My current experience with Rock Island Armory (more tales of Customer Service woe!)

Just before I started this Blog I had sent in my Rock Island Armory Compact 1911 Tactical to be repaired under warranty service.  They've had the pistol since 15 December, 2010.  The pistol was purchased new on 5 Dec 2010 from my favorite vendor at the local gun show, Love Guns from Temple, TX.  As always they had a fair price on it, and I had a Kahr P9 that my wife decided wasn't for her.  So, we traded straight up, the paperwork was completed and I was sent on my way.  After picking up 4 Wilson Combat 47OX 7-rd magazines, a new set of VZ grips and some Winchester Ranger-T RA45T 230gr JHP ammo, I headed home.

The initial inspection, cleaning and lube went well, with some (what I thought at the time) minor fitment issues that seemed more cosmetic than anything else.  The problem area was around the grip safety on the right side, just under the tang and the thumb safety extended too far back and into the beavertail area.  Everything checked out after a visual inspection (safety fitment aside), and after a few days of waiting for the inevitable gun show crowd to die down at my range of choice, I packed everything up and went out to break it in.

The first range trip was on the 7th of December.  Break in consisted of 200 rounds of Federal 230gr FMJ and for the sake of JHP reliability testing I took 50 rounds of Winchester Ranger-T RA45T 230gr personal defense ammo.  Of course I fully expected there to be hiccups during break-in, so I thought nothing of the FTRBs but the erratic ejection (brass marking up the front and rear of the ejection port, being flung into my eye pro or getting flung hard to my 3-o'clock) concerned me.  The ejection issue never caused a FTE, but a well-tuned pistol wouldn't act like my CS Tac was.  Oh well, just something to work on at home.

I adjusted the extractor tension and cleaned/lubed the RIA.  A few days later I headed out to the range with another 50 rounds of Federal 230gr FMJ and 50 more Winchester Ranger-T 230gr FMJs.  The ejection problem was mostly fixed, but the FTRBs stuck around, even after a liberal application of my Tetra grease on the slide and frame rails.  I noticed when firing the Ranger ammunition that the slide was coming back hard during recoil.  This concerned me, not because I felt the recoil was excessive for the ammunition (it is self defense ammo, after all) but because I could tell the recoil spring seemed to have given up its ability to dampen recoil as it should.  After finishing up with my ammo and assisting Wendy with a bit of instruction, we packed up and headed home.

This is where it got interesting.

I field stripped the pistol, but I noticed the reverse recoil spring plug wasn't coming free of the slide.  Upon closer inspection I could tell the front of the slide had battered itself on the frame rails to the point that the plug had become captive to the slide material that had been pushed downward.  Pic below:

From SLAMfire

There was a laundry list of issues with the pistol, as follows (this is exactly what I sent to Armscor in email, and packed in with the pistol as a hardcopy for the gunsmith):

 

- Erratic ejection, slightly remedied by extractor tensioning (needs pro to double check)
- Inconsistent trigger pull (excessive weight, random)
- Poorly fit thumb and grip safety (have the cut on my thumb's first knuckle to prove it)
- Reverse recoil spring plug now trapped by slide material, battered by factory, non-+p ammo (250rds Federal 230gr FMJ, 100rds Winchester Ranger RA45T 230gr)
- Battering concerns, needs recoil spring/slide checked, ejector is still properly staked, but nose is deformed when felt by hand
- Slide stop may be out of spec, exerts excessive pressure on slide and is peening catch and disassembly notches when either an empty factory ACT or Wilson Combat mags are inserted
- Rounds strike paper at approximately 2-3" above POA, tested and confirmed at 7 and 15 yards with both Federal 230gr FMJ and Winchester Ranger RA45T ammo
- Around 15 FRTBs, about 1/8" out of battery and a slight nudge put it where it needs to be

At this point I had decided to send it back to Armscor for service.  After a few emails back and forth with Ivan, and understanding that the cost of shipping the pistol was to be my burden, I packed it up and went down to my favorite shipping guy.  Around $75 later (don't have the exact cost, I paid for a random lady's mail to be sent via certified post... It was the holidays!) it was on its way.  It arrived on the 15th of December to Pahrump, NV and was in the hands of the Armscor warranty gurus.

 

The only communication I had received on my pistol since then was an email from Arnel (the head gunsmith) on the 3rd stating they were waiting on more extended ejectors to come in.  When I called on Thursday (6 January 2011), Arnel had to hunt my pistol down and wasn't familiar with it at all.  I reminded him of his email just days before stating they were waiting on more ejectors and a light came on.  That's OK with me, he's got a lot of guns going through his shop and how could he possibly remember a gun he might not even had his hands on.

 

One thing stuck in my mind: if they hadn't started work on my pistol, how would they know they needed an extended ejector?  I did send one email regarding an apparent fix they'd been implementing on the CS Tacs that were spitting brass into the shooter's face (my problem), saying if they needed to wait on one I wouldn't have an issue with it.  Unfortunately it seems they took that as "Hey, order this and don't check my weapon at all until that part comes in."

 

By now I'm realizing that over the last three weeks, they hadn't looked at my pistol at all.  The holidays might have been a valid excuse, but only one day during the work week was a recognized federal holiday (XMas Eve) and they had 16 working days to at least put eyes on it, not counting the holiday.  I know you must be saying "But maybe they were really busy and it was the holidays and. . ." Well, I sent an email to check that my pistol had been received safe and sound and Ivan said it should only be two weeks to fix the pistol from that point.  If anyone knows the work flow in the shop, it would be that man.

 

Ivan's been out of the office, so I don't know what he's going to tell me when I get a hold of him.  What has me most disappointed is that from all the reviews I've read is that RIA puts out a solid product.  Well, OK I must have got the Monday gun or something.  I've also read all these rave reviews about their customer service.  Again, the lack of communication and the busted suspense to have the pistol repaired, irregardless of the Holidays, based on Ivan's own estimation of how long it would take has me disappointed.  The turnaround should have been two weeks.  We were at over 3 weeks last Thursday and they hadn't touched it.  Only after I had called asking about where my pistol was at in the repair process did they pick it up and do anything with it.  Arnel stated they would take it out to the range last Thursday afternoon and start working on it the next morning.

 

To be completely clear, I'm not upset that the pistol isn't fixed yet.  I am upset that they hadn't even examined it yet, 3 weeks into the process.  If they had checked it out and needed to wait on replacement parts to come in, I would be completely good with that!  I may be out of line on this matter but when your company lives or dies on its reputation and you make a promise on how long a customer's pistol will be out for repairs, I would assume someone would care to ensure you live up to your promises or at least explain to the customer what is going on.  Let's hope Ivan says or does something that really impresses me the next time I talk to him, because so far RIA/Armscor is batting 0 for 2 and if this pistol comes back less than perfect, I'm afraid they'll be striking out completely.  The ball's in their court, let's see what they do with it, shall we?