Defective Mark II

I got a Mark II BTVS for Christmas. My friend lets me shoot his Mark II heavy barrel and I had to have one. His rifle was practically stacking bullets at 50 yards. This was the first new in the box rifle I've owned since I was 14 (long, long time ago).

Before shooting it I cleaned the barrel. A lot of lead and carbon came out. Strips of lead, not flakes. What do I know, maybe they all come like that. After the first shot the brass will not eject. We don't see anything wrong with the extractor, comparing it to the other Mark II bolt head. It takes a cleaning rod to get out the brass. Same thing on the next dozen or so shots. I'm shooting into a target at 25 yards and the groups with Federal target ammo are almost 2".

Next day I take the gun back to where I bought it. They tell me to expect to wait up to four months to get it repaired or replaced by Savage. I don't see any other choice so I leave the gun. I wrote a letter to Savage customer service about my dissatisfaction. Now I wait.

What has been your experience with Savage customer service?

Jon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TooJung2Die

I got a Mark II BTVS for Christmas. My friend lets me shoot his Mark II heavy barrel and I had to have one. His rifle was practically stacking bullets at 50 yards. This was the first new in the box rifle I've owned since I was 14 (long, long time ago).

Before shooting it I cleaned the barrel. A lot of lead and carbon came out. Strips of lead, not flakes. What do I know, maybe they all come like that. After the first shot the brass will not eject. We don't see anything wrong with the extractor, comparing it to the other Mark II bolt head. It takes a cleaning rod to get out the brass. Same thing on the next dozen or so shots. I'm shooting into a target at 25 yards and the groups with Federal target ammo are almost 2".

Next day I take the gun back to where I bought it. They tell me to expect to wait up to four months to get it repaired or replaced by Savage. I don't see any other choice so I leave the gun. I wrote a letter to Savage customer service about my dissatisfaction. Now I wait.

What has been your experience with Savage customer service?

Jon

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Never needed it so far. I have a MKII F/V. A friend has the thumbhole model. Neither of us have ever had an issue. Where did you buy the rifle? I want to make sure i don't buy from there. Sounds like someone sold you a used rifle. I will be following this post to see how this turns out for you. Good luck.
h

Personally, I would have taken it up with Savage directly rather than letting the dealer handle it. Most of that 4 months they told you will likely be their (the dealer) dragging their feet getting it shipped back to Savage. Also, the dealer is under no obligation to accommodate you in any way/shape/form on the warranty, so he has no real incentive to expedite the process or take the time or make the effort to work with Savage on your behalf. He'll just mail it back with a note saying it's defective and that will be the end of it for him until Savage sends it or a replacement back.

As for Savage's customer service, most who have had to use it and posted here about it have reported it's very good. Depending on the problem and your understanding of the problem they have been known to just send out a replacement part (stock, extractor, etc) so you don't have to bother with sending your gun in. If it's something more involved or an obvious manufacturing defect and they want the gun they'll usually send a pick-up tag to cover the shipping back to the factory (might have to politely ask for it depending who you get on the phone).

Time-wise it really all depends on the model of gun, nature of the problem, and their production schedule. The rimfire's are made in Canada which creates some extra delays in getting a replacement or certain parts. If it's an intermittent problem or one that's not easily diagnosed it may take longer as they try to find the cause of the problem and develop a solution for it. If they opt to replace the firearms entirely the production schedule could delay the return time as they don't warehouse guns and it may be several weeks or even months before another run of that specific model is scheduled.

Must be Karma. Soon after I made the first post I got a phone call from a nice lady, Lori, with Savage Arms in MA. Lori had my letter. She looked up the serial number. The rifle had been checked out by the gunsmith and the defective barrel was replaced. The rifle was now out for range testing. If it shot 1" groups or better at 100 yards the rifle would be returned to me. If it failed it went back to the gunsmith.

Lori said it doesn't take 4 months turn around for warranty work. More like 2-3 weeks depending on what needs to be done. She said to call Savage if I ever have any more questions or concerns. I said I couldn't find a phone number. Lori said it is 800-370-0708

I have a good feeling about the rifle I'm getting back. It will be checked out thoroughly. It shows that writing a respectful letter, signing it and mailing it is often more effective than a phone call or email. It also showed me Savage is genuinely concerned about customer service.

Jon

Looking forward to the conclusion of this. I hope you get a tack driver and Savage gets another happy customer.

I bought a 64TR from Gander that wasn't the std 1/2"x28 thread & Gander had no customer service at all so I called Savage & found Gander had bought a batch of leftover metric threaded barrels to save a few $s but sent a UPS pickup next day. I had a note that said to please rebarrel as it wasn't long enough to rethread. Got it back & all they did was clean it & said it checked OK. I called again & they sent a pickup & rethreaded it, sent it back & it was too short so the pickedit up & called & asked if I wanted a new top of the line 64 so it ended up worth the trouble.:becky:

Thanks for the encouraging feedback. It's been two weeks since I talked on the phone to Lori at Savage, five weeks since it was sent back. The weather is absolutely freak'n gorgeous and I should be out shooting my new Mark II. I'm going to call Savage on Monday to check on the status.

Update 2/9/15: Good news, Bad news. Bad news is the new barrel failed the range check so the gun is back with the gunsmith. Bad news is they are out of stock on SS heavy barrels and waiting on replacement barrels. Good news is they didn't just stick a new barrel on it and ship it back to me. :) I'm willing to be patient so the job gets done right.

Other than wolf ammo, what are they shooting in a mark ii that prints 1" at 100 yards? My 12 BVSS only like wolf - of course the expensive stuff!

Update. Called Savage again today. Talked to CS rep Andrew. I repeated what I was told two weeks ago about the new barrel failing the range test. "Unh-uh, that's not what happened", he said. "We're still waiting on a new barrel". I said I'm really disappointed in the way this is getting handled. No problem, he says he's authorizing a new rifle to be sent to me with a couple extra mags for my trouble. I'll need to be patient for a couple more weeks though. What other choice do I have? Several weekends of really nice weather wasted when I could've been out shooting. Not that I don't get enough trigger time in though. I have a few nice German air rifles and I get some trigger time every day. I'm just getting bored with the 30 yard backyard range and can't wait to stretch out.

My Mark II failed to extract fired shells about 50% of the time, and live rounds 100% of the time. This drove me crazy! Savage sent me, free of charge, a couple of extra C-clamp extractor springs with instructions to place two of them on the bolt, instead of just one.
Now, it extracts fired shells 100% and unfired ones about 95% of the time. Not perfect, but better. I suppose I'll have to live with it.
Other than this particular issue, I'm thrilled with this rifle. It's an absolute tackdriver and the first and only left-handed bolt-action .22 rifle I've ever seen.
If Savage could only correct a couple of these annoying flaws, the Mark II would be a terrific bargain.

The phone call that my new Mark II was in finally came. When I went to pick it up they tried to get me to pay another background check fee. I managed to convince the manager of the store it shouldn't be my responsibility to have to pay twice. I already paid all the required taxes and fees once and that was all I was going to pay. Savage did throw in a couple extra 5 shot magazines. I inspected the rifle carefully before leaving the store. I was dismayed to find spots of rust on the bolt. WTF?! I decided to keep it anyway. A little rubbing with some Mothers Polish and the rust spots came out. The bolt was bone dry, no sign of lubrication from the factory at all. I cleaned the barrel and though it was obviously test fired, it was nowhere near as dirty and lead fouled as the returned Mark II was right out of the box.

Fingers crossed I don't have to work another weekend so I can finally have some fun with my very late Christmas present.
Jon