I get so sick of this crap. Someone with an issue posts it on the net and suddenly a companies reputation is in question. Do a search on any board for "Brand X" and you will find any number of problems. Name a gun - any gun and someone out there has issues with it. List all of the guns you own - the guns you swear by - the ones you feel are "the best". Chances are someone on some board is bitching about it right now....
Well, the fact of the matter is that a lot of gun companies CS/QC has ended
up in the shitter recently, theres no really getting around that. Nothing
seems to be very certain anymore, other than one individual buying a given
gun, testing it, and praying like hell that it was made on a Monday.
And often times the complaints are very legitimate. For example, I've been
on Sigforum a long time.... pre the P229 DHS contract win, whenever that
was. After that happened the board started to get deluged with people
bitching about bad CS/QC from the company. Now it seems to be endemic
more than just a few one offs. Would I still buy a new Sig P series
pistol? Yes, but certainly not sight unseen! The level of consistency
with the company is not what it used to be.
Yet, I've never had any problems with my P series guns that I own, and I
own 6 of them. Of course, most of them are all old school, so who
knows. I won't deny, however, that many other people ARE having problems
with the new "american made" guns.
Some of this is why I buy mostly used guns. Let someone else weed out the lemons before I get there.
Should people not bitch when a manufacturer messes up? I'm not a
brand nazi so I don't get offended much, if at all, when someone bashes
brand X or brand Y. I might have a lot of $$$$ tied up in Sigs and HK's,
but if someone says "I hate those brands" doesn't matter much to
me. Everyone is different and thats why we have a whole bunch of
brands to choose from.
Overall we are lucky in this industry where 85% of the product out there
is usable.... Compared to cars or anything else as a whole that's pretty
stellar.
IMO it is the readers job to take any complaints or approvals with a
grain of salt. Disaffected owners certainly have a right to bitch, as well
as to "ban" brands from consideration if they so choose. It's just someone's
opinion, and we all can either take it for what it is worth or disregard it
if we choose to. As a prospective buyer of a given product I would
rather be aware of flaws even if they don't manifest themselves a majority
of the time, as opposed to those who got screwed or got a lemon suffering
in silence. Even with those opinions existing, I still have the right to
make my own purchasing decision, that doesn't change.
WRT para.... while having factory service is nice, on something which is
mostly a 1911, I'd rather just get it fixed locally anyways. Most 1911
problems can be fixed by a good smith with an account at brownells, and
often times the repaired gun will be better than what it was when it left
the factory, if the guy doing the work has half a brain. There are
some of their guns I will never buy (warthog) but IMO a 1911 with a
tiny barrel is pointless anyways, but that opinion is bore out of principle
as opposed to whether or not the gun is flawed. I also won't buy anything
with an LDA trigger... not that there is anything WRONG with the LDA
system... it's just that I feel that if it looks like a 1911 why not keep one of
the BEST parts of the 1911.... the single action trigger system! I've used
LDA guns, and while the trigger is interesting, I could never really get used to
it.
Just my .02....
-Mike