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Poor Benelli customer Service


hattles

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Has anybody experienced Benelli's poor customer service? My buddy shoots a 3yo M2 and the barrel ring broke away from the barrel. He contacted Benelli CS and shipped it to them. After 2 months, they told him his barrel had a bulge in it and, even though the barrel ring broke off, they would not cover it under warranty. After sending a letter to them and multiple phone calls that did nothing more than get him upset, they offered him a $75 discount on a new barrel. That was a slap in the face of someone who's intent was to purchase 3 more Benellis($5400 worth lost) this year for himself and his wife and son. He finally asked them to meet him halfway and bought a new barrel for $150. He had to ask them, they didn't even try to resolve this any differently. The new camo barrel had bubbled and pitted camo on it and looks like garbage. Needless to say, he will never recommend or buy another Benelli, although he loves his M2.

 

I have a 17yo HK/Benelli SBE(and 3 others) that had ejection problems, contacted them and sent it back early 2009, recieved it back fully repaired and was very happy with them. I told him not to worry because Benelli stands behind their shotguns. Apparently not!

Edited by hattles
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Just curious bro... What do the bolt carrier and handguards have to do with replacing the 4 port barrel?

 

Sorry to hear about the troubles. The replaced my barrel, bolt carrier and handguards on my Benelli M4 at my request in 2008 because it had a 4 port barrel.

They promptly did the repairs within a month.

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My 4 port barrel beat the bolt carrier so badly that it deformed the carrier where the piston inping. The deformation prevented the bolt carrier from cycling all the way to the rear without binding within the receiver. I began encountering increasing failures where the bolt carrier was stuck to the rear of battery. I'd have to give the charging handle a shove to get it to continue cycling.

On the edges of the bolt carrier, the rails that guide the carrier within the receiver track were flared out from the repeated hits. The weapon had approximately 10k rounds through it at that time. 90% were low base birdshot.

All the small parts in the bolt carrier group were replaced as well. Bolt, firing pin, firing pin spring, firing pin retainer, bolt cam...

Pistons and ARGO plugs were new also.

 

I'm not really sure why they replaced the handguards, but they did. Perhaps the newer generation barrels have a different handguard retainer.

 

Benelli does many inline upgrades as well. I saw many small changes from my 11703 model to the upgraded 11707 barrel assembly that I was given. Further minor changes were noticed on my brand new 11707 I got in December.

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Perhaps your buddy isn't telling you the whole story. Any shotgun company, Winchester, Remington or the many others, would consider a bulge in the barrel as abuse and as it states in the paperwork that comes with new firearms, "abuse" concels the warranty (real or implied). How did the bulge get there? Did somebody fire a 3+1/2 inch magnum in it? Did somebody overload a reloaded homegrown shell in it? Did the barrel has an obstruction when it was fired? Did it come from the factory with the bulge? It's great that you stick up for your friend, but no firearms company is required to warranty barrels with a bulge.

 

I used to own a .22 bolt action repeater made by Cooey in Canada. The last two inches of the barrel was bent about 3 degrees from the previous owner. Should I have demanded Cooey to replace the weapon or at least straighten out the barrel?

 

A friend of mine from many years ago reloaded his own shells and put a bulge in his Ithaca 37 barrel after loaded one shell with 4 loads of powder and 2 loads of shot (he couldn't even completely close the shell). Afterwards, he was not able to eject the empty and Ithaca flatly refused to replace or repair that shotgun.

 

Many readers what be interested in knowing how the bulge got in your buddies barrel, including me.

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I just got my barrel back from them, they blasted and re-blued it on their dime. When I called, they said that their gunsmith would determine if it would fall under warranty or not because they do not cover rust on the gun, even though the gun was only a baby (1 year old).

 

Technically, they did not have to cover the cost of the fix but they did. I find it my responsibility to tell others about my experience with them to help separate companies which stand behind their product and the ones that don't.

 

Satisfied Customer,

Sam Sevier

 

You, or anyone, is welcome to pm me for further information.

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Wasn't my gun or my experience with Benelli CS here, so I have no educated opinion on what might have happened.

 

I broke the barrel ring on a 1991 SBE in 2000. 26 days total got me the barrel repair at no charge + some adjustments. Still shoot that gun on occasion :)

 

No complaints from me so far, but it's only been 19 years of owning Benellis.....

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Perhaps your buddy isn't telling you the whole story. Any shotgun company, Winchester, Remington or the many others, would consider a bulge in the barrel as abuse and as it states in the paperwork that comes with new firearms, "abuse" concels the warranty (real or implied). How did the bulge get there? Did somebody fire a 3+1/2 inch magnum in it? Did somebody overload a reloaded homegrown shell in it? Did the barrel has an obstruction when it was fired? Did it come from the factory with the bulge? It's great that you stick up for your friend, but no firearms company is required to warranty barrels with a bulge.

 

I used to own a .22 bolt action repeater made by Cooey in Canada. The last two inches of the barrel was bent about 3 degrees from the previous owner. Should I have demanded Cooey to replace the weapon or at least straighten out the barrel?

 

A friend of mine from many years ago reloaded his own shells and put a bulge in his Ithaca 37 barrel after loaded one shell with 4 loads of powder and 2 loads of shot (he couldn't even completely close the shell). Afterwards, he was not able to eject the empty and Ithaca flatly refused to replace or repair that shotgun.

 

Many readers what be interested in knowing how the bulge got in your buddies barrel, including me.

I had looked at the gun prior to sending it in, and the guy is a stand up guy. He hunts in salt water conditions out of a boat and could never recall having any obstructions in his barrel at any time. The big issue was that the barrel ring was not brazed properly therefor it was defective from the factory. Benelli acknowledged that. It was their reluctance to work with him to a happy medium they both could live with, which was a fair price on a new barrel. It was he that had to present that scenario to them, not vice versa. They tossed $5400 worth of sales because they took the hard line, and it wasn't necessary to take that stance as he was willing to take some of the blame. They first told him a new barrel would cost him $475, they wouldn't even offer him abarrel at their cost. You figure it out.

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I had looked at the gun prior to sending it in, and the guy is a stand up guy. He hunts in salt water conditions out of a boat and could never recall having any obstructions in his barrel at any time. The big issue was that the barrel ring was not brazed properly therefor it was defective from the factory. Benelli acknowledged that. It was their reluctance to work with him to a happy medium they both could live with, which was a fair price on a new barrel. It was he that had to present that scenario to them, not vice versa. They tossed $5400 worth of sales because they took the hard line, and it wasn't necessary to take that stance as he was willing to take some of the blame. They first told him a new barrel would cost him $475, they wouldn't even offer him abarrel at their cost. You figure it out.

I might add, that there was no visible bulge to bee seen with the naked eye, as I had visually inspected the barrel, although I wasn't looking for a bulge, prior to giving him my recommendation. They now refuse to return his old barrel to him, unrepaired and unshootable so that he might have an independent gunsmith evaluate the bulge.

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The ring and upper reciever are repairable. To get a custom left hand slug barrel made I had to supply a factory shot barrel to obtain these parts. They are not a seperate items you can order. Most manf. will not return parts if any warranty is given. A disconted barrel is considered giving warranty service. If parts were returned the ring could be repaired by many gunsmiths and then used w/ buldge.

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  • 3 weeks later...

After 4 months, my friends CS problem was resolved through his gunshop and the Benelli area rep and cs. Benelli made it right and that is what good companies do. Thanks Benelli USA for doing the right thing and keeping a good Benelli customer happy.;)

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After 4 months, my friends CS problem was resolved through his gunshop and the Benelli area rep and cs. Benelli made it right and that is what good companies do. Thanks Benelli USA for doing the right thing and keeping a good Benelli customer happy.;)

 

That's very nice of Benelli.

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  • 9 years later...
On 3/7/2010 at 8:27 AM, hognutz said:

I have dealt with Benelli C.S. in the past and have nothing but good to say about the way thing were handled. Strictly professional service with positive results, in a timely manner.I could not have asked for anything more.

What’s considered timely? 

Edited by Stetson_smith
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13 hours ago, Stetson_smith said:

What’s considered timely? 

There really isn't much data to determine an average length of repair times.  It's really going to depend on work load and how many gunsmiths they are employing that are not on leave... I have no idea how many firearms they repair from LE and Military contracts.

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