Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Long Rant about Fox Ridge & EABCO

I like the hi-luster finish. My wife knows this and has gotten me barrels from Fox Ridge as gifts in hi-luster.

I wanted a brake on my .358 (hi-luster). Fox Ridge does not offer the brake I wanted. E. Arthur Brown does.

Sent the barrel to EABCO. They installed the brake. Re-blued the barrel, BUT NOT in hi-luster. They send it back with a regular blue finish. I called them and asked what happened. The guy I spoke to didn�t even seem to know what a hi-luster finish was or why I was calling. Eventually he said to send it back and they�ll polish it. After that conversation I really didn�t feel like they were interested or even understood that I wanted the hi-luster finish.

Sent a different barrel to Fox Ridge for a muzzle tamer and the .358 to be re-finished AFTER calling them and asking if they could do this. They said they could re-finish the barrel but not the brake. I told the woman all I was interested in was getting the barrel back to the hi-luster finish. I wasn�t concerned if the brake was hi-luster or not. She said to send it in.
Fox Ridge has now called and said no to re-finishing the barrel. Tried several times and been unable to reach a manager named Roland. He doesn�t return calls either. Finally taked to a woman who said absolutely no to re-finish the barrel since a different shop had worked on the barrel. It voided the warranty. What warranty??? I told them I was going to PAY for the re-finish. Finally I told her to send it back.

Called EABCO. Explained what has happened. The woman I spoke to said that after installing a brake barrels were re-blued unless stainless. I asked why they didn�t do the hi-luster finish since that�s what I sent in. She then proceeded to tell me how they take great effort to install brakes straight on barrels. ??? Asked her again why no hi-luster finish. She gave the same reply. I asked again and she replied that they don�t do the hi-luster finish and besides nobody ever wants it. I asked her what would I get if I ordered a new barrel from them in hi-luster with a brake since they offer package �deals�. She didn�t know but said she would have some one call. Well no call. Big surprise.

What has happened to customer service?? What has happened to common sense?? What has happened to courtesy??
At the very least I should have received a call from EABCO explaining that I would loose the finish and ask if I still wanted the work done.
While Fox Ridge didn�t mess up my barrel they are unable to explain how paying for a re-finish affects a warranty.

Customer service at Fox Ridge and EABCO leave a lot to be desired in my opinion.

Call T/C for the heck of it and ask them about a reblue. Has been years ago since I've had to deal w/ thier customer svc, but they bent over backwards to take care of a stock issue.

I feel for you & can appreciate where you're coming from. Hope you can get it all sorted out to your satisfaction.

I would have a local 'smith polish and blue it. He will need a 1000 or 1200 wheel and you will be out the cost of another blue job.

I'm curious what exacctly is a 'hi-luster' finish. Is this just a high polsh blue or is it a special process. It's a new term to me and i'm curious.

It's TC's high gloss blue finish.

Call EABCO and ask for Eben. He's always done right by me... FWIW, Dutch.

Eben would be the man. Eben A Brown's Company (that's EABCO).

As much as high luster blue is a dead give away to game of your position and IMHO has no use in the field, a company should return the gun to you as it was recieved and if they cannot, should contact you before performing any work at that point. IMHO.

Good luck! And all the game out there thanks you for hunting with a signal mirror!

Jeff