I feel compelled to openly describe my experience with the Springfield Armory Custom Shop. Like many others I have ordered a professional model 1911 and dedicated a portion of my finances for an expensive pistol with a excellent reputation.  During my wait, AND OF NO FAULT OF SPRINGFIELD ARMORY OR THE CUSTOM SHOP, I came very close to never taking possession of the hand crafted 1911 that I waited so many months for.  Having the pistol more or less slip through my hands was frustrating and I had frankly given up on it.  Deb, from the custom shop, however did not.  She went out of her way clearly spending way more time than even a good customer service professional would and made sure that I would in fact take possession of that custom pistol.  Her response to my appreciation was merely that the gun was worth it. I have dealt with a half dozen or so well known custom pistolsmiths in the past and can say without a doubt this was the best experience I have had with a custom shop by far.  

Deb, I cannot thank you enough, and yes the gun was definitely worth it.  For those of you that are looking for custom 1911 work or ordering a custom Springfield Armory gun, know that the custom shop customer service is a notch above the other options.  You would be hard pressed to find a shop with better customer service combined with the level of experience the custom shop has with building 1911's.  

You will notice there are no pictures or reviews of the pistol as it is not relevant.  There are many already available online.  I instead believe the portion of the custom process that does not often receive the credit they deserve should.

Bought a 1911 Range Officer on a Friday afternoon and realized the slot for the elevation screw was damaged from the factory. Called SA at 3:49 pm that day and had the new screw by the following Monday afternoon. Now that's great service!

I talked to Deb a couple of years ago when SA had my Champion for some work I wanted done to it. She was very pleasant to deal with and after I called I had my pistol back the next day.

I ordered two Professionals a while back and was told 24 months.....and maybe a bit more.  Oh well.

Not sure what you mean by that but I can tell you that my wait time was beyond what was originally quoted to me.  At the time it was a 14-16 month wait however as that time approached I kept an eye on the current delivery times and they extended out to about 24 months.  I have waited long periods of time for custom 1911s before so the wait was a non issue for me.  Either way it has nothing to do with the quality of customer service provided to me by Deb.  The custom shop can only put out so many guns and the professional guns with particular requirements, such as the black T finish, can increase the wait times due to Birdsong's own backlog.  The gun is worth the wait and so is purchasing a pistol from a shop that will have your back if anything goes wrong.  

i guess i didnt read your post clearly enough. Why did you almost not get the pistol and what did Deb do to rectify the situation?  I thought you were complaining about wait time.

On a side note......its hard to imagine they have reached a point where they cannot hire/train more smiths to get pros out the door and invoice folks for them. Must not be a large margin on them.