I bought some Night Fision sights for my Springfield XD, and took them to a local gunsmith for installation. He accidentally broke the front sight. When he tried to put the original front sight back on the pistol, he broke that one too. He told me he would order new sights, and would have them in a week. Two weeks passed, and I couldn’t even find the guy. To be fair, the pandemic hysteria had started and his shop was operating by appointment only. I finally found him and he told me he ordered Trijicon sights for my weapon because Night Fision was not responding (they’re located in Michigan and were closed). I took my pistol back, without a front sight. Three more weeks passed and I never heard from him, so I went to his shop. He wasn’t there. An employee of his told me he’d call me. I offered to leave my name and number, and the employee rudely said that he already knew my name and number. I didn’t get any reply. Today I called and was told Trijicon wouldn’t be sending any sights out till next month. I checked their website, but their sights for the XD appear to be available.
I don’t trust this guy, but I don’t know what to do. Should I continue to give him the benefit of the doubt despite his questionable way of handling this situation?
I would in no way continue to do business with them. The lack of response and lack of keeping you informed of the process is not good customer service (not to mention the rude call you experienced). Given he broke the sight is all the more reason he should go above and beyond to make it right for you.
The good news is you got your gun back. The bad news is you may be out the cost of the sight. You may have legal options, but it may be at more expense.
No, I definitely won’t do business there again. I’m actually thinking of buying new sights and going to someone more reputable. Unfortunately, I think you’re right, and I’m out 100 bucks.
If he is a dealer for Night Fision &/or Trijicon you may consider informing them of how he is representing their products.
Register a complaint with the better business bureau/attorney general.
POLITELY ask for your money back and indicate that unfortunately your done waiting. If he doesnt like that idea inform him your only other option is the courts and if it needs to come to that you will be seeking legal fees and damages and not just the cost of the night fision and an OEM replacement (including fair compensation for the time you’ve spent chasing him, and loss of service of your firearm)
I just realized you said Springfield. If your anywhere near me (Michigan thumb) I think I have a set of OEM XDM sights in a trijicon box that I would donate if I can find them. I’m pretty confident that I will never need them. Probably not worth the cost of postage if what you really want is tritium though.
If you paid for any service ask him for a refund or tell him to pay you for the sights he broke. If he refuses then you can always do small claims court. It may not be worth it though. Chalk it up as a loss but make sure you warn others that go to him about your experience so it will not happen to them. That’s bad business and bad customer service.
I agree with the others, at this point there is no reason to get your blood pressure up over it. Find a new guy and cut and paste your above experience in the form of a review for the guy. Starting here, what’s the name of the place so we here know not to go there.
I think everyone has listed some great ideas already and I can’t add to it.
I was thinking of something related though. Some people are always asking why do you need so many guns, or why do you need to be able to buy more than one gun.
This is a good example of when you need a backup gun at home. When you need to take a gun in for repair work, send to the factory or whatever. Having another one at home can be critical.
I don’t think he’s a dealer of either, but I’d like to find out. I emailed Trijicon to ask them about any manufacturing or shipping lead times due to the pandemic. I thought about asking for him to just pay me for the sights he broke, but the guy is ridiculously elusive. His shop is located inside the gun range I go to. I might ask them how they can allow someone like that to do business inside their establishment.
Definitely talk to the range owner about gun smithing practices at his/her place of business. If that doesn’t get you reimbursed, small claims court with a request that the defendant pay for the damage and any other monies paid by you AND for all other expenses related to the case. Keep a timeline of convos, calls, and attempted calls/ messages, any other notes every step of the way, and all related receipts, any time lost from work, every detail.
I never paid him anything. Only money I’ve lost is about $100 I paid for the sights, which I didn’t buy from him. I hardly think it’s something worth pursuing in court, even small claims. I will talk to the range owner though, and ask them how they can have someone like that doing business at their establishment.
I guess it doesn’t fully “hurt” to report to the BBB, but just to be clear, the BBB is NOT at all legit… I mean, on one hand I think it passes the info on about the bad business, but it also reinforces the.system that the BBB has in place … I don’t think it’s right to have a review site and ALSO charge businesses for listing. Seems biased.
businesses are charged for placement… I don’t trust it at all. Plenty of “bad reviews” of the BBB out there from small business owners who just can’t justify the exorbitant rate they charge to be listed.
The new car review ‘businesses’ work the same way. But it is a place for customer feedback to be consolidated and I don’t think they have been too badly tainted by paid reviewers, yet.
Do what you need to do to get your gun operational first. Then use google, yelp, Facebook to tell the world about your experience.
Do the same when something positive happens.
Unfortunately it can be like that sometimes. I’m reminded of a local shop in my area, veteran owned, and I used to love them. I was buying from then back when their “shop” was operating out of their garage at the beginning stages. Now they’ve got their own location and business is booming. As time went on interactions with them went from friendly “hey what’s up man, what can I get you” to feeling like a new customer no one knew. Their turnaround times on parts and smithing got longer and then I saw multiple rifle builds come out of there improperly assembled. (Usually AR gas tubes mounted upside down.) I want to support a small veteran business but I cant when quality and customer service are lacking. Sometimes you have to find a new smith. Or if you’re inclined, get some armorer tools and start doing your own work!
