Do Not Buy American Arms Shotguns
jw...@cornell.edu
experiences I had with an American Arms shotgun and the American Arms
Company itself. If you are the sort of person who likes to jump right ahead
to the moral of the story I will save you some time: AMERICAN ARMS'
PRODUCTS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE ARE MISERABLE, do not buy their products.
For those of you who want some background read on.
In the Fall of 1993 I purchased a American Arms Silver I 12 gauge
over/under shotgun. I found it to be a lightweight, good-handling shotgun
that patterned most types of shot well. A few months after purchasing the
shotgun it started to misfire, one of the firing pins was not striking the
primer with enough force to ignite it. I sent it back to the place of
purchase to have it repaired, it was still under warranty. The problem was
fixed and I received my repaired shotgun within a couple weeks. A few
months later, the shotgun's selective trigger malfunctioned, the lower
barrel would only fire after multiple pulls of the trigger. Once again I
sent the shotgun back to the place of purchase. I was told that the
shotgun would have to be sent back to the factory for repairs. The repairs
at the factory took a few months (and a number of calls to American Arms)
more, the few months during hunting season that I originally purchased the
gun for. The shotgun was returned to me after the end of hunting season.
On shooting it for the first time since its return I discovered that the
shotgun shot both barrels at the same time. Once again I sent the shotgun
back to American Arms not for repairs, but for a refund.
I felt that getting a refund for a chronically defective and
consequently
dangerous product was a reasonable solution to the problem. American Arms
did not agree. I called American Arms to determine the status of my refund
and was put in contact with a fellow named Darryl, who proceeded to tell me
that American Arms did not give refunds to its products no matter how
defective. Darryl apologized for the double firing of the shotgun, saying
that my shotgun was part of a batch of American Arms shotguns that
demonstrated this malfunction. Later in the conversation Darryl attempted
to blame me for the problems by indicating that I should have sent the
shotgun to American Arms at the first sign of trouble, instead of using a
local gunsmith. Darryl told me that if I had sent the shotgun to the
factory initially instead of my local gunsmith, that American Arms not only
would have solved the problem in question, but would have corrected any
other POTENTIAL PROBLEMS in the shotgun.
If you haven't figured out why American Arms customer service is
untrustworthy here is an easy to read list of their transgressions:
1) They do not recall, or even warn customers of known defects in their
shotguns
2) They do not offer refunds for chronically malfunctioning shotguns
3) They can take many months to fix defective shotguns (it could be the
month of duck season)
4) They blame defects of the gun on the actions of customers, instead of
taking responsibility for their own products
5) THEY LIE TO CUSTOMERS. I pointed out to Darryl at the end of our
conversation that contrary to his statement that American Arms would have
fixed all potential problems in a returned shotgun, they _did not_ even
attempt to fix the double firing defect known to be a problem in my shotgun
when I returned it to them for other repairs.
About a month ago I contacted Sean Cowan, who is in charge of American
Arms customer service. He is about as trustworthy as Darryl and stands
behind the quality of his product just about as much. Mr. Cowan is a much
smoother talker however, he apologized profusely for any problems I might
have had and assured me that my full refund check was being drawn up
immediately and would be in the mail the next day. That was about four
weeks ago.
Every company cannot guarantee that their products will work perfectly
100% of the time. All companies CAN guarantee that they stand behind their
products and are honest and respectful to the customer. American Arms Inc.
should be avoided at all costs.
Sincerely,
Joshua Winchell <jw...@cornell.edu>
p.s. I recently purchased a Remington 870. Old Faithful.
Chris Fulton
> My name is Joshua Winchell and I want to tell you about a series of
>experiences I had with an American Arms shotgun and the American Arms
>Company itself. If you are the sort of person who likes to jump right ahead
>to the moral of the story I will save you some time: AMERICAN ARMS'
>PRODUCTS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE ARE MISERABLE, do not buy their products.
>
>
>Sincerely,
>Joshua Winchell <jw...@cornell.edu>
>p.s. I recently purchased a Remington 870. Old Faithful.
Joshua --
You should have just gotten the 870 in the first place! :)
Seriously, though, I've got one, and it's cheap (cost), tough, easy
to take care of, and I'm thoroughly happy with it. The only problem
I notice is that it seems to miss a significant number of the birds
I fire it at, and I'm not sure why. I don't think that was covered
under Remington's warranty....
Enjoy your new pump, and thanks for the warning about the shysters.
Chris Fulton
