by UnaStamus on Sun May 24, 2015 12:51 pm
Smith & Wesson is having significant quality control and customer service problems. I would avoid their pistols right now. The only thing I would buy from S&W at this point would be their revolvers.
I owned a Kimber and was very disappointed with it. It was accurate and had exceptional fit and finish, but it had horrific reliability due to overly tight tolerances. Kimber's warranty is worthless too since it's only one year and they make you jump through hoops. They have some of the most infuriating and difficult warranty and customer service I've ever encountered. I had a Kimber rifle on order from them and they jacked up the order twice, turning a 16 week wait into a 24 week wait because they forgot to click a button to put the build in the queue. They admitted that it was a mistake, but refused to insert my order into the production slot that it would have been chronologically, and said that they would only put it in the back of the line. Keep in mind that this was for a rifle that likely would have been used as a SWAT sniper rifle. I chewed their ass over it, but they didn't seem to care one bit. They honestly weren't upset over screwing me, so I told them to cancel the order and they didn't even bother to dissuade me. After that I was absolute done with them so I sold the Kimber 1911 and will never own another product from that company. I will either buy a Springfield, or step up to a Wilson Combat. I have talked to several gunsmiths over the years of my Kimber ownership, and every one was complimentary of Springfield.
It baffled me how a craptastic buisiness like Kimber can stay in business, and how they could possibly be getting so many contracts with LAPD SWAT and SIS divisions. Then I found out that Kimber undercuts a lot of people on the bid. Add to that the LAPD is basically buying the guns with the intention of doing their own work, as the LAPD armory has several trainied 1911 pistolsmiths who do all of their own repairs. They have numerous spares to hand out when guns go down and need fixing. I realized that since LAPD intentionally doesn't use Kimber's customer service or warranty, it's a non-issue for them.