I was reading a thread on the Classifieds yesterday, and it got me to thinking. What sporting goods companies have you had good customer service experiences with? And which ones not so good? I'll start it with one of each. 1st, I bought a used Buck 124 with cracked scales. It was over 20 years old, and had been beat the crap out of. I sent it off to Buck to have them repair it, fully intending to pay for the service. They put new scales on it, polished & sharpened the blade, and sent it back looking darn near brand new. My charge? The $7 it cost me to ship it to them. An experience with Thompson Center (Smith & Wesson) still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I sent in a defective 45 caliber Hawken barrel for repair/replacement under their lifetime warranty. They gave me the runaround for 4 months, before I finally got them to agree to just send me another barrel. They finally did, though they sent me a 30 year old used 50 caliber barrel. It was in decent condition, but nowhere near the condition of the one I sent them. After 4 months, I considered myself lucky, and kept it.
Buck is beyond good.. Love midsouth shooter supply for their friendly service. Also had a very pleasant experience dealing with a product issue at DIP, after receiving my 25 MOA rail for an Annie 54.
The good:
Leupold, Burris, Ruger, RCBS
The bad:
Weatherby, Bushnell,
Good: Leupy, Swaro, Meopta, RCBS, Nosler, Cabelas
Bad: Nikon, Leica, Midway USA
Good: Leupold, RCBS, SOG (only 1 dealing but it was great) Ruger, Cabelas, Case knives
Bad: Bushnell
Good: Ruger (good to great), Leupold, RCBS (great)
Not so good: Remington
***Good***
Leupold.
FoxPro.
Any ATK subsidiary.
***********BAD***********
Nikon CS is deplorable. They took me for $10k once years ago. I'll not own another Nikon product after that ride.
Wenger Swiss Army Watch. I bought one and the movement went bad and the watch doesn't work at all. Still in warranty... But because I had taken it to a jewelry store and had them replace the battery, (Because that is generally how watches quit working) they would not honor the warranty. They told me every time I needed the battery replaced, I had to ship the entire watch to New York.
Fug them.
I have not had to resort to customer service often. Whether that is just good luck, I don't know.
Some good experiences were with
Bass Pro
Midway USA
RCBS
CameraLandNY
REI
Eureka Tents
Great:
Smith and Wesson
Ruger
Marlin
IT&D
REI
Big Agnes
Leupold
McMillan
Redding
Backcountry.com
Campmor
Schitty:
Colt
Steiner
Weaver
RCBS
Travis
Should have said "IME". Forgot about your deal.
Dillon, RCBS, Dardas Cast Bullets, Bass Pro is better than Cabelas
Better than Great:
Schnees (World Class company!)
Great:
Leupold
Cabelas
MidwayUSA
I have been lucky in that I have never had really bad service from a sporting goods company. Dont get me started on a previous mortgage company though.
Good:
Cabelas
LL Bean
Weber
Yeti
RCBS has always been stellar when I dealt with them. Savage was great.
Columbia outwear - Bar none they are right up there with some Cabelas experiences I had in the 90's.
They replaced my rain gear that leaked and gave me many options to choose from for new gear at no cost (except my return postage to them.)
I'm a columbia customer for life.
I haven't had to use to many of them but the few I did were excellent.
Cabelas
Swarovski (the best IMO)
I'm sorta in Sam's camp, haven't had to use CS very much
but Zeiss has been very good to me
never needed Leupy CS, but good to hear the favorable reports if I do
Primary Arms
Cabelas (Boise, ID)
Best I ever had was Ruger. I broke the stock on an eight year old Red Label. Web site said 250.00 + fitting cost. I called and explained what had happened. The gal said 35.00 for fitting but they just might warranty it. No promises but send it in and we'll see. Two weeks later my action showed up wearing a new stock accompanied buy a bill for N/C.
A couple more that stand out was Midway replacing a 10+ year old brass tumbler and Knives Of Alaska going way beyond what I expected on a fairly minor problem.
Most of my experiences were good although I'll stop strangers on the street to tell em not to buy Burris products. Worst CS I ever experienced.
Great:
Smith & Wesson
Sierra Designs
Leupold
Swarovski
McMillan
Redding
Buck
REI
Dillon
Mountain Hardwear
Rifles and Recipes
Sux:
DPMS
Cabela's
RCBS
UPS
FedEx
Bob
RCBS, A.G. Russell, and Ruger all have been superb with me.
Another one is Cabelas. The kids gave me some Cabelas soft side luggage for Christmas many years ago. I had the luggage for about 3 years when one piece was broken on a trip to Eastern Europe (one roller was gone and the base cracked). I called the Cabelas in Buda, TX to ask about where to send it for repair. The CS person told me to "bring in the biggest hunk I had left" of the broken piece of luggage. I did and they gave made a new one.
I know Jorge had a bad experience with them but they have been great with me.
Good:
Midway USA
RCBS
Ruger
Cabelas
Leupold
Poor:
S&W
CZ
Simmons
Worst Ever:
Remington
Vortex Optics has excellent CS. RCBS has also been great. Lee Reloading also has been excellent.
I bought a Vortex Sparc red dot from the farm and barn store.it had the basics attached but they could not find the box with all the extras. I called Vortex asked what it would cost to get the extra mounts, batteries, handbook etc. They sent it for free.
Lee reloading is about 30 miles from me. I took an OLD Load master to get refurbished. I full expected to pay for it. I gave them my info and about 2 weeks later it's at my door. No charge.
Bill
Made in America counts high in my books too.
savage - had to send my model 93 in cause it quit shooting.
they paid postage both ways and sent it back with an extra mag.
The Great:
Vortex: needed a lens cover for a spotting scope, sent one free.
RCBS: needed set screws for a set of dies, sent them of free.
Hornady: needed parts for a press, sent them for free.
Burris: had a scope that became cloudy, fixed it for free, they paid shipping back to me.
Leupold: had turrets installed on 4 scopes, I had the scopes back 10 days later.
Do All Outdoors: Purchased a automatic trap, I've had several issues over the last 8 years with it, but they always sent parts or a replacement trap free of charge, even this many years later.
Cabelas: ordered some nosler 338 lapua brass that was sticking in my chamber, they refunded part of the purchase price. They have always went above and beyond with what ever I needed.
Nosler: Had issues with some 338 Lapua brass, they had me send them a couple pieces so they could measure them. Sent me 2 new boxes of brass in return.
Black Hills Ammo: Had a factory round that blew a pinhole in the primmer, they sent a new box of ammo.
The not as good CS:
Leica: The rubber objective covers on my geovids tore in too. They sent me a free pair, but with a little hassle. I also asked how much for them to just check them over a do a general cleaning. The quote was $450-$500, I thought that was excessive.
The Bad:
Moultrie: I had a trail camera that a bear attacked, It still worked but needed the smoke colored cover over the motion sensor. Told the CS rep what I needed he said he couldn't sell it to me. I asked how much it would be to repair it, he couldn't tell me. I asked how long it would take to fix it, he couldn't tell me. He was friendly but of no help.
Talley. Never had a problem with any defective or broken products, but they have really impressed me with their willingness to help you with a fitment, clearance or any other issue. A little over a year ago I was having a hard time getting the exact results I wanted mounting a Monarch on a PF Mod.70 L/A .243 and when the guy at Talley noticed I only lived about 90 miles away from their plant, he told me if I would ride up there, he WOULD make it work. Turned out what I needed was an extended ring and for it to be tweaked a little, which he did for me while I waited and gave me the ring. Also Ruger has, and continues to give exceptional c/s but I've noticed that the outfit (Service Group Inc.) that they use for their technical help lines is not as efficient and knowledgable of the product line as when you used to just talk to an in-house Ruger employee.
In my experience:
Good
-RCBS (send me parts free even when I tell them it was my fault)
-Redding (See above)
-Leupold (Clean and service old scopes quickly)
-Burris (See above)
-Springfield Armory (Completely fixed and improved a 1911 in 10 days)
-Midway (refunded me full purchase price on mil-surp ammo that wouldn't consistently fire and told me to keep the ammo anyway)
Ok
-Ruger (a 77 scope ring cracked with no abuse. A closeup photo was not good enough. "Send it to us at your cost for evaluation and we might replace it". They did but made me feel like they were doing me a favor. Did the same to my Dad on a new SP101 with a barrel that had terrible rifling)
Poor
-Lyman (A mold that dropped .004 undersize was "within our specs and should work fine". It doesn't of course unless you like extreme leading and poor accuracy)
A lot can be said not just by what they do but how they go about it. Ruger replaced my rings but made me feel like it was a big inconvenience and it was probably my fault. Springfield Armory asked me for a list of the things that weren't right with a 1911 and fixed them all quickly with no questions asked.
Worst customer service I've had in a long time was from Seiko on a watch that was defective from the get go.
Leupold and RCBS for the best.
All the others are way behind.
Steve
Zeiss-USA. I called for some replacement eye cups and rain guard for my [discontinued in 2004] 7x42 B/GA Classic binocular. I was asked for my name and mailing address. When I began: "My credit card number . . . ", I was told there would be no charge - that is, no cost for the rubber and no cost for shipping.
Move over RCBS.
My experience.
Good
Cabelas
Ruger
S&W
Remington
RCBS
Hornady
Talley
Leupold
Burris
Bad
Montana Gun Slings and Davis Tent and Awning are awesome!
American Airlines got me back from Syracuse to Chiraq last Xmas time after spending over an hour with the c/s getting me on flights after my original flight was canceled. Lesson learned. Don't fly through Chiraq and pay a little more on Delta through Detroit.
Good:
Trijicon
Acceptable:
Ruger.
I own a lot of Leopold stuff, but I've never needed their customer service, which is the way I like things....
A+ Gunsinternational- awesome, call up and some gent or lady will chat you up about the guns you are selling and spend any amount of time helping you figure out the sight or overcome a technical issue
F- Gunbroker- Doesn't even have a phone number for customer service...email replies are a joke...seriously, pray you never need them to resolve an issue, oh and you have to pay $15 to get an itemized invoice, otherwise they just charge you X amount and you have no idea what it's for.
The lowest possible rating for Kellam Knives. I can feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about them. I purchased a brand new knife and it arrived with a sizeable crack. I sent photos and a polite email to the company, received this response:
"It looks like this knife was in water and not taken care of. This is not a defect of workmanship.
You may still use this knife effectively and it will perform well. "
All my replys to this email were never answered so I called the company phone number and a woman answered "hello", I was like, is this the Kellam knife company "yes" after a few round of this it turns out it was the same woman who answered my email. I asked to speak to anyone else - anyone at all will do and she hung up on me. I threw the knife away.
A+++ USAA- if you qualify and aren't using them, you just have no idea what you're missing. I won't go into details so as not to make those not eligible envious.
Excellent:
Leupold
CZ USA
Vortex
Cabela's (but this was over 5 years ago)
Sig Sauer
Ruger
CameraLandNY
Companies I won't deal with again:
Minox
I run a one-man customer service department for a software/big data company for traffic info and a lot of other car/travel related stuff.
I know good CS because I provide it on a daily basis. For a free smartphone app no less. I mean, back in February some guy wrote in asking a question about how his phone worked with regard to storage of our app external to the normal OS (not something we support/test for) but we got it working for him. Recognized his last name from a Google Play review he left last week so I pulled his ticket and asked him for his address. Just this morning I got a message about how happy he was with not just his t-shirt and goodies I sent, but our (my) customer service and follow-through. Good customer service, regardless of the quality of the product or cost, goes a really, really long ways. Would you ever expect some free stuff for leaving a nice review on the internet for a free product?
Very good experience with both Leupold(repair) and CZ(accessories).