Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

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DAardvark
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Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by DAardvark »

Christmas 2015 I was extremely excited to buy and shoot a new Rossi 454 16" SS M92. I bought it online and it arrived about 2.5 weeks before Christmas. I took it to the range and discovered a problem. It wouldn't reliably load cartridges. Futzing with it, you could load about 1 in 4 without a pinky assist. After about 10 shots I was sick. I cleaned it up, lubricated it and looked for any burrs or other obvious snags. No dice. It just didn't load 454 Casull or 45 Colt. I also noticed the a screw head sticking out from the Forearm Tip and pulling the loading tube (a definitely non-standard 1892 feature), requires pliers. All of this in a brand new gun!

I called Rossi and they got the gun back on 12/17/15. I was sad, but still excited that I would soon have my fun Christmas cannon. Well it is now May-2016 and is the gun back? No. Why? Well Rossi doesn't really say why, it just seems that they don't have a needed part lying around and they don't have a replacement gun so I am out of luck.

Rossi actually offered to send me a replacement in a different caliber as long as the MSRP wasn't higher. Well, they must not check their MSRP levels often since the 454 M92 at $749 MSRP is the highest priced weapon in their catalog. So they offer a $ value downgrade, how generous. To make matters worse, I foolishly thought I would own a 454 some day and bought dies, SR Primers, 500 cases, bullets, gas checks, a casting mold, a hard lead alloy, and a few other things. Lots of investment so I can feed the beast.

Is this the way Rossi always is with a warranty repair? I simply can't believe the company can even be in business if they are this bad with customers. I have recommended a few things to customer service that would make this warranty right. Their two best offers are to send me a random gun they happen to have available (guaranteed to NOT be a 454) or to send back the defective 454 Casull M92 with "Not Safe" stamped on it. I don't think I am being unreasonable, but these are two terrible options. I may take them to small claims court to make good on the purchase.

The people are really nice and they seem sympathetic, but the options are terrible. What does a person do and has anybody else dropped into this kind of sinkhole with Rossi/Braztech/Taurus before?
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by Ranch Dog »

Unfortunately, this is the problem with Rossi. I firmly believe that they quit making parts well ahead of dropping a product from production, like they have with the 454 Casull, and use up the existing stock of parts putting rifles in the distribution network rather than having parts available at least for reasonable amount of time to honor warranty claims.

In that you own the rifle, I think they should return it at your request exactly like you sent it to them. If they mark it "Not Safe", I see it as an admission of their failure and they should owe you the $749 MSRP. It is just me thinking out loud but I probably would be %@*&$ off enough to see if I could file against them with their County's Sheriff office for theft if they won't return it. That or the small claims court action you mention.

If you do get it back, I would start working through it here with help from the forum. That is one of the things that caused me to start the forum; use this form of social media to make up for the failings of Rossi's lack of customer support.

I like the rifles and revolver I own, but when you throw in their restricted parts policy, I for one would not buy another. I personally would not send one back to them either. I would part it out on eBay and cut the receiver in half, throwing it in metal recycling bin.

I'm going to move this topic to the appropriate forum, in that you don't have five posts yet, your posts will require approval but that comes pretty quick.
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by golfish »

Michael, wasn't there a phone number floating around here for a contact at Braztech?
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by golfish »

golfish wrote:Michael, wasn't there a phone number floating around here for a contact at Braztech?
OP, I was given this info around 1-1-2013 by a member here. I don't know if it will help you but its worth a shot. He was a help to me and a few other members here and on another forum. It can't hurt ..

His name is Robert and his number at Braztech is 305-624-1115 Ext 2277
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by GasGuzzler »

Their options are theft or vandalism.
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by Ranch Dog »

GasGuzzler wrote:Their options are theft or vandalism.
Yeah, sounds like what is in play. The latter if they stamp the receiver.
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by Steve-R »

I had trouble with Rossi correcting a problem with a rifle a few years ago. Ruger pulled something just about this bad on a friend of mine with his 22 Hornet rifle.

This Horror story is the worse I have ever heard of. I would definitely get the law involved.
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by Okie44 »

It's a bad situation. I think your best bet is to take a replacement rifle. I don't think any other option will work to your advantage.
“Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.”
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by DAardvark »

I have what I consider good news. The Rossi service staff came up with a solution they said they don't usually do. They will replace the forearm tip with a blue part from a different model, not SS. They will then place a backorder for my model's SS forearm tip and ship it to me if/when it arrives. I may have a working gun back in my hands after a 6 month sleepover in Miami. I call this a win and I am unrealistically excited again. I really had come to grips with never seeing the gun again.

What gets me is that I have spent approximately 11 hours on the phone and online dealing with this firearm. I offered up many solutions and did a lot of whining. It turns out Rossi knew a creative solution was available the entire time. That "unsafe firearm" stamp solution they offered was simply insulting. Poor inspection quality let a non-functional gun ship from the factory. I guess it happens to us all at some point if we buy enough guns. I have finally had my turn taking a deep drink from a poisoned well. Unfortunately, I am now a bit leery of new guns bearing the Rossi brand.

Thanks to each of you for commenting. Posting and seeing the comments really pushed me to call until I hit some rational compromise. I'll let you know if the gun actually shows up in 3-5 expedited weeks like they said.
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Re: Really bad Rossi warranty repair experience

Post by dvw86 »

I hope that they follow through with their promise.
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