Terrible Experience at Parallax Tactical (SD)

[Steve_In_29]

That sounds like a terrible experience... I would be pretty irate if that happened to me. Personally I would have expected a full refund for labor.



I've been doing business with them for the past 3-4 years (since they were at their old location) and never had a major problem or incident.

They do quote me some of the lowest new gun prices I have found in San Diego, and not just for EBR stuff.

I've have had a few ARs built there as well and never an issue with service or quality.

That said, I haven't actually bought anything from them in the past 6-8 months, I really hope they haven't started going down hill.

An AR is more assembled then "built". They aren't referred to as Lego guns for nothing. No where near the level of gunsmithing expertise needed for an AR as say for putting together a good bolt gun or an M1A for example. Or apparently from the OP's experience, a shotgun.

[Gawernator]

You can learn to disassemble and assemble an AR-15 in 30 minutes.. Ha

[dadoody]

I like Parallax. I haven't had any gunsmithing done by them though. Or anyone.

I have a mossberg 590 too! I got the hi viz fiber optic sight on them. Snaps right on.

I put a knoxx compstock on my shotgun, and the recoil went from straight into my shoulder and instead translated to more muzzel rise. I compensate by aiming low.

For example, I hit bowling pins @ 100 yards away, but I put my fiber optic sight 1 cm below the target. Ghost rings would be useless on my shotgun.

[Paperchasin]

sounds like they owned up after bieng on blast her, at CalGuns...

they probably didn't know the victim was a member here.

I've seen several instances where companys or individuals, upon finding out the person was wrong put it on CalGuns and they in ALL OF A Sudden to make things right.

just saying . . .

This! Its great that they are fixing the problem now....

But owning up to it because it was brought up in a public forum is not the same as owning up to it prior to this publicity....which begs the question, would they have done anything at all if this experience was never posted??

[sunborder]

sounds like they owned up after bieng on blast her, at CalGuns...

they probably didn't know the victim was a member here.

I've seen several instances where companys or individuals, upon finding out the person was wrong put it on CalGuns and they in ALL OF A Sudden to make things right.

just saying . . .

I had an issue way back when with some stuff. It was relatively minor (backordered special order of limited edition parts with no notification), PT made it right as soon as I asked about it. In my experience, (and I've spent many an hour in PT's shop room when people have come in with "problems" that were their own fault, not PT's), PT takes care of people. For the most part, Joe has good prices (except maybe on ammo and optics, which are middle-of-the-road last time I checked), offers a number of services for free (assembles ARs for free for people as long as at least some of the major parts are bought at PT, troubleshoots people's homebrew weapons for free as long as some parts were bought at PT), and when they do screw up (which happens ANYWHERE), they own it.

I'd take that over DGM, Turners, El Cajon Gun Exchange, Socal Guns, Big 5, etc...

For traditional gunsmithing, I'd probably hit up a traditional gunsmith. For anything black rifle, it's PT.

[zhoohuntr]

What customers look for is candid communication. If something was ordered and didn't come in, the customer should have been notified and alternatives presented. I worked out of town last year and went to a restaurant and ordered spaghetti with MEATBALLS. When the dish came no meatballs. I asked the waitress why and she answered in a very hostile way, "Cuz we ran out of meatballs !" That's fine, but I should have been notified. Needless to say, no tip was left and I never went back.

[FIRSTGUN]

Bought 4-5 guns from them,000000 problems,happy customer

[sonofeugene]

Scott, the armorer who install the sights is attending online gunsmithing classes at SDI, an accredited school. We did speak to him about being more careful with instructions on epoxies. It won't happen again.

Online gun smithing classes?! Seriously?? Would you expect a good job from a plumber who "learned" his trade on a computer. You've got to be kidding. You become a craftsman (and that's what a real gun smith is) ONLY by learning from other craftsmen and spending years actually doing the work. You can't become a craftsman by watching a computer monitor.

[Gawernator]

Yeah that's a hands on job..

[The Mad Crawdad]

Everything the poster said is true. We screwed the pooch. We did order the solder to redo it as the poster requested however for some reason or another, Brownells canceled the order without notifying us. I thought it was on the way but it wasn't. Needless to say it wasn't handled the way we would of liked. I did speak to the armorer who installed the epoxy originally and we did offer to redo it and refund the money paid but the OP wanted it silver soldered, so I ordered it as requested. So in summary, we deserve the feedback 100%. We are sorry.

Thank you for taking responsibility for what happened. I am still very upset with how everything turned out, but respect your choice to come forward. I just wish this sense of accountability was around while I was still a customer.

[mosinnagantm9130]

Rare to see a company actually step up in todays day and age.

[faterikcartman]

One can pile on about you should have, could have, done [fill in the blank], but I have to hand it to Parallax for owning it "100%". Most places would somehow try to put some fault on the customer, or even threaten to sue (that has been happening a lot lately).

Bad stuff happens. People screw up. Own it and do your best to make the customer whole; what else could you want from a company?

[chicanomarine]

As a competitor I just want to make a few statements first of which it is great Parallax decided to own up to the mistake and not just bury it under the "We are looking into the situation" statement most make.



1) $60 is a fair price as the nationally recognized normal labor time for doing Silver Soldering of a front sight at 1 hour of labor. That would include setup, cleaning and sanding the area and bottom of sight, brazing, clean up, using a silver solder blackening agent to color blend, and doing a pull test to make sure it is attached properly (my charge would of been $70 on a single barrel)



2) $60 is not a fair price for doing epoxy as it is a nationally recognized labor time of 1/2 hour and whether or not silver solder was available from Brownells (which btw there is many vendors that carry silver solder and for a business to rely on just one vendor for critical supplies is never good) the customer should of been told and given a discount right off the bat.



3) Silver Soldering (actually brazing but most people do not understand the difference) is done at high temps (1100 F) which is close to the temps that you can screw up the heat treat of the barrel (around 1300 F depending on the alloy). It is critically important that someone doing that has a lot of experience and the correct tools (laser or infrared non contact thermometer very important) as making the barrel to hot will make it harden. A barrel that is to hard will tend to be brittle and crack / break from the stress and a 12 gauge shotgun will put a lot of stress on the muzzle end, especially if it has a full choke.





I have in the past sent a lot of my customers that wanted ARs built to Parallax as I did not have the time and because the profit margin is to low unless you do volume. Parallax is a great place to go for custom built ARs and they definitely specialize in that and no one I sent to them for ARs has ever complained to me about Parallax.



but I must voice a cause of concern when a person trained as a armorer (sorry but just because someone uses a file or drills holes for pin and weld does not make them a gunsmith) is doing Silver Soldering with the only experience being watching a video. Silver Soldering should be done by someone who is experienced as it is one of the few things you can do on a firearm to turn a safe to shoot firearm into a unsafe firearm. In fact in most true gunsmithing shops only after doing MANY test silver solders on sheet steel with a thermometer showing they know how to control their temps consistently would they be allowed to ever silver solder on a barrel.



I post this as a concerned professional gunsmith because this should be something that shops should be sending out to experienced professionals to do. I also take issue when people interchange armorer and gunsmith as being the same profession and level of training/experience as they are not even close.

Completely inappropriate for a competitor to chime in on this especially one who not too long ago had a long line of people wanting to break down his door for not having completed work (some said 6 months to a year late) and not returning anyone's calls! Glad I read the threads before I did business with this guy. On top of that this guy just chastised another store on this board for doing the very thing he just did.....

Sorry, but don't throw stones when you've got a glass house.


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[chicanomarine]

Terrible Experience at Parallax Tactical (SD)

To get back on topic....

Never seen a store confess to a mistake like this and I for one applaud that. I appreciate that they stated how the problem is going to be rectified and their willingness to reimburse the customer for their error.

I completely understand the OP's reason for being angry. The amount of time he has spent dealing with the problem and the frustration of it all. All I can say is that my experience with Parallax has been good after my first visit and the store owner has been very attentive to any issues.


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[supernachos]

I'd shop there if the price is right, but availing myself of their gunsmithing service...hmmm maybe not!

So public apology or not, knowing what we know now - would anyone now risk using their gunsmithing service now?!

Reputation is so paramount in any business (especially a competitive one like the firearm industry), that issues in the quality of service needs to be rectified instantly!

It takes a long time to build customer trust/loyalty, but it just takes a small, preventable incident like this to escalate and destroy what reputation you had built for so many years, literally in just days.