It is a shame to see a great company slide so far downhill.
I had reason to use their customer service to fix a rifle I had screwed up back in the early 80's and they were reasonably fast, did the work well and charged me a fair amount. Bought a left hand FS stock from their parts dept. in the late 90's, turns out the guy I talked to lived about four houses down from me from when I used to live near Ilion so he gave me a greatly discounted price on it.
Bought a LH M700 in the early 2000's and it was a total f-up in fit and finish. Sent it back with a nice letter pointing out the numerous things wrong, they exchanged it for an entirely new rifle which is excellent in every way and as it turns out is one of the most accurate out of the box M700's I've ever owned.
Not any more.
They used to rebarrel their rifles to the same caliber for a very reasonable fee but last time I called they wouldn't even do that, you had to buy a new barreled action. I've called inquiring about a couple of other things in the last few years and it sounds like the person I'm talking to doesn't know a barrel from a hole in the ground.
It is a shame.
