The Spectrum shipped........................

I happen to agree with texastaurusguy, the Spectrum is a marketing dream that may never become reality, especially after the hurricane hit Miami earlier this year.

IMHO, Taurus worked a whole bunch of gun buyer 'sharks' into a feeding frenzy over this gun, and have thrown small bits of chum into the water here and there, but those gun buyer 'sharks' have now gone to other guns in .380 caliber (Kahr, Ruger LCP II, etc.) instead of waiting for 'more small bits of chum' with a 'possible' introduction to the public of the Spectrum. It is a lot easier to buy a gun you can hold in your hand than a marketing advertisement. Are you listening, Taurus management and marketing?

I know several gun shops here in the Phoenix metro area, along with those friends know in other areas of the country, that WILL NOT take a deposit for the new Spectrum. I also know a few gun shops that will literally tell you, in no uncertain terms, that they REFUSE to discuss the Taurus Spectrum under ANY circumstances. One even has a note posted in their Taurus display stating that they know as much about the Spectrum as you do, and to not ask about it AT ALL !

To me, it is just another reason that I am getting afraid of where Taurus is headed here recently. I am getting more and more concerned with where they are headed the more I see how they are handling many issues.

BREAKING NEWS:

A shop I visit from time to time put up a new notice in their Taurus display, stating the following:

"On November 1, 2017, we will no longer be stocking Taurus firearms, and will sell out the existing stock at our cost. We have tried to weather the storm with regards to the lawsuit and its ramifications, the long service times on returns, and the quality control problems. We were willing to see what the outcome would be with regard to the lawsuit, accepted the long service turn around times as backup at Miami, and the quality control problems were averted by our staff inspecting each gun, regardless of manufacturer, thoroughly.

The final straw for us was all the hype over the new Spectrum. If it had been delivered within a certain time frame after the announcement, we would not be discussing all of our problems with Taurus. But, lo and behold, Taurus has not delivered the product they have been promoting. We, in good conscience, can not accept how they are treating you, the customer, any longer, nor how they are treating us, as a dealer, either.

So, effective November 1, 2017, we will no longer stock new Taurus firearms. We will, however, be willing to be the shipping and receiving FFL for any firearms going back to Miami for warranty work, and do our best to assist you in any way with regards to your current Taurus firearm.

We appreciate your understanding in this decision, and we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may bring to you. It was not an easy decision to make, but after reviewing the recent events with Taurus, it was a business decision we had to make."

I discussed this with one of the staff at this gun shop, and they put it mildly like this, "How much abuse should a dealer take to sell a certain brand?"

I've been interested in the Spectrum, but not so tempted that it matters to me when it gets released; in fact, there have been so many complaints from buyers about guns from numerous manufacturers getting released to the market before they were actually ready and tested (R51 comes to mind), that I refuse to buy ANY gun until those folks with delayed gratification problems take the plunge first... reprehensible, I know.

Usually when a gun company delays a release it's because the new product is suffering some newfound reliability problems that must be addressed by the engineering department... and it can happen to any maker.

I remember when Kimber introduced the Solo; what a piece of junk that was, so bad that the gun mags couldn't even stomach lying about it... MSRP was around a grand too, although they could be found for around $700. Yippee!, a $700 paperweight with an elite brand name on it. Were that not bad enough, Kimber execs figured if they could build top notch 1911s, SURELY they could build a simple revolver with little or no prior experience.

Wrong again; turns out building a quality revolver is a little more complicated than they thought, because once again customers and professional reviewers had very little praise for their 1st foray into the wheelgun market. The MSRP for those are about a grand, too; and if you can find a K6 and ammo brand combination that routinely groups under 4" for 5 consecutive shots, better make a vid of it because it's about as hard to find as the Loch Ness Monster.