I'm making this post with the intent to present facts, not engage in bashing. If anyone has information that would help me understand what's going on, I'd love to hear it, because I just can't keep up with all the 'behind the scenes' stuff in the firearms world.
Last November 16, I placed and order for a Lawton 8000 action. I still have the copy of the invoice which I may post online, as everyday it goes unfulfilled is another nail in Lawton's coffin. Certain promises were made when I ordered the action, and the following certainly classifies as hearsay, but suffice it to say that the action was not delivered as promised ("we've got one we can re-serialize" and have it to you in two weeks"). Later, multiple excuses were made; trying to be the understanding nice guy (read: sucker), I went along with them. I even ordered a barrel in May to be threaded and chambered to the action. To date, I have receieved nothing; no believeable explanations, and I'm pretty certain that I'm out $2000. If the management at Lawton is this messed up, I can't believe the quality of the product is going to be any better. At one point, they blamed the delay on getting bolt stops from a well known supplier; I called the supplier after getting off the phone with Lawton and he said basically that Lawton was right, there was a delay in getting the bolt stops, <span style="font-style: italic">because Lawton hadn't paid for them</span>. The bolt stop supplier even furnished me with a bolt stop for a Lawton 8000 action, which I believe is likely as close as I'll ever get to seeing one of these actions.
I've got one of XLR Industry's stocks, a NightForce Scope, a Jewell Trigger, a Barrett Bipod, and other various and sundry bits lying around waiting to put this rifle together once I get the barrelled acton. In 20 years, I've never waited this long for a barrelled action, or run into such a stone wall of silence from people who have a huge chunk of my money. The only way to contact them is email; there is nobody answering the phones, and phone messages I've left have gone unanswered - absolutely useless, they may as well pull the phone line out of the wall.
At this point in time, I believe I'll never see anything from Lawton. It's a shame, I think Barney would be horrified judging from the long conversations I had with him. And if this post gets under their skin, so be it; I don't think they have enough of a concept of 'customer service' for it to make a difference.
So, if anyone is planning on doing business with Lawson, I'm not discouraging it, just saying you may want to check around and see what their customer satisfaction has been to date. Here's the latest email response from Lawton requesting an ETA on the delivery of my goods:
"Mr. Haddix we are undergoing massive changes here at lawton and are currently working on a schedule date and we will be emailing you hopefully sometime this week.
Jackson Rose
General Manager
Lawton Machine
sales@lawtonmachine."
PS: Your barrelled action will be delivered by a flying pig
Last November 16, I placed and order for a Lawton 8000 action. I still have the copy of the invoice which I may post online, as everyday it goes unfulfilled is another nail in Lawton's coffin. Certain promises were made when I ordered the action, and the following certainly classifies as hearsay, but suffice it to say that the action was not delivered as promised ("we've got one we can re-serialize" and have it to you in two weeks"). Later, multiple excuses were made; trying to be the understanding nice guy (read: sucker), I went along with them. I even ordered a barrel in May to be threaded and chambered to the action. To date, I have receieved nothing; no believeable explanations, and I'm pretty certain that I'm out $2000. If the management at Lawton is this messed up, I can't believe the quality of the product is going to be any better. At one point, they blamed the delay on getting bolt stops from a well known supplier; I called the supplier after getting off the phone with Lawton and he said basically that Lawton was right, there was a delay in getting the bolt stops, <span style="font-style: italic">because Lawton hadn't paid for them</span>. The bolt stop supplier even furnished me with a bolt stop for a Lawton 8000 action, which I believe is likely as close as I'll ever get to seeing one of these actions.
I've got one of XLR Industry's stocks, a NightForce Scope, a Jewell Trigger, a Barrett Bipod, and other various and sundry bits lying around waiting to put this rifle together once I get the barrelled acton. In 20 years, I've never waited this long for a barrelled action, or run into such a stone wall of silence from people who have a huge chunk of my money. The only way to contact them is email; there is nobody answering the phones, and phone messages I've left have gone unanswered - absolutely useless, they may as well pull the phone line out of the wall.
At this point in time, I believe I'll never see anything from Lawton. It's a shame, I think Barney would be horrified judging from the long conversations I had with him. And if this post gets under their skin, so be it; I don't think they have enough of a concept of 'customer service' for it to make a difference.
So, if anyone is planning on doing business with Lawson, I'm not discouraging it, just saying you may want to check around and see what their customer satisfaction has been to date. Here's the latest email response from Lawton requesting an ETA on the delivery of my goods:
"Mr. Haddix we are undergoing massive changes here at lawton and are currently working on a schedule date and we will be emailing you hopefully sometime this week.
Jackson Rose
General Manager
Lawton Machine
sales@lawtonmachine."
PS: Your barrelled action will be delivered by a flying pig
