Just got my 709 a week ago and made one short visit to the range (due to the lack of 9mm ammo to buy). Got about 90 live rounds through it and am quite happy with the pistol. Was holding out for a S&W Shield, but gave up on that given the months long wait in line for one. Glad I got the 709 instead!
The 709 is just what I am looking for to complement my Springfield XDM 9mm 3.8 Compact. I do have one challenge with my particular 709, giving me the opportunity for my first interaction with Taurus Customer Service--and hence this post.
I cleaned the new 709 thoroughly and lubricated it before doing anything else. I then exercised the trigger by dry firing with snap caps many times. (BTW - all should note that the manual says that dry firing w/o snap caps will damage the gun.) Then it was off to the range for a short visit.
Have read a lot of comments about the long SA trigger pull, which is definitely different from my XDM, but since most of the trigger travel is without resistance it works for me. My problem was that once the trigger got to where something was going to happen, the pull was so hard that at first I thought the trigger wasn't working. Pulling hard enough the gun did fire, but the pull was really hard. Much more than I expected.
So, back to home and more dry firing to break in the trigger. Did 500 dual-action trigger pulls and 500 single-action trigger pulls. Figure that should be enough breaking in for the trigger. After all that, the DA pull was much easier than the SA pull. The Taurus specification for DA is 7-9 lbs and 5-7 lbs for SA. I could believe the DA was about right, but no way for the SA.
I figured that if I call Customer Service (CS) and just say the SA pull is hard (a subjective measure) I might get brushed off, so I went out and bought a Lyman Digital Trigger Pull Guage and checked each of my pistols. Sure enough, the 709's 10-pull average for DA was 6 lbs 3 oz whereas the SA was 10 lbs 6 oz. [For what it's worth, my XDM pulled an average of 5 lbs 15 oz and my SR22 did 4 lbs 12 oz in SA] Now I had objective measures and was ready to call Taurus CS.
That was last night. I will say that one really neat thing that Taurus does while you are on hold in the queue is to keep updating you with which caller number you are. That lets you know how things are progressing. Good move, Taurus. The CS person took my information and advised that she would have to get her bosses' approval for a return with a trigger pull complaint and would have to call me back today.
I was in and out today, so I initiated a call back to them in case I had missed their call. Got a different CS person who followed-up for me. Turns out, they have to get the OK from the bosses' boss and that person was already gone when I called.
She stated that their policy is that they just don't do returns for trigger pulls because everyone's expectation is different. The fact that the pull had been objectively measured with a digital trigger pull gauge and that the 10-pull average was as much as twice the Taurus specifications didn't seem to make any difference. They will decide if they will take the gun back for repair and they will let me know tomorrow!
I really like the 709, but this policy really blows me away. That's why I got the digital gauge--so it wouldn't be my subjective "feeling" about how hard the trigger is.
After the really helpful queue messages, I was expecting great things . . . but alas . . .
Well, I just had to vent tonight and hopefully tomorrow will bring a more encouraging response. That is the thing about businesses and their customer service. Statistically, if a person has a bad experience and it is corrected, they will tell three other people. If they have a bad experience, and it isn't resolved to the customer's satisfaction, the statistics say they will tell eleven people--and those stats were collected before the age of the internet and forums.
LEN
The 709 is just what I am looking for to complement my Springfield XDM 9mm 3.8 Compact. I do have one challenge with my particular 709, giving me the opportunity for my first interaction with Taurus Customer Service--and hence this post.
I cleaned the new 709 thoroughly and lubricated it before doing anything else. I then exercised the trigger by dry firing with snap caps many times. (BTW - all should note that the manual says that dry firing w/o snap caps will damage the gun.) Then it was off to the range for a short visit.
Have read a lot of comments about the long SA trigger pull, which is definitely different from my XDM, but since most of the trigger travel is without resistance it works for me. My problem was that once the trigger got to where something was going to happen, the pull was so hard that at first I thought the trigger wasn't working. Pulling hard enough the gun did fire, but the pull was really hard. Much more than I expected.
So, back to home and more dry firing to break in the trigger. Did 500 dual-action trigger pulls and 500 single-action trigger pulls. Figure that should be enough breaking in for the trigger. After all that, the DA pull was much easier than the SA pull. The Taurus specification for DA is 7-9 lbs and 5-7 lbs for SA. I could believe the DA was about right, but no way for the SA.
I figured that if I call Customer Service (CS) and just say the SA pull is hard (a subjective measure) I might get brushed off, so I went out and bought a Lyman Digital Trigger Pull Guage and checked each of my pistols. Sure enough, the 709's 10-pull average for DA was 6 lbs 3 oz whereas the SA was 10 lbs 6 oz. [For what it's worth, my XDM pulled an average of 5 lbs 15 oz and my SR22 did 4 lbs 12 oz in SA] Now I had objective measures and was ready to call Taurus CS.
That was last night. I will say that one really neat thing that Taurus does while you are on hold in the queue is to keep updating you with which caller number you are. That lets you know how things are progressing. Good move, Taurus. The CS person took my information and advised that she would have to get her bosses' approval for a return with a trigger pull complaint and would have to call me back today.
I was in and out today, so I initiated a call back to them in case I had missed their call. Got a different CS person who followed-up for me. Turns out, they have to get the OK from the bosses' boss and that person was already gone when I called.
She stated that their policy is that they just don't do returns for trigger pulls because everyone's expectation is different. The fact that the pull had been objectively measured with a digital trigger pull gauge and that the 10-pull average was as much as twice the Taurus specifications didn't seem to make any difference. They will decide if they will take the gun back for repair and they will let me know tomorrow!
I really like the 709, but this policy really blows me away. That's why I got the digital gauge--so it wouldn't be my subjective "feeling" about how hard the trigger is.
After the really helpful queue messages, I was expecting great things . . . but alas . . .
Well, I just had to vent tonight and hopefully tomorrow will bring a more encouraging response. That is the thing about businesses and their customer service. Statistically, if a person has a bad experience and it is corrected, they will tell three other people. If they have a bad experience, and it isn't resolved to the customer's satisfaction, the statistics say they will tell eleven people--and those stats were collected before the age of the internet and forums.
LEN