-1 Kel-Tec Customer Service

[DownByTheTracks]

Yesterday a customer walks in with a Kel-Tec PF-9 that he purchased from me a couple months ago. He states that he has a malfunction, and informs me that there is a live cartridge in the chamber and the slide is stuck forward, but still out of battery.

I ask if he contacted Kel-Tec. He had, and they told him "take it back to the dealer you bought it from and they'll deal with it." At this point I'm thinking WTF??! I'm not "certified" by Kel-Tec to work on any of their products, nor have I ever exchanged a single word with any employees.

I call the company and finally talk to someone after 13 minutes of holding, explain the situation and get transferred to more crappy music. After waiting a few more minutes I explain the situation again, and wait for it...I'm transferred again. Finally I'm talking to a gunsmith that doesn't really know what to tell me, and then my stupid phone cuts out (-1 Comcast).

Now I have to start from the beginning and it takes about the same amount of time to find out that everyone was out to lunch, but they'd call me back soon.

I call back at 3:30pm and was informed that they close at 3. So I gripped it in a padded vice, removed all the frame pins, disconnected the main hammer spring and removed the grip. This allowed a spring to come lose which unlocked the slide and allowed the round to come out.

What bothers me about the customer disservice department there is that they told a customer to take their loaded-defective gun to a dealer, and when said dealer inquires WTF they act like it's no big deal that their gun could possibly discharge at any time. It's already broken, so anything's possible. (Note: It is a felony for anyone to ship a firearm loaded, so that's why the problem has to be taken care of locally.)

Does anyone else think this is somewhat rude of Kel-Tec or am I just seeing things?

 

[Gamez235]

Their service has always been pretty good with us and our customers needs. I can see why they would tell the customer to bring it to the dealer, although the customer should have called ahead and found out if you were capable to handle the repair, so if you couldn't, you might have referred him to someone who could. We will always work with our customers clearing up any issues they may have with a firearm they've purchased with us, if that means contacting and/or working with the manufacturer (which can be a pain sometimes) to make it right, we'll do what we can.

We've sent two PF-9's back this month, although both worked fine after being serviced.

 

[NIFT]

I had a total of three Kel-Tec pistols a number of years ago: one P11 and two P40s. They were awful. However, customer service at Kel-Tec (at that time) was good. They graciously completely rebuilt all three twice. They were still awful and never functioned properly--ever!

Actually, I foisted two of them off on John at your store in trade for a Glock 30 and never looked back.

As I read up on the foibles of Kel-Tec pistols, one person claimed he even tried to use his as a pencil holder, but it wouldn't feed those, either!

Some folks really like Kel-Tec firearms, and that's fine. I, however, suffer from extreme bait shyness, and it will be a cold day in a hot place before I have another.

Apologies for the rant. My (dated) experience with Kel-Tec customer service was good, but the products were gawd-awful.

 

[DownByTheTracks]

I love helping out my customers when things go wrong, but this particular firearm seemed like a fairly volatile situation and when I sought help from someone experienced I received nothing.

 

[Gamez235]

Yeah, that one would have made me sweat too.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Maybe, maybe not.

Working in sales for as a manufacturer, I know the "take it to a dealer" is a catch all. Also working for a range or getting calls from customers for tech support at my 9-5, the customer's generally are not "hip" to the products. The "take it back to the dealer" usually is nothing more than asking the customer to make sure it is not something simple but out of the grasp of the customer (as alot of gun stuff is sometimes).

It's when they ask the dealer to remedy the problem that is a clear factory defect, that is where the -1 should come in play. To be honest, it sounded like an ammo problem as there was nothing stated in the OP regarding factory fault.

Granted, working with folks at my company (some are less desireable than others) or working with dealers, you will have folks here that will ask a customer to go to the dealer for a clearly factory issue or have dealers that don't want to fix THEIR programming/installation/integration mistake and have the customer call us trying to fix it.

I have called Keltec about something once (cracked reciever on a PF9). They are VERY helpful and the only time I went to the dealer was to pick up my gun when it was repaired. Not harping or dissing your customer, but I don't see their response they gave him as being correct...

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I'd be curious to know the ammo used...

I once had a crappy lacquer-coated steel 115gr 9mm ball cartridge that locked up the slide on my EMP tighter than a drum.

-J-

 

[Gamez235]

I'd be curious to know the ammo used...

I once had a crappy lacquer-coated steel 115gr 9mm ball cartridge that locked up the slide on my EMP tighter than a drum.

-J-

I'll raise you a AK-74 that some guy shot with corrosive ammo and left a live round in the chamber after heavy fire. Not only was it glued in the chamber it was rusted...

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I'll raise you a AK-74 that some guy shot with corrosive ammo and left a live round in the chamber after heavy fire. Not only was it glued in the chamber it was rusted...

I'd have attempted to pull the trigger in the hopes that the FP was still free enough to detonate the primer.

In my case, it was jammed out of battery. More specifically, it was jammed going into battery after previous case had ejected.

That crappy ammo about choked my P99, too.

Guess I shouldn't have been using the least expensive stuff I could find on a $1200 and $600 guns...

 

[DownByTheTracks]

It turned out to be Norinco 92 ammo.

I have found a 4 other threads regarding this same problem and some of them are using foreign ammo, and others are using American made factory loads when it happens. The posters say that they have all contacted Kel-Tec at some time, so the company knows that this does happen, whether it's their guns fault, or the ammo's fault.

Regardless of fault, they made the machine and should be able to tell someone how to safely disassemble it.

 

[JoshuaW]

The guy I talked to seemed a little slow (it was probably the southern accent) but he was nice. I had decent luck on the phone, and it was lunch time. He told me to just lock tight it on up (my words not his, his were more like "uh uhm put a little lohck-TIght on et") and that fixed my droopy sights. He tried to tell me that the sight was affixed properly, but whatever. After the frame cracked on it (we are talking about a Sub2k BTW) I just sent it in with a letter saying what happened (it has a crack in it, I have never shot anything but factory ammo in it , oh, while it is there please clean it and do what you can to the trigger) and it came back in three weeks, a completely new gun with the same serial number. When it came back I could see pretty obviously that the sight on the original was missing a metal collar, but Im still impressed that they just replaced the gun and never questioned how I managed to crack the frame.

Oh, and just a note to the other Sub2k owners out there, the Sub2k is not designed for +P ammo.

 

[Regionnus Rattis]

Wow...that's unfortunate. I have never had any problems with Kel-Tec customer service and I have a P-11, PF9 and a SUB-2000. I've never had any problems with the guns for that matter. Maybe the customer service was good because I was only inquiring about some extra parts.

Sorry to hear you had problems.

 

[grimor]

Keltec support is great if you walk in (Florida) otherwise it's kinda hit and miss. I have a sub-2k and got the quad rail that has issues (keltek knows) and had to send in the barrel that came loose. VERY poor communication and they didn't offer to pay the shipping to them. but it came back in about a week all fixed up.

It's a pretty small MFG and run by some good ol boys who are more into making guns than answering phones and emails.

 

[JordanN]

After sending my PF9 back twice at my expense (the second time, it fell apart in my hands at the range), and not being able to make it through a mag of ammo when I got it back, I decided to shelve it.

I may eventually contact Kel-Tec and tell them to send me some replacement springs so that I can can feel comfortable with it again. For now, though, I'm happy with my GLOCK 23.

 

[JohnP82]

Wow! yeah I wouldnt like having to work on a gun at your shop with a live round stuck in it. Glad it all turned out ok in the end.

 

[Doc Unique]

I have been unhappy with Kel-Tec service also.
They don't seem to really care.
When I inquired about their well known frame peening in the area of the
recoil spring problem on the P3AT--they told me "You should just keep an eye on it because some do not get so large that the spring pops out.
If the springs do pop out then contact us again to send your slide back for replacement."
Now that is one crappy Customer Service attitude if you ask me.
Not what I want in a gun maker's attitude.
And by the way...what does one do if the springs pop out when trying
employ the weapon to defend yourself or others?