Customer Service on My PT145 - Final Report

I got my parts today and they work. I am happy that the gun is back in working order, but I hope I never have cause to deal with Taurus customer service again. In fact, I am in the process of taking steps to insure that.

I needed a guide rod and magazine from Taurus. I sent the package via priority mail with signature confirmation. The PO screwed that up big time, and I do not hold Taurus responsible for that. According to the USPS website, my package is STILL sitting in the post office. My initial contact with a customer service representative at Taurus was not great, since I was told they would not call the post office to request a re-delivery. After several days of trying to get the problem resolved through the post office, I spoke on the phone with the manager of the customer service department at Taurus. He checked on my package in his computer as well, and then told me he was having trouble with mail deliveries other than mine. He asked me what I needed, and for the serial number of my gun, and then told me he was going to ship me the parts I needed right away via Fed Ex ground so I could have a tracking number and not have to wait for my package to get to him.

I did not ask for that, and did not expect it. I was gratified to hear it though, thinking that perhaps all those unhappy stories I had read about CS were in the past.

I called back the next day to get the tracking number. My phone call went to voice mail. I left a message and waited two days. No return call. I called again and got the assistant manager, who told me that my package was shipping that day (Feb 14). He did not have a tracking number or method of shipment for me. I waited a week, and called to see about the tracking number again, since it has not arrived. At that point I was told that the package was shipped on Feb 15 via the USPS, and that there was no tracking number available for it.

The package arrived today, postmarked Feb 18. :???:

So I have my parts. What have I learned?

"Right away" apparently means anytime within the next week.

Fed Ex Ground can also mean the USPS.

Tracking numbers are optional, despite what the customer is told is going to happen.

Phone calls do not need to be returned.

It takes 3-4 days for packages to get from Taurus to the post office.

I run my own business, and it is machinery intensive. Things break, and nothing is perfect. Good customer service is as important, if not more so, than the particular features of a machine that I will have in my shop. The same goes for personal products. I have been a strong advocate for Taurus products in the past, and overall I have been very happy with the guns I have owned. But it only takes one experience like this one to make me take my dollars elsewhere, because next time I look at a Taurus gun, my first thought is going to be, What if it breaks?

The CS manager could have told me anything he wanted. I have no idea why he told me what he did. Even if he told me one thing and it turned out that he could not deliver, there was still the option of returning my phone call, but he blew that off. Two minutes on the phone to say, "Sorry Mr. Plinker, but we had a problem, and your package is going out this way instead". Apparently that procedure is not in the customer service manual.