Yikes, now I am really in trouble!

[crazyjz]

As I have previously posted here, my brand new CM9 is back at the factory for breaking followers. They have had it for a couple weeks now so I thought I would call them and see if they had any sort of an update for me.

Yep, they had one for me. The rude guy with the British accent finally answered the phone. In his short angry little way he asked me for my guns serial number and the return authorization number. I gave them to him and his reply was a very short, "we have it and we'll get it back to you shortly".

Thank God, I asked. I said "so when your done, you're going to send it back to me"? He said no, that some pawn shop in south florida had sent the gun in and when it was finished, would be returned to them.

I told him that there was a problem because the gun bearing that serial number belongs to me. He told me that it was not his problem and that he would transfer my call to the "service dept.". Click, he was gone.

Of course there was nobody answering the phone at the "Service Dept." I left a message asking for somebody, anybody to please call me so I could explain this situation. I have no faith at all that anybody will.

I spent the next several hours trying to talk to somebody at Kahr and finally got ahold of Jay. He confirmed that the information in the computer for the gun with that serial number was to be returned to a Pawn Shop in South Florida. He also confirmed that the Service Dept. was where I had to go with my problem and that nobody else could fix the mistake. He no longer works in the Service Dept.

I sent the Service Dept. an email to go along with my phone message. We'll see if my gun gets sent to some luck guy in South Florida. I swear, if I ever get this gun back, I don't care what it does or does not do, I'm not sending it back!

[Bill K]

Wow! Perhaps the worst gun repair service story I've heard. Hope in the end all works out for you.

[Bawanna]

Call me confused. It's your gun, but a pawn shop in Florida sent the gun in. Do you live in Florida. Did you send it in yourself or find out that it was sent in from the pawn shop?

Who's on first?

[muggsy]

Hang in there, jz. You'll get your gun back just as soon as we can find your pawn ticket. This situation is getting ridiculous. :)

[DavidR]

When I read stories like this I'm thankful my new CW9 is working well. For some reason it seems that CM9s have more problems than CW9s. I've been thinking about picking up a CM9 too but I think I'll hold off.

[crazyjz]

Yeah, this whole experience has been awful. I still think that Kahr makes a quality handgun. I would not have taken the chance I took purchasing it, knowing what I did, if I did not believe that.

On the other hand, their customer service seems to be running a close second to their quality control.

Yes, I live in Florida. The guy that sounds like he's from England sent me a Fed-Ex return authorization via email. I followed the instructions, put the gun back in the original box and then put that box in another box. Put my name and address on the box along with the shipping label. Dropped it off in person at Fed-Ex.

Hard to tell what the bar code information on the return authorization contained.

At any rate, when I emailed them today, outlining the problem, I also forwarded the email where they sent the authorization number to my email.

The biggest problem is communications. Getting that same guy with the attitude on the phone is not helpful. There is nobody answering the service phone, there is no manager to speak to. You are at the mercy of whomever picks up the phone and I already told you who normally picks it up.

I am fortunate that they are not located close to me because I quite likely would get myself in trouble.

Thank goodness professional gun folks don't treat their customers this way. If I had paid $1500 for this gun I would have already have bought my plane ticket and would be on my way up there.

[CJB]

Thats a trick question Jocko!

You know as well I as I do that there are no HA in Florida because the state is governed by the OL.

Jeeze... what a curveball.

[DanTana]

Crazy, When this all started didn't they send the mailing label to your address? Surely, they must have that on file? Did you buy the gun used at this pawn shop and it is the warranty information at Kahr?

[ohio lock]

I have had my CM9 for almost a year, over 500 rounds through it and not one problem. I hope you get yours fixed, it is a great little weapon.

[crazyjz]

Yes, I know it's hard to believe that purchasing one little gun can cause this much agony and frustration.

Yes, I bought the gun new from Palmetto State Armory. I had it shipped to my LGS. Two days after I received it, it was on it's way back to Kahr.

Yep, all communication were with me, at my home email and home address. Yes, I sent them the gun from my home. The box was labeled with my home information. The letter I put inside the box explaining the problem had my home information on it.

The return authorization number crosschecks to my guns serial number.

The only problem is that they are convinced that this pawn shop in South Florida sent it to them! They are determined to "return" it to the "FFL" that sent it to them! I can't get ahold of anybody on the phone or via email to straighten it out! Aaaaaah!

[getsome]

Holy Flub Up Batman, thats terrible....Maybe John could email Justin Moon and get some of this information in the right hands...Being the owner of a business myself if I found out any my employees were treating my customers like this you can bet your a$$ they would be looking for another job pronto... There is NO excuse in poor customer service or phone manners....I can understand manufacturing issues and warranty problems that come up with any business but customer abuse and lack of courtesy while speaking to a customer on a service call would get any my employees shown the door!!!

[crazyjz]

I received a phone message and an email from Kahr Service Department this morning.

The Service Mgr., Tim Pearce sounded genuinely concerned and apologetic. He assured me that the problem has been fixed and that my CM9 would be returned to me once it has been repaired.

What a pleasant change from their customer service department. I have not yet spoke to him in person but I look forward to it.

Finally, a response level that is appropriate.

[Bawanna]

Holy Flub Up Batman, thats terrible....Maybe John could email Justin Moon and get some of this information in the right hands...Being the owner of a business myself if I found out any my employees were treating my customers like this you can bet your a$$ they would be looking for another job pronto... There is NO excuse in poor customer service or phone manners....I can understand manufacturing issues and warranty problems that come up with any business but customer abuse and lack of courtesy while speaking to a customer on a service call would get any my employees shown the door!!!

Sounds like your hard but fair getsome. I'm always available for employment if you have a slot for a deaf guy in a wheelchair with a poor attitude but great customer service. Don't much like violets unless they don't talk and are just cuter than a bugs ear, hate authority figures and blown up ego's. Rules as a rule suck! Great attention to detail if the detail is worth paying attention too.
Prefer a window and good lighting. A water cooler with a bottle of decent scotch next to it at all times is a bonus.
Please PM me your employer resume and I'll review any offers.

[getsome]

Come on down to Jawja boss and I will set you up, what brand of scotch ya want....I remodel houses and so far am blessed with 4 of the best guys in the business that amaze me with what they are able to do, true craftsmen....No violets so far but not against it if they know their stuff....All I would need for you to do is teach me how you make those awesome beautiful pistol grips not that I could ever do anything like that myself but I would love to watch "The Master" at work....

[Bawanna]

Jawja, that's south and little bit east I reckon and also home of Melissa! Sound's like a win/win to me fo sho.

I got tons of remodel experience but alas my hands on remodeling day are long done.

Truth be told I never could handle the office part of construction, drove me to drink. Oh wait, you already got that covered. Maybe we're covered.

[ncshooter]

I FedExed my CM9 to Kahr after the same rep-with-the-accent sent a FedEx label and return number to me. My CM9 (only a month old, and has several hundred round through it) will not go into battery when there is one round left in the mag. It just stops maybe 1/8" from being in battery. Three different mags, and it happens with all of them. Sometimes it will dent the primer with a light strike, but it will not fire.

Anyhow, it has been 12 days since I shipped it on 1/16, and I've heard nothing. I called this particular rep today, and was put on hold. Then an automated hanger-uper hung up on me telling me that my timer had timed out. I called back, and got him on the phone. "It is in the queue." "No, I don't know when." "The gunsmith should call you when it is ready, and it should ship that same day." "No, no idea where you are in the queue." "No, I can't check the queue."

Not only am I concerned that what was to be my EDC isn't reliable, but now I'm even more concerned that the Kahr service isn't reliable or customer-oriented.

[Tundra5.7]

I FedExed my CM9 to Kahr after the same rep-with-the-accent sent a FedEx label and return number to me. My CM9 (only a month old, and has several hundred round through it) will not go into battery when there is one round left in the mag. It just stops maybe 1/8" from being in battery. Three different mags, and it happens with all of them. Sometimes it will dent the primer with a light strike, but it will not fire.

Anyhow, it has been 12 days since I shipped it on 1/16, and I've heard nothing. I called this particular rep today, and was put on hold. Then an automated hanger-uper hung up on me telling me that my timer had timed out. I called back, and got him on the phone. "It is in the queue." "No, I don't know when." "The gunsmith should call you when it is ready, and it should ship that same day." "No, no idea where you are in the queue." "No, I can't check the queue."

Not only am I concerned that what was to be my EDC isn't reliable, but now I'm even more concerned that the Kahr service isn't reliable or customer-oriented.


My hopes are not very high after reading this. Kahr received my CM9 last Friday. Who knows how far down the list I am?

[340pd]

I received a phone message and an email from Kahr Service Department this morning.

The Service Mgr., Tim Pearce sounded genuinely concerned and apologetic. He assured me that the problem has been fixed and that my CM9 would be returned to me once it has been repaired.

What a pleasant change from their customer service department. I have not yet spoke to him in person but I look forward to it.

Finally, a response level that is appropriate.

Now, please post this followup on the other forums you posted this same original story.

[muggsy]

Do you guys remember Maytag repairman who was lonesome, because Maytag washers and dryers never broke down. The Kahr gunsmiths should be so lonesome.

[HAP1978]

That is funny, I talked to that same guy with the accent at Kahr on Tuesday and he is a rude, condescending, non-customer orientated employee. If I was his boss, his A was be gone ASAP. Lucky for him I got thick skin and just laughed him off.

I can't imagine if Justin Moon knew about this guy that he would be there much longer.

[Bawanna]

You know I just remembered back when I got my first Kahr a K40 it had a peening issue. So I sent it back to Kahr, dealt with a nice lady named Dorothy if memory serves. Anyhow she let me know when they got it and had me list it as my police department. Like many manufacturers LE and Military get moved to the front of the line.

Sweet. Anyhow I didn't hear anything for several weeks. So I was lucky enough to get hold of Dorothy again and she couldn't find my gun in the que. Like the op here I was of course deeply concerned, border line on panic.

Turns out when I asked for the status check I'd given my name, not the PD name and she of course being busy and all didn't make the connection until she spent a good amount of time looking for it.

Turns out the hold up is they wanted to put a new slide on it to cure the peening. It was all black originally. She didn't have any and they were waiting for one. I told her that I actually preferred two tone and how much to upgrade to a stainless slide. She said she had those on hand, there would be no charge, and I would have it the next day. She made it happen and it was on my desk the next day.

We need more Dorothy's in the world.

[WMac19]

Well, I understand that any gun from any manufacturer may have problems. But what I cannot understand nor accept is the rude and condescending attitude by someone put into such an integral position to help at a company.

I don't need it to happen to me, it's been widely reported enough with similar reports corroborated by others. Until this guy is removed from the position at Kahr and they put a respectful professional in his place, I've bought my last Kahr.

[jocko]

well not to be a devils advocate, I would say then u have bought ur last kahr, as I am sure they are not gonna remove him on ur recomendation. Sometimes they have bad days like evidently u are having here venting to us, who cannot do jack sh!t tohelp you or anyone on this forum. I personallay wold not want that job of answering tghe phone and knowing ur gonna get hamered for a bad product and knowing I have guidelines that I must follow to to keep my job. It is never good when one has a issue but I have dealth with alot of different companies and by and large most all willdo all they can to help. Attitude goes a long way in getting sumpin done to, not saying u mayb e copped an attitude either, just saying. Just sayin

Being in the retail business for over 40 years and owning my business, I have seen it all. One person can ruin ur day and the next nice person that walks in gets to feel ur wrath,uninentionally...:Amflag2:

[Schriscoe]

Maybe the angry Brit just needs a unicorn.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/31/9upurequ.jpg

[WMac19]

well not to be a devils advocate, I would say then u have bought ur last kahr, as I am sure they are not gonna remove him on ur recomendation. Sometimes they have bad days like evidently u are having here venting to us, who cannot do jack sh!t tohelp you or anyone on this forum. I personallay wold not want that job of answering tghe phone and knowing ur gonna get hamered for a bad product and knowing I have guidelines that I must follow to to keep my job. It is never good when one has a issue but I have dealth with alot of different companies and by and large most all willdo all they can to help. Attitude goes a long way in getting sumpin done to, not saying u mayb e copped an attitude either, just saying. Just sayin

Being in the retail business for over 40 years and owning my business, I have seen it all. One person can ruin ur day and the next nice person that walks in gets to feel ur wrath,uninentionally...:Amflag2:

I wasn't in retail but I was a cop for 20 years in the Bronx. I understand having a bad day but under no circumstance is it acceptable to drop the professionalism. If I could do it dealing with the caliber of people I dealt with daily, I'd surely expect him to.

As far as your point as to I've probably bought my last Kahr, understood and I'm fine with it. However, you may have mis-perceived my demeanor a bit with the inference to venting. I'm not at all upset, things happen, life's too short. I just make a choice.

I look at it like this, Kahr putting a guy like this in his position is a clear example, to me, in how they feel about their customers and/or customer service in general.

I take the same stance with every product or service. That's not to say that if I came across one jerk in a Chevy service department that I'd never buy Chevy again but I'd never use that dealer again unless my needs/complaints were respected and satisfied.

But as it is with the plethora of dealerships, I can go elsewhere. But Kahr isn't set-up that way and they very unfortunately put a person who is seemingly a jerk in a position necessary to service customers and their problematic guns.

I wouldn't expect my position to be popular nor would I expect others to feel similarly. And I sure wouldn't expect Kahr to give a rat's rear about my opinion. But I would expect professionalism and courtesy when servicing people's handguns.

When a company seems not to care, I find it hard to myself. Doesn't mean I don't love my PM9, I very much do. Nor does it mean that I won't love my PM40 which is on the way. It just means they'll be the last until things turn for the better.

[gmcjetpilot]

The Service Mgr., Tim Pearce sounded genuinely concerned and apologetic. He assured me that the problem has been fixed and that my CM9 would be returned to me once it has been repaired. Finally, a response level that is appropriate.

Glad it worked out. I learned, if I ever send in a gun to any one, to put tags on the gun, magazine (if I send it in), my name the shipping box, on stickers on the box and note....etc. Clearly they screwed up. I have been dealing with extended auto warranty company, and their condescending patronizing "Sir..." just pisses me off.

[crazyjz]

While this thread seems to have gained a life of it's own, my particular problem seems to have been resolved.

After a little more than two weeks, the Fed-Ex truck rolled up to the house yesterday with a very familiar looking box.

I opened up the box and looked at the repair invoice. It said "replaced broken follower". That was it. I could feel my ears getting red as I searched the repair ticket for some indication of some sort of additional work. Nope, that was it.

Upon disassembling the gun, I started to feel a bit better. It was clear that they had relieved and buffed the feed ramp. A jewelers loop inspection of the slide lock revealed that a very small portion of it has also been removed.

Good, time to put some lead down range. I stepped out to my range and loaded up two mags. (One of the mags still has a broken follower because Kahr did not put an extra in the box as I had requested. It works anyway.)

After loading both mags 5 or 6 times I did not have one failure of any type. It would appear that I am good to go for the time being. I will make some sort of EDC decision after I have put another 2 or 3 hundred rounds down range without incident.

If it were not for the absolute beauty of the trigger on this gun, I would not go through the time or expense putting all these rounds down range, solely for the purpose of determining reliability. The gun is small and not very comfortable to shoot for a guy with fingers the size of mine. However, it is EASY to shoot, EASY to carry and pretty accurate for such a small gun; all the ingredients I look for in a concealment handgun.

For now, I will sit back, casting a casual eye now and then at the KahrTalk forums just to keep tabs on how they are doing. I look forward to the day when they return to their former level of perfection.