What's Going On at Crusader Arms ?

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Hi Fellow CGN'ers
At First, I want to share my experience with the CGN community.
Also, I'm curious to know if There is others experiencing the same situation?

I have ordered a TEMPLAR Rifle to Crusader Arms on January 13TH. At that time their website and still Today was specified ; Please allow for 7-14 days to be ready!

They took the payment from my credit card on the next day, January 14th.

On January 26th, they have verified my PAL trough RCMP


But Today after 2 Months (8 weeks) I still not have received a Shipping tracking number.

During that 2 month period, I have NEVER received news from them!
I contacted them several times to see what's going On;

On January 27th they answered me this;

Hey Eric,

Your rifle is ready, we are just being held up by Stocks that are being held up at the border.

Hoping to get them shortly.

We will email you a tracking number as soon as it ships.

Thank you
Crusader Arms Team

On February 8th, I made a follow-up, here is the answer that I got;

Hey Eric,

Those are estimated timelines, 7-14 business days

So 14 business Days would land you at Feb 3rd so we are currently running 4 days over estimate because we are waiting on stocks.
We should be receiving them any day now.

Sorry for the delay, we have never waited this long for stocks in the past it's a bit of an anomaly, but any day now.

We will send you a tracking number as soon as they ship

Thank you for your patience
Crusader Arms Team

On March 2nd, I made another follow-up, here is their answer to it;

Hey Eric,
Our standard turnaround time is approx 14 business days.
Due to the ACR stocks being on backorder it pushed us behind.
We have since received our stocks and are shipping orders out.

Your order should be shipping any day now.

We will send you a tracking number as soon as it ships out.

Thank you for your patience.
Crusader Arms Team


Today I message them again, to let them know that I find this situation Unacceptable.

here is my message to them;


You may build an awesome rifle but your communications with your customers have to be upgraded.

I found it very disappointing to have to contact you to know that there is a Backlog created by the ACR stock Backorder.

You should have indicated it on the web and take the initiative to message your customers who placed order.
To indicate that you are expecting additional delays.

Also modify the 7-14 days displayed for an appropriate number of days representing the actual situation.

It’s the way that professional and customer service oriented customers will do.

I’m really out of patience, Frustrated and disappointed by this situation.

I request you to ship my rifle today.

Please do the necessary to make it happen.

Thanks

At the moment of writing this, I still have not received an answer or tracking number.

So As stated in my intro, I'd like to share my experience with you and see if there is others customers in the same situation?

Thanks For sharing your experience and for your inputs ,

Regards Eric
 
They have my money, but So Far, they don't have me to recommend them! SO FAR That is Very sad because It seems to be a Real Good Rifle.
As a proud Canadian, I'm trying to make business with Canadian firearms makers and retailers, in order to support local jobs and promote our Firearms Industries.

But as I message Crusader Arms, they should make a Much better job about their customer service. Communications are key of success, specially when there is a unusual Situation.

I'm hoping that I'll a Great News to share with you soon!
 
Ipscshooters said:
I'd tell then to send the rifle as is , and refund the cost for the ACR stock, just source one yourself
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That's curious, I was thinking, why they didn't send me the rifle NOW, without the stock and send me the stock later on, when available?

That could be a short term compromise

Thanks for your input !!!
 
Probably extra shipping cost that they don't want to eat. Hope you either get your rifle soon, or a refund. That turnaround time is ridiculous.
 
Similar for me. I ordered on Feb 7 and I was given a tracking number on Feb 27 the same day as PAL check went through. However, it's just sat as "electronic info submitted". So no actual pickup has happened. I last heard from them a week ago, so I reached out again today to see if there is a further update.

In the main templar thread, several people indicated their rifle showed up without ever receiving tracking info.
 
barthammer said:
Similar for me. I ordered on Feb 7 and I was given a tracking number on Feb 27 the same day as PAL check went through. However, it's just sat as "electronic info submitted". So no actual pickup has happened. I last heard from them a week ago, so I reached out again today to see if there is a further update.

In the main templar thread, several people indicated their rifle showed up without ever receiving tracking info.
Click to expand...

Hi, Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, I was curious to know if I was the Only guy experiencing this Bad situation.

I'm Really disappointed by CRUSADER ARMS customer service.

I still have not received any reply from my last message 2 days ago.
 
It's pretty damn heavy and being made by the same company that has dumped WS-MCR owners. Personally I would save up and get a SAI R18 MK2 because after jumping from Kodiak to Spectre to Crusader Arms with 4 different 180 designs in the process who knows what comes next
 
AFisher said:
They based this gun around a stock produced in small volume for a gun that's no longer made? Weird.
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The Templar is basically a product-improved version of their Crusader 9 Sentinel rifle. The rifle isn't based around the stock at all - you can swap it out very easily. In fact, I believe some resellers are offering the standard buffer-tube style stocks as a cheaper alternative to the ACR stock version.

[edit] Yes, confirmed - you can get a buffer-tube version here: https://www.firearmsoutletcanada.co...-assembly-stock--5-56-nato-18-7--blk-blk.html

They selected a custom-made adapter that fits the ACR-style stock from F5 Mfg because they feel it looks good and works well (in their opinion - I have only held and shouldered the Templar at TACCOM 2022, I haven't fired it, only its older brother, the Crusader 9 Sentinel). The stock is not the actual ACR stock - early demo models used something that looked like the actual ACR stock (it may have been, but I don't think that was confirmed), but the production models use the F5 Mfg stock which looks like it.

I will say for the record, and for the purposes of anyone reading this thread, that I have had good communications with Crusader Arms service (provided by Spectre Ltd) but sometimes their responses are delayed (i.e. slow) when measured against modern corporate standards. On the other hand, most of the issues I'm hearing about are from people who bought directly from the company (as opposed to resellers) and are waiting for rifles to be delivered directly from the company; I bought my rifle from NAS Outdoors, one of CA's preferred resellers, and my communications with them was very pleasant and I received my rifle in very short order.

Lest I sound like a shill or a defender of CA, I have the distinct impression that the speed and effectiveness of response and customer relations varies quite widely depending on who has contacted them and when, and that is problematic from a business perspective on many levels. I hope your issue is eventually resolved, but I can see how the delay could leave a bad taste in your mouth. A two month delay is becoming excessive, of course, and supply and stock issues aside, some compensation or alternative should be offered.
 
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Squeaky wheel gets the grease, but this is a pretty unacceptable level of customer service for a very expensive product that they are taking payment in full up front.

1. Their website ordering is still broken, and orders need to processed manually
2. Even once you order, you get a receipt showing a transaction, but no order number or further confirmation on what you have actually ordered (Milspec vs. Triggertech, FDE vs Black etc.)
3. There is ZERO communication on their end with respect to updates on batches of rifles being finished, or if there are delays in production (backordered stocks, anodizing issues, etc.)
4. Shipping notifications are completely lacking, and only seem to be provided if you reach out yourself
5. Email only customer service is not the best. Being able to pick up the phone to re-assure a customer that their order will be fulfilled as expected is a very simple thing, and would go a long way for customer satisfaction

Considering they've been producing firearms for a while with the Crusader 9, it's not like they haven't had ample time to set up a proper customer service or ordering process.

Given the very limited amount of reviews by anyone other than gun youtubers (who likely have biases, or did not purchase the rifles themselves), most of their customer base is taking a huge risk on a largely untested and limited real world reviewed product.

If they have delays because of QC issues and they delay things to ensure delivery of a quality product that's fine, but you can't keep your customer base in the dark.

Most of us getting them now are still guinea pigs... I know what I signed up for but having a sour taste in my mouth before even receiving the product is worrying.

I sincerely hope they improve their communications, and that their "lifetime warranty" will not be an issue down the road if there are issues with the gun.
 
barthammer said:
Squeaky wheel gets the grease, but this is a pretty unacceptable level of customer service for a very expensive product that they are taking payment in full up front.

1. Their website ordering is still broken, and orders need to processed manually
2. Even once you order, you get a receipt showing a transaction, but no order number or further confirmation on what you have actually ordered (Milspec vs. Triggertech, FDE vs Black etc.)
3. There is ZERO communication on their end with respect to updates on batches of rifles being finished, or if there are delays in production (backordered stocks, anodizing issues, etc.)
4. Shipping notifications are completely lacking, and only seem to be provided if you reach out yourself
5. Email only customer service is not the best. Being able to pick up the phone to re-assure a customer that their order will be fulfilled as expected is a very simple thing, and would go a long way for customer satisfaction

Considering they've been producing firearms for a while with the Crusader 9, it's not like they haven't had ample time to set up a proper customer service or ordering process.

Given the very limited amount of reviews by anyone other than gun youtubers (who likely have biases, or did not purchase the rifles themselves), most of their customer base is taking a huge risk on a largely untested and limited real world reviewed product.

If they have delays because of QC issues and they delay things to ensure delivery of a quality product that's fine, but you can't keep your customer base in the dark.

Most of us getting them now are still guinea pigs... I know what I signed up for but having a sour taste in my mouth before even receiving the product is worrying.

I sincerely hope they improve their communications, and that their "lifetime warranty" will not be an issue down the road if there are issues with the gun.
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I think most of your observations are valid. I think #2 is not entirely true because we have seen that CA does inform people (when they ask) that there was a production delay related to anodization and another delay related to F5 Mfg stocks made for the Templar being out of supply. Still not acceptable that customers have to ask to be informed of said delays, but just for the sake of accuracy, I wanted to put that clarification in.

Your criticisms are all valid. They have had sufficient time to put together a responsive customer relations/communications team and a lot of people I talk to who are buying CA do have the feeling they are guinea pigs - trialing a rifle that should have already been thoroughly tested by the manufacturer.

Like you, I bought my rifle from CA knowing that it was a gamble, but no one should feel like that when buying a product. I concur with your hopes that they improve communications and that their warranties prove reliable.
 
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C10 said:
I ordered one Jan 6th and am in the same boat
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Thanks for your testimony, As you can see your not the Only one in this situation. But Great News, I finally did received my Templar rifle this week. It worth the Wait, It's a solid Rifle, I am really satisfied with it except that it's an Heavy piece of Metal.

In case that you don't want to wait anymore, just be aware that in case that Crusader Arms don't want to cancel your order and refund you. You can contact your credit card company and get the charges back, AKA (retrofacturation).
 
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