EDIT: This matter has been resolved. I called them and they said it would ship last Thursday and it arrived today (Friday). I have picked up the rifle and it is very, very beautiful. I love it. I'm still a bit upset that they didn't call or email or anything to tell me that there would be delays from the original estimation. Perhaps it is my fault to have plans and ordered the rifle even though the original estimate gave me 4 weeks to play around with any delays. I just think if anyone at FA reads this or if anyone plans to buy from FA to remember that it's going to take a while, yes, but if you have any plans make sure you plan around that. I know their peerless takes 8+ months and there's no way that somebody could sit around for a year and not have some sort of plans such as visiting family across the state or going out of the country. Overall I think a phone call or something would be nice if you know it was built and estimated at some time and that goes over.

So some of you know I ask some questions around this forum about gun parts. I am so upset and angered by Fulton Armory that I decided to put in a little rant and hopefully inform potential buyers of their misdeeds so that you'll make an informed decision.

This is a little bit of a rant and a little bit of information for anyone planning to order from them.

First let me say I spent nearly 5-6k dollars at this place. It's not like I just put in an order or bought some small time gear. Last year I bought a M14 from them and before ordering I read a lot of different things. I read that they get your order, then you wait for a very, very long time sometimes exceeding several months. Risking a gamble I decided to put in an order for an M14 and they quoted me 12 weeks and probably less. They were correct as I got my rifle in 11 weeks. I bought numerous gadgets and accessories on the site that would probably exceed several grands worth of magazines, and other stuff that I wanted to do with my m14. I loved that rifle so much that I decided to dive into the Garand. Starting this year in January I decided to get a Garand. The site said that the wait time was 6-8 weeks. I thought that was a great thing because that would put it sometime in March and I can enjoy it a little before I head out of the country. Around mid-March I logged into the site and found that they changed the time to 10-12 weeks. A little surprised, I called and asked if they would expect it done in the original time frame they estimated. The person on the phone assured me that it would get done in 10 weeks. 10 weeks came, and I heard nothing. So I called them again explaining that I am about to head out for a couple of months and would not be able to pick up the rifle in time and would either need it to be placed on hold or need to know when it can be shipped. The person on the phone assured me that that it would be done this week. This week came and went and heard nothing. I had to change my FFL once because it expired in March and I had to have them re-fax them the FFL.

I should also add that with this order I added a ar15 stripped lower. Could that have made the order time increase? Who knows because they didn't tell me anything.

The thing that pisses me the hell off isn't that it's taking so long. They make some excellent rifle and service. The thing that pisses me off badly is the lack of communication. I sent numerous emails and heard nothing back from them. I call and they give me some generic answer. I can understand that time will increase due to demand and probably shortage of supply. What I can't understand is why a simple phone call or email can't be done? Why couldn't they just email like say, "Hey look we quoted you for 8 weeks but now it's 10 weeks or more because we have a shortage of something." Nope, nothing like that. I am literally so pissed off right now that my stomach hurts and running for 5 miles didn't help one bit.

To me the lack of communication indicates a superiority complex. They believe they do it their way and that you better follow it or else. I truly believe they put the date so far out not because it actually takes that long to build but because they want to test your patience and cancel the order so they get 250 dollars of your deposit money. It's free work without having to do any work.

I can understand if I was calling them asking if their Garand shot out unicorns and launched to the moon. We're talking about simple order question. I got a life and if I'm going to spend 2k someplace, I need to get a good estimation and if not I need to know why. If they want my business again, they're going to have to put on their site that they promise to communicate with you and they won't ignore you. My time can't revolve around FA and what they want to do.

Overall a simple warning to those who buy from FA. I will cancel my order first thing Monday but I'm sure based on other people's complaint that it'll magically ship. I will never order or deal with these people again. I was a big supporter of FA and even had a few co-workers buy from there with various parts. Now I just wanted to warn people of this and just say that FA should make a serious management change. I understand it's a small shop but they can't be that overburdened that they can't explain why a order is taking so long or why there are some kind of delay going on. If you order something, you should be informed of its progress from start to finish. It's just good business practice to do that.

Hopefully this will help someone who is planning to order from their site. Notice I never said anything bad about their work. Their rifles are excellent and indeed one of the best I seen. Comparing my M14 to a SA M1A, I can tell you that it is a heck of a lot better made. The problem is communication and that to me is totally unacceptable. I treat this rifle better than I would my kids. That's how much I like it.

I feel a little better now having written this out.

First world problems.

Small shops that are busy are not likely to have the organization needed to be as responsive as you would apparently desire.
This is not unusual in this industry and neither are long wait times.
I have ordered small parts from them for a very long time and that part of the business does not seem unduly affected by problems on the build side.

Fulton has always been this way, they aren't a mega modern internet operation like Midway etc. If you want your rifle done right....... let them take thier time and do it right !

Other than that ...as for Fulton.... they are usually the most expensive M1/M14 parts and accessories around.

Yes, as I stated I don't mind the time. That is not my complaint. When they say it's going to take 8 weeks, I'm going to be expecting that. Granted there will be problems down the line and whatnot that might push that out. That is fine and expected. I expect at least a courtesy call or email or something to at least explain that that is what's happening rather than them just saying absolutely nothing at all expecting me to just take it as is.

To me that is flat out the wrong way to handle business. That is something I think someone would like to know if they want to do business with FA.

They've dealt with people sending tons of emails and being up their ass before. They have a long wait because they are good, and there is only so much time in a day(it's not a conspiracy against you). It does sound like someone has a superiority complex...and it ain't them[://

Give them time and you'll get your stuff.

This happens all the time.  Not seeing the huge problem.  You should have asked to talk to a supervisor of CS after the first time.  I am sure there is a disconnect in the chain there as well.  

This isn't "tons of email." Sending an important email or phone call explaining my situation and that I need to make plans and then being told that it would come within the following week isn't "up in their ass." Being told that they would have it ready this week and now they didn't and having to scamble to figure out what to do is completely different than sending email "up their ass" about nothing. Simply asking what's the status of my order is because I'm about to leave country and need to make plans because it's a little over than the original estimate is not unreasonable to me and certainly not bugging them.



You're right. They make excellent products. Again the complaint ISN"T about the long wait. If they said it would take a year, I would wait a year. When that day comes, I would expect it to be done since I would make plans around that date to go pick it up. Calling them and asking after the timeframe they said they would complete is not unreasonable since I am a paying customer and wish to know where my product is.



I don't have time now. I have to either make a choice and hope they send it out this week by Wednesday and then scramble to go pick it up before I head out. OR have to cancel it and wait when I come back. Since they didn't tell me what the hold up is and since they told me it would be ready this week (it's over now since it's Saturday), I have to now make additional plans and burden before leaving.

Concur w/Op; FA should have called regardless of their workload.  Excellent product doesn't supplant decent customer service.  Shuff's rebuilt my Garand (into a mini-G) - gave me a date, called me twice to inform me of the progress, sent me an email to say when it would be shipped and another when it shipped.  Both emails were sent after 2100EDT.  He worked on products during the day, finished out customer service stuff at night.  I'll have my other Garand rebuilt by Shuffs not just because he does excellent work, but because called me and kept me informed.  

There simply is no excuse for not keeping Op informed, no matter their workload or their quality reputation.  They might be the best quality builders around, but it's Ops money and they chose to take his business and meet deadlines.  I'm always surprised when people defend poor customer service.  A phone call costs next to nothing and with only a short one, this all could have been avoided.

Ain’t that the truth.
I try to catch their sales, but I don’t lose sleep over it if I don’t because I have never gotten a bad part from them.

Hey man, thanks for taking the time to read my post and acknowledge my main concern. To be fair, others who read the post seem to only have glanced over it (which is typical for a really long post) and assumed I was complaining about the length it's taking them and not the lack of communication after which the duration they said it would be done had passed.

I might have to look into Shuff's. I was originally planning to buy a garand and ship it off to him. However, I figured since FA already offered a brand new one and since I used them in the past, that I'd go with them.

We shall see what happens. I'll post any sort of update I have Monday or mid next week to let anyone in the future who may stumble on this post while reading reviews for FA that they can at least know the outcome of it and make an informed decision if they want to go with them. I know one of the big things about me researching Fulton Armory last year was that a lot of posts and reviews were dated years ago. They are a good shop but just piss poor communication. Hopefully this will allow some people to see newer reviews.

Yep.  I only from them when I can't find it anyplace else.  It's not that hard to find a rifle as nice/nicer that'll show up quicker and cheaper.

I dunno, one of their guys had no problem talking unfavorably about me, when he didn't know I was right in front of him.

And it wasn't like I was giving them a hard time or anything. I just brought an rifle in for them to look at.

Not a good way to promote your services.

Yeah I'm still waiting for tomorrow to see if they'll ship then I'll have to cancel since it's the last possible day for me. It sucks they can't tell me why it's delayed but won't be ordering a rifle from them anymore after this. I guess it's a "don't bother us and we won't tell you" type industry.

Not sure about your personal circumstances, but many satisfied customers have used Fulton Armory's shop and parts services without issue.  Your time constraints should have been kept in mind BEFORE you made an order.  Shit happens, delays occur, and for 99.9 percent of people waiting a little longer is not a matter of life or death.

Paladin

[shrugs]LRB did a custom build for me in three days.[/shrugs]

LRB is great. But what's that got to do with Fulton?

(BTW - did you find a bolt yet?)

You're right. I did keep my time constraints in mind when I originally saw the wait was 6-8 weeks and figure that's a quick turn around and if there are any delays I can still get it in time. You're right it's not a matter of life or death if there is a delay. The problem isn't the wait. It's the communication that when there are delays I can simply state my situations and make plans. I don't need it before I go, I could even wait when I come back. But no calls, nothing.

In any event I called yesterday and the guy was nice and said they were shipping it today. I shall see if it ships today and calling the store they told me it would probably be ready for pickup Saturday.

It has nothing to do with Fulton other than maybe one should buy from LRB rather than Fulton.
Yes, I found a bolt!  I picked up a reparked TRW for $165.  I'll have Warbird properly install it into my Polytech M14S.  I guess I am Mr. TRW when it comes to bolts, as I have a TRW in my LRB (Complete TRW build), a TRW in my heel stamped Polytech M14S, and now this TRW allocated to my side stamped Polytech.
 

$165? Is that for a complete bolt? Either way, that's a good find. They're $300-350 all day long on the EE

No, it is stripped, but I also picked up a stripped TRW bolt and a completed NIW TRW bolt for $350 total a few months ago in the EE.  There is o reason for them to cost a lot when you can get a new JRA forged bolt for 189.

Sorry your unhappy. I have had great service and great products when I dealt with Fulton.

Clint is a good guy. They called me at about the 12 week mark after I shipped my Norinco to them for inspection and when I told them I was leaving the country on a deployment they rushed to get it done before I left even though I said it would be fine if they didn't.

Whether you think it should take that long or not doesn't really matter because there are not many companies that are on par with them and work on the platforms they do. The M1/ M14 pattern weapons systems require labor intensive work to repair or build. Tell your 1911 guy to hurry while your at it and see what they say.

I would be annoyed if I was told a deadline in advance and it was pushed out beyond that but then again shit happens and getting mad wont help the situation.

Not going to pull any punches, this is the same thing I hear from a lot of people new to the shooting industry that expect instant gratification and perfect customer service.



That's not reality.



10 years from now when some one else brings this topic up and you have a wider world view, you'll understand that things are the way they are, and you'll probably be sitting in my position saying the same thing.
It's not that anyone here lacks empathy, it's that many here know how things go.

It's not about incurring delays, it's about calling and keeping the customer informed.

Just because you guys are willing to get bent over by vendors who promise you a decent delivery time, and leave you flapping in the wind for months at a time, It sure doesn't mean that I have to be good with it!  Maybe it can be said that YOU guys are the problem, for empowering these companies, and not expecting them to fulfill their promised delivery times.

Hey, I updated the topic with my update. Again, it's not so much about the time frame as much as it's about a simple phone call or email. In fairness to FA, I don't think they store that information. Perhaps when they build the rifle and they got a cart for your rifle, they should write down the estimated time they had at that time frame. That way down the line they could at least give a ring and say, "Hey we quoted you at 8 weeks, but that's not going to happen. Boo-hoo cry me a river, it'll be ready probably about 12 weeks." I mean I don't mind the wait, if they said it'll take 15 weeks I could say, "Hey that's great, I'll be out of the country, hold off until I come back in shipping it, see you then."

Perhaps that's a naive view of the world, I don't know. Overall this is an awesome rifle they made me and I can't wait to come back and shoot this.

It's safely in the safe and I got some folks staying at the house so it should be ready when I come back.

Good luck to all! Stay safe and happy shooting.

So wait, How many high end custom guns have you bough?  Cause I've bough zero so I'm not empowering anything.





Who's the "you people" you're referring to?  The last 50-60 years+ of people buying custom guns?