To respond to GIGGIDY:
First of all, I asked S&W rep 3 times on the phone clearly to confirm that this is their policy. I also indicated that if this is the official position of S&W that I can disclose on the internet. ( I did not say I run CGN though) The S&W rep did not say no. There is customer Service QC recording to back me up on that.
I am not a saint – and is my sticky tasteless? Probably! Am I trying to run the crusade to save the world – NO! In all honestly, all the CGN dealers carry M&P, and they probably want a piece of me now, but the morbidity of the warranty system needs to be talked about.
But you know what it is even more tasteless about this whole deal? Read this!
3 -Invoices submitted to S&W from the depot for repairing:
For each invoice of repair:
1 hour of gunsmithing = 45 dollars and up (if they only charge one hour….)
150 rounds of factory ammo for testing = 60 dollars
Shipping = 25 dollars
Each repair costs 130 dollars
There were 3 repairs already = 390 dollars of billing
Repair center claimed to have replace extractor and barrel = at least 150 dollars
Total billing to S&W = 550 dollars!!!!
Shipping expended on my part by DHL = 37 per repair
3 repairs = 111 dollars
Testing ammo, gas, packaging and time spent on getting ATT – you can imagine.
The total tangible readily measurable cost expended on this pistol: 661 dollars
Hidden costs – gas, packaging, my time, S&W rep’s time, invoice process time……..
You see – the depot is making some good billings here. S&W spent over 550 dollars on this pistol but it doesn’t have to deal with any admin burden. And the consumer lost 100 dollars on shipping, time and enjoyment of his investment.
Basically, it is the same old American automobile industry way of thinking. The cost of recall vs the cost of lawsuit – and the cost of information containment. Even though they have spent over 550 dollars, spread it over 100 pistols (1% failure rate), it is still cheap as a way of self insurance. From corporate perspective, this sounds like a good deal. From the consumer perspective, we are being sold short. You will always have 99 happy customers, but the 1 in 100 is getting severely screwed in this system.
If you look at how this works – the chance that 1 in 100 customers will complain is probably 50/50. The chance that the one who complains and had his product fixed in the first try is probably another 75%. The 25% of so customer, like myself, is probably insignificant. For a company that makes 50,000 pistols a year, that’s like 125 severe complains in a year – which accounted for 10 severe complaints a month.
You see, spending 600 bucks on a pistol is still an ok deal from S&W perspective, that’s about 100,000 a year. Think of the cost of adding people on QC and slowing down the production rate. You use sales volume to cover up the cost of fixing defects. And part of the strategy of high sales volume is low price.
Now, here is the kicker. I have no doubt in my mind they cost this out already. However, instead of giving ME, the consumer, a new pistol that costs them maybe around 100 dollars to make, they choose to let the depot bill them over 550 dollars. Of course, this makes the warranty depot happy because it generates billing opportunity there at the expense of the consumer and S&W . The only loser is the consumer. If S&W act quickly and replace the entire pistol after the first repair attempt, it would have costs them 300 dollars instead of 550! Instead, the “repair” budget is channeled to the report depot versus satisfying the customers. If you look at the objective of S&W and the bias of the repair center, you can get a picture why this is going nowhere. I am not saying the repair center is unethical or intentionally not fixing it – but the repair center could take an incremental approach – fixing one or trying one small thing at a time to create potential follow ups , instead of a major overhaul that costs more in the first try and guarantee a permanent fix.
In conclusion, if you are one of the 99 happy customers, more power to you. On the other hand, if you are the 1 in 100, you are part of the “cost” in accordance to their business plan. And they have budgeted to take care of you. Right now, the system is not working because the budget was channeled to the repair depot instead of taking care of me, the consumer. The repair center had skimmed off MY budget, in fact, actually using my shipping money to create billing opportunities, and S&W doesn’t care because they’ve spent the money already, irregardless what it does. The system is win-win for repair center, neutral for S&W and a net-loss to consumers.
Sorry to here about your luck, it must be very frustrating to be getting the run around. From reading here and on the MP-Pistol forum I think your experience is the exception not the rule. My Rev. N M&P9 has been 100% flawless after 2 years plus of shooting. I think the run around comes from the country we live in not the company. but that my opinion.
Having said all that, and I know that this is your site to do with as you please, but I think the
main homepage post you made about this is quite tasteless. If you have a problem with the pistol keep it here in the pistol section. Don't use the main home page as you personal soapbox for firearm warranty problems. Use the homepage to inform firearms owners of the current status of Legal issues or CGN merchandise or what ever, not what you do with your personal guns. Thousands of M&P's are problem free and your post does a disservice to new shooters or people considering the M&P as they may take what you say as gospel because its on the homepage. Every manufacture makes a lemon now and then, I bet Glock does to.
Now I'm sure I'll receive a lot of flack for this post, and I'll take it. Many will say this is your site to do with as you please and if I don't like don't come here. And I quite agree with them. But I must say your post on the homepage leaves a bad taste in my mouth as a problem free M&P owner.