Anyone else have problems with Ruger repair service?

[volcomdork182]

First off I would like to say i own several Rugers, and my intention is not to degrade Ruger but rather to find what your views on the subject is.

Finally, i got my deer tags this year in the unit i wanted. But it just so happens that the unit has quite a few cougars that have been spotted in the area. So i decided that a powerful sidearm is a must. On that thought i traded some of my guns and ended up buying a new ruger lcr in 357. Excited to go try it, i took it out to the range to see what she can do. The 38 fmj was a pleasure to shoot. With such little recoil it was great. But then it was time for the big stuff, the 357. Loading the lcr with pmc 158 jsp 357 rounds. I aimed at the target and squeezed the trigger. Crack it was not nearly as bad as i thought. So i went to squeeze the trigger again. Crack, after i fired my second shot i noticed it was "shedding lead" back at me but only on the left side. So i adjusted my stance and fired the 3rd shot. Still getting tiny chunks in my face, i pulled the 357 rounds and loaded the cylinder up with 38 fmj's again. All five shot fine. So i loaded up the 357's again. First shot after the reload i ended up picking a small chunk of lead out of my skin right underneath my safety glasses. Truely i was lucky i had them on. After that i ran the rest of the fmj's through it and tried yet again to see if the shedding lead was a one time occurrence or if the revolver was off timing. It was still shedding lead. Upon closer inspection, after cleaning the revolver, i noticed the cylinder did not line up correctly with the barrel. I contacted ruger and they said it was defective and they want me to send it in.

I sent the revolver to ruger on the 3rd of august. After a some waiting i ended up calling to see the status on it. Every time i call i get almost the same answer. "Oh we are waiting for (name here) too look at it again" Well the names went from the armorer to armorer then it was sitting on the desk of the manager to decide either to give me a new one or replace the parts they also told me i should be getting a call with the decision within the next few days. A few days past and i didn't hear anything so i called them again. The lady said it was still at the manager and they will get ahold of me. Well a few more days go by and still nothing. Eager to find out if i will even receive the revolver before i go hunting (i bought this revolver SPECIFICALLY for this hunt) i called yet again. The ruger rep sounded irritated and told me that i have called several times and they will contact me when the manager decides. I told him I'm sorry but i need to know if i will have it by my hunt and i am just calling due to the previous rep telling me to call on this day. He replied he got a hold of the manager and she was going to review and decide what to do by the end of the day. Well here i am 2 days later and no call. Yet again, i called to see what the status is and the rep then told me that the manager was out all this week. I told her that i'm sorry but i need to know if i must, yet again, trade/sell some of my collection to buy another revolver to take on my hunt. She replied that they will find someone to look over the situation and give me an answer soon. So yet again i am left in the dark waiting for a call.
I am truly aggravated by Ruger. I have spent over 1500 dollars in the last 4 months on ruger firearms and accessories just to be jerked around. In my eyes that revolver should have NEVER left ruger in the first place. When looking down the barrel you can clearly see the cylinder does not line up with the barrel. Also when test firing even if they did not use lead bullets they should have noticed the excessive burst of heat that hits the left side of the shooters face.

Again i am not dissing on Ruger, as my favorite rifle is the Ruger Gunsite Scout. I am merily trying to get suggestions on how i can possibly get my revolver back before the hunt so i don't have to trade my guns that do work just to buy another revolver that works as it should.

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[keystir]

1.) I'm sorry your revolver didn't work as it should have.

2.) This particular revolver is not going to make the difference between you coming home alive or dead from this hunt, so don't make it out like it will. Put on your big boy pants, Go out have a great hunt, bag a huge buck then come back on here and brag about it.

2.) You bought the incorrect revolver anyway, you should have bought either an sp101, gp-100, or even a blackhawk.

3.) It sounds like you irritated the poor customer service lady so much that they probably kept putting your revolver to the back of the line every time you called.

 

[volcomdork182]

1.) I'm sorry your revolver didn't work as it should have.

2.) This particular revolver is not going to make the difference between you coming home alive or dead from this hunt, so don't make it out like it will. Put on your big boy pants, Go out have a great hunt, bag a huge buck then come back on here and brag about it.

2.) You bought the incorrect revolver anyway, you should have bought either an sp101, gp-100, or even a blackhawk.

3.) It sounds like you irritated the poor customer service lady so much that they probably kept putting your revolver to the back of the line every time you called.

1. Thank you i wish it would have.
2. Guns are personal preference. Who are you to say what i should have got? I went through every revolver there and the lcr is what i felt fit best. I wanted a LIGHT carry to throw in my vest or pocket not a heavy piece of steel. And I personally wanted a double action and liked the lcr due to smooth trigger pull and fast follow up shots. Also who are you to say i should have purchased this or that. Also I personally do know someone that was attacked by a cougar not far from where i was hunting. luckily his father shot it while it was on his sons back biting his backpack. Flame, call names, do what you want I'd feel safer with a sidearm.
3. Poor customer service lady? Its THEIR JOB. I call it poor customer service, even the shop owner i purchased the revolver from said its not right and i should just keep calling until they fix it. And truely if they kept putting me back in line due to me calling when they told me to that, in my opinion, is childish.

If you want to flame like this guy send me a pm and flame all you want. Don't call me out in public.

 

[Keane]

I don't think you are being unreasonable. When you buy a firearm you expect it to be either right, or made right in little/no time. The fact that they've been jerking you around this much makes me lose any faith in Ruger.

A few years ago, I sent a 1911 back to Rock Island for a repair similar to this. I shipped it out on a Monday, and by the following Tuesday it was back in my hands with an apology letter and some spare magazines. THAT is how you do customer service, not this!

I'm again in the market for a new 1911, and this post has convinced me to find a company with better support. The SR1911 just came off my list.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

1) I don't think he really flamed you, we all need to be big boys here and take a little humor and man-think. The Ruger you picked is fine but you need at least 158 grain loads for hog/cougar defense..I would carry 158 grain SWC hard casts. Do not trust 38s for the job, they are at best rabbit or coyote loads. Believe me I have shot a number of furry things with both, I reload them and my wife has packed S & W .357s and a backup 38 for 27 + years. Her handle at one time at work was "Blondie" after Clint Eastwood in "The Good, Bad and Ugly". Yeah she's about that good, too

2) The only Rugers I have ever had trouble with are a few 10/22s that somehow were out of spec as to the receiver

3) It sounds like your gun is out of timing and they simply are too backed up to give it to the right guy who can retime it or say "no" and then they send you a new one

4) Thankfully the old curmugeon Bill Ruger Sr is not around any more and they are again on my posible buy list. I despised that old man, along with a lot of real gunners. He was a near anti gunner..

 

[JVK]

keystir: Your response of "Put on your big boy pants", "You bought the incorrect revolver" etc. is not helpful.

I too have a recent problem with repairs. Although not near the severity/cost of volcomdork182.

I recently sent in an LC9 with 2 different problems. Failure to Fire & Failure to Extract, clearly stated both problems & even provided color photographs of failures.

I additionally used a highlighter to make sure the most relevant part of my (typed) notes were obvious.

Ruger sent it back only addressing the Failure to Fire. It continued to have extraction problems. So i just sent it back to them again.

Upon calling them re: extract they said they had no documentation of me reporting it.

I too am a bit of a Ruger fan (3 now) but was a bit put off by them obviously discarding the paperwork/photos i'd sent them.

Everything has been in good spirit so far but your story sounds justified to be at the limits of tolerance.

1.) I'm sorry your revolver didn't work as it should have.

2.) This particular revolver is not going to make the difference between you coming home alive or dead from this hunt, so don't make it out like it will. Put on your big boy pants, Go out have a great hunt, bag a huge buck then come back on here and brag about it.

2.) You bought the incorrect revolver anyway, you should have bought either an sp101, gp-100, or even a blackhawk.

3.) It sounds like you irritated the poor customer service lady so much that they probably kept putting your revolver to the back of the line every time you called.

 

[Velzey]

You didnt buy the wrong gun, ignore all that stupid stuff. Some poeple have nothing better to do!

Ruger is very backed up right now. More so than they have ever been. I have had to wait almost a month just to get them to send me small parts. I had to send one firearm in for them to repair and it did take them just shy of 2 months to get it back to me.
I to am surprised it left the factory like that. I would call and ask them to send you a new one.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

Bushmaster/Remington is not amy better. They had my Varminter in the shop for a new barrel for 8 months, constantly "back ordered" and "don't know when we might get one". I finally found the barrel I wanted and had them send it back to me so I could replace the barrel myself.

And keystir, maybe you're used to poor customer service and are willing to simply accept it. I'm not. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people to make decisions and call me when they say they will, and I simply won't stand for being chastised by the people I've given my money to and entrusted my weapons to for bothering them. That's their job.

 

[jrprich]

I sent my new MKIII Hunter back to Ruger last month to correct some poor finish work. They paid all the shipping and I had my pistol back in 8 days from the day I dropped it off at UPS. I was very pleased with their service.
But if I got the run around like you have I would be uber pissed

 

[Spitpatch]

Persons (businesses) you never hurry:

Car Mechanics
Gunsmiths
Taxidermists
Anybody making you dinner.

 

[jrprich]

Persons (businesses) you never hurry:

Car Mechanics
Gunsmiths
Taxidermists
Anybody making you dinner.

And Doctors, Dentists, anyone working on YOU or YOURS

 

[pogi]

I had a Ruger 10/22 that shipped without the extractor parts from the factory. They shipped out the parts but the whole situation was a PITA and the gun was a POS. No more Rugers for me.

 

[orygun]

Only used Ruger repair service one time, and it was for a gun I bought second hand. I had to wait for a few weeks for the gun to be returned to me, but it was a smooth deal.

That said, and I understand that you wanted to take this gun along with you on a specific hunt, either it's going to make it back in time or it won't. By that I mean, I doubt that you calling them will make a difference.
If I was in your shoes I would plan on taking something else. If you do, that little LCR will probably show up in time.
Remember Murphy's law?

 

[rmlarsen]

A year ago, I sent in a Ruger #1 single shot for a complete re-build - new barrel, all internals, new stock, re-blue. I had it back in less than 3 weeks and it is beautiful and shoots great. So no, I've had no bad experiences with Ruger service.

 

[Allfat]

My experience with Ruger customer service was good, but they did need prodding.

I bought a brand new SR9c and the trigger was not resetting reliably, not even close. It would not reset about once or twice every 5 rounds. I sent it back to them to get it repaired, they provided the shipping label and were nice about it. I called after it said it was delivered to verify them receiving it, and they went out and looked for it for me and made sure they had it. I got it back about 3 weeks later, with the same problem. They said they replaced some parts and test fired it, but it was doing the same thing it was doing before.

I was so disappointed, I wrote a letter to their CEO. I wrote the letter and submitted it via the link on their website to contact the CEO on a Friday evening. I got an email before I woke up on Saturday morning from the Customer Service Manager and he told me that they were going to replace my gun with a new one. I accepted and went through the process for a replacement, which took about another 3 weeks. So at this time, it was 2 months after I bought a brand new gun, and I finally had one that worked.

I would suggest you use the Contact the CEO link on Ruger's website and tell him your story, it worked for me! Good luck with your Ruger and with your hunting trip!

 

[Grunwald]

Poor customer service cankill a business in today's internet age. Wonder how much business did they lose by this thread being here.

 

[ridnjon]

I work on guns and have sent several revolvers, and other ruger pistols back to them. one was a brand new sp101 which was not shot and timing was way off, sent it back to ruger and they did send a box to pick up and return it, got it back and timing was OK but everything was sloppy to make it time OK. I personally think ruger has quality control issues. I they did have the pistols for about a month before shipping it back.

 

[sheepdip]

never had a problem with any of my rugers so i wouldnt know about their customer service. i have five rugers

 

[blitz]

only problem i had with rugers was light primer strikes on my 10-22 a stiffer hammer spring fixed that issue without me having to send it it, however i have had it go off a couple times just from releasing the bolt to load it (even before the spring) so i have to pay close attention when loading it on which way it is pointing which is a given
i am sorry about your luck i currently own 3 rugers and have gotten rid of 3 and the problem with the 10-22 that i stated is the only issue i have had. i have had three semi autos and 3 revolvers.

hope you get your revolver back before your hunt

 

[madderg]

You should have your forcing cone reamed with an 11 degree cutter and it will not shave lead anymore...if the cylinder timing is true.