I contacted Remington (23 July 19) about my RM380 having a rough bore and they sent me a prepaid label to send it back. I contacted them (8 Aug 19) for a check on the progress on the repair order and the are wanting to charge me for a new barrel.
The gun was only about 3 months old and all I did was polished the visible part of the barrel hood with steel wool and 1000 grit sand paper, I made sure I didn't touch any of the slide to barrel contact areas. I lodged a protest with Remington and they are contacting the Service Center in Alabama to see what they say.

Steve...........

It's become obvious to me that Remington service has become just about the worst in the industry. I see absolutely no reason, at this point, to ever own another Remington product. How they think this behavior is going to turn around a floundering corporation is beyond me.

They stated even though I only polished the barrel hood and sides of the slide and it did not effect the inside of the barrel it still voided the warranty. What happened to Remington, bean counters and the almighty dollar I guess.

Steve........

I think it has become obvious that Remington has ordered the gunsmiths and CS reps to deny service for any contrived reason possible.

After a stern talking to about how me polishing the flats not causing the roughness in the barrel they said they would fix it as a courtesy and not under warranty which I voided by the afore mentioned polishing.
How nice of them. Don't know if I'll buy another Remington for a while, if ever.

Steve............

Gonna dissent here, because you knowingly altered and did work to parts of the firearm, and now expect them to fix it for free. Yes, I understand that what you did may not have been a cause or contribution to the issues the gun was having, but it was still altered. Frankly I've never had any bad episodes with Remington customer service, and every firearm of theirs that I own is a keeper. Next time I would suggest that you not work on a gun and then expect them to fix it for free. I work on all my firearms, but I take ownership of that and don't seek someone to bail me out. That's my $0.02.

se3388 wrote:They stated even though I only polished the barrel hood and sides of the slide and it did not effect the inside of the barrel it still voided the warranty. What happened to Remington, bean counters and the almighty dollar I guess.

Steve........

Sorry to hear that! Denying responsibility is probably part of their "Restructuring" . Remington isn't the company they used to be!

Yep it surprised me them saying a totally unrelated item I polished caused my barrel to be bad and voided the warranty, how long before they say changing your sights or grips voided your warranty, same principle.

Steve

se3388 wrote:...how long before they say changing your sights or grips voided your warranty, same principle.

Automakers already do, with some of the newer engines. It may seem like OP's "polishing" work is totally unrelated but that's only if his word is to be trusted. In the lawyer world of liability, that's hardly the case. If he did one task to the firearm, how does anyone know what else he did, whether it's internally obvious or not? Put yourself in their shoes, they get a gun that is sent in saying "I worked on it but didn't touch that part". I think Remington is doing the right thing.

Scorpion8 wrote:

se3388 wrote:...how long before they say changing your sights or grips voided your warranty, same principle.

Automakers already do, with some of the newer engines. It may seem like OP's "polishing" work is totally unrelated but that's only if his word is to be trusted. In the lawyer world of liability, that's hardly the case. If he did one task to the firearm, how does anyone know what else he did, whether it's internally obvious or not? Put yourself in their shoes, they get a gun that is sent in saying "I worked on it but didn't touch that part". I think Remington is doing the right thing.

What automaker's void your warranty for changing out their sights and grips? What are you talking about? Liability is not Remington's strong point, they bailed on their creditors and didn't own it as you would say lol... Stop busting this guys balls because he doesn't suck Remington's nuts.. He didn't touch the bore, the bore was messed up, Remington agreed and said too bad.. Well that may be their right, their prerogative but it will cost them down the line.

Scorpion8

You can berate me all you want and side with Remington but it still doesn't change the fact that Remington has put several bad barrels in their RM380's even several people posting their problems with bad barrel bores on this site.
I guess I am still somewhat old fashioned about standing behind your product when it is obvious that the purchaser did not cause the problem. As I said it is the same as changing your sights and grips voiding the warranty on the complete gun (which manufacturer does that as you stated in writing) or a car manufacturer voiding your warranty on your truck when the motor locks up because you changed your seat covers. Same principle, same difference to most people but some people don't see it that way and get their jollies in other ways.

Steve..........

se3388 wrote:You can berate me all you want and side with Remington but...

I didn't berate you, I offered another opinion. And your analogy is not as simple as grips and sights. You disassembled the firearm, removed metal from internal surfaces by polishing, and now suddenly there's an issue with the handgun. What else did you do (whether you know it or not) while you were in there? I've seen late model Volvo owners have their warranties cancelled because they changed their own engine oil. All I'm saying is to look at it from Remington's standpoint - you f*cked with the gun and now it has an issue that you want them to pay to fix. Are you a qualified, licensed gunsmith, had any formal training? The moment you start modifying a firearm you take ownership of it's function and reliability. Own that.

Just saying that I wouldn't complain about Remington's policies. Yes, maybe they're not the no-questions-asked-we'll-fix-it company of yesteryear, and maybe they are liability-lawsuit-risk-adverse in these days and ages.

OK, thank you for your opinion.

Back to my original post for you guys, I got my RM 380 back today and it does have a new barrel and it is actually worse than the first one. It fouls worse (almost as bad as a muzzle loader) and about 1/2 inch forward from the chamber is a ring that goes all the way around the top of the lands like maybe a chip from the reamer but it is down the barrel from the chamber, there are at least two grooves that run the length of two of the grooves between the lands. The days are gone when Remington stands behind their product. Back about 84 right after I joined the Air Force I bought a new Remington 700 BDL and about 2 months later the finish for lack of a better word looked like it flaked off on the off side of the buttstock. Called Remy and they sent me a new stock and a return shipping label to send the original one back no questions asked. Good old fashioned American customer service.

Steve.........

I had to polish my barrel on my Sig P-238 several years ago. I didn't have any problems with the condition, I just wanted it to be shinny. I did notice a decrease in accuracy with the pistol, so I opted to purchase a new barrel from Sig (didn't even try to warantee it). The accuracy returned and I have not touched another barrel since.

Rick

The only polishing I did to the barrel was to non bearing surfaces of the barrel hood that are visible through the ejection port that did not contact anything. My accuracy did not decrease.

Steve......