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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - My DPMS experience... (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 1/30/2008 7:02:21 PM EDT
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I recently bought a DPMS SASS rifle. When I did my research on their website I came across the specs for this rifle and it said it came with a PRS stock. When I received the rifle it didn't have the correct stock. Steve from SCPFirearms made good on a fuck up that DPMS made costing him upwards of $250. So yesterday I made a post in the AR15 industry forums run by DPMS why I didn't get what I ordered and how to replace the old stock with the new one. They answered all the new question except for mine. So I proceeded to call customer service. The asshole was rude and basically told me that they could change stocks on the model I ordered whenever they wanted to. WTF?? So I can pay for one thing and then not get what I paid for? I told them what I thought about there policy and he hung up on me!?! So then I posted in the same thread on AR15 asking why I was hung up on and what customer service was going to do to resolve this and they deleted my fucking thread! I will urge anyone that is thinking about buying a DPMS product to reconsider. While they make a good product their customer service SUCKS and they have a policy that they can substitute part at their whim even if the part they use to substitute it with is substantially cheaper than the one you expected! This has been the only gun buying experience that has left me with a horrible taste in my mouth. I want to add that Steve at SCPFirearms was awesome throughout the whole process and went out of his was to fix this. Also although the customer service sucked I am still happy with the product, although I wish I had gotten the right stock. As soon as I get the right stock I will post pictures. |
One of my ar's is a dpms. Sorry to hear that man! I haven't had any problems with mine, 1000 through so far. After hearing this though I hope I never have to call them. That sounds like some lame cs to me. Good thing you had SCPFirearms on your side though. I hope all works out well.
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So DPMS had the chance to get some great publicity on the largest AR enthusiast's site in the world, but they felt that, for the cost of a stock, it would be better to get a rep for poor customer service...yeah, that's the way I would have handled it. Great timing too, with RRA now shipping .308's. |
| Sorry to hear. Believe it or not...the thing that pisses me off the most is the fact that they deleted your thread. I can understand the need to substitute parts when the occasional production hiccup forces their hand...but a price adjustment or some other form of compensation should be made. Deleting someone's thread who is sharing their experience...thats just pathetic. You better take care of your retailer for hooking you up too! |
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| That is hard to believe that they were that bad. Man, this is going to be a big black eye for them if true. Were you cussing them out on the phone or something. Hanging up on you is totally uncalled for when dealing with any company, especially for the kind of money one pays for a AR. |
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Please don't take this the wrong way, but I would make sure you are not using the "F" word in your posts or also when talking to a CS rep on the phone. I'm not saying you did or would, I'm just saying don't. Service problems are best resolved by staying cool and being polite. Sometimes if you start dropping "F" bombs, people will hang up on you and/or delete posts. At my business, if people can't talk to my employees with basic respect, then I generally tell them I don't want their money. Other than that, I can think of no reason why someone would hang up on you or delete your post, and I'm sorry you had a problem & hope you get it worked out. |
| Sorry To hear about your poor customer support. I had a problem, with DPMS I called them and they Resolved it quickly and had great customer support. DPMS makes great products, and if you want to pay more for a comparable rifle do it. I have had great help everytime i have asked for it, through email, phone, and the few questions i have asked on here. |
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I spent 41 years doing Government contracting so contract law is something I'm an expert in. When a seller accepts his offer to sell and the buyer passes consideration (usually $$) then they have a binding contract which is enforceable even if the seller wants to back out. Politeness is great, dealing with them is great, but the fact is that if they advertised an AR in configuration 'A', agreed to a sale said configuration, received consideration from the buyer for configuration 'A', and then purposely fail to deliver in accordance with the contract, they are guilty of, and can be charged with fraud. If you used the US Post Office in the transaction and you can prove that the offer to sell was accepted, but not delivered upon, DPMS could be charged with US Mail Fraud, a federal felony that the Post Office pursues aggressively. Contact them and document your issues. There are way too many stories here of people getting ripped off. Like the guy that bought a S&W AR and the gun shop stole the sights from him. You have to learn to stand up for your rights. In my 60 yrs, everyone who has tried to fuck with me contractually has ended up on the short end of the problem because I don't back off. Persistence will pay off. |
The Magpul PRS stock is a new thing to me. Normally, it was a VLTOR Modstock collapsible stock that was standard IIRC. Which stock came on your SASS? It could have been a SASS that had been built for some time. |
Like I said I call a spade a spade. But I also give credit where it is due. There CS sucks and that alone will keep me from buying another rifle from them. However the rifle I recieved was excellent in fit and finish. I still haven't shot it so I can't comment on that. |
| I just wrote them about the Bull barrel I bought. I was setting up a short "Tactical" precision rifle. On the site it is listed as .223/5.56. When I got it I put everything together, Alumihyde the barrel, shot it. It shoots great. When I cleaned it I noticed the barrel is marked .223. I called and was told absolutley not to shoot 5.56 out of it. Kind of defeats my purpose for the rifle. Accuracy is very good, but I need to be able to shoot 5.56. They should advertise it correctly. I've not had problems with customer service in my one experience with them. Adam at DPMS checked a problem I had with the gas block and it was on their dime. |
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That's what I think also. It seems that their is always two sides of the story and DPMS probally does not want to waste time with this guy because he probaly was a real jerk on the phone and only telling his side of the story. I don't think DPMS would delete the post to piss peolpe off... |
I have dealt with DPMS face to face on many occasions and this is not their SOP. But, I have seen threads dissapear in their forum. I do not know if they were yours but they were complaints. That I do not like. |
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As I have also posted in our industry forum, DPMS will not change out major components of a rifle without customer approval. In this case, it should be noted that many distributors, who sell to dealers, carry a large rotating stock of our rifles that may have been ordered and delivered weeks or months before a end consumer orders it from a dealer. In these instances, obviously older rifles might go from the distributor to the dealer with the older stock. DPMS has no way of controlling or monitoring these sales. Anyone who receives such a rifle may contact me to arrange to have the stock exchanged. So far as creating a new part number; This is impossible due to the vast number of upgrades and options we allow customers to add to their orders. We cannot make a new part number everytime a customer upgrades their rifle. As I mentioned above, older configurations may take a while to go out of circulation, and we will address any requests to swap the stock for those that received the Vltor and wanted PRS...and vice versa, after the configuration change was effective. As to this particular occasion and the exchanges between this customer and DPMS, I will not discuss here. Anyone with questions or concerns may contact me directly. Adam Ballard DPMS Firearms LLC [email protected] |
| Why are you dealing with DPMS after the sale. If you ordered from a miidleman, then it's his resposibility to get you what you ordered not yours. Many things can happen to screw up a order and tagging DPMS with the whole problem before you hear their side is unfair to them. I have had a hand full of dealings with DPMS and they have been polite and professional each time. I would like to hear their side before I pass judgement. I purchase material for a living and speak to company reps each day. Some are great others are not. Maybe you got one that's not and hopefully DPMS will take steps to make sure that person does better next time. |
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Sounds like the middle man is to blame and he took care of it. |
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You got an older configuration rifle from a distributer. Where did your FFL get the PRS from? Did DPMS exchange it for him? DPMS was not pulling a fast one on you, but you accused them of it, right out of the gate. I think DPMS is handling this the proper way and they have shown great restraint by not calling you out on how childish you are being. |
The dealer ordered it directly from DPMS? I ask because the lead time I was quoted when I was going to order straight from them was over a month. If he ordered it from a distributer then he got the rifle already built as it was delivered to the distributer with the stock that was standard at the time it was delivered. In one case you are perfectly justified in being quite angry and in the other your dealer didn't know the score and screwed up. On the other hand, I think DPMS could alter the part number when THEY upgrade the components or change the major specs of the stock rifle. This isn't a customization issue on the customer's part it's a pretty major part change on the base rifle and with stock sitting out there this is bound to happen if the part numbers are identical between the two. |
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So he ordered from a distributer then. I'm sorry, but as I see it DPMS doesn't owe you a fix on that, if such is the case. Your dealer ordered it from a third party who had older rifles in stock and you got what they had on hand. Also if the above is true, DPMS didn't substitute any parts on a custom order. I think your suggestion is valid but you are not owed anything by DPMS. There are plenty of examples of products that get upgraded that don't have new part numbers. It's not new or even terribly uncommon. |
But this is a $200.00 down-grade, without notice of the change. |
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coastie, a suggestion: Contact Adam. I know him slightly from talking to him at gun shows & he is a real good guy, as are all of their guys at the shows. For your sake, just start over & don't rehash all of your perceived injustices. You may be right or you may be wrong, but now you have a good man to talk to who almost certainly will make it right. You come off sounding, in this thread, like you have a bad attitude. Hopefully, I'm just reading it wrong. It's in your best interest to STFU now and resolve it. Further bitching on your part will make it appear that I'm right about your attitude. Good Luck. 
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No it wasn't. DPMS prior to a few months ago shipped SASS rifles with a Veltor adjustable stock. Recently they started putting a PRS stock on the rifle and updated the specs on the site. DPMS distributors have stock of the previous rifles and the dealer ordered one of those from a distributer not knowing the rifle was only very recently changed. DPMS did nothing to him. Had they ordered direct from DPMS then he'd have a real gripe and I'd be right there saying it's unacceptable but in this case they ordered a rifle off the shelf in some third party's stock from weeks or months ago, and they got mad that it's not what is pictured today on the website. ETA: I don't know the details of the conversation he had with the rep, but Adam seems to be saying that in spite of all the above he will exchange the stock if the customer requests in a case like this. I'm not sure what else they should be expected to do about such an event. If they have a guy hanging up on folks for no reason they better deal with that but there is always another side to the story. |
I agree, he shouldn't have got hung up on. But what he wants is a new stock and that is what DPMS is going to provide for him. In the end it works out for him. I would look into the CS rep that hung up on the guy, but at least they are taking care of the customer and that is what truly matters. |
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I'm confused. If the OP ordered the rifle and then saw that it wasn't what he ordered, why did he even bother to take the thing home? It's not like it was some internal part or tolerance that he couldn't see by doing a cursory inspection. If it were so important that he's willing to create a poo storm over the stock issue why didn't he just say "No, thank you, please send this one back and get the right one." from the beginning? J. |
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Was it ordered direct from the DPMS website? If so I would be upset too if I had waited for the rifle to come in and then it had the wrong stock. I would have been even more upset if I had called CS and got told they change whatever, whenever they want and got hung up on. Then if I posted in the forum and it got deleted I would be Everyone is giving the op a hard time, but if the shoe was on your foot and you had went through the steps of contacting a company and had the same experiences how would you feel? A $200 difference is not a small change in the configuration of the rifle. Nothing personally against DPMS as I am sure after seeing the posts here that someone got chewed out for their CS skills. It is impossible to judge a company as a whole because one CS rep decided to have a bad day.
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Ding, Ding, Ding! The winner. |
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| I spoke to Adam and he handled the situation much better than it was yesterday. Either way the issue has been resolved. All parties have come to an agreement. Hopefully the hiccup in customer service will be fixed. I will no longer post in this thread since my complaints have been handled effectively. |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - My DPMS experience... (Page 1 of 2)
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