I ordered two back on the 5th. The website has a notice that due to recent snow/ice storms production was delayed and all pending orders will ship by the 20th. The 20th came and went and my order still reads "Awaiting Shipping".

I think Tennessee Arms has a good product and they seem like good folks, but I am disappointed in the "In stock-Just Kidding!" shell game that seems to be going on. The home page still advertises that most orders ship within 3 business days.

Anybody had a better experience with them lately?

I ordered a ghost lower back in January.  Received it and tried to fit an upper receiver and found the takedown pin holes were off about 1/8".  Returned it, and waited for a month to receive a replacement.  Front pivot "nub" that sticks out up front is cracked right out the box.  Returned it in exchange for one of the hybrid lowers about 2 weeks ago and still don't have my replacement.  I called them last week, and it was supposed to ship "the next day".......If I didn't already have the $20 FFL fee invested in it, I'd ask for a refund.

Uh-oh, sounds like this may have been a bad purchase...


Anybody else have any experiences?

No personal experience but the guys on the AR15 subreddit all seem happy with their purchases. TNArms's rep is active over there.

An update-

I e-mailed Tennessee Arms this week and received a prompt, detailed, and courteous response. I need to have my FFL re-send their license (probably because they did not e-mail it the first time) and my order should ship this week.

It seems like Tennessee Arms is really trying to offer good customer service and meet all their obligations, and their communications regarding the order delay have been excellent once I contacted them about it.  

I will post another update when I receive the lowers, but the situation is looking much better at this point..

I had a similar experience as the OP.  The FFL I chose at the time was open for business from thurs-sunday.  I received an email from TA that they couldn't get in touch with them.  So I provided another FFL in my area.  Still took over a week -half to ship out.  When I contacted TA originally they said the two lowers were in stock and ready to go, not so much??  I too had trouble fitting up a stag upper with TA lower.  My AAC 300 fit tight but the pins did go in.

Update as of 3/31/15-

The two lowers I ordered on 3/5 still haven't shipped. I had my FFL dealer re-send their license last week and then notified TAC that I had done so. No response. I sent another e-mail this week asking for an update, and again, no response.

So it is back to the waiting game, despite the positive assurances offered by TAC last week.

I think they are just overwhelmed, but they continue to offer sales and "3-5 day shipping" on their website.

This is probably not a good strategy if they are struggling to get a month's worth of order backlog out the door.

Edit- Supposedly my order shipped today so I am moderating my commentary slightly.

End of April is the new eta for the 308 lowers

Gotcha, but these were the standard 5.56/Multi-cal lowers.

I called again last week about mine, and was told "it will ship next week".  I explained that I've been waiting on a functioning lower since January and was previously told it would be shipped the week before.  The lady rudely said "it will ship today" then hung up the phone.

Ask for a refund and pick up an Anderson lower on the cheap. Oh yea, don't forget to tell them to shove it!

 

Update on the 3/31/15 Update-

My order just got marked as shipped and I received a tracking number. Hopefully I will receive it soon and I will post my initial impressions.

I don't want to be harsh on TAC, I think they are a small company doing the best they can in a very competitive market.

But I think they should be more conservative in what they are presenting in terms of order turnaround on the website, and should also jettison the service of contacting the customer's FFL on their behalf. I think this sounds like a great idea for making it easier for customers to order, but has to create a lot of headaches on their end that ultimately slow down order processing and shipping.  

Normally, that's what I would do but I was wanting to build a budget lightweight range gun.

I received the new lower a little while ago.  Seems to be in way better condition than the last 2 were.  They even included a lengthy hand written letter apologizing for the delay and hassle.

Beyondstatic-


Good! I hope the new lower works out better for you, post on here how it mates to the upper if you get the chance.  

I've had plastic lowers that take some "torque" to get the upper to fit (like my CAV-15 lower), but not on the order of 1/8".

It is nice that TAC included the letter.

Picked up my two lowers on Sat., just shy of 30 days after I placed my order.

I assembled one and put the other in the parts bin to await a rainy day.

I used an Anderson lower parts kit and all parts went in just fine. I did run some drill bits through the detent and pin bores first, but I don't think this was absolutely necessary. I've assembled a stripped New Frontier polymer lower before and it was critical on that one to clean the bores on that lower first before assembly.

Finish was good, but not great. There were some minor uneven seams and welds in the plastic, and some flashing that needed a little trimming. But the color was nice and even, none of the mottled appearance that some early reviews of these lowers noted. The uneven seams aren't too noticeable once the lower is assembled.

I fitted four various A1/A2 uppers (all I had on hand) and all fitted up to the lower just fine. The weight reduction over an aluminum lower is noticeable.

So overall, I am happy with the purchase at this point other than the longish wait time. It seems like TAC has caught up after the weather-induced delays and is delivering back on schedule. If your curious, I say it is worth trying one out, especially if you can pick one up on sale.

I've been thinking of ordering from them, so glad to hear things seem to be going better. Austin, did you have any issues fitting the grip?

I just ran into this post today, so sorry for the delay in my response.

I ordered a lower the 1st week in March and didn't receive it from them until April. I DID receive excuses and several assurances that my receiver was shipping soon.  Weather delays (really? Tennessee has no idea about bad weather *lol*), no brass inserts (how can you not have a huge stock of a basic part of your manufacturing process when you are running "blow out" sales?), no LPK (I ordered mine with the LPK pre-installed and they didn't realize that they didn't have any until a few weeks later?).

When I finally received my lower, there was plenty of flashing flakes to be removed, there were flaws/cuts around the takedown pin area, there was a run along the side, and the bold catch area looked like a rabid squirrel chewed its way around the edges when inserting the lpk hardware. The lower would not fit into any of my uppers - had to pound it in and work on the rear pin area to get it to finally fit. And that squirrel didn't do a very good job, as the bolt catch won't catch - the catch sticks and requires a bit of force to move due to the poor fit.

Overall, I was not overly impressed with my purchase.  Gladly, the price point for their product is pretty low, so I'm not out much.  

On the up side, the pink does a pretty good job at matching my magpul pink furniture :)