Update: S&W has taken notice of this letter and is currently working to rectify the problem. If all goes well, I will provide an update and give due credit to the company for, finally, taking responsibility for its product and taking care of me as a customer.
A hard copy of the following letter has been sent to Smith & Wesson CEO Mark P. Smith. It details an extremely frustrating customer service experience that I have been trying resolve since December. After being a huge fan — and frequent customer — of S&W for many years, I cannot in good conscience recommend the company or their products until they get their house in order.
And no, of course I don’t realistically expect a response from the CEO — I’m not naive. I do, however, believe raising the profile of experiences such as the one detailed below is important, both for customers and for the betterment of companies like S&W.
Dear Mr. Smith,
Thank you for taking a moment to read this letter. I have been struggling to resolve a problem with Smith & Wesson for over four months. The standard resolution mechanism–i.e., working with S&W’s customer service–has failed. Lacking other options, I have no choice but to resort to this open letter.
I will be as concise and direct as possible: I bought a new S&W pistol which I immediately found to be defective. The company has twice failed to repair the pistol. Moreover, S&W has effectively stolen my only two 10mm M&P magazines, which are currently totally unobtainable except through the purchase of new 10mm M&P pistols. The remedy I seek is simply the repair or replacement of the defective pistol and the replacement of those magazines.
Having explained the situation in brief, I offer full details below:
I bought a new S&W M&P 10mm pistol in December 2021. I took it directly from the gun counter to the range and found that the pistol ejected the magazine under recoil, without either deliberate or accidental activation of the magazine release.
Within a few days, I sent the pistol and magazines back to S&W per the company’s instructions. I included a note which described the problem in detail and indicated the types of ammo with which I had experienced the problem (S&B 180 grain JHP and Underwood 220 grain hardcast).
The pistol was returned to me in early February with a note saying no repairs had been performed because the problem I described could not be replicated. I immediately tested the pistol and experienced the exact same problem.
This time, I took videos to document 1) that the problem is real and 2) that it was not caused by any sort of operator error. I am happy to provide these videos to anyone who is interested. Some of them can be accessed via a link below. So far, no one at S&W has expressed any interest in seeing video documentation of this problem that they say does not exist.
I returned the pistol (and magazines) to the factory a second time, again including all of the relevant information. I begged S&W not to return an unrepaired pistol to me a second time. I also made clear that if they were having trouble replicating the problem, they should contact me. I would have been happy to talk through the problem with them.
The pistol was returned to me a second time — once again, unrepaired. And once again, I took videos to document the defect. See here. (https://twitter.com/marklivesthings/status/1501385575168937989)
When I called S&W customer service again, they speculated there might be a problem with my magazines. This baffled me: I had already sent my magazines back to the factory along with my pistol — twice! Surely my magazines would have been tested on those occasions? According to the customer service representative with whom I spoke, that was not the case. That seemed downright negligent to me, but I was given no other option but to send in my magazines (for a third time now!) in exchange for two replacement magazines.
According to the FedEx tracking information, S&W received my original magazines on 3/14. When two weeks had passed without any replacement magazines being shipped out to me, I called S&W to figure out when I might expect to receive the two magazines I was owed.
The customer service representative I spoke to couldn’t tell me when I might receive my magazines. Bizarrely, though, he insisted that the Underwood 220 grain hardcast rounds I had used were the cause of the problem I experienced. This was extremely frustrating for several reasons:
- Underwoord’s 10mm ammunition is not +p and falls within SAAMI pressure specifications. Any modern 10mm pistol ought to be able to run it, and there’s nothing in S&W’s product information to indicate otherwise. On the contrary, I was told SAAMI-pressure ammo would be fine.
- I have been absolutely clear about what ammo I was using from the start of this process in December. If S&W believes this round to be a problem–however unreasonable that might be–why wasn’t that brought to my attention months ago when I first provided all of this relevant information to S&W? The only other time this ammo was mentioned as potentially problematic was in early March, by a different customer service rep, almost three months into this process. However, after I confirmed that the Underwood round in question is within SAAMI pressure specs, she did not pursue the issue further and simply told me to send my magazines in (a third time…) to be exchanged.
- I cannot test the pistol with any ammo now. As of April 25th, S&W has had my magazines for 43 days without giving me anything in return — is that not theft? I was promised two magazines in return for the two I sent in to be exchanged. Not having magazines also prevents me from demonstrating that the problem persists with other types of ammo and recording additional videos that show as much.
I find it incredibly frustrating to have purchased a brand new pistol in December 2021 and for it to still be unserviceable as we approach May 2022 — that’s absurd, especially given all of the effort that I have put into this process.
Moreover, it’s absolutely inexcusable that I was instructed to send in my magazines for exchange when S&W apparently did not have the will or ability to actually uphold their end of that agreement. To be blunt, that’s fraudulent behavior, made worse by the fact that these magazines are, presently, wholly unobtainable except through the purchase of a new M&P 10mm pistol.
This is all especially infuriating in light of the fact that I have an upcoming trip to Alaska, and I purchased the 10mm pistol to carry in backcountry areas where dangerous wildlife is a legitimate concern.
Again, I am merely asking to be made whole: to have the pistol I purchased be fixed or replaced, and to have two magazines returned to me.
I hope S&W will act to resolve this situation soon.
Sincerely,
Mark Houser
I can be reached on Twitter
