I ask because I am one of the suckers who bought their SR25 type 80% lower, upper, and jig. First of all the Jig was being clearanced out at $50, that should have been the first clue. I first received the lower after quite a bit of bugging, but there was no jig sent with the lower. This was odd because the site said they had only a few left and would not be making any more of this model. I bugged and bugged and finally got the jig that had inner dimensions to tight, and the lower will not even fit in the jig. This is the jig they made for their lower. Blows the mind. 

As far as the lower it does not fit gen 1 PMags and there is a 1/8" gap between the grip and the back of the trigger guard. I have yet to have one item from them that works. It appears that they are very strong 2A guys, but their credibility is plummeting. I placed my order on February 17, 2017 and have yet to see the upper that I paid for. 

I can't seem to get them to respond anymore, but they are very happy to constantly send me advertising emails. Anyone else having troubles like this? 

I would also like to eventually report back that they had made things right, but we will see. 


Genesis CNC 308

Yes.

I ordered a lower from them on July 1st 2016 and have not received it.  They ignore all my emails asking if they are shipping.

I have built one of their kits into a functional rifle, but you have to heavily modify the bolt catch and bolt catch slot, as well as the trigger guard.  The upper won't allow the dust cover to latch closed without modification with a dremel.  

I run pmags and don't have a problem after modifying the trigger guard so it doesn't run on the magazine.

The jig is terrible, and if you try to follow the crude instructions they offer, you will tear up the jig.

In short, they have a product that is maybe 90% ready for production, the worst customer service, and no apparent plan for improvement.   I love the rifle i built from their upper and lower set, but it required way more work than it should have.

Edit:  it's crazy that their customer service is as appalling as it is, because they are clearly desperate for social media based on the daily/weekly promotion emails.

Do you have any pics of your problems? I'll work on getting some up on the issue with the Jig etc...

I'll look for pictures, but in the meantime, I'll just describe what I had to do.

With regards to the bolt catch, the hole is drilled too low and too close to the side of the receiver.  To remedy this, I milled the slot deeper from the top, turned the receiver on its side and milled that slot deeper as.well.  I also had to remove metal between the bolt catch slot and the magazine release slot to allow the bolt catch to move freely.  I also had to grind back the inner surfaces of the bolt catch to make it fit even after modifications to the receiver.

With regards to the trigger guard, the holes are slightly too far forward, so that the front edge of the trigger guard presses on the back of the magazine.  I filled metal off the trigger guard until Pmags dropped free.

With regards to the upper, the notches that align with the dedent on the dust cover door were too small, and didn't allow the dust.cover to close.  I enlarged them with a dremmel until the cover closed.

One of the uppers I received had been dropped after anodizing, denting the corner and exposing bare aluminum.  Another company might have held it back and sold it as a blem, but not Genesis.

With regards to the jig, small bolts that hold the jig plate in position were too long, and the holes were not tapped correctly, so I had to buy new bolts and tap the holes by hand.  The washers provided were too large and conflicted with the pins that position the pin plate.

Also regarding the jig plate, one of the holes that you are supposed to bolt through to hold the top plate on was too small, so I had to hand ream it larger.


Also, don't think for a moment think you are going to machine this in a drill press the 7071 is too hard, and the aluminum jig isn't strong enough. Also, when they say to mill out the rear pocket with a 1/2" end mill, don't do that.  The slot in the jig is less than 1/2" wide, so you can't pass an end mill through it without blowing a hole in the slot.

Sounds like the OP should return the parts registered mail and put in a dispute with the CC company.

The sad thing is that they could have a really nice product.  I don't know of any other SR-25 compatible receiver sets on the market, particularly with 80% lowers.

I ordered my Upper and Lower from them back in April 2016, I received the upper very quickly and it appears to be excellent quality. I received the lower about 2 months ago and milled it out using a 5D Tactical Universal 308 Jig. I have had the same issues as everyone else, the bolt catch area including the pin that secures it was done very poorly so that no bolt catch would install without major work. The rear takedown pin detent hole on my lower was also drilled in the incorrect spot, it is too close to the inside of the receiver. This caused 2 problems, the first being that when the rear takedown pin was installed it couldn't go far enough in to make a positive lock with the detent. It also was so far off that the inner wall near the detent was so thin that it started to crack. I have remedied a bolt catch to work and I am going to see if a local gunsmith/machinest can redrill the takedown pin detent hole through the rear of the receiver (as is done on an ar15) and see if I can just use a longer detent spring.




I wanted to add that I found another company located in Ventura, CA that offers a similar Armalite/SR-25 style receiver that accepts DPMS parts. I have no experience first hand with them but have read good reviews online.
The Buffalo .308 Matched Receiver Set

Kyle, your lower doesn't appear to be bead blasted, is that the case?  The two lowers I received were both bead blasted to remove machine marks.  That's a pretty terrible lapse of quality assurance to ship lowers that hadn't even been finished, but I guess it's in line with everything else they put out.

Why do we as gun owners out up with this shit. I hear horror stories all the time. But yet we keep going back for more...

Matthew, No mine was not bead blasted. It was a huge lapse in quality from what they show on their website and what I have seen other people receive. But honestly that was the least of my worries, I have a stellar cerakoter in my city that beadblasts everything before it is coated. I am still hopeful that I can salvage the set. But the amount of work and extra money I have to put into this is total junk.

Thanks for the info. I have not begun to machine the lower as I do not have a jig. You said you have had the same issues as everyone else, are there other threads you can point me to? how do the grips fit?  I have made a ton of attempts to get them to call or email me back with no luck so far. 

Apparently photobucket sucks as I can no longer upload 

 Here is the jig and how it scrapes the lower and does not fit. 

It doesn't look like they finished the machining operations on the rear takedown boss prior to sending it to you.  Here is the same area on one of mine.



I'm not sure why the image doesn't load.  It looks fine in preview.

So I decided to pull out the remaining lower I received a couple years ago from these guys to see if I could finish it.

This one had the same problems with the bolt latch, so I milled the slot deeper:


The threads were crap on the grip, so I re-tapped them:


The trigger guard holes were too far back this time, instead of too far ahead.  Rather than modifying the guard, I milled a slot in the grip:


The magazine release slot was too small, and bound up the mag release, so I filed down the magazine release.

I need a few more parts before I can test it out, but the finished result (ignoring the shitty paint job) is pretty good.

Interestingly, I may have found a bolt catch that works.  

I had to heavily modify the DPMS bolt catch I got from Fulton Armory, so I tried an Armalite AR-10 bolt catch but that also required serious modifications.  At some point, I ordered this bolt catch from KAK and it fit without modification.  I had already cut the slot deeper, so I can't say if it would have fit an unmodified lower.

edit:   Also, note in my picture that I'm temporarily using a standard DPMS rear takedown pin.  It's too short, and the diameter is slightly too small.  The pin you actually need is this one from Larue Tactical

MathewDS, so it sounds like even the lowers they sent out from their first batch a couple years ago were plagued with problems. How did the owners of these not notice this and write up honest reviews of the company when they first came out? I suppose they were so unique of a product back then that no one really cared about a lack of QC? I am still waiting to take my lower in to a local machinest and see if they can redo the rear takedown pin detent hole, I am unsure how that is affected by laws surrounding 80% builds and if it would be considered illegal due to a third party "completing my  80% build". I have a few other builds I am working on so it kind of took a temporary back seat.

Is that one of their uppers? When did you get that one?

@liezone Yes, it's one of their uppers.  I received it in 2016.  It's nearly almost identical to the one I received in 2015, but lacks the laser etched rail numbers and some of the machining at the rear is different.

@Kyle  Well, I think it's a combination of things.  I don't think they sold very many, I'm guessing in the low hundreds, maybe not even that many.  I also think that a lot of people purchased them as insurance against the 2016 election with the intention of building them later.  I would bet that most of them are still sitting on a shelf waiting for a rainy day.  Given that the uppers and lowers were rarely available at the same time, even when they were shipping back in 2015, I suspect that many people have an upper or a lower, but not both, and are holding off on building until they can get the other.  For my part, I didn't have an ar15.com account back then, but I did post my troubles here

Regarding your comment that the 2015 batch had it's problems, yes, it did, although from the photos I've seen posted here, the recent batch was a real mess.

Here is the thing I can't figure out.  In 2015 they had a working product.  Availability of those lowers apparently ran out sometime in early 2016.  They were gone by July 2016 when I placed my last order.

Sometime in mid-late 2016 they began publishing photos of test "articles" which showed the lower in various stages of machining, and included notes about tolerances and fixing errors in the model.  Why?  Did they lose the 3d model?  Did the person who designed the lower leave the company?  I don't know.

By February 2017, they were churning out lowers which had the weird flat at the bottom of the buffer tower cut and the squared off left side rear takedown pin boss.  These lowers were manufactured AFTER the jigs were, and it appears that the jigs only fit the 2015/2016 lowers and not the 2017 lowers.

October 2016:


November 2016: Note buffer tower fully threaded, but shape is correct.


December 2016: Rear takedown pin boss is shaped correctly.


January 2017: Genesis posted a youtube video which briefly shows the final production receiver
Video

Feb 2017: Buffer tower opening is flat on the bottom and rear takedown pin boss is blocky and appears unfinished.

Thanks to Matthew for the PM about this thread. I have been waiting 3 months now for an upper I ordered from them. They were quick to reply to any questions I had or pricing errors they had on their sight. All looked great. So I planned my build around being able to use that upper and create a KAC MK11 style clone.

Since that last email I got from them I have not heard a word. I have called 3 times, left 1 voice mail, left a Facebook message, and emailed at least 4 times in the last 3 months. And this wasn't all at once, would simply try to politely contact them once a week or 2. Have not heard a single word from them on when they believe they will be delivering a new batch. It's not that difficult of a question, you have to know if it will be a month or 6 months to start the next round of machining. They are a small machine shop working from billet. I wouldn't think waiting on raw billet is holding them up. I'm not trying to be difficult, just really wanting to complete my rifle. The upper is the final piece.

What really chaps my ass is they are quick to charge your card. I got billed on my CC immediately after the order. So I have paid for goods that I have not received and have not even gotten a single word on when I will receive them.

I'm about to start spamming their Facebook wall with this thread showing what kind of customer service they have.

That said, if any of you guys want to sell an upper please PM me. I just want to be done and shooting. I see the Buffalo upper isn't a bad option, but it looks like they don't sell it on their own and it's only packaged with a raw lower.

Build as it sits, just need that upper.


Decided to get a completed Armalite AR10-A lower that accepts KAC mags and avoid trying to work from an 80%. Reading this thread now looks like I made a good choice. If any of you guys want another option rather than working with their 80%, this Armalite lower will work with Magpul mags and I believe is legal in Cali. Link to lower here.


First emails, 15 min response is great. (reads bottom to top)


2nd email, answered first thing in the morning, looks like great return on emails (reads bottom to top)


Since then not a single word.

Good info. I have tried to contact buffalo by email on the same upper question with no luck yet.

Yeah I figured they would say no. They market them as a matched pair, they may not want to claim compatibility with anything else besides their lower since they can control the fitment.

Let me know if you get an answer.

Stag arms AR10 upper may work as well. It is DPMS barrel nut threaded and their lower takes PMags so it should work. Has a similar angle cut in the rear, no confirmation if it will fit up correctly though. I have not tried to contact them as I'm not wanting a forward assist.

Edit: Just shot stag an email to see if their upper will work with the Armalite A lower. At $150 I'll buy that upper and use it for the year it will take Genesis to backfill my order. I will at least have a gun that functions in that time.

https://www.stagarms.com/stag-10-stripped-upper-receiver/

I started a thread on another board below and got some responses for what may work with my lower. Looks like a MEGA Maten upper is confirmed to fit Armalite lowers. They don't match up well at all.

https://forum.308ar.com/topic/14989-mk11-mod0-clone-need-a-stripped-upper-genesis-cnc-not-responding/

Here are some pics of the latest Gen lower. This came from the second batch this year. 







Gen I Pmags are very tight and do not drop free.


Bolt Catch (Roll) Pin hole is not threaded and does not have an exit. I am guessing that once the pin is in there is no getting it out. 



Finally the grip problem. As you can see from the first picture the grip fits nicely into place. The problem is that the grip screw hole is not in the right place and thus when screwed into place the grip is now offset. 




I guess I can fix all of the problems with this lower, but at this point I just want the upper I have paid for.

Holy shit, I would not accept that. Looks like it completely skipped finishing. That huge tool drag across the area behind the rear pin is just amateur machining at it's worst.

@Liezone:. That's...  Terrible..  I'm sorry.

Aside from the cosmetic exterior machining that could be improved, you are going to need to hand tap threads into the bolt catch pin hole.

Also, have you tried to install a trigger guard?  I bet if you do you will find that holes near the grip and the holes near the magwell are too close together.  Hopefully not, but that's what it looks like.


Good luck!

Thanks.   Here is a pic of a standard trigger guard. It looks like it will fit fine. I still have plenty of movement to center properly and add the roll pin. 

After looking at my lower again I now think the grip screw hole and grip position is in the right place in reference to the rear of the receiver. The problem may be that too much material was removed from behind the trigger guard leaving the gap. If the grip is pushed flush with the trigger guard it is now offset from  the rear of the receiver and any grip with the "beaver tail back strap" will not work well with this receiver. 

Damn and I almost bought some of these lowers for a project.....although this wouldn't be a problem if knights sold bare SR25 lowers or 80%s.

Got the below answer from Stag arms in regards of using their upper on another lower.

@liezone.  Well, I've got no idea what they did with your receiver.  On mine, the grips stick out just slightly beyond the back of the receiver.  I have placed white cardstock under the grips in the picture to show this.



So we can assume that your threaded grip hole is in the right spot, because it places your grip in the correct location.

You already showed that the trigger area is roughly the right size because a trigger guard fits, so the problem isn't just that the area right in front of the grip got moved.

Maybe the whole trigger opening area got moved forward somehow?  I don't know what to suggest beyond trying to return it in the hope that someday Genesis CNC starts making functional lowers again.

Anyway, I'm glad that we finally have a group of people together who have all had trouble with Genesis CNC, as I was feeling like I was the only one, and this thread will come up in google searches

Agreed. I need uppers more than lowers at this point. I guess I'll keep trying to get a hold of them. It looks like they are extremely wrapped up in 2A research etc... but communication and customer service would go a long way to mending their credibility. They could have a serious and valuable product line. I am sure that there polymer lowers are having trouble selling not just because of the climate, but because of their current reputation. They should work on their current paid customers, mend their rep, and then work toward the future. 

I have a little experience with computer design programs (Solidworks) and it amazes me that they have not been able to get the right dimensions on this project yet as the grip dimensions problem is about a five minute fix. It would not even require a change in the tooling or set up. They could have also been 3D printing their prototype designs and even starting with a ton of free designs that are floating out there on the web. Even if that did not work they could back engineer the dimensions from existing platforms like LaRue, dpms, Aero etc...

The whole situation is disappointing. 

That isn't tool drag, just a bad example of 3D machining. The ball nose end mill ran too deep in some parts, not deep enough or at all in others, and they used a large step over in the tool path. The end result is bad surface finish with lots of scallops, ridges and un-blended surfaces. I think much of that could be smoothed out by hand with some sand paper, draw filing and media blasting.

I will likely do clean up and then media blast it before cerakote.

So, I have continued to try and get a return answer from Genesis CNC with no win. I don't understand their hostility to good customer service. They are apparently religious and/or Christian in their beliefs and I just expect more willingness to make things right. I do not intend to get into religion or politics but this whole situation sucks. I have a small business of my own and I would never treat my customers this way. At times I have made things right even if it was not my fault and it hurt. The sad thing is that I am right on line with most of their beliefs (from what I gather from the website) and would likely get along with them just fine. 

I would be happy to be able to say they took care of the issues and worked with me to solve problem, but at this point I still can't get anyone to communicate with me. 

Anyway, as I was looking through their site I saw the return policy. Although, I don't have any intention of returning the lower, even though the jig they sold me does not fit it etc..., I wanted to know what it said. Here it is in all its glory.

Return / Refund PolicyGENESIS CNC > RETURN / REFUND POLICY

All sales are final and purchases are non-reversible.

If a customer chooses to turn to social media or online forums or Genesis Advertisements anywhere online and post negative comments regarding our product, contacting our sales or engineering staff they automatically lose the right to to a refund, regardless of the reason.

If a customer chooses to turn to social media or online forums or Genesis Advertisements anywhere online, the Customer Agrees there is no longer a reasonable expectation of privacy or anonymity for the Customer. In this situation, the Genesis first course of action will be to properly identify the customer online using the information provided to do so, in order to ensure legitimacy.

When a customer drills their Polymer or Aluminum part, they have accepted that part.
Cancellation of order is required to be received no more than 7 calendar days after order confirmation.  After the 7 calendars day period, no refund will be available.
At the time of your order your method of payment will be charged in full.

Product delivery estimated lead-time is approximately 1-2 weeks from receipt and confirmation of order.

Products will be accepted as returned provided GCNC is notified within 7 calendar days from receipt of product and the returned product has not been altered in any way. Returned products must be properly repackaged, and delivered back to GCNC in order to be eligible for refund. (cost incurred by the buyer).

Products returned which are not defective will be charged a 20% re-stocking fee. Shipping, credit card fees and BitCoin payments will not be refunded.

Good info on the return policy. I'm not too worried, if I really wanted a refund I can just set a claim through my credit card company. Chase would refund that no problem after being charged immediately and never receiving a product or any communication for months.

I'm like you however, no intentions to cancel. Really just want an upper to complete my build.

I almost ordered a set of these 80% receivers to start a M110 K1 clone build...but I held off because I found somewhere a picture of someone who mated a KAC SR-25 Upper to a Mega Arms Maten Lower....Which I already have. I haven't found an SR-25 upper locally to test this myself however. But all in all after reading some of the posts here and the issues with these lowers, I'm glad I held off.

I also ordered the Upper/Lower/Jig from GenesisCNC and had the same experience as most here with lack of communicaiton.

I recieved the upper in  a few days.  The lower,  I ordered in July2016 and did not recieve until March2017.   Mine was also "unfinished" no bead blasting.  However, all the cuts are "in-spec."   The jig was ordered AFTER I got the lower and they send me a polymer lower.  I contacted them immediately and they said they would ship the jig "right away."  5 weeks later...and a few emails and phone calls and one Yelp! review...I got the jig.

From what I found, these guys ONLY respond to Yelp! Reviews.  Leave a negative Yelp! review...and they are suddenly....right there.

The lower didn't have the issues shown in this thread.  A standard DPMS LPK worked fine.  I ordered the longer rear takedown pin and got it together with the upper.  The milling around the front take down pin is off...even with their lower....the two rub together when you break it down.

I haven't put in a bolt or barrel yet, but the SLR Handguard fits the upper just fine.  This company just does not want to stay in business very much from what I can tell.

JJ

POST A BAD REVIEW ON Yelp!   Watch what happens. :-)   https://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/genesis-cnc-walnut-creek

Mine is in one of the 7 "Not Recommended" for some strange reason.

i ordered 2 of the 308 lowers and 2 uppers in February of 2017

i received both lowers, no uppers

i have sent them probably 50 emails and zero fucking response of any kind

really fucking pissed at these assholes

If it makes you feel better, I ordered my lower more than a year ago now, and have yet to receive it.

So just a heads up, the Lancer L7 magazines don't appear to work with the Genesis CNC lower.  I have no problem with pmags, but I can't get the Lancer mag to lock in place.  I'm still troubleshooting, will update if I can get it to work.

Initially I thought the L7 was getting caught on the non-flared mag well, but after hand filing a modest flare in the magwell, it now appears that the magazine catch doesn't reach far enough into the magazine well to secure the magazine.

Edit:. Just tried the other Genesis lower and the L7 locks in fine.  Maybe it's a problem with the magazine release, not the lower, I'll try with a different mag release.

Edit2:. Swapped magazine releases and the Lancers lock up fine with the original lower, the problem was just a cheap mag release from a chinesium parts kit vs. a good one from Fulton Armory.

Good to know