Beretta customer service sucks

diyj98 · 05-26-2004, 10:26 AM

I've owned a number of Beretta shotguns and handguns over the years, but never had a need for customer service until recently. I purchased a Beretta 390 12 gauge. When I patterned the gun I found it shot 10" to 12" low at 30 yards. When I sent the gun back to Beretta USA, they returned the gun with a note saying "the stock spacers were incorrectly set...gun is o.k. now". Well it does shoot to point of aim now, but they adjusted the spacers to where the barrel is pointing up hill! Looking down the barrel it looks worse than even a regualar trapgun. I believe the problem is that the barrel was threaded crooked when the screw-in chokes were installed.

I can't believe Beretta won't replace the barrel or correct the problem correctly. I even sent a letter to Beretta in Italy which they ignored. It won't help me, but at least I can warn others about Beretta's lack of customer service.

oldelkhunter · 05-26-2004, 11:27 AM

They are in the process or have completed buying up everything they could Benelli,Sako(Tiika),Franchi and even Burris. I am sure they have to get things in order as all major corporations do nowadays. Hopefully their customer service will improve because it literally sucks right now, I asked them a pretty simple question a few weeks back via Email and have not recieved a response as of yet.

westbronco · 05-26-2004, 02:23 PM

You may want to take that shotgun to a good gunsmith to check the fit and discuss the likelihood that the threads for the choke tubes could cause your problem. I think he will explain to you how it would be impossible for the barrel threads to be off that much. He should be able to help you with stock fit also.

GordonGekko · 05-26-2004, 03:32 PM

Have you talked to Rich Cole at Cole Gunsmithing? I'd talk to him and see what he thinks. Honestly, it sounds like a gunfitting issue. How did you fnd out your gun was shooting 10-12 inches low, were you on a bench rest sighting down the barrel or were you mounting and shooting offhand? I know you're not a novice but most shotguns will appear slightly uphill depending on the POI preferences of the shooter. If the gun has two beads they will form an 8 with the middle bead being on the bottom. Of course I can't tell how much rib you are seeing, but you should be seeing some of the top of the rib.

Gordon

diyj98 · 05-26-2004, 08:14 PM

It's not a gunfit issue. I patterned the shotgun from a benchrest. I do know enough about gun fit to know I should not have to look at the rib sloping more uphill than any regular trap gun I've ever fired. It's a screwup with the gun. I've fired more shotguns rounds in one year than most pure hunters will in a lifetime. The gun is just off.

It wouldn't be impossible for the threads to be that much off. It doesn't take much to throw the pattern off. I can live with a gun that patterns slightly high, in fact many do from the factory, but not that much low.

GordonGekko · 05-27-2004, 08:22 AM

I knew you shot a lot, and yes you are correct that it isn't normal for a gun to pattern that low. You could add an adjustable rib, several of the shooter I know have dun this to correct a gun whose POI is off. It is possible that the barrel isn't concentric, or more likely that the rib itself is just off, I'd call Rich Cole (I believe he's still an authorized service center for Beretta USA), he has been much more responsive than Beretta USA in the past. Actually this isn't as uncommon as we would like to think, but the comment about the shims correcting the POI threw me off and made me think it might be a gunfit issue. Sorry for the assumption. There are even several master class sporting clay shooter that have put an adjustable rib on their gun to correct this problem (if I remember correctly Robbie Purser shoots with one), but I've been out of the loop for the past 10 months.

Gordon