what to do? purchased used gun and its malfunctioning

[leeam]

What do you guys think I should do? See if they'll fix the gun for free even though it's outside of the 30 day warranty, try to return the gun to them, do a charge back on my credit card so i have some leverage, see if they'll let me "upgrade" to a new one for a discounted price, sell it, something else?

I purchased a rather expensive used .22 ($700) from a large gun store mid April. It wasn't exactly a bargain price. Only 23% off new price for a 30 year old model, but I thought it was a fair price considering they said if there was any problems with it they have a 30 day warranty.

I went to test the gun and the safety malfunctions. Every 3-5 rounds fired (tried 6 different brands of ammo) the safety is still visibly in the off position, but it is engaged. If you push it down (off) it will move slightly and the gun will continue to fire. The safety was very hard to engage/disengage manually, but firing it apparently engages it quite easily (even though the external safety visibly appears to not have moved).

I took it back (about a week later since its a 22 mile drive 1 way) and they said they'd repair it free of charge. 3 weeks later I'm told it's done. About a week later (yesterday) I go to pick it up. I took it to the range and it still malfunctions. This time every 8-12 rounds or so.

The tag that was on the gun when I picked it up said "adjusted spring tension on safety". The safety is easier to manually engage/disengage, but that's not why I took it there. Although not sure I can blame the gun smith entirely considering the tag lists the reason for me bringing it as "safety sticks". I did mention the safety being hard to engage/disengage when I brought it in, but I made it very clear that the safety being difficult to engage/disengage wasn't enough for me to have bothered bringing it back. The major concern was the safety engaging by itselt.

As a side note: The day I brought the gun back I was told they received a bunch of handguns the same day for repair. The guy took my information and gun to some back room and I heard him say something like "the guy who bought Randy's gun brought it back". (Randy might not have been the correct name and he might not have even been referring to me, but I think he was.) This implies that the people at the shop knew the previous owner.

So how would you guys handle this? Keep in mind there's a 30 day warranty, but that has since expired. I've only had the gun in my posession 9 days now and I'm counting the day I bought it, took it there, and picked it up. So I've only had it 6 full days + 3 partial days.

Advice much appreciated. TIA.


*** UPDATE ***

EDITED for update (8-14): Well I got the gun back, it is STILL malfunctioning. I don't know what to do now, but I'm rather pissed. Thought it'd be best to vent here rather than calling the store and bitching, at least until I'm not so upset about it.

So here's the rundown including dates.

Purchased 4-16
Returned for service 4-23
Picked up 6-2
Returned for service 6-5
Picked up 8-14

STILL DOESN'T WORK. By that I mean, I can't shoot 5 shots without it failing to fire. Before it was that the safety was engaging internally or something, now it's even worse. I used to be able to get it to fire another round by turning the safety on and back off. I have to remove the magazine, pull the slide back a few times, etc. to get it to function another couple rounds. I haven't messed with it enough to determine exactly what I do makes it work, but what I do know is doing the following one time doesn't fix it: replacing the magazine, racking the slide, flipping the saftey on/off. I have to do that multiple times.

So my original question remains, what do I do about this? I think I've been pretty damn reasonable up until this point. I've never bitched at them once. I've been perfectly calm and not acted like I was blaming them. Far too much time has passed and my gun still doesn't work. They've been given 2 chances and over 3 months to fix it. This last time I brought it back the gunsmith went to the back and test fired it several times and said he experienced the misfiring problem, so it's not just me.


*** UPDATE ***

EDIT for update (8-17): Got a check (not store credit) for cost of gun + tax (but not the $5 PICS fee).

[dc dalton]

Whenever I've seen anything like this the warranty was extended from the repair time. Since you gave them the gun to fix it was not in your possession and as far as I'm concerned the warranty stops and resets from when you pick it up again ... they surely warranty their repair work right?

[Poonie]

Take the gun back, tell them initial problem wasn't addressed properly and you are not satisfied. If they balk, tell them you want an exchange for a comparable gun or a total refund. Bottom line you, the customer are not satisifed. The customer is always right. If they can't honor your request to fix an obvious problem, demand your money back and shop elsewhere from then on.

[Roundboy]

The customer is NOT always right.


... but you are in this case. You got a warranty repair within the 30 day time frame. They did *something*, but did not address the issue. You are well within your rights to have them fix it *properly* to your satisfaction.

When / if they refuse, then you can look into to other options.. but try asking them to fix it again properly ?

[Karma8541]

If it was me i would take it back, Get something else. Yrs ago i bought a 1911 took it home it would not feed, Tried new mags nothing, I went back to the Gun shop,And the owner looked at it and said pick another sidearm. I never did find out what was wrong with it, But he was nice enough to upgrade me at no additional cost. I walked with a Glock 17 being he had no other 1911's in then. Glock was new 1911 was not. I was happy with the serivce i had gotten.


Semper Fi,

[Gunny1969]

Be nice about it. Just take it back and give them another chance. Talk directly to the smith about your issue. If they still don't resolve the issue, ask for an exchange on another gun. Be reasonable until the are not.

[Nic]

I had a similar problem once. I had the gun serviced for the first time within the 30 day warranty deadline. It was not returned fixed, so I made sure I kept everything well documented. After it had been serviced by them a second time, but not fixed, I produced the documentation and they took the gun back for a full refund. I hope everything works out for you.

[Bigrepp61]

The customer is NOT always right.


... but you are in this case. You got a warranty repair within the 30 day time frame. They did *something*, but did not address the issue. You are well within your rights to have them fix it *properly* to your satisfaction.

When / if they refuse, then you can look into to other options.. but try asking them to fix it again properly ?

you my friend must not own a business..... if someone is unsatisfied for any reason they are completely right..... otherwise you lose business and your company goes under along with your income... they should take care of anything thats wrong with the gun..... again i dont run the business there but thats how it should be taken care of.... good luck with it...

[Poonie]

you my friend must not own a business..... if someone is unsatisfied for any reason they are completely right..... otherwise you lose business and your company goes under along with your income... they should take care of anything thats wrong with the gun..... again i dont run the business there but thats how it should be taken care of.... good luck with it...

Exactly, any business worth its salt and one who values its customer base makes "the customer is always right" rule no. 1. If they can't do that they are a shoddy business to say the least.

[Shawn.L]

you my friend must not own a business..... if someone is unsatisfied for any reason they are completely right..... otherwise you lose business and your company goes under along with your income... they should take care of anything thats wrong with the gun..... again i dont run the business there but thats how it should be taken care of.... good luck with it...

Exactly, any business worth its salt and one who values its customer base makes "the customer is always right" rule no. 1. If they can't do that they are a shoddy business to say the least.

usually we say the customer isnt always right................


but you gotta make them think they are