6 years too long to wait for rifle?

[marioq]

I had several emails back to back with him about mine. He offered to update my stock to an edge fill free of charge. I decided no and told him I wanted my gun finished and he agreed. So it seems as though For my particular gun, there is light at the end of the tunnel. It appears that there are some issues however he did tell me two years from the get-go and he is still under that.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I intended to stay out of this thread altogether, but I have to chime in. I have dealt with Kirby quite a bit over the last 10 years. Here on the LRH forum and in person. Kirby is a truly upstanding person and I will continue to have business and personal relations with him.

I have worked my whole life in some sort of customer relations business. From working retail, to my own customer service businesses. I have always worked with the intention of taking care of every customer the same no matter what. Never not return a phone call. Always make sure that every customer is satisfied. I still do my business that way and never intend to change. I know that over the last 30 years I have had some go wrong. Probably my fault, because the customer is always right. But I never meant for it to go wrong. Sometimes everything just lines up and that one customer no matter what you do always seems to go wrong and everything just turns to sh**.

I believe that the rifle in question here has been taken care of and the matter is over. Now it can be a valued tool and hopefully a family treasure.

Steve

 

[Matt27]

I intended to stay out of this thread altogether, but I have to chime in. I have dealt with Kirby quite a bit over the last 10 years. Here on the LRH forum and in person. Kirby is a truly upstanding person and I will continue to have business and personal relations with him.

I have worked my whole life in some sort of customer relations business. From working retail, to my own customer service businesses. I have always worked with the intention of taking care of every customer the same no matter what. Never not return a phone call. Always make sure that every customer is satisfied. I still do my business that way and never intend to change. I know that over the last 30 years I have had some go wrong. Probably my fault, because the customer is always right. But I never meant for it to go wrong. Sometimes everything just lines up and that one customer no matter what you do always seems to go wrong and everything just turns to sh**.

I believe that the rifle in question here has been taken care of and the matter is over. Now it can be a valued tool and hopefully a family treasure.

Steve

And how many of these aren't heard of? It isn't taken care of till the rifle is in the owners hands. There is no excuse for 6 years.

How many of your customers have waited 6 years for your bullets?

 

[RockyMtnMT]

And how many of these aren't heard of? It isn't taken care of till the rifle is in the owners hands. There is no excuse for 6 years.

How many of your customers have waited 6 years for your bullets?

LOL. I haven't been in the business that long.

I understand what you are saying. I am just saying that it should never have gotten here but it did. That does not mean that it was with malice or a standard business practice. He would not still be in business if this is how all his dealings went. He would not have a great reputation if had poor customer service as a normal way of doing business. This was an unfortunate situation that has ended up better than what most replies on this thread said it would be. He is not out of business and ran with the money and parts and the law does not have to be called. It did go wrong but got fixed.



Steve

 

[Matt27]

LOL. I haven't been in the business that long.

I understand what you are saying. I am just saying that it should never have gotten here but it did. That does not mean that it was with malice or a standard business practice. He would not still be in business if this is how all his dealings went. He would not have a great reputation if had poor customer service as a normal way of doing business. This was an unfortunate situation that has ended up better than what most replies on this thread said it would be. He is not out of business and ran with the money and parts and the law does not have to be called. It did go wrong but got fixed.



Steve

I guess my question is, how did it get fixed? The OP still doesn't have the rifle but only has an empty promise from a correspondence.
I have no dealings with Kirby and never will but do have experience with Chris Matthews that has been mentioned in this post. I have had a couple rifles from him and the timeline was very fast and would have defended him till the end BUT, doing my research and seeing all the negative posts and seeing how he treated people I kept my mouth shut. I consider myself lucky before he decided to screw people and a lot of his loyal clients were defending him till they couldn't anymore.
Until Kirby delivers, he falls into the category of Chris Matthews.

 

[TXAoudadKlr]

I have no problems with Kirby, he answered every question I had and built me a great rifle. One that far exceeded what I wanted out of it. Now would I place another order, probably not. The 26 months I waited has potentially ruined any chances of that.

 

[captacademy]

So 6 years ago I sent off a rem 700 action, rock creek barel, Jewell trigger, a McMillan stock, a Zeiss scope, and the rest of the odds and ends to build out a rifle. Oh and $1200 for labor. It has been 6 years. I know the guy is busy and I agreed to a 1-2 year wait and this guy has a reputation for superb work, even on this sight. I just have no use for superb work that isn't being done. Really kinda bummed, and feel taken for a ride. This was supposed to be my first custom rifle.

That's crazy/insane!!!!! There is no excuse whatsoever for that time frame!

Don't let this bad experience scare you, there are awesome gunsmiths out there, just speak with past customers first, before you decide on your next build!!

Most great smiths are between 5-12 months out!

 

[pwrdbycotn]

Do you realize what can be built in 6 years? You could build multiple 20,000 sq. ft. mansions with custom everything in 6 years. But this guy can't get off his backside and build a rifle? You must have the patience of an angel.

 

[Greyfox]

6 years is ridiculous! I don't care who the smith is.....IMO

 

[Laelkhunter]

Just to put it in perspective, imagine back to April 30, 2010 and think about where you were and what you were doing. Now, imagine you dropped off rifle parts and $$$ to this gunsmith that day, and have been going through what the OP has been going through. What would you do? I would have had to get a little more than lip service long before now before legal action would have been taken.

Life and hunting season is too short to have to wait six years for results. AND the problem is, he still doesn't have his rifle yet. At this timeline, maybe his Grandkids will be able to shoot it.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Well the good news is that he is emailing me every day or ever 2 days with what he did on my rifle, bedding done and curing, base pinned on, rings ordered, m16 extractor installed. Comm is back so I hope that is light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Pdvdh]

Hope you get a shooter soon. God knows you deserve it!

 

[Varmint Hunter]

6 years ago I didn't even know my wife was pregnant. Today I have a son in first grade and he's waiting for his first rifle too.

 

[Laelkhunter]

6 years ago I didn't even know my wife was pregnant. Today I have a son in first grade and he's waiting for his first rifle too.

Don't order your son's rifle from that gunsmith! Your son will be as old as me when he finally gets it (and that's old)!!!