All in the Family featured the curmudgeonly Archie Bunker. Archie was television’s most famous grouch, blunt, blustering, straightforward and untouched by the PC crowd. He was the archetype of the conservative male. Michael desprately tried to reeducate him, but he persisted in his breviloquence.



Looking back at the last 40 years, we realize: ARCHIE WAS RIGHT!

2/21/2006

RCBS, American Company Doing Things Right.

I started reloading ammo about 13 years ago. I was looking for a cheap way to shoot a lot of pistol ammo. I had two guns that I shot a lot and I wanted to shoot them a lot more. I talked to a few guys and they said “buy a RCBS Rock Chucker kit”. So I did.

This winter I decided that I was gong to get back into reloading in a big way. I dusted off the boxes that my gear had been setting in and set up my reloading bench after not having one for 6 years.

I had never used my RCBS Manual Trim Pro Case Trimmer. Having lost the manual for it years ago, I guessed my way through setting it up. After not getting things to work out, I had to look on the internet for instructions. What I discovered was that I didn’t have all the parts for it, including a handle that was necessary for holding the case being trimmed in place.

I called RCBS to order the parts to replace what I was missing.

The customer service rep was an honest to goodness, English as a first language, American female with a pleasant phone voice and helpful attitude (apparently the last one, working in customer service, any ware). I explained the situation to her, how I bought the kit years ago, had moved, probably lost the part at some point, etc.


The conversation went something like this:

Her: Do you still have the original box?

Me: Yes mam.

Her: Did you ever set up the trimmer before?

Me: No Mam.

Her: Did you keep the trimmer in the box all these years.

Me: Yes mam.

Her: We’ll send you a new hand lever, disc springs, and pivot pin, just reassemble it like the diagram.

Me: Thank you, how much do I owe you.

Her: Nothing, it sounds like we didn’t ship you all the parts when you bought the kit.

Me: It’s been 13 or 14 years, I might have lost them.

Her: Not if you’ve been keeping it in the original box, you wouldn’t have just stored the unit and thrown out a big bag of parts like that.

Me: I don’t mind paying for it.

Her: I can’t charge you for it, if it’s wrong we fix it, life time guarantee means, life time. I hope you enjoy our products, call back if you need help setting it up.

That’s how it went. As of yesterday the trimmer is up and working and RCBS wouldn’t let me pay them for it twice. Plus they actually hire Americans to work their phones and train them to understand what the heck the product is that you’re calling in about. Simply amazing.

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:08 PM

    Customer service still means something to some people, nowadays.

    There's a particular Safeway grocery store near us that gets most of my business, now, because of one very good experience.

    And one Best Buy store that gets none, because of one very bad experience.

    You'd think more people would pay attention to these things

    WaterBoy

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  2. I had a similar experience with the company that makes knives for Smith & Wesson.

    I lost a clip screw and called them up to see if they could ship one. I would have expected them to do that for free but then I asked how much it would cost for a replacement blade because mine (as I explained to the girl) was really beat up. She said they don't sell extra blades but told me that if I sent the knife in that they would replace it for free. AWESOME!

    Who says that the weapons industry doesn't care?!

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  3. I started reloading about 5 years ago. I use a Lee press because I got the whole kit cheap.

    I think the whole reloading industry was started by people who understood quality and keeping costs down. They make their living by serving their customers, not milking them.

    So why did you stop reloading? My guess is you moved, and never got the stuff set back up.

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  4. Anonymous5:07 PM

    I got out of reloading about the time I got married. I didn’t have the time to do the honey does, work 12 hours a day and spend the weekend at the range. When we moved back to WY I wanted to start shooting again but every time I tried to join a league, the nights they met were times I already had obligations for. This last year I was able to hook up with an IDPA group and shoot. Burning through 250 or more rounds a week was creating some incentive to start reloading again. Plus I’d like to work up a 600 to 800 yard riffle load.

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  5. Anonymous5:28 PM

    Res

    Do you use the Carbide dies on your pistol load? If not get them, no lubricant required and even my 44 mag resize Jeb could do.

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  6. Anonymous5:29 PM

    I'm Jealous, alls I got are the little hand trimmers.

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  7. Lee Progressive here - pull the lever and a round pops out.

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  8. Anonymous5:52 PM

    JAC

    I got everything RCBS, I bought some Lee dies for my .223 once and they were too small and would pull the bottom off them. I think their quality control is not quite up to RCBS.

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  9. Awesome story, sounds like a good company to do business with. I am going to get loaders of several kinds (was supposed to have them already, but a good old truck at the right price sort of ate my allowance). I was thinking Lee, but between your story and equus pallidus, I may have to review that.

    English speaking, friendly, and offering good will from a company, unheard of. Maybe the world is changing? Oh, congratulations on the sweet deal too.

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  10. EP,
    I should have known you were one of those RCBS snobs. Hell, I've taken a "Lee Loader" (remember those?) to the range just to see how many times I could use a case.

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  11. Anonymous10:41 PM

    I hate talking to somebody in Customer Service who is struggling to understand basic English and who doesn’t care about the problem because they have been instructed to screw with the customer; ie Dell, HP, Microsoft.

    I was shocked just to get a pleasant person who spoke English. The fact that they wouldn’t charge me for equipment that I bought years ago and very well could have lost, was above and beyond the call of good service.

    I’ve always wanted one of those progressive loaders. If I get one, its going to be a RCBS.


    Res

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  12. What exactly is "reloading ammo"? Making your own bullets?

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  13. astrosmith reloading is:

    Taking the empty brass case from a rifle or pistol, removing the spent primer, resizing the expanded casing to hold a bullet, putting in a new primer, charging the case with powder, and seating a new bullet. It is also done with shotgun shells. It basically takes the most expensive part of a cartridge, the casing, and reuses it.

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  14. Hey Res,
    Nice blog.

    Why are you reloading? It was my understanding (admittedly limited) that reloading was not a real cost saver. Factories do it safer, cheaper and with more uniformity than I can.

    The people I see still reloading are people who are into custom designed loads. I see another smaller group who need "match grade" but they make no arguments about saving money doing it. I expect there are also a handful of people still using antique cartridges that have to be home re-loaded.

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  15. Anonymous1:00 PM

    "It was my understanding (admittedly limited) that reloading was not a real cost saver. Factories do it safer, cheaper and with more uniformity than I can."

    Ha! No way can they reload a bullet as consistently as I can, not only are my powder charges more accurate, the bullet alignment and seating depth is more consistant.

    When you use a Chronograph and see the difference in standard deviation between the two you will be a believer in reloading.

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