Advice on a Taurus

[Chevmeister]

Guys and Gals, I have a situation, on january 7th I bought my wife a Taurus PT138(.380). On our 5th anniversary Jan 12th I took her out to shoot for the first time. She had fun but the 138 kept FTF FTE. I took it one more time adn had the same problem. i sent it to taurus on jan 17th.

Ive owned the gun 10 days

March 19th i believe i got it back. The polimer grip was scratched, the barel was swapped, but i took it to the range. same thing constant FTF adn FTE.

i took it home and looked it over. As far as I can tell the slide was milled wrong and was not letting the barel go all the way up into position. I call taurus and they tell me send it back. I didnt want to, but i sent it back, lifetime waranty and all i figgure its useless to me. So i send my gun with mismatched serials back to taurus. the original barel was destroyed.
Ive had the gun 2 more days.
As of last monday and many conversations, I finally get to someone of authority. They are waiting for parts for her 138. no word of how long it will take. Grips are hard to get they tell me. I convince them to send me a new gun. no 138 or 9mm, but thay have a 32 and a 45. i set up with my dealer to recieve the gun (they need to do a new background check), and tell taurus to send me a 45 since its all they have. I arrange for mt dealer to swap the 45 with a 9mm, no cost to me. dealer sends their ffl form the next day. we call a few times getting "well your order is being processed". Just yesterday i talked to them, all teh millenium pros are on backorder, call back in 2 weeks. "the dealer took to long to get their FFL sent".

My question is what do i do? Ive had the gun 12-14 days total out of 5 months. Is there anything i can do. Im getting impatient with Taurus. Do i just wait it out? They are making no effort to fix this, they promised me a gun, that was in stock, and now they tell me they have nothing, everything sold in one day.

Theres probably nothing i can do, I bought the gun at a gun show. My local dealer when i asked for the 138 told me they dont import it. i found it at the show so i bought it.

[aubie515]

Tough situation you are going through. I never been a big fan of Taurus, but some love their products. When I worked at a gun shop PT, we would have a lot of people buying Taurus made pistols and having issues. I recall one customer sending back his pistol 3 times to resolve issues. The lifetime warranty is great, if the company survives and if they resolve your issues the first time around.

All that being said, I know that the QC at Taurus has improved a lot. Did you research your particular pistol model prior to making the purchase? I always suggest that people research before they buy. The internet can be your friend when searching for a new firearm. Keep in mind, youu shouldn't always believe what you read online. There are a lot of wannabe's online...just take a look at this forum if you don't believe me. LOL

At this point, I would recommend going through the chain of command at Taurus and requesting a refund. I wouldn't blame you if you never buy any Taurus products every again. Just remember that in production that even the big name companies have a lemon or two go through the production line. It is the cost of doing business, but Taurus isn't going to win customer support if they don't resolve issues in a timely manner.

If you are looking to spend around $300 on a pistol. I'd recommend a Makarov or a Bersa Thunder 380. I own several Makarovs and 1 older Bersa model. They are both rugid pistols that will get the job done.

For $350, you could step up to a Steyr M9A1 or M40A1. It is the size of a compact Glock.

I would recommend 9mm over .380 due to ballistics and ammo cost. The 9mm ammo will cost less than .380 for the most part and there are so many bullet weights for the 9mm.

Hopefully, you will have the issue resolved, so you can take your wife shooting. Let us know what you decided to do and what the final word from Taurus was on your situation.

Final comment is that I have a Taurus PT1911 and I have been very pleased with the pistol. I'm not impressed with the way Taurus finishes their pistols, but that's not a major issue as with your situation.

[Warners Surplus]

Guys and Gals, I have a situation, on january 7th I bought my wife a Taurus PT138(.380). On our 5th anniversary Jan 12th I took her out to shoot for the first time. She had fun but the 138 kept FTF FTE. I took it one more time adn had the same problem. i sent it to taurus on jan 17th.

Ive owned the gun 10 days

March 19th i believe i got it back. The polimer grip was scratched, the barel was swapped, but i took it to the range. same thing constant FTF adn FTE.

i took it home and looked it over. As far as I can tell the slide was milled wrong and was not letting the barel go all the way up into position. I call taurus and they tell me send it back. I didnt want to, but i sent it back, lifetime waranty and all i figgure its useless to me. So i send my gun with mismatched serials back to taurus. the original barel was destroyed.
Ive had the gun 2 more days.
As of last monday and many conversations, I finally get to someone of authority. They are waiting for parts for her 138. no word of how long it will take. Grips are hard to get they tell me. I convince them to send me a new gun. no 138 or 9mm, but thay have a 32 and a 45. i set up with my dealer to recieve the gun (they need to do a new background check), and tell taurus to send me a 45 since its all they have. I arrange for mt dealer to swap the 45 with a 9mm, no cost to me. dealer sends their ffl form the next day. we call a few times getting "well your order is being processed". Just yesterday i talked to them, all teh millenium pros are on backorder, call back in 2 weeks. "the dealer took to long to get their FFL sent".

My question is what do i do? Ive had the gun 12-14 days total out of 5 months. Is there anything i can do. Im getting impatient with Taurus. Do i just wait it out? They are making no effort to fix this, they promised me a gun, that was in stock, and now they tell me they have nothing, everything sold in one day.

Theres probably nothing i can do, I bought the gun at a gun show. My local dealer when i asked for the 138 told me they dont import it. i found it at the show so i bought it.

Chevmeister,
If you don't mind PMing me your info? I'll see what I can do. We were #1 in Taurus sales for the eastern sector in 05 and 06 so I have a few contacts that can help. They still owe me for the lousy fishing trip they sent me on last year anyway.
Let me know the exact PT 145 pro you were wanting also(Blue or SS). I may be able to cut a deal to get one from a warehouse for you and then they will replace it to the warehouse.

Rich W.

[T Durdin]

I am sorry to hear about this situation. I have a Taurus pt99 9mm and have rarely had any problems. A couple of ftf that I chalked up to oddball ammo, recently I had some fiochi 9mm truncated cone that the pt99 didn't like. I also have a Taurus 669 357 on the way.

Other than that I have found the pt99 to be a good pistol; that I would trust it with my life in a critical situation. Like Aubie515 said, the finish on some of their guns leaves something to be desired. I've had this pt99 for 13+ years and it's starting to look worse for wear, I didn't baby it though so that's not their fault on that one.

Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Stay on them until you get satisfaction, call them daily. Most big company's count on the fact that a certain number of people with complaints won't, can't or don't feel like putting up with the headache of making them keep their word.

It sounds as though you need to get on Taurus about the problem - and emphasize the bad quality of their first response, and subsequent lack of interest in correcting the situation. Try googling their company info, look for names and contact info of their corporate officers. Especially the ones dealing with customer service. Remind them that it doesn't make good marketing sense to offer a lifetime warranty, and not stand behind it. Gun owner's can smell a rat, and will turn on a company that doesn't stand behind their goods.

I'll email them asking if they don't in fact stand by their warranty.

Beartitan had a recent thread in which he had a similar beef with Smith and Wesson. His position was weaker than yours here, and they gave in to his persistence and replaced the cracked frame of his pistol. He bought it in the 80's when the warranty was defined as lifetime for 20 years, S&W changed ownership a couple of times since. They didn't want to help him at first, but eventually caved.

Good luck and don't give in, otherwise what is the value to Taurus owner's of their lifetime warranty?

[Chevmeister]

Thanks for the responces. I did some research so to speak. My family owns a pt99 a pt11 pro and a pt145 pro, no problems at all. I did buy her a firestorm .380 from a member here (thanks Dirk). and she likes it, but the taurus was her first gun and when i bought it she chose it over the firestorm. She has since told me she wants a m&p compact 9mm and a kahr k9. Money isnt the object, I would gladly spend the 500 on the s&w if i had it. I even offered to buy her a glock but she doesnt like the way it feels. Pardon me on being a glock guy, noone is perfect, but 2000-4000+ rnds and my glocks still go bang.
as far as shooting we still go. I have a p22 which works great and between her firestorm and the ones she borrows from my dad she doesnt go without.

[SeaRider]

Sorry to hear about your problem with it, my pt138 has more than 6K rounds thru it without any problem. I love that little pistol. Good luck to you and hope it's all works out on your favor at the end.

[Chevmeister]

Update:
Yesterday My dealer recieved a Taurus PT145 in my wifes name as a replacement. I had already aranged for them to swap me for a PT111. After this ordeal my wife tells me she doesnt want anythign to do with a Taurus, and to sell it, and buy her a M&P 9 Compact. I was considering selling it, then decided to see what my dealer would give me as a trade. They offered there listed new price as a trade. So next week my wife will be the owner of a brand new M&P 9 Compact, and the difference will be less than $150.

[aubie515]

You made out on that deal because I would also go with an M&Pcompact over the Taurus model that was going to be the replacement.

If money isn't an object, you should have bought something better in the first place, so I hope you keep that in mind for your next firerm purchase.

[Chevmeister]

Money wasnt really the problem, theres only 150 difference, She chose the PT138 because it was a .380. She had it drilled in her head that a .380 was better for her. After shooting a M&P she decided a 9mm was just fine. Live and learn, luckily the local dealer stepped up and this didnt cost me a dime.

[Chevmeister]

Heres the Replacement. Its gonna sit in the case untill after the baby is born now, but my wife is glad we finally have it. Thanks to anyone and everyone who made calls to Taurus to get the customer service problem resolved, and a big thanks to the staff at Targetmaster for gettign us out of the Taurus and into a gun she feels safer with.

Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm Compact