture and slide remains stable. On the Shield Plus it feels like I have to overcome some kind of wall to release the striker even though it is the same 4 lb, and causes the sight picture to jitter left - same with using a red dot (which shows it better than the irons).

I am thinking of using a PC sear to see if it will help. Thought of trying the Apex as well.

 

[J a s o n]

S&W plus misfires

I have a S&W plus 4" barrel. It misfires constantly, had the roll pins walking out on it. it took a couple fixes for them to get the roll pins to stay in! Currently, I have sent it in four times and it is still misfiring. I bought this gun at the end of December 2023. At what point do they replace the gun or do you just always deal with a problem? They have replaced a firing pen and the trigger that I know of. At this point, I am wondering if it's a design flaw or something was manufactured wrong