I'll start this off by saying that I have lots of Larue kit and all of it (this mount excluded) has functioned flawlessly thus far - several SPR, aimpoint, PEQ, RMR mounts, etc. That said, this recent customer service issue is rather irksome. I pay a premium for quality kit to avoid headaches like this, if this is how you're going to tackle manufacturing defects, my money will go to Bobro from now on.

Last week I bought a new scope for a precision shooting trip next week, a big guy with 34mm housing, called up Larue and ordered some replacement 34mm rings for my SPR-E, they arrived quickly and, while expensive, looked great and well made. My friend (the precision scope mount expert of my shooting group) and I set out to mount the new beast. After getting it on and leveled using feeler gauges, it still looked off. After some arguing with him about the quality of his mounting job, we came to the conclusion that the reticle was canted. We unmounted the scope and checked its against the housing only to find that it was dead-nuts.

We then went on to check the upper, thinking it must be out of spec to cause this kind of variance. The mount was put onto the rail and off the upper complete, same issue. It was then put onto another rifle and still the same result again. Finally, after a lot of debate and anger on my part, we came up with a last resort, we would take off the rings on the SPR and see what happened- sure enough, the mount itself is canted a good amount. The mount looks brand new and has only been used on precision, distance AR15s, no high caliber stuff, not beaten on, no signs of abuse, etc.

I called up Larue to inform them of the SNAFU with this mount and was told to take pictures and that they would call me back. I emailed the pics and received an email back sometime later asking me to send it in. After explaining that it must be a manufacturing defect due to the lack of use/damage and that I have a trip planned and need the mount, I asked that a replacement be sent out so I'm not down a rifle for the two weeks turn around. This request was denied, as was my request to return the product. I could understand if I had damaged the mount, but even Larue said that they cannot see the damage and need to inspect it further to see what's amiss. After spending $200 for the mount, another $40 for 30mm rings and yet another $70 for the 34mm rings, I'd expect a little better customer service when it comes to a manufacturing defect.

Pics sent to Larue:
http://imgur.com/a/xNReV

On rail
http://imgur.com/muCadkU

On SPR
http://imgur.com/Wh061qz

On rifle #2
http://imgur.com/JA2OhvO

On SPR
http://imgur.com/GUaG8Hn

Pics of SPR-E
http://imgur.com/4trxHjI

http://imgur.com/sTMW68w

http://imgur.com/Ysf7P5T

http://imgur.com/3h0LNHI

"received an email back sometime later asking me to send it in.

After explaining that it must be a manufacturing defect due to the lack of use/damage and that I have a trip planned and need the mount, I asked that a replacement be sent out so I'm not down a rifle for the two weeks turn around. This request was denied, as was my request to return the product."



Wait so they said send it in...

To clarify, I asked for my money back for the mount and 2 sets of rings, that was denied. They said to send them in for inspection.

Yeah, I'm sure they'll eventually make it right, but now my rifle is down until they receive it, inspect it, and ship me out another one. This means my trip needs to be cancelled due to their defective product. Again, I could understand it somewhat if I had damaged it, but this mount should never had made it out of Quality Control. I pay a premium for Larue products so as not to have stuff like this happen. There will always be outliers that aren't up to their usual standard of excellence, but when that happens, I'd at least like them to ship me a replacement immediately when I can clearly show that it is defective and not my doing.

If I had bought defective $20 rings off Amazon, they would ship me out a replacement before they received the defective ones, why wouldn't Larue?

just my opinion but sounds like you're mad that they aren't sending you a new mount (in time for your trip)
It looks like Larue wants the mount sent to them to diagnose and address the problem.

You seem crunched for time on getting a new scope and mounting it before a trip/ shoot. Maybe try another Rifle or scope you have set up and spend time learning and getting this new scope set up when you're not as rushed?

I find that I do better when I'm use to my equipment. If you don't have another set up that stinks man. I'm sorry it didn't set up perfectly for your scope and rifle. These things happen but blaming Larue for trying to fix the problem without sending you a new mount isn't fair either.

That's exactly why I'm upset, I pay a premium for a product that is held to a higher standard. When that product fails to meet that standard, I expect the company to do their best to make it right. Asking me to be without a rifle for a couple weeks is unacceptable. What would it cost them to ship me a replacement before they receive their defective one? Why should this even be an issue?

As far as having other rifles, that is non-sequitur and completely irrelevant. I bought a Larue to not deal with this kind of failure. I don't need your opinion on how to use my gear.

You posted on a forum. Opinions is all you're going to get man. I am not being a jerk about this but it sounds like you have a scope and mount that works for you but your new set up isn't. Don't cancel your tip over new gear not working.

As far as sending a new mount just because someone says its defective isn't a great business model. They asked for you to send it in to have a look and make it right. The fact that you put an arbitrary timeframe on it due to a trip isn't their fault. Order your stuff and fix it before you have a time crunch... Yes that's my opinion

Where are you getting that I have a mount that works? I have a 1-4x scope in my other SPR-E, the 34mm being mounted is a 4.5-30x, not exactly the same. The mount for this scope is defective, I'm not about to take another scope out of a mount in order to deal with their defective product- remounting and zeroing the scope takes time and money to do correctly, I'm not about to do that twice. I'll switch to Bobro or another company that knows how to deal with their customers before I go that route. The time crunch is mine, you're right, but it could easily be alleviated by them just sending a replacement first. I provided pictures clearly showing it to be defective, what argument can you make for them not shipping me a replacement before receiving the defective one?

Mistakes happen in machining but it's perfectly reasonable for them to want to investigate.   They should have shipped it back on a return label IMO.  

It is not their fault that you have to be patient and wait while they investigate.   I know it socks as I have been without an upper for my only rifle while a finish issue was being addressed.   I think you are not thinking through why they should lay out money to send you another prior to receiving the part.   For all they know,  you are mailing a bag of dog shit until they confirm.   You could sack up and order a new one with your credit card and ask for a refund when the issue is confirmed.

I understand mistakes happen, I'm not upset that the product is faulty, it's annoying, but it happens. I'm upset at customer service for requiring me to be without a mount for a couple weeks.

I could see your second point if I hadn't bought from them in the past but the 34mm rings were purchased just the week before. It's not like I've never done business with them in the past. That said, I'd have no problem giving the CC number again for security purposes though, that seems like a reasonable solution but again, if their customer service is going to tackle it like this, my money will be going elsewhere.

FWIW, it is their fault that I have to be patient while they investigate. It's their product that is faulty, not something I did that resulted in its failure. The pictures clearly show that.

I guess I don't see the big deal about this whole thing.  Mount the scope and use a plumb line to get it level.  Or put a level on the scope and on the rail.  I believe these things are all made the same way, so what makes you think that one is going to be different than the next?  JMO

Only person who says its defective is you right now. Maybe it is maybe it isn't but you've gotta send it in. If you owned a company and someone said my mount my barrel my trigger my rifle ect. is defective send me another one and I'll send you the defective one back later, would you do that? You're out product without knowing if it's acutally defective. People make mistakes and claim something is defective when it was the end users fault.   I'm not saying you're wrong about the mount being defective but they are being very reasonable when they say send it in we will make it right. The real issue is you don't have a mount for your new scope for a trip you're going on. While I agree it sucks that's life man. If somethig got past quality control that sucks. I've messed up things before man. It will work out. Let the professionals have a look.

The mount is canted.

Jay is right. If you mount it up and level a flatline or similar level to your reticle you'll be fine. If it mounts up right and correctly (excluding that bit of cant in the photos) then level your reticle to the horizon and have a flatline or similar to use

Are you suggesting that I took the mount, removed the rings, put it on my rifle, took pictures of the cant, staged it so that it looked defective just in order to get a replacement for the same product that carries a lifetime warranty agains ALL damage in order to scam them somehow?

The pictures show the defect clearly, they have my purchase info and my CC number/address, so yeah, I am saying they should send another one- I've dealt with many companies that were far less esteemed than Larue who have done this in the past.

I didn't spend $270 on a scope mount to get it "close enough".

UTG rings on my JC Penney .22 can be close enough, my $2,300 scope shooting $1.75/rd. ammo doesn't get close enough.

What we have here is a failure to communicate ...
... and now I'm gonna have to order in some lunches.

After flaming our customer service folks, I got this back.




ETA - Not sure what to do here - where's Solomon and his wisdom when ya need him?

Sorry man I just don't see the big deal in sending it in without a replacement on the way. Sorry for your troubles though. Good luck.

i understand your frustration but I don't get why you think it will take 2 weeks to get it there and back? if its that close of a timeline and to avoid canceling a trip i would pay the 30 bucks to overnight the fucker there

this reminds me of the saying: if i gave everyone in the company a $100 bill, there would be a least 1 mother fucker that complained his/hers wasn't as crisp as everyone elses

Well that escalated quickly...

And possibly de-escalated even faster...

I asked for a refund as a potential option after hearing I wouldn't get the mount in time. At that point, I was so mad, I decided to sell off every Larue mount I have. Before that was brought up, I asked only that one be shipped before you received my defective one, an option that still seems reasonable to me. I think it's ridiculous that you ask me to unmounted my other scope just so you all can avoid shipping the replacement first.  Asking me to remount the scope completely defeats the purpose of having two separate mounts, that's just silly. The pictures clearly show the defect, if that's not enough for you, I'm more than happy to do anything you need to show that it is, in fact, defective. As far as the overnighting of the new mount, that conversation didn't happen, neither did the phone conversation with the sales team- someone on your staff is fabricating that. If the replacement mount were to ship as fast as the rings, I'd have it in time, no need to overnight anything.

http://imgur.com/1DMpPxy

Doesn't sound like you've got a lot to sell but I'll keep an eye on the EE

That's what I had on me, I have an aimpoint H/T/R-1 mount and a PEQ-2a mount as well.

It's enough money spent on Larue product that I was hoping for better than this.

Well good luck. Sounds like you'll have to sight in all your scopes again though

A price I'll gladly pay to avoid this kind of nonsense again. I drank the kook aid for a long time but it's clear that there are cracks in the dam. I've had customer service issues with companies before but I've never had someone make up stories saying I asked for things I didn't and that I spoke to people I hadn't.

Edit: I looked through my phone records to make sure I didn't have a memory lapse that lasted a few hours, that "he called last night" call never took place. I made one call to customer service at 2:13pm and that's it. Your staff is blatantly lying to you and your posting it on here to attempt to flame me and make me look foolish is downright ridiculous.

^^^

Guess that's the circuitous way to call me a liar.

ETA - 2:30 is last night to them.

You're damn right I'm calling you a liar, that phone call did not take place, I never asked for a mount to be overnighted and never spoke to your sales team.

That phone call at 2:13PM CST was the only call that was made, it was made to customer service and it was the first attempt to contact Larue about the canted mount.

What kind of company attempts to spin something like this to make the customer look bad instead of dealing with the issue of a faulty product?

This is ridiculous.

If the mount was fine with 30mm rings wouldn't it be fine with 34mm rings?  Just asking as I have never switched rings out on my mounts (used some of the reducers for a while, but never switched rings).  Doesn't seem like the way the mount is made that switching the rings would make a difference?

It was faulty before the ring switch, as that scope was only used for sub 300y shooting, I didn't notice it. The cant does explain why I was always chasing zero.


I want an answer as to why Larue felt it necessary to make up a story about my demanding overnight shipping and having conversations that didn't take place. Why is this level of unprofessionalism something your customers are subject to?

Oh, ok - well, good luck.

Years ago, I found shipping in a tizzie, wrapping layers of tape around a box.  I said "What's up?"

They said it was the 4th or 5th Aimpoint Comp-M2 sent to this customer and that each time it arrived, the box had ripped open and no Aimpoint.  

I told them not to ship number 5 and to tell the customer that Mark LaRue asked that he blow his driver's license up on a copier and fax it to me.

End of drama.

Ever since then, they are, shall we say, a wee bit more cautious.

But they are not liars, and neither am I, hence my opening "failure to communicate" opening remark.



ETA - we see the two spare ring sets on your customer history ... but you wanted us to Nextday on our dime, a new mount set to replace one you got second hand four years ago ?  Am I the only one that sees an issue here ?  We said send it in and we'd take care of it.  Did you want us to have a limo take you to the range too ?

So if I understand this correctly... Op bought a used larue mount, ordered a set of genuine larue rings, now claims the mount is canted and wants larue to overnight a new mount?

If that is the case then this thread is .

I have no idea what that story meant but I can prove through phone records that I never made a second call to your team. Can your guys prove that I did? We both have access to the emails where nothing remotely close to expedited shipping was mentioned, and you plainly admit that "yesterday evening" was 2:13pm CST. The only person between us with questionable facts is you.

If this is how you deal with customers, by fabricating stories about fictitious demands in order to make them look unreasonable, you'll reap what you sow. Companies are already starting to chip away at your market, I can't say I'm surprised why.

All this over shipping a mount before you can verify that my pictures are true, good show, good show.

No mention of overnighting ANYTHING ever took place, he made that up to make me look bad.

I made one phone call to them at 2:13PM CST letting them know that I had an issue with the mount, the rest of that he completely made up.

Well, when you said you had to have it this weekend ...

Wait a damn minute, now you're saying that I didn't say it, but you INFERRED that I wanted it overnighted. I said I needed a mount for the weekend, I didn't ask you guys to overnight me one, I especially didn't ask you to do it on your own dime.

What else in that story did you just infer?

Stick to the facts here, you making things up doesn't help anything and only serves to hurt your already suffering credibility.

 
Who cares who called who and what was said....


You want to shoot a precision rifle with a SPR-E mated to a 4.5-30 with a 34mm tube?


And you think that because the base of a mount is not perfectly level that is the reason you are chasing zeros?


Your credibility continues to rise with each comment.

Infer ? ... massively out of spec ?  ... mount cost you several hundreds of dollars ? ... you're unwilling to provide a replacement ?

My credibility isn't called into question because of my choice of equipment. Credibility gets called into question when you deny lying and a few posts later confirm that you were lying and had inferred something.

Uh, you replied to someone else's post.

ETA - and for the record, I posted  a reply from my team ... which you keep using as if it were said by me.  Back to the failure to communicate post again.

It is massively out of spec, look at the level, it's off by at least a few degrees.  I did spend hundreds on that setup- the rings alone were $67. You were unwilling to provide a replacement without seeing mine in person first, the pics weren't enough.

You inferred that I wanted you to overnight it, at your expense, to me- I never asked for that, you made that up in your head. When I said that was a lie, you denied it- it clearly was a lie, you are a liar. If you'll ship it based on the pics, I'll gladly let you put on my CC to ensure you get the defective one.

How can a business the size of yours risk it's reputation for garbage like this? Did you bump your head this morning?

Sucks you have to deal with people like this Mark.

OP, send this mount in, take the LT mount off your other rifle and use it. Who cares if you have to rezero it later? It shouldn't be that hard to do. You are creating a major problem over something that can be easily resolved. Its not Marks fault you have a trip coming up. maybe you should have inspected your gear earlier instead of waiting until the last minute and demanding Larue make everything all better.

Your communication problems internally aren't my problem, you're responding for Larue, take some responsibility for the lies and nonsense you're spreading as if they were facts.

I never asked for free overnight shipping, internal miscommunication or not, you backed your CS team and then clearly showed that it was made up.

So the world is in fact not flat ?

I pay for good kit to avoid this kind of thing. I have ample time to get this sorted before next week, this weekend was to be my trip to zero the rifle- I didn't wait until the last minute, but you're damn right it's Larue's responsibility to make it right.

Please note that I never said I wouldn't pay shipping, nor did I say I wanted anything for free, just a mount that isn't canted.

We're done, call me all the sh*t you want, you ain't getting Next Day Air.

Back to being out of control.

Smart, I understand your side of things. It can be very irritating to have to deal with CS, even when things go perfectly and a pleasant. Everyone wants a product to work the first time around but there's always the chance something can go wrong.

I've had amazing experiences with Mark and Co. and I am sorry your results have been different.

I'm in no way affiliated with Larue Tactical, outside of shooting their rifles and using other various products of theirs, but I'll tell you what. What mounts do you have left? Make me a package deal and if we can come to an agreement I'll scrounge the bucks, sell something if I have to, just so that you don't have to deal with them any longer than you feel necessary. I'll deal with them if there's a problem or I'll just eat the cost of something being screwy.

I'm serious. Give me a good price and a paypal addy and we can make this work if you really want to be rid of the products and just eject from the situation.

I'll bite the bullet, as I believe in the company and understand that you don't need the headache. The two parties can split amicably.

Laugh it up all you want, this morning you had an annoyed customer, now you've lost a customer for life. If you think it was worth it for the yucks, enjoy, I hope it was worth it.

Bobro, here I come.