First experience with Taurus customer service

A bit of backstory: The Mrs decided she wanted her own Government model 1911 in .45ACP, and I had a good experience with a buddy's Taurus PT1911 so I decided to get one for her. I'll leave this particular pistol's details and performance for an upcoming review, but it does have a couple of problems.

For one, it shoots low. Apparently according to other PT1911 owners, this will remedy itself over time as the pistol breaks in. The other problem is much more sinister. You see, the thumb safety is improperly fitted, and allows the sear to move while it's engaged. It doesn't move enough to drop the hammer with the safety engaged, but as soon as you disengage it the hammer drops to half-cock. This is, how should we say? Most un-good.

Yes, a new pistol from the factory fails the most rudimentary of function checks. It could cause the death of the operator if while under stress, he or she attempts to fire the weapon with the safety on. With the hammer dropping to half-cock, you now have to begin remedial actions to bring the pistol back into action. In the dark, you may not notice it's just the hammer at half-cock but that may still be time that you just don't have to fix a problem that should NOT exist. Tap, rack, bang is fast and easy, but in the middle of the night you're not going to be so agile of mind being freshly awoken from a deep slumber. Is this a worst-case scenario? Sure, but it's still possible.

So, what's my beef with Taurus customer service? Well, outside of spending half my lunch break on hold listening to the same song repeat over and over (no, really. It was the SAME song on repeat), the customer service rep stated that I'd have to cough up the $80 to ship the pistol to Miami to have it fixed. I opted for a replacement safety for $20 shipped, but first thing tomorrow morning I will be calling Taurus back and canceling the parts order, and demanding they pony up the shipping both ways.

Mind you, I was not rude with the CS rep, nor will I be tomorrow morning but I think it would be best if I demand Taurus makes this right on their dime. Besides, it's not through my neglect or misuse of the pistol that this problem exists. This wouldn't happen just because I put 100 rounds of factory ammo through it, either. No, this exists because of shoddy quality control. I'm quite ashamed that Taurus would 1.) send a pistol out of it's factory in this condition, and 2.) expect the customer to pay anything out of pocket to have it fixed.

I'll keep everyone updated.