Dealing with AAC. My Customer Service Nightmare.

[wanneroo]

I had heard rumors about AAC especially since they are now part of the "Freedom Group" which includes others that have gone down hill ~ Remington, Marlin etc.

I briefly did some contract work with a company owned by the Freedom Group. Not impressed at all. Just my own experiences and opinions but they had the cheapest ramshackle everything and I mean everything down to the nut and bolt. Again my opinion but I think they have taken brand names that had value, squeezed every drop and penny out of and once they have bled them dry, will sell them off to someone willing to rebuild the brand. My understanding is that AAC is far from the company it once was. All the original people and facilities are long gone.

[MichaelVain]

And this thread right here should be a lesson to anyone why you don't shoot an NFA item at an indoor range, and why you don't buy a suppressor anymore of any kind that can't be disassembled. I too when I was reading it was thinking a missing baffle, as at an indoor range a baffle strike would have left evidence on the concrete floor. Never really gonna get to the truth of this one, looks like you learned a $800 lesson.

I would disagree about buying suppressors that can't be disassembled. If you buy well proven suppressors from .mil supplying companies, I think you will be satisfied. Knight's Armament and Surefire would be my examples.

I have alot of KAC suppressors that aren't user serviceable and they are rock solid. Surefire I've been told is the same way.

[NuclearSociety]

It's strange. I've had nothing but great CS from AAC.

It seems from that email that their compliance department (Legal) has directed a company policy in the interest of the business. Their CS can't circumvent Compliance nor should they. CS can't arbitrarily make decisions that go against Compliance.

It seems that they did not explain simply enough for you to understand. CS should have told you after a few emails "Sir, it's AAC's company policy and legal view that we can only repair or replace parts that we receive from the customer."

Evidently, you did not grasp that.

Your problem is not with CS, it's with Compliance.

Evidently, I did grasp that. It's not my fault that whoever was responding to me was replying only in sentence fragments and was apparently lacking the capability to form coherent sentences explaining the specific company policy when I was provided nothing with my purchase or supporting documentation except that they offer a lifetime warranty of their product as long as it is not something I myself did to cause a failure.

Or maybe you did not comprehend the detailed list of back and forth emails I have provided where they never stated anything specific until my last email.

However, I do not appreciate your armchair quarterbacking inferring that I lack the capability of grasping their explanation and justification when they had thus failed to provide one except until near my last exchange.

That's the issue right there.
Before that, 6-8 years ago, it's was no issue with AAC.

Another thing, the OP left NFA parts on the range. I would have stayed until they closed and went looking myself. If they would not allow, cool, let's get the ATF involved with the range having baffles and possibly no SOT.

AAC was wrong in how they handled the response. No doubt about that.
The OP was lazy for not putting forth more effort to find his registered items.
Just my opinion.

I have a 02/07 manufacturer who is making a new baffle set.
If the range chose not to let me stay, as they didn't, they have a class III license.
I place no fault to the range for handling it as they did.

[Solaran_X]

I got a Ti-RANT 9 in NFA prison right now, and probably won't have it in my hands until July. I'll be sure to open it and count my baffles when I take possession. I got the Ti-RANT 9 because my other suppressor is a 762-SDN-6 and it works flawlessly on my SCAR 17S SBR. Hopefully this incident is more of an anomaly than the norm.

[Nate7667]

How many rounds of the Hush ammo did you have through the can before this happened?
Freedom munitions has had some bad ammo in the past.

From the pics, I don't see any thread damage on the booster, other than some coating removed on the first two threads. That part of the booster is not supposed to unscrew easily, well as easy as the rear cap for piston swapping.
Is the can swelled at the rear where the booster threads in?
Is the booster assembly out of round now?
Curious see because it had enough pressure to launch the can down range, there should be damaged threads.

[MichaelVain]

Evidently, I did grasp that. It's not my fault that whoever was responding to me was replying only in sentence fragments and was apparently lacking the capability to form coherent sentences explaining the specific company policy when I was provided nothing with my purchase or supporting documentation except that they offer a lifetime warranty of their product as long as it is not something I myself did to cause a failure.

Or maybe you did not comprehend the detailed list of back and forth emails I have provided where they never stated anything specific until my last email.

However, I do not appreciate your armchair quarterbacking inferring that I lack the capability of grasping their explanation and justification when they had thus failed to provide one except until near my last exchange.



I have a 02/07 manufacturer who is making a new baffle set.
If the range chose not to let me stay, as they didn't, they have a class III license.
I place no fault to the range for handling it as they did.

Well, I'm sorry you don't appreciate my feedback, I thought you were looking for feedback since you posted this.

Your situation does not 100% put all the blame on AAC's product. Shooting non factory ammo could have played a part in your troubles.

To be very honest, if I was a suppressor company and a customer shot Freedom ammo or some other non factory ammo through the can and something bad happened, I would not warranty it.

This is not to say this was your case, and I understand you were not asking for a free replacement or repair.

[Solaran_X]

Well, I'm sorry you don't appreciate my feedback, I thought you were looking for feedback since you posted this.

Your situation does not 100% put all the blame on AAC's product. Shooting non factory ammo could have played a part in your troubles.

To be very honest, if I was a suppressor company and a customer shot Freedom ammo or some other non factory ammo through the can and something bad happened, I would not warranty it.

This is not to say this was your case, and I understand you were not asking for a free replacement or repair.

Freedom Munitions does both new manufacture and remanufactured ammunition. Their new manufacture ammo is factory ammo. And I believe the Hush ammo is new manufacture.

[NuclearSociety]

How many rounds of the Hush ammo did you have through the can before this happened?
Freedom munitions has had some bad ammo in the past.

From the pics, I don't see any thread damage on the booster, other than some coating removed on the first two threads. That part of the booster is not supposed to unscrew easily, well as easy as the rear cap for piston swapping.
Is the can swelled at the rear where the booster threads in?
Is the booster assembly out of round now?
Curious see because it had enough pressure to launch the can down range, there should be damaged threads.

No swelling seen. Everything still seems true to form.

The can had about maybe 300-500 rounds through it with a bunch of different range trips and a bunch of people I let try it with my ammo.

Its had super-sonic and sub-sonic through it no issues.
Its handled only factory new ammo, and worked flawless until this incident.

I dont not believe it was ever missing a baffle, I believe that did happen at the range that day,
as it functioned flawless up until that point.

[JoshIronshaft]

I would have tossed all my shit down range so the range would have had to stop. Leaving NFA item parts downrange is not acceptable. Ban me from your range if you want, I can go anywhere, but I'm not leaving my expensive NFA parts there.

[Kramer]

Over on snipers hide in the last couple of years, there were a few Tbac cans that puked their guts downrange. One of the cans that did this, the owner claimed that he never found one of the baffles in the scrub downrange, but Tbac did repair his can and replaced the missing baffle.