[Memiram]

I would:

1. Make parts available! Please, sell me screws, springs, etc. Every other gun company has parts available, so why not Taurus? I had to try to find a screw for the sights on my PT-111 G2, and when a friend called and tried to get a couple, it's like he's asking for a hunk of gold. It's a screw. My box of tiny screws saved me and him, but younger guys who don't have like 3 quart jars filled with little tiny machine screws need, or will need, to get parts, and having to send a gun in for a minor issue is ridiculous. I needed a decocker spring for my Sig P226 when the original went flying when I was putting the gun back together after a major cleaning, and between Ebay, and about a dozen stores selling them, it was a no panic deal. If it had been on one of my Taurus guns, it would have been a giant hassle.
2. Maybe pare back the models and concentrate on getting the ones left right. All mine lately have been ok, but I know several people who have had issues due to sloppy assembly, such as pins not being driven all the way in, and one had a defective recoil spring assembly out of the box. Lakeline saved him a major hassle. A third party shouldn't be necessary.
3. Hire enough people to keep the backlog to a couple of weeks when people do need to send guns in.

If you do the above, and do it right, you will sell a lot of guns.

 

[Doctordeere]

4. Focus a bit more on your customers and a bit less on your investors.

 

[Desperado]

I just had to respond to this thread.

1. Making parts available: Hallelujah!!! EVERY other brand of firearm I have, I can get parts for. And I can get them anytime from a website or by calling an 800 number.

2. Quality Control: I agree fully on the quality control issue. Yes, other brands have had quality control issues, but they actually DO SOMETHING about it, and not just give it lip service. And if you did take care of the quality control issues, you may relieve #3.

3. The service backlog: It SHOULD NOT take 10 to 12 weeks for repair work to be done. That is a manpower problem that needs to be addressed. Take a look at this thread on the lawsuit settlement proceedings, and it will really open your eyes:

http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/t...us-conference-tuesday-february-13-2018-a.html

4. Focus a bit more on customers and not investors: Good idea, but I really see this not going away soon. That settlement issue is the elephant in the room that needs to be taken care of. Again, I refer you to the thread on the settlement posted above.

It would be nice to see all of this addressed, and it is easy to say, "If I ran Taurus, I would do this and that", but as much as I would like to see these issues addressed, I really do not see anything happening on these issues anytime soon. Call me pessimistic, but I think I am just being realistic.

 

[SixFalls]

Well. Yall beat me to the exact things I was going to post. I'll bet many more feel the same. I hope they one day get things back together.

 

[garyh]

Taurus does need to make some changes.

 

[88keys]

Yes! Especially to #1 Parts Availability. I don't bother with any firearm that has no parts availability any more. That's pretty much a deal breaker for me unless the manufacturer is known for first-rate customer service.

 

[loudviking]

I agree......................

 

[Memiram]

It's sad when I can buy all kinds of parts for my Astra A-75 that was made in '95, and by a company that was dead by 1998, but I can't get the same parts for a Taurus made in 2017. If you can take a gun down to clean it, you can replace the recoil spring, barrel, and stuff like a firing pin isn't all that hard when it's shown being done on youtube videos, and to a point, a gun is just a gun, they are more alike than different. I just don't understand the thinking behind this at all. It's frustrating as there are a couple of older Taurus guns I would probably get, but if some minor part like a trigger spring breaks, getting a replacement is either a huge search or trying to make something for another gun work. It's not rocket science.

 

[ICUKev]

Well. Yall beat me to the exact things I was going to post. I'll bet many more feel the same. I hope they one day get things back together.

Exactly!

 

[Quality_driven]

Memiram, if I could vote you into Taurus office, I would. Here is part of a chat I had today with CS. I don't understand why Taurus does not want to sell parts. Do they not like making happy customers or making money?

 

[Newt]

Taurus needs to get back to basics and stop trying to keep up with "fads".

 

[DeltaBravoKS]

Customer service does not generate revenue. That is the bottom line.

A customer service department has an easily defined cost that the rest of the company must bare. That's why so many help desks get sent offshore. All it is, is a big number at the bottom of a spreadsheet. If that big number can be made smaller by outsourcing or cutting bodies, that is what is going to happen.

Modern companies are run by idiots with a spreadsheet. You can't put experience nor goodwill in a spreadsheet.

 

[glenwolde]

Customer service does not generate revenue. That is the bottom line.

A customer service department has an easily defined cost that the rest of the company must bare. That's why so many help desks get sent offshore. All it is, is a big number at the bottom of a spreadsheet. If that big number can be made smaller by outsourcing or cutting bodies, that is what is going to happen.

Modern companies are run by idiots with a spreadsheet. You can't put experience nor goodwill in a spreadsheet.

I would think selling parts would generate revenue, especially if you sold them online. When you make guns that will need lots, and lots, of parts that would seem to be the way to go. Go figure. When you sell guns at such a low price point your customers might balk at paying $50 to send a $200 gun to get fixed. Taurus are "this far" from being disposable guns.

 

[Czechbikr]

The question was selling magazine parts? Taurus doesn't make magazines to my knowledge, they are bought out from outside vendors.

Regarding selling fire control parts, they got gun shy during the run up to the last lawsuit debacle on the Millennium series pistols. Prior to that I ordered and received springs for PT 145...FP return spring, FP spring, recoil assemblies, etc.

They are loosening up somewhat from what I read over the last year.

When Mark ran the show they had plans to develop a "Custom Shop" to sell performance enhanced guns and tune existing firearms sent in for work.

 

[DeltaBravoKS]

I would think selling parts would generate revenue, especially if you sold them online. When you make guns that will need lots, and lots, of parts that would seem to be the way to go. Go figure. When you sell guns at such a low price point your customers might balk at paying $50 to send a $200 gun to get fixed. Taurus are "this far" from being disposable guns.

True, selling parts does make a little bit of money, but nothing compared to the overhead of running a customer service operation. I'm guessing that parts sales would be a small fraction (less than 10%) of customer service interactions. Also, parts sales are likely not attributed to the customer service department anyway.

Until someone with common sense gets in a position of leadership and understands that a relationship with the customer is valuable, it ain't gonna change because the spreadsheet cannot be overcome with numbers!

 

[Czechbikr]

Another issue with selling parts over the net is that we have documented instances where a part was specified for a given model produced in the past, only to find out that the part specification had been changed. They don't have a good record of keeping good records.

 

[glenwolde]

Another issue with selling parts over the net is that we have documented instances where a part was specified for a given model produced in the past, only to find out that the part specification had been changed. They don't have a good record of keeping good records.

I have had trouble getting the right part. They sent me the exact same wrong part three times. I gave up. I retract my previous comment. I'm not sure they could sell parts even if they wanted too. The system is too weak.

 

[DWARREN123]

If I ran Taurus I would be way over my head in trouble!