Wanted to share my experience with Glock Customer Service/Warranty

LuckyDuck · Friday at 12:26 AM

Howdy Hide,

Figured this is the best forum to post this in. First things first- I'm a big fan of Glocks and own a bunch of 'em and bought a new one as recently as last week. Just to illustrate that point, below is a picture that I've shared here of my collection of Glocks chambered in 45...

Hopefully that serves to illustrate that I'm a fan of their product and not bashing them. That said, I did have to use their customer service/warranty recently and just wanted to share my experience with the Hide and hope that it may be of some help to others down the line if they too find themselves going down a similar path and find this thread through a search. Bottom line up front, I'm neither miffed nor impressed with how things worked out, but rather somewhere in the underwhelmed/indifferent mindset after bringing this effort to a conclusion as of today.

To start with- I should begin where all good stories begin, at the beginning and what started this exchange. I have a G19.3 purchased NIB in 2009 and the pistol has been an absolute rockstar ever since I owned it. I don't mean to overestimate the round count but after 15 years, I'd say that it likely is in the ballpark of 10K rounds. All factory ammunition using brands such as S&B, WWB, UMC, Blazer, Magtech, etc. There was about 1-2K rounds of NATO spec ammo and maybe 500 rounds of +P. I know that I've replaced the recoil spring at least twice (so minimum of 3 OEM recoil springs since owning it NIB).

So with that said- I'm a bit on the neurotic side when it comes to cleaning my firearms, doesn't matter if I put 50 or 500 rounds through it, it just bothers me to go to bed with a 'dirty' pistol. Well about 2-3 years or so ago, I was cleaning the pistol and noticed that there was a chip on the outside of the barrel with what appeared to be a hairline fracture that went from the chip all the way to the 12 o'clock position of the barrel. Truth be told, I already had a backup G19 so I took the Gen 3 out of rotation figuring I'd bring it to a GSSF match and have an armorer look at it for free but between COVID, work, and life, what was supposed to be a pause intended to only be a couple of months turned into years and this year I finally had the craps of having a pistol on the sideline for so long and decided to reach out to Glock's customer service.

Before I get too far, I know the pictures aren't of the greatest quality but I'll throw the pictures of the issue I'm describing here below-

Since I know it's not the best quality, I'll also throw in a crudely edited picture of the area in question...

Not sure if it'll come through but as members here are well aware, this is the part of the firearm subjected to tens of thousands of PSI each and every time a round is fired during normal operation so naturally I was concerned about metallurgical issues at this point which is what caused me to seek Glock's opinion on the matter.

Alrighty, this post is getting long so I'll end it hear and pick it up in a subsequent post.

-LD

LuckyDuck · Friday at 12:51 AM

Part II

So as I was saying, I was concerned about a potential barrel defect identified while cleaning my G19.3 and after my original plan of having a GSSF armorer look at it turned from months to years, I reached out to Glock's customer service team (of which I've heard nothing but glowing reviews.

First thing I'm going to share is if you should find yourself in a similar boat, you'll be presented with three options/POC's on Glock's website, '[email protected]', '[email protected]' & '[email protected]'. I started with their Customer Service POC and that ended up being the incorrect decision on my end.

I emailed their customer service link on 14SEP explaining my concerns, sharing pictures, and providing the backstory of the pistol. And I heard... nothing back. I tried to be patient but by 13OCT, I figured after giving them a month it was more than fair to followup and that's what I did. I reiterated my previous email, the timeline, and asked for a response. The next day 14OCT, customer service finally did respond and told me that they were forwarding it to their Technical Service group (hence my above comment on who to talk to).

To Glock's defense- once we got the initial email 'unstuck' I did hear back from their Technical Service group the following day on 15OCT responding that a crack wasn't normal and that I should send the gun or barrel back to them for evaluation. In that email, they included the instructions/address to send it to. On 16OCT I had a conversation with them about shipping labels and who is paying for what and I was told that Glocks are only warrantied for one year and since this was purchased in 2009 they wouldn't cover shipping. I did mention that I was fine doing so but thought that if there was a metallurgical concern that I thought Glock would be anxious to cover the shipping if for no other reason than to look into it themselves. Well- I'm sure you see where this is going, but that was a big fat nope, they'll look at it but I had to pay. Now I've got a pistol that's been sidelined for years so I wasn't going to squabble over the $20 or whatever it is/was but I was only sending the barrel in because I just didn't want to deal with the hassle of sending a whole gun in the mail to them on my dime. They did say though (on 16OCT that so long as the barrel wasn't damaged by me the customer, ammunition, or aftermarket parts that they'd cover the repair/replacement if I made the good faith effort to send it them. So a minor expense/inconvenience but I was feeling pretty good with this arrangement given the alternatives.

I was hoping to get the barrel mailed off on the 17th but work/life got in the way and I wasn't able to get it shipped off until 24OCT with delivery to Glock occurring on 28OCT. So that delay is also on me admittedly and the instructions I received said to give them 2 weeks to get to evaluating it.

I received a phone call & voicemail from one of their techs around 1430 on 13NOV which I didn't see until after 1700 (I have incoming phone calls immediately sent to voicemail if they aren't known numbers). I tried calling them back at 1730 but they must have been out of the office so I tried again the morning of 14NOV and left a voicemail. I didn't hear anything back the rest of the morning/afternoon so called them again at 1600 and got ahold of the tech to discuss the issue & get their evaluation.

Getting long again here so I'll finish up in the next post on the subject.

-LD

LuckyDuck · Friday at 1:09 AM

Part III.

So to recap, I'm on the phone now with the Glock tech the evening of 14NOV to discuss the barrel. This recap has gone on longer than I was hoping for so I'll try to be brief to wrap this up...

They completely agreed with me that the rear of the barrel was indeed chipped and contained a fracture. They also determined that the damage wasn't caused by negligence on my end or accidental damage such as dropping it. They deemed the damage they observed to be the result of 'normal wear and tear' on a part with a limited service life and as such was not a material defect. They then said they were prepared and ready to sell me a replacement barrel as soon as they had my credit card information.

We had a brief discussion about the location of the damage and that it appeared to be the result of originating from the outside of the barrel and working it's way in towards the chamber which would be contrary to the forces that exude pressures from inside the chamber outwards during normal operation to which they agreed was very unusual and odd to them as well but they believed it to be the result of a steady diet of high pressure rounds which caused accelerated but normal wear & tear. I disagreed with their conclusion about the 'high pressure' element but at the end of the day, that's what they decided. I asked if they'd ship the barrel back that I sent them and I was told company policy prevented them from returning parts determined to be unsafe. So they had me between the proverbial rock & hard place with a pistol I can't use without a barrel.

So long story short, I gave them my credit card information and they said they'd have a factory new barrel mailed out to me (it was either $120 or $140, I'm leaning towards it being the $140 but it was certainly one of those amounts). At the end of the day, between the cost of the new barrel & shipping I essentially am breaking even had I just purchased a new barrel from the get-go (not counting the time invested). But for my effort, I did at least receive validation that my observations were accurate and that it would have been unsafe to continue using and could have resulted in a much larger headache than what it was by catching the issue early.

All in all, I'm a bit underwhelmed with how things worked out but also happy to at least have an answer and a solution coming in. Even though I may have broke even as far as final costs were concerned by purchasing a new barrel outright, at least I got the validation that there was indeed a structural issue with the barrel and I don't have to play games trying to find someone with a OEM Gen III barrel in stock either. So I'm trying to focus on it being a success for seeing this through to a resolution.

Anywho, that's how it worked out today. If nothing else- I know it's a common joke about cleaning whatever brand of firearm and my experiences with Glock aside, if nothing else, in my mind at least, it serves as at least an example of the benefits of cleaning regularly/often. The firearm, whatever it is, might run just fine without frequent cleaning but tearing it down regularly allows the opportunity to check things out and catch these small issues before they become bigger ones.

Thanks for listening to my rambling, hope that this is (or will be) helpful to at least someone down the road.

-LD

OREGUN · Friday at 1:19 AM

I’d almost prefer this to the company that has you send in a broken or malfunctioning part, sends a replacement, and never follows up to tell you what went wrong. TriggerTech, here’s looking at you.

Sucks you had to pay shipping and replacement costs but barrels are also expendable parts so, maybe it’s just the “cost of doing business”.

+ 1 for regular cleaning and inspections

LuckyDuck · Friday at 1:28 AM

OREGUN said:
I’d almost prefer this to the company that has you send in a broken or malfunctioning part, sends a replacement, and never follows up to tell you what went wrong. TriggerTech, here’s looking at you.

Sucks you had to pay shipping and replacement costs but barrels are also expendable parts so, maybe it’s just the “cost of doing business”.

+ 1 for regular cleaning and inspections

Appreciate you chiming in and I hear where you're coming from for sure. As I said, I'm neither miffed or impressed, rather just 'meh' over the whole ordeal but at least it looks like it's coming to a resolution. I was hoping for a more favorable outcome for me obviously but as you said, perhaps it's just a 'cost of doing business'.

I can't say the service was 'poor' per se, but maybe just not as legendary as many would have you believe Glock is reputed to be known for either is all. I'm sure it'll be water under the bridge within a few weeks and I won't give it another thought.

-LD

Makinchips208 · Friday at 2:38 AM

Good eye when you were cleaning!

MK20 · Friday at 3:54 AM

Well, that barrel had some poor metallurgy from the beginning. 10k is very low for a glock.

LuckyDuck · Friday at 3:59 AM

MK20 said:
Well, that barrel had some poor metallurgy from the beginning. 10k is very low for a glock.

I thought so too.

-LD

diverdon · Friday at 8:08 AM

I understand their policy not to return a defective or dangerous part. What I don't understand is how it became their decision to make. You sent them your barrel. They claimed that ownership and the right of disposal somehow became theirs.

I can't agree with that. When you asked for your barrel back they should have sent it to you. If they wanted to keep your barrel they should have sent the replacement at their cost.

That's just how I see it. It's not a big deal because the replacement barrel is probably only 1% the cost of the ammo you've sent down it. But small wrongs are still wrong.

OREGUN · Friday at 9:19 AM

I would kind of expected them to send you a new barrel since there was a crack…it wasn’t just “worn out”. I guess clock is big enough to have transitioned to the “everything is just disposable and it’s all on the user” phase of customer service.

ut755ln · Friday at 10:53 PM

LuckyDuck said:
Part III.

So to recap, I'm on the phone now with the Glock tech the evening of 14NOV to discuss the barrel. This recap has gone on longer than I was hoping for so I'll try to be brief to wrap this up...

They completely agreed with me that the rear of the barrel was indeed chipped and contained a fracture. They also determined that the damage wasn't caused by negligence on my end or accidental damage such as dropping it. They deemed the damage they observed to be the result of 'normal wear and tear' on a part with a limited service life and as such was not a material defect. They then said they were prepared and ready to sell me a replacement barrel as soon as they had my credit card information.

We had a brief discussion about the location of the damage and that it appeared to be the result of originating from the outside of the barrel and working it's way in towards the chamber which would be contrary to the forces that exude pressures from inside the chamber outwards during normal operation to which they agreed was very unusual and odd to them as well but they believed it to be the result of a steady diet of high pressure rounds which caused accelerated but normal wear & tear. I disagreed with their conclusion about the 'high pressure' element but at the end of the day, that's what they decided. I asked if they'd ship the barrel back that I sent them and I was told company policy prevented them from returning parts determined to be unsafe. So they had me between the proverbial rock & hard place with a pistol I can't use without a barrel.

So long story short, I gave them my credit card information and they said they'd have a factory new barrel mailed out to me (it was either $120 or $140, I'm leaning towards it being the $140 but it was certainly one of those amounts). At the end of the day, between the cost of the new barrel & shipping I essentially am breaking even had I just purchased a new barrel from the get-go (not counting the time invested). But for my effort, I did at least receive validation that my observations were accurate and that it would have been unsafe to continue using and could have resulted in a much larger headache than what it was by catching the issue early.

All in all, I'm a bit underwhelmed with how things worked out but also happy to at least have an answer and a solution coming in. Even though I may have broke even as far as final costs were concerned by purchasing a new barrel outright, at least I got the validation that there was indeed a structural issue with the barrel and I don't have to play games trying to find someone with a OEM Gen III barrel in stock either. So I'm trying to focus on it being a success for seeing this through to a resolution.

Anywho, that's how it worked out today. If nothing else- I know it's a common joke about cleaning whatever brand of firearm and my experiences with Glock aside, if nothing else, in my mind at least, it serves as at least an example of the benefits of cleaning regularly/often. The firearm, whatever it is, might run just fine without frequent cleaning but tearing it down regularly allows the opportunity to check things out and catch these small issues before they become bigger ones.

Thanks for listening to my rambling, hope that this is (or will be) helpful to at least someone down the road.

-LD

I am really surprised, we have several Glocks with more then 250k rounds and I have never seen that. 30 Days is way too long for a response, shame on Glock.

GenericBadGuy · Friday at 11:00 PM

So the TLDR for that was basically:
Barrel problem, sent in. Glock doesn't want defective products.

End result:
So long story short, I gave them my credit card information and they said they'd have a factory new barrel mailed out to me.

LuckyDuck · Saturday at 9:17 PM

diverdon said:
I understand their policy not to return a defective or dangerous part. What I don't understand is how it became their decision to make. You sent them your barrel. They claimed that ownership and the right of disposal somehow became theirs.

I can't agree with that. When you asked for your barrel back they should have sent it to you. If they wanted to keep your barrel they should have sent the replacement at their cost.

That's just how I see it. It's not a big deal because the replacement barrel is probably only 1% the cost of the ammo you've sent down it. But small wrongs are still wrong.

That stood out to me as well. Doubtful it would have changed things but I wish I would have at least pressed on that factor a little harder during the conversation but admittedly I was more focused on the wear being determined 'normal' and didn't really click about the holding the barrel hostage until after I had already hung up.

-LD

LuckyDuck · Saturday at 9:22 PM

OREGUN said:
I would kind of expected them to send you a new barrel since there was a crack…it wasn’t just “worn out”. I guess clock is big enough to have transitioned to the “everything is just disposable and it’s all on the user” phase of customer service.

I went into the conversation expecting one of two outcomes, (1) they tell me that it's been evaluated and safe to shoot and they send it back and I at least have some peace of mind or (2) they tell me that the barrel needs replaced and they're sending me a new one. I wasn't prepared to be told that while they determined it wasn't abused/damaged by me that they determined it to be both unsafe to use and they needed my credit card number to sell me a new one.

As I said, I can't say I'm either upset or impressed with how it worked out, just was contrary to the reputation that I've heard for many years about Glock more so than anything.

-LD

LuckyDuck · Saturday at 9:34 PM

ut755ln said:
I am really surprised, we have several Glocks with more then 250k rounds and I have never seen that. 30 Days is way too long for a response, shame on Glock.

Not making excuses for them but full disclosure my initial inquiry did go to their general customer service instead of tech support by my own mistake but I also would have expected it to be quickly responded to and rerouted and not have required me to follow-up. In the grand scheme of things, mistakes happen and once I followed up they were responsive. The biggest surprise to me was them determining it to be normal wear and tear after such a relatively low round count.

-LD

LuckyDuck · Saturday at 9:35 PM

GenericBadGuy said:
So the TLDR for that was basically:
Barrel problem, sent in. Glock doesn't want defective products.

End result:
So long story short, I gave them my credit card information and they said they'd have a factory new barrel mailed out to me.

I personally think there's a bit more nuance to the story than just that but if that's what you got out of it, well your summary isn't wrong either.

-LD

Holliday · Sunday at 8:00 AM

I had a safe queen stainless 1911 E series that had about 200 rounds through it and 7-8 years old. During cleaning, I noticed some pitting in the barrel. Given the pampered history of this gun and living in a semi arid climate, I contacted warranty repair.

They sent a label, called me to discuss my concerns when they received it, replaced the barrel and paid to ship it back.

carbonbased · Monday at 11:44 AM

A barrel cracking from the outside from 10k rounds? And they blamed “normal wear and tear”?

Hmmmmmm lame

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