Question about TVM woes,

[jdw276]

I wonder of those places hire apprentice builders and the older builders only do cursory inspections on their work. I can't imagine an experienced builder making so many mistakes on one rifle. Just gets me to thinking. My TVM came to me just the way I ordered it so I can't complain.

In this case one thing that does come into play, not justifying but impact was he received his rifle both times the week before the major events in the industry. First week of natl shoot in friendship and the cla show this last week. Trying to get product complete as promised to many folks, to show, to sell, to market your work, on and on makes for stressful times, late nights, long hours to get it done. All are factors that make mistakes happen. So what happens? Get called out on the internet, main two websites for your industry, both you are members of, impacting your reputation and standing in the business without the courtesy of a phone call or email.

Wonder if i could call SP's supervisor and complain without talking to him about his job performance. Wonder how he would feel.

 

[azmntman]

Maybe dont ship out products before major events? I bet the customer, who had already waited months and months, would have preferred to have waited some more so the vendor could have personally inspected the rifle, both for workmanship (fail) and correct build to order etc etc. I'm sure the owner has time to personally inspect each rifle with his name on it?

As for calling the "builder" first, yea sure, I would call and leave a message an then hit the forums the day after when my call don't get returned.

No dog in this particular fight but been to many and had a few dogs get beat up. My cash is worth twice as much to me as it is to you so if yer getting any of it you can expect my expectations are quite high. I dont think I would buy a rifle till I saw it, shouldered it, inspected it. Too many of these stories scaring me off.

Somebody please post the expectations of the customer who waits months or longer and gets a subpar project rifle. How long to wait to let it slip to anybody that he was buttraped? How many calls and days waiting for a response? Directions if the response is not favorable ("ship it back and wait another 6 months and we'll fix it", "looked good when it left", sure you ordered maple but it was outta stock and ya said ya wanted yer build done fast so we used aspen, aint it purrtty".)

I can agree the vendor should be given a chance to make it right and a good one would act so fast that a guy couldn't be pissed. However when ya send the deposit you've entered the contract in good faith and when months after expected build date a POS shows up I would say ya been wronged. An $1800.00+ wrong takes a bit to hold back, some guys just start speweing what they feel in there guts. Maybe if ya post the expectations for the guy he could hold back??

 

[S.Kenton]

Maybe dont ship out products before major events? I bet the customer, who had already waited months and months, would have preferred to have waited some more so the vendor could have personally inspected the rifle, both for workmanship (fail) and correct build to order etc etc. I'm sure the owner has time to personally inspect each rifle with his name on it?

As for calling the "builder" first, yea sure, I would call and leave a message an then hit the forums the day after when my call don't get returned.

No dog in this particular fight but been to many and had a few dogs get beat up. My cash is worth twice as much to me as it is to you so if yer getting any of it you can expect my expectations are quite high. I dont think I would buy a rifle till I saw it, shouldered it, inspected it. Too many of these stories scaring me off.

Somebody please post the expectations of the customer who waits months or longer and gets a subpar project rifle. How long to wait to let it slip to anybody that he was buttraped? How many calls and days waiting for a response? Directions if the response is not favorable ("ship it back and wait another 6 months and we'll fix it", "looked good when it left", sure you ordered maple but it was outta stock and ya said ya wanted yer build done fast so we used aspen, aint it purrtty".)

I can agree the vendor should be given a chance to make it right and a good one would act so fast that a guy couldn't be pissed. However when ya send the deposit you've entered the contract in good faith and when months after expected build date a POS shows up I would say ya been wronged. An $1800.00+ wrong takes a bit to hold back, some guys just start speweing what they feel in there guts. Maybe if ya post the expectations for the guy he could hold back??

All of that is very true, I’ve dealt with a popular lock
Maker and have a few hiccups, the lock maker made it right so fast on both occasions, no way I’d ever complain... but back to the case in point of this original post, the defects were so very obvious... I can’t beleive they made it out of his shop. I would have been disappointed, mad and frustrated... all at the same time. I honestly think he handled the whole issue with grace. I’m not so sure I would have been so kind...

 

[azmntman]

But what about those that say NEVER say a dang thing till ya talk to Matt? Well apparently he did and they sent it back with another new problem. Wheres that list of proper procedures?

 

[Zonie]

There aren't any proper procedures written down someplace telling folks how to handle a problem like this. What a person does is totally up to them.

That said, if I was sent something that was below my expectations the first thing I would do would be to contact the people that made or sent it to me.
In a nice way, I would tell them what I think is below par and ask them to fix it. If they were willing to do that I would send it to them and see how well they fixed the issue.
I would give them several chances to fix it to my satisfaction or refund the money. Notice that at this stage, if they were willing to work with me I would never call them out in public.

If they fixed the problem, I would never tell anyone on a public forum about the problem or about them fixing it. I guess I'll take that back. If they fixed the problem for me and I saw someone else posting about a problem with something they made, I would tell people that although I had had a problem with that company, they fixed it for me and made things right.

If after several attempts to fix the problem I was still unhappy I would chalk it up to the fact that they don't know how to make whatever it is right.
At this stage, I would go public and warn others about their workmanship. While doing this warning I would point out that they did try to fix it but they were unsuccessful in meeting my expectations and describe the total problem.

If they responded to my first nice complaint in a negative way and refused to take it back and replace it or fix it I wouldn't have a moments hesitation before I published the problem and their negative response to me on a public site like this one.

Notice that I said all of my dealings with the company were done in a nice way.

If a person gets upset about the problem and starts off with their first call, calling them names and chewing them out they can expect the company to take a defensive position and be equally rude in return. They should also expect the company to refuse to work with them to fix the problem.
If they then posted a complaint on the web I would have no sympathy for them, or their problem. In fact, if they were excessively nasty in their criticism about the company I would probably think to myself, "Well you dip. You got just what you deserved."