Bad luck with Trijicon or par for the course?

[TinyCrumb]

Dealing with a somewhat frustrating customer service issue with Trijicon. Wondering if this is common and/or if anyone knows a better contact.

Backstory:

In November of last year I attempted to change the battery on my Docter that's mounted on top of my SU-237 ECOS-N (Acog with piggybacked Docter). Two of the screws on the mount had the heads shear right off. I was using a Brownells bit, hardly any torque, just a run-of-the mill unscrew something and the heads just came right off. Weak steel? Over-use of red loctite? Seemed to be a combination of both.

Wasn't a big deal, I knew the sight was under warranty so I contact Trijicon on 11/30 about sending it in for repair. They got back to me on 12/1 with an RMA and instructions to send it in.

I didn't hear anything else from them throughout the whole process.

I received the optic back on 1/22, over a month and a half later. But there were a couple problems. First and most importantly, the entire Docter mount was just gone. Not even in the box, just completley missing. (The Docter mount on the SU-237 also has the rear aperture for the BUIS). Additionally, it looks like they drilled out one of the holes on the ACOG itself and re-tapped it, but did a really rough job with it. So it looks pretty boogered and of course the anodizing is all missing around the new hole. This is "less" of an issue with me, it's a combat optic after-all, as long as the new threads work (the hole visually looks quite a bit bigger) - but of course there's no way for me to even test that since it got sent back without the mount and with no screws.

I immediately emailed them (responded to my RMA email) 5 minutes after I received it with the issue. They never responded.

A couple weeks later I emailed again. No response.

Finally I called and spoke with someone in the repair department. She said she'd have to look in to it and call me back the next day. Never called back.

Then, a couple weeks later, I finally got my first contact from someone there. On 2/29 I got an email from a lady in the repair department simply asking what my issue was. #facepalm

So after yet again explaining what the issue was, we went back and forth on it over 3 emails until she finally said "Okay, I need to dig in to this more, I'll get back to you tomorrow".

Crickets.

So today (10 days after her "tomorrow" promise) I follow up with an email, and immediately get a response that she's out of office from 3/9 - 4/2.

So I'm now 3.5 months later after I originally sent my optic in for repair. I still haven't gotten an answer on if they even have my missing part let alone where it might be. I can't seem to get ahold of anyone. The one person that *did* finally respond to me just went on a month vacation without following up first or handing me off to someone else. And it seems like my only option is to start over with yet another rep - *if* I can get ahold of one.

Gotta say, I've been a big fan of Trijicon and they're products, but this is leaving a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Granted, a $1500 optic isn't the most expensive thing on the market, but loosing parts, shotty work, and no communication is leaving me feeling out in the cold.

Anyone else had similar issues? Any advice on where to go next?

[WickedWillis]

Dealing with a somewhat frustrating customer service issue with Trijicon. Wondering if this is common and/or if anyone knows a better contact.

Backstory:

In November of last year I attempted to change the battery on my Docter that's mounted on top of my SU-237 ECOS-N (Acog with piggybacked Docter). Two of the screws on the mount had the heads shear right off. I was using a Brownells bit, hardly any torque, just a run-of-the mill unscrew something and the heads just came right off. Weak steel? Over-use of red loctite? Seemed to be a combination of both.

Wasn't a big deal, I knew the sight was under warranty so I contact Trijicon on 11/30 about sending it in for repair. They got back to me on 12/1 with an RMA and instructions to send it in.

I didn't hear anything else from them throughout the whole process.

I received the optic back on 1/22, over a month and a half later. But there were a couple problems. First and most importantly, the entire Docter mount was just gone. Not even in the box, just completley missing. (The Docter mount on the SU-237 also has the rear aperture for the BUIS). Additionally, it looks like they drilled out one of the holes on the ACOG itself and re-tapped it, but did a really rough job with it. So it looks pretty boogered and of course the anodizing is all missing around the new hole. This is "less" of an issue with me, it's a combat optic after-all, as long as the new threads work (the hole visually looks quite a bit bigger) - but of course there's no way for me to even test that since it got sent back without the mount and with no screws.

I immediately emailed them (responded to my RMA email) 5 minutes after I received it with the issue. They never responded.

A couple weeks later I emailed again. No response.

Finally I called and spoke with someone in the repair department. She said she'd have to look in to it and call me back the next day. Never called back.

Then, a couple weeks later, I finally got my first contact from someone there. On 2/29 I got an email from a lady in the repair department simply asking what my issue was. #facepalm

So after yet again explaining what the issue was, we went back and forth on it over 3 emails until she finally said "Okay, I need to dig in to this more, I'll get back to you tomorrow".

Crickets.

So today (10 days after her "tomorrow" promise) I follow up with an email, and immediately get a response that she's out of office from 3/9 - 4/2.

So I'm now 3.5 months later after I originally sent my optic in for repair. I still haven't gotten an answer on if they even have my missing part let alone where it might be. I can't seem to get ahold of anyone. The one person that *did* finally respond to me just went on a month vacation without following up first or handing me off to someone else. And it seems like my only option is to start over with yet another rep - *if* I can get ahold of one.

Gotta say, I've been a big fan of Trijicon and they're products, but this is leaving a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Granted, a $1500 optic isn't the most expensive thing on the market, but loosing parts, shotty work, and no communication is leaving me feeling out in the cold.

Anyone else had similar issues? Any advice on where to go next?

Why are you red loctiting anything on there?

[TinyCrumb]

Why are you red loctiting anything on there?

I personally did not. The screws had not been touched since it was new. It appeared to me that one of the reasons this happened is because the factory used red thread locker on them. The ones that did come out and didn't shear off had visible red residue on the threads. Sorry I didn't make that clear enough in my OP.

The site had not been modified, tampered with or anything else from when it was new.

[WickedWillis]

I personally did not. The screws had not been touched since it was new. It appeared to me that one of the reasons this happened is because the factory used red thread locker on them. The ones that did come out and didn't shear off had visible red residue on the threads. Sorry I didn't make that clear enough in my OP.

The site had not been modified, tampered with or anything else from when it was new.

No, you are fine. My screws came threaded with blue from the factory, received it last month. Having red from the factory is a huge mistake imo. Not sure why they would This is the worst I have heard of regarding their CS.

[SomeOtherGuy]

That's bad service, and $1500 is enough money to expect good service. I don't think it's typical of Trijicon but I haven't had service experience with them.

I would start fresh through the main CS number. In my experience with other companies it seems fairly common that a main number inquiry sends you to one specific person who is supposed to handle your problem, and without any quality checking or backup if that person drops the ball. Not a good way of handling CS, but common. If you start fresh you will hopefully get to another person who will handle it correctly.

[BillBond]

IMO Trijicon service has turned to crap in the last couple of years.

They used to be one of the best around, but the last two times I had to deal with them they did not take care of me.

[TinyCrumb]

That's bad service, and $1500 is enough money to expect good service. I don't think it's typical of Trijicon but I haven't had service experience with them.

I would start fresh through the main CS number. In my experience with other companies it seems fairly common that a main number inquiry sends you to one specific person who is supposed to handle your problem, and without any quality checking or backup if that person drops the ball. Not a good way of handling CS, but common. If you start fresh you will hopefully get to another person who will handle it correctly.

When I got the out of office reply, it included a reference to a different person so I emailed them today along with a copy of the whole thread. Haven't heard back yet, but it's only been half a day. Hopefully this guy will be more on top of it. If not, good advice, I'll try the main number and see if there's a way to "escalate" it.

[SavageBrew84]

I know this doesn't pertain to the CS problems you've come across and it sucks that they seem to be blowing you off over the last few months but are you sure the loctite they used wasn't the purple 222? That's what came with one of my Bobro mounts I used to mount a NF scope. It was also what we used to secure the faceplate screws on our Kirby Morgan dive hats while I was a commercial diver; it kept the screws tightly secured but I never stripped a head removing one. Best of luck getting them to make it right for you.

[TinyCrumb]

I know this doesn't pertain to the CS problems you've come across and it sucks that they seem to be blowing you off over the last few months but are you sure the loctite they used wasn't the pink 222? That's what came with one of my Bobro mounts I used to mount a NF scope. It was also what we used to secure the faceplate screws on our Kirby Morgan dive hats while I was a commercial diver; it kept the screws tightly secured but I never stripped a head removing one. Best of luck getting them to make it right for you.

No, I'm not 100% sure. I should have taken some pictures of the screws before I sent it back in. It looked like a pretty deep red to me, the same color I've seen where actual red loctite has been used. TBH though, it doesn't really matter to me. Either way two of the screw heads sheared off with minimal force, telling me that the whether it was loctite that was holding them in, or torque, they were for some reason defective and/or weak.

Really after it happened I didn't care much. My first thought was "Well that sucks, oh well, I'm sure they'll fix me up". But after the time delays, missing parts, no communication and what appears to be questionable work on the ACOG itself… it's just a lot of trouble for two small screws. Has me wishing I'd just attempted to take care of it myself.

[JackFanToM]

I would question the quality of the screws a bit as well. Just (like 15 minutes ago) pulled off a stock MRO mount to install a scalarworks one. I knew this was a temporary mount, so I merely slapped it on and torqued the screws to 35 inch pounds. Both screws stripped with minimal force applied when removing them. Had to Dremel slots in the screws to remove them. Nothing I would bother trijicon over.