This is part of what led me to just learn on my own. I've owned firearms for over 25 years and I've NEVER sent one back to manufacture for repair or taken one to a gunsmith. I just learned how to fix any problem that came along.
This is part of what led me to just learn on my own. I've owned firearms for over 25 years and I've NEVER sent one back to manufacture for repair or taken one to a gunsmith. I just learned how to fix any problem that came along.
Dave/Charlie, I understand where you are both coming from. My son has a Remington Versa Max that has several problems. Sending it back to Remington is like sending not having the gun for extremely long periods of time and getting it back with no fix. That's why I fixed the issue on my Savage myself.
I had a long and very friendly discussion with a Cabala's store manager. He is well aware of the issue with firearms. We were in agreement that individuals have just about zero impact on the manufacturers. Large volume retailers do, BUT not at the store level. I will be sending a letter to Cabela's/Bass Pro Corporate but again I will be acting as an individual. Fully aware that shooters would rather be shooting than writing letters. Being retired DOES have the advantage of time for writing letters. LOL
Good for you to send them the info.
A previous job I was a plant manager making wire for automotive mfgs. One of our larger customers was Honda. The wire they specified had a special insulation and twist that made their wire twice as expensive as every other mfg. Honda's senior engineer came out for a visit from Japan (they were visiting the wire harness factories in Mexico). I found out the reason why they specified the wire was from their assembly process. The holes in the firewalls were so small that it took a great deal of force to pull the wire bundles. They were experiencing wire breaks in the harnesses. The fix was to increase the strength of the wire insulation. I pointed out it would have been a lot cheaper to just make the holes a little bigger. The Honda guy was obviously upset about it but hid it pretty well.
The next day the local Honda rep came to me and kind of apologized. Turns out that engineering changes are signed off and those signatures are kind of like putting their reputations on the line. Once they sign off they never admit it was a mistake. The engineers did not want to change the hole sizes since it would have meant changing the punch dies for the body panels. To keep the body panel designer from 'getting in trouble' they came up with other reasons to change the wire specs. So, future body panel designs ended up with the same issue and Honda was stuck with paying too much for wiring rather than admit a design error. Don't know if they ever changed.
Oh what complex webs we weave :)
Great story Charlie. Spent some time in Japan they ARE different. Then again, so are we. LOL
Yep, the culture is a bit different. It does generate some outstanding ideas and engineering in various product lines. I give Honda credit for 'forcing' better quality control by the US big 3. Probably the biggest improvement in auto design and engineering since WWII.
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