Nightmare experiance with 1st purchase

About six weeks ago I took my PT92 into Cabela's to be looked at because I had a few slide fit concerns that just kept nagging at me. They told me they would send it to their gunsmiths to be looked at and I would be notified in a few days as to what was wrong and what could be done to fix it. I specifically said that if they have to send it back to Taurus I just want to trade it in and spend a couple hundred towards something diff. I wanted to avoid the headache of waiting a year to get my gun back. Well they called me a few days later and said that their gunsmiths already sent it in to Taurus and it would be three weeks before I got it back. I was pissed to say the least but what could I do. I didn't raise a fus but I was definately upset. I figured I would give Taurus a chance to make it right . Well I'm on my 5/6th week with no news on when my gun is going to be in. I have called numerous times and have not been given any answers as to when I'm going to get my gun back.

What can I do? Who should I be pissed at, Taurus Cabela's or myself?

This was a brand new gun that I purchased from Cabela's. I just don't understand why something could not have been done the day I brought this gun in. I'm really regreting my Taurus purchase.

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Originally Posted by nckped

I'm really regreting my Taurus purchase.

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You and a few other thousand folks, If it were me I would go to the manager and let him know that one of his loyal customers was NOT happy!

I use to work at Cabelas selling guns, I know their customer service is much better than Taurus. If I were you, I would make a stink up the food chain of Cabelas, letting them know you specifically stated do not send to Taurus (all though that was 5 weeks ago). When I worked at Cabelas we would exchange new guns if they did not work, all though I believe their policy has since changed. It is a crappy situation though, bummer.

I'm with you about Taurus, my .40 Millenium Pro was the biggest piece of junk I ever owned, and sold it about 30 days after buying it.

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Originally Posted by nckped

Who should I be pissed at, Taurus Cabela's or myself?

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I would say Cabela's, assuming you made it clear that you did not want it sent in if that was necessary. Either way, I would think that they should of at least notified you that it needed to be sent in before actually mailing it. :rolleyes:

-Jeff-

Sorry to hear of your problems.

My solution to that situation is to purchase through a Davidson Dealer.
Use the following link to see their guarantee which is independant of the manufacturer.

http://www.galleryofguns.com/#

Good luck

The Cabelas here in Maine gets nothing but outstanding marks for customer service. I feel that Cabelas should and would make it right if pushed hard enough especially with business being really crappy for retailers these days. I hope by now you have gotten some help from them with this; after all, they did make the decision to send it to Taurus. My first gun is also a .38 Taurus. So far, I am happy with it and read nothing but rave reviews about their products. I hope it gives me good service always. Good luck!

Taurus does indeed have some problems with their customer service. To many problems to list them all here. That said, they will get your gun fixed for you. But, they will do it at their speed not yours. This infuriates many people that are making a warranty claim. Contrary to what some folks will tell you, Taurus does make good guns at fair price and they back that up with a lifetime warranty. All gun manufacturer's sell guns that have defects, especially now when the market demand is sky high. Some deal with it better than others. If you're the one that gets a defective gun, it sucks, no matter what company made it. I had a bad barrel on a Taurus revolver and it took Taurus six months to resolve it, finally sending me a new gun to replace the bad one. That, in my opinion, is way too long for a warranty issue. On the other hand, they did do what they promised they would do. They stood behind their product and made good when something was wrong. It wasn't a big issue for me because I have plenty of other guns. Had that been my only gun I would have a different opinion.

One more thing that really bugs me about defective guns are people who just sell them without fixing them first. I find that to be very irresponsible. I would sooner junk a bad gun that sell it or trade it and let the next guy have to be responsible for something that should have been dealt with by me before selling or trading. Is it inconvenient to have to deal with a defect? Yes. Does that give you the right to dump the gun onto someone else? No. It seems that we have become a very impatient and irresponsible society.

O.K. rant over. sorry for the soap box.

When reading comments about anything on the internet, you have to keep in mind the unwritten good vs bad experiences that happen. If you have a great experience at your car dealer, gun manufacturer, motorcycle, what ever it is, what are the chances you are going to shout out to the world you would recommend them. Now if you had a bad experience you would be more inclined to tell everyone. There are lots of people who have good experiences that just don't write about them. Also people seem to nit pick over the smallest issues or details when to the next guy those issues would not be a concern.

So everything you read is not always as it seems.

I bought a PT745 and it was a lemon right out of the box. Magazines didn't seat properly and rounds kept getting hung up on the feed ramp. I sent it to the repair center at my own expense, and waited patiently for two months. All they did was push the back end of the feed ramp against a grinder and send it back to me. They ignored the magazine problem, so I have to push up on the base of the magazine when I fire just to make it cycle properly. I paid more than $60 to ship this $300 gun to them, FedEx air overnight insured, and they made no offer to reimburse me for the cost of sending their mistake back to them.

Taurus's repair center is a bad joke and quality control means nothing to them. Don't let that warranty give you false confidence. You are gambling when you buy a Taurus.

Years ago when Taurus came out with the 92, I figured I'd buy one cause it was less expensive than a Beretta and should be as good, looked the same and was made from the same tooling, so I understood!
That thing was a piece of crap! many FTF,FTE's. I took it back after the first outing, bought a Beretta and to this day am still in love with that gun. The only FTF's I've had were do to some under powered reloads that my sig and my friends Glock wouldn't cycle either.
They probably make some fine pistols now but as for me I'm staying away from them!

Sounds like yet another Taurus dud. I know everybody makes a dud from time to time - it just seems like Taurus occasionally makes a good gun.

This is exactly the type of chatter that kept me from buying a Taurus product! Sorry- Saved up and bought a Sig with no regrets!

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Originally Posted by BigSkiff

Taurus does indeed have some problems with their customer service. To many problems to list them all here. That said, they will get your gun fixed for you. But, they will do it at their speed not yours. This infuriates many people that are making a warranty claim. Contrary to what some folks will tell you, Taurus does make good guns at fair price and they back that up with a lifetime warranty. All gun manufacturer's sell guns that have defects, especially now when the market demand is sky high. Some deal with it better than others. If you're the one that gets a defective gun, it sucks, no matter what company made it. I had a bad barrel on a Taurus revolver and it took Taurus six months to resolve it, finally sending me a new gun to replace the bad one. That, in my opinion, is way too long for a warranty issue. On the other hand, they did do what they promised they would do. They stood behind their product and made good when something was wrong. It wasn't a big issue for me because I have plenty of other guns. Had that been my only gun I would have a different opinion.

One more thing that really bugs me about defective guns are people who just sell them without fixing them first. I find that to be very irresponsible. I would sooner junk a bad gun that sell it or trade it and let the next guy have to be responsible for something that should have been dealt with by me before selling or trading. Is it inconvenient to have to deal with a defect? Yes. Does that give you the right to dump the gun onto someone else? No. It seems that we have become a very impatient and irresponsible society.

O.K. rant over. sorry for the soap box.

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Big Amen to Bigskiff. At the very least make it clear to the buyer what the problem is........

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Originally Posted by ShaneTbolt

When reading comments about anything on the internet, you have to keep in mind the unwritten good vs bad experiences that happen. If you have a great experience at your car dealer, gun manufacturer, motorcycle, what ever it is, what are the chances you are going to shout out to the world you would recommend them. Now if you had a bad experience you would be more inclined to tell everyone. There are lots of people who have good experiences that just don't write about them. Also people seem to nit pick over the smallest issues or details when to the next guy those issues would not be a concern.

So everything you read is not always as it seems.

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True. This is an undeniable fact BUT even as a newbie to handguns just simply reading through the taurus subforum VS any other subforum I have clicked on I find problem after problem after failure. If its just an illusion of the internet that tends to point out problems...then all of the manufacturers should have this much complaint traffic. Especially since most other manufacturers charge a higher price which in turn evokes more anger when there is a problem.

Now I know they are much more affordable but when it comes to loading a live round into my own weapon I would want to know someone was actually at the helm during the manufacturing process.

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Originally Posted by BigdogBro1

This is exactly the type of chatter that kept me from buying a Taurus product! Sorry- Saved up and bought a Sig with no regrets!

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I couldn't agree more. I know it sounds callous nckped but Taurus is not known for flawless service and reliability. Sounds like you were at least somewhat aware of this too if you had asked Cabela's to avoid shipping back to the manufacturer. My underlying point and advice to you is avoid Taurus. I've only known two people in my circle of firearms friends who have owned them and both of them have suffered significant failures just days after purchasing new.

As far as rectifying your situation, I would speak to a manager at Cabela's and ask them to stand behind the products they sell, compensate for the products they carry, or simply ask for a return as it's been nothing but a headache.

I guess that I've been lucky. My PT92 has been great. It shot a little low a first, but is P.O.A./ P.O.I. now. I did have one FTF, at around round # 60 (I keep a log), but that was the crappy "range" ammo. It's been 100% with everything else.
With a Laserlyte mounted, it's my nightstand gun.

I have had 3 taurus revolvers and all of them had issues with them. 2 with timing problems and 1 that the latch broke off. set the last one back to tuarus and got it back unfixed. no more tuarus for me:smt076

I've got a 2nd Gen. Mil Pro PT140 and love it. Based on that, my son bought a NIB 3rd Gen Mil Pro 145 last December. It has been nothing but headaches and Taurus' customer service only adds to the aggravation.

When he got it home and cleaned the packing/shipping grease out of it, he found deep scratches in the bore running across the lands. There were nicks in the slide and frame rails as well. Figuring that this could be dismissed as cosmetic we tried firing it. It shot roughly one foot below point of aim at 7yds. There were also major feed problems. We tried about 25rds before giving it up and deciding to send it back.

It took three calls to Taurus before they agreed to let him ship it back at his expense. Six weeks later he got it back with a new, black-finished barrel (it was a stainless when he sent it in.) The repair paperwork said, "bad barrel--replaced barrel." Twice. The new barrel would not lock into battery. The "foot" on the bottom was .050" too short to contact the rear of the recoil spring assembly. And finally, the serial number on the new barrel did not match that of the gun as the old one had; the Gen 3 guns apparently have the serial number on the slide, barrel and frame rail assembly rather than just on the rail assy as did the Gen 2 guns.

He called repeatedly to get THEM to pay to ship it back for either repair or, ideally, replacement. They had fired it with the new, defective barrel and there was damage to the front of the frame rail assembly where the recoil spring assembly had hammered it. Instead, one customer service rep after another tried to tell him that there was nothing wrong with it, that all guns fit differently and no two are the same, that the new serial number on the barrel was really a part number, and more other B.S. than I can remember. He's in the Army and stationed in a mountain time zone so it was difficult to actually get through to Taurus during their east coast business hours. But he finally did, after repeated calls, get a CSR who gave him a FEDX account number to ship it back. He shipped it back June 5.

I called Taurus for him today to inquire about the gun's status. I was told that the gun "was entered into our repair dept. on June 10 and it will be examined when its turn comes. Currently we are working on guns received May 12th." No other information was forthcoming. Just "wait your turn, we're about six weeks backlogged."

Has anyone ever said that they chose the Taurus, because it seemed to be a high quality, extremely well made, and reliable gun? Every story I've heard revolved around saving money. Kinda makes you wonder....

For me, when it comes to something like a handgun, which could someday be the only thing between you and a fatal threat, you're gonna hope your decision serves you well.

Ge I must be the only one that has not had a problem with Taurus hand guns....yet I've had a few over the years and have a PT1911 now. The 1911 is an exceptional weapon. I have no idea how many rounds have been through it but it's way up there. Hell, I put 600 rounds through it and it was ever cleaned in that time. Even then it didn't malfunction. I just got tired of looking at the poor stainless thing all covered in crap :mrgreen:

Before that I had PT 140 that I bought for a truck gun and it worked great too. I ended up getting rid of it because the overall size of the weapon didn't grow on me all that much and I got a great trade offer. It's a carry weapon for a business man friend of mine.

This brings me to the PT 92. While I don't like that particular design I happened across one while trying to trade for another weapon. It like the others never had a problem with how it functioned or how well it grouped with it.I traded it to a WASR 10 some time ago. The guy that has it shoots it as couple times a week.

It's kind of funny to me that I had no troubles out of these three POS pistols while I have out of some that I believe to be ore desirable because they cost more. I'm not going to say they are the best things going but they are a good buy and have always worked well. My best friend and shooting buddy gets pretty bent when my PT1911 shoots a tighter group than his Kimber.:smt083

The simple truth is these are not top shelf weapons. They are pretty inexpensive so why would anyone think that these weapons should perform like one? In my case I come out really good. I've seen many of the Taurus models that don't group as well and might be a little finicky about ammo. But that does not make them the same as a High Point, Jennings, Bryco kind of pistol.

If you want a weapon that will give you 3" and under groups at 50 yards you better get to opening that wallet. But when you are not paying top dollar then don't be surprised when you don't get a top shelf weapon.

Hey Devil,

I have a Taurus 605 .357 Snubby that is as accurate as any S&W Snubbies my friends can come up with and it worked very well right out of the box with a great trigger. I haven't tried 50 yard groups but 15 yds are under 1 inch from sand bags and I have no problem hitting 1 ft square plates at 40 yards free style with it

My earlier post indicated how I avoid the OP's problem but didn't indicate dissatisfaction with Taurus on my part.

My 4" GP100 is definitely more accurate though. I loaded up some 180 Gr. Hornady HP XTP's to 1200 FPS and we shot some Thursday. They yielded 1/4 inch groups at 15 yards. That calculates to under 1" at 50 yds. Look out Elk here we come.

I was a bit afraid to try them in the Taurus. It would have probably taken it but my hand might not have.

It would appear the OP has lost interest in this post. I wonder if he ever got his gun back.

Having over 20 years retail experience, i can verify what Big Skiff says. Survey after survey taken in various retail industries found that people who experience problems with a product are much more likely to say something than someone who has had no problems. I had a district manager say one time that a satisfied customer usually will only tell someone about their experience if asked; but a dissatisfied or upset customer will tell everybody about the bad experience.
That having been said, I will agree that from what I have read on various forums, if there is an issue that comes up with Taurus, their response time to problems has not been the best. Whether it is a result of more people buying than before, poorer QC, faulty workmanship, or whatever, to the owner who has issues, the reputation of Taurus maintenace and CS is not good.
On the other hand, there are thousands of Taurus owners, myself included, who have had no issues at all and have put hundreds and thousands of rounds through their guns.

My experience with Taurus began about 1990 when I purchased a PT-58 .380. I couldn't find an extra magazine for it anywhere. So I wrote a letter to Taurus asking where I could order one. A week and a half later I received a small package from Taurus. Inside was a magazine with a letter apologising for my inability to find one and to please accept that one with their compliments, and if I wanted more I could purchase direct from them for $26.00. I bought another mag right away.

My next purchase about 3 years later was a PT-92. Then some time later I purchased a used PT-85ss. These 3 guns always functioned flawlessly.

Now fast forward to July 2005. I'm a cowboy action shooter and my next Taurus purchase was a matched consecutively serial numbered set of high polished SS 5.5" barrel Gauchos in 45 Colt. Picked them up from my favorite adult toy store on a Saturday. Sunday afternoon I took them to the range to try them out. They both have a 2 1/4 lb trigger pull and the action is as smooth as melted butter on glass. One has, & still does function perfectly. The other over rotated causing the firing pin to strike the primer on the very edge, thus causing a failure to fire. I called Taurus on Monday morning and explained the problem. Tuesday morning the FedEx truck picked the gun up & returned it to Taurus at their expense.

3 1/2 weeks later FedEx brought my Gaucho back to me. Inside the boxwas a note saying that I should clean a new gun before I shoot it. They didn't know that I always clean a new gun before I shoot it. But I had not cleaned this Gaucho before I shipped it back. As I have several other SAA revolvers this Gaucho sat in the safe for several months before I ever shot it again.

About this time Taurus brought out the Thunderbolt pump action rifle which is their replica of the Colt Lightning pump rifle. I had one on order in SS and was anxiously awaiting it. However I started reading hundreds of horror stories on the SASS Wire about all the trouble with these guns. 99% of these rifles were being returned because of failure to feed and/or failure to eject problems. Most had to wait months to get their unrepaired returned to them. A few got replacements that wouldn't function either. I cancelled my order.

I finally shot my Gauchos at End of Trail, the world championship of CAS. I had the very same problem with the Gaucho. Since I always take backups to major matches I finished the days shooting and then take the gun to one of the foremost CAS gunsmiths. A couple hours later he got it back to me repaired at no charge. The problem was a bad hand spring. No problems since then.

I just purchased a PT-145 a couple months ago. I've put a few hundred rounds through it without any problems. But I can tell you one thing Taurus does not have any gunsmiths working for them in Miami. All they have is assemblers. If my Taurus guns develop any problems I'll take them to a local smith rather than ship them back to Taurus. Probably cost less to get it fixed than pay for shipping back to Taurus, until Taurus gets their act together and hires some real gunsmiths rather than the minimum wage assemblers they now employ.

sixguncowboy,

Sounds like you have hit upon one of the reasons we hear so many bad things about Taurus. Let me start by saying I have two a 24/7 Pro DS and a PT92 and have had no issues with either one. If the only "techs" they have in Miami are assemblers, that means they must be sending the guns to Brazil for any smithing or they are sending them out to some local smiths in the area. That would easily add a week or two to any waiting period. And of course if the smiths are backed up, several weeks or months is highly possible. Of course the other factor is the initial QC of the gun. If the faults and flaws are not being detected and fixed before the guns leave the factory, that is another part of the problem.