I purchased a thousand hornady 55 gr FMJBT bullets from midway about a month ago. When my bullets arrived, I noticed alot of them were badly tarnished. I contacted midway who said they have been getting alot of them that way from hornady lately and that the tarnish won't hurt anything but I could contact hornady about it. So I called hornady and after exchanging a few emails and a pic of what my bullets looked like, the guy tells me to mail them back to hornady for an exchange. So I mail the bullets back to the address the hornady rep gave me and wait 2 weeks. Nothing happens so I email him and ask what the status is. The guy tells me he never received my order! So I email him back and tell him I mailed it out to his attention using the address he provided me. I also included the email with our conversation along with my return mailing address and name inside the box. I ask the guy if he could please check around to see if maybe the bullets are sitting on someone elses desk or something. Well that was over a week ago and he has not even responded

So what would you guys do now? Did I just get screwed out of 1000 bullets? The bullets were about $80 + shipping to me from midway was another $20 + shipping back to hornady was another $10. So I am out over $100 on this deal and pretty ticked off by the whole deal. Before I lose it and start contacting BBB or something though, I thought I would run it by some of you guys to see what your thoughts are. Should I try contacting someone else over at hornady or do I need to give it another week or what would you guys do?

Unfortunately if you did not pay for a delivery confirmation all you can do is pester them.

Next time you have tarnished bullets you can try tumbling them or just deal as they don't hurt anything.

Dude that's jacked up. First off, why the hell is Midway not handling this problem for you ? That's like if I buy a DVD from Best Buy and it's hosed up. If I take it back, and they tell me to call Paramount to fix it. WTF ? That's crap customer service. If that ever happens again you should give Midway a chance to make it right, and if that fails, give Midway holy hell about it.

I'd definitely contact Hornady about it. It sucks you didn't get a delivery confirmation #. I hope Hornady makes it right with you. If they do, you'll likely be a customer of theirs for years and years to come.

Insurance would have helped also.  It seems the post office doesn't give a crap about uninsured packages.

You are complaining about a non-issue. Bullets are not designed to be shiny.

So you have absolutely no proof that the bullets were actually delivered to Hornady, but you're thinking of  contacting the BBB on one of the most reputable ammunition manufacturers in the business?  Next time pay for delivery confirmation and insurance, or better yet, don't worry about tarnish on bulk 55 grain FMJ bullets.  They're not match grade bullets.

Stupid X 2!

1.  Returning bullets that were fine to shoot.

2.  Returning them with no tracking.

Don't contact the BBB because you are a fool.

Maybe not as harsh as his. but THIS
"were Tarnished"
oh me oh my

yep, I should have shipped fed ex ground so I would have been covered but the post office is right by my house and was more convenient. Still, the hornady rep told me to ship em back and I did just as he instructed even including a printoff of our email in the box. I just was too trusting I guess and should have assumed the company could just say they didn't receive it and I would be screwed.

Oh and I do agree it sure would have been nice if midway would have taken care of it for me. What happened is they blamed hornady and hornady blamed midway. After I sent pics of the tarnished bullets, hornady said they would replace them and to ship them back. Liitle did I know what was really going to happen is I end up losing 1000 bullets plus 2 shipping fees. Strange thing is I have been reloading for about 20 years and this is the first time I have ever received bullets that were tarnished from Hornady. IN fact I have some old hornady bullets that are at least 10 years old and they still look nice and shiney. Makes me wonder what is up with this batch?

Not a life and death deal but will definately change my buying habits if someone doesn't make things right. I will call hornady this week and see how that goes.  

+1

overnight in the tumbler.

FYI USPS has both insurance and delivery confirmation.

Hornady may have not received the bullets and because you did not pay for tracking, insurance, or delivery confirmation you are going to assume that they are being dishonest about receiving them?

Sorry but I have no sympathy for you if that is the case.

I am wondering this also.   I have nothing but good things to say about Hornady.

I agree it was stupid to ship them back without insurance. Course it's not the first stupid thing I have done in my life though and probably not the last either. On the bright side, I can't find any small rifle primers for the life of me so guess I didn't really need those bullets anyway

oh and the bullets were ordered from midway as 1000 quantity and shipped to me in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box.

hmm thats weird all of my Hornady bullets come in white cardboard boxes and with lot # and all other info.  No plastic bag though.

Might have been one of the bulk seconds midway sometimes offers.

I got in on the same deal, I received my bullets March 30.
Mine are in a plastic bag, in a brown box, which was packed in another brown box for shipping.
I don't remember them being offered as seconds. When I received them I just figured they were broken down by Midway from a larger order.
OTOH, mine all look fine, no tarnish, no blemises. I have not inspected each one individually, though.  

I have not been doing this 20yrs, but I don't think I would have sent them back for tarnish; corrosion and/or other defects, yes.

I do have a concern that since Midway did the re-packaging, I would want them to be the one correcting the problem.

ETA: Perhaps they did not have any bullets to replace those with.

My wife uses the USPS to ship items weekly. If it's not a first class envelope we has about a 25% lost or excessive delivery time rate. Sometimes it took months for packages sent within the continuous 48 states. She started printing postage online using paypal,  where you can get tracking or delivery confirmation for less than $0.25, and we haven't had a single problem since. We have come to the conclusion that you HAVE to put either tracking or delivery confirmation on your packages when dealing with the USPS. If you print your postage online you have to insist that the counter clerk scan it in when you drop it off at the desk. No matter what they claim, you won't get tracking unless they scan it at drop off. It's neither Hornady's fault or problem that your package didn't get there in the time.

+1 in the "No Sympathy" column. Tarnish never hurt anything including accuracy.

well, it was a bumpy ride but I got the bullets back from Hornady in the mail! Looks like they just tumbled the ones I had sent them but the tarnish is gone and my faith in hornady as a company has been restored. So as a result of this I did learn a couple of things. FIrst, I leaned it won't hurt them to tumble 223 bullets. Second, I leaned that Midway has decent prices and alot of inventory but customer service is not their strong point imho. Third, I leanred that if I ever mail something again, to ALWAYS insure the package. It is sooooo worth the extra couple bucks to avoid the potential hassles.

Thanks Hornady! Now if only I could find primers, I might be able to load up a couple hundred rounds and go shootin

I wonder if you should be messing with real guns/ammo at all.

Your reply should have been "I learned that I was completely off base for creating problems for Hornady over a NON ISSUE"  and "I shouldn't be threatening to call the BBB on a solid company because of my own ignorance"

You guys need to do a little research on copper oxide. It has the same hardness as iron. Would you shoot a 1000 iron bullets down your barrel and think it's OK? Same with tarnish on your
cases. Glad to hear hornady made it right. Every once in a while they seem to drop the ball on customer service. My progressive lnl gave me fits with the primer feed when I bought it. After a
year of fighting it I called them and ended up having to spend 70.00 to replace it all. Been fine for the 15 years since then and hornady seems to have stepped up their warranty service since.
My last deal was a missing part in a bullet puller (from midway, lol) Hornady had it in the mail before I hung the phone up, no questions asked.