EAA Witness Slide Cracked! What now?

[fistfullaholla]

I have an EAA (Tanfoglio) Witness in 10mm. It is the 'wonder finish' model that I bought on a whim a few months back without doing any research on them.
This week we notice there is a crack in the slide just to the left rear of the ejection port!
So with a simple google search- that I should have done before buying it- I learn this is a VERY common problem and that EAA C/S is simply horrible to deal with.
Online posters report waits of 45 days to months to have their guns returned. others tell of EAA refusing to repair the gun.
Has anyone had to deal with customer service at EAA? I emailed them and they told me to send the gun to them with a handwritten description of the problem.
What would you do? Send them the gun and prepare to be frustrated or just cut my losses?
Adding cruel insult to injury, I just put a .45 Witness on lay a way at my local shop as a companion for this 10mm since out of the box I was satisfied with it's performance for a low price.
I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[atljetmech]

I have an EAA (Tanfoglio) Witness in 10mm. I guess you get what you pay for.

Sorry I can't help anymore!
Best of luck getting it repaired/replaced.

 

[timbgtm]

Dang,hopefully they will make it right.

 

[fistfullaholla]

Got an email from EAA that was not helpful at all.
Being that I am not the original owner of this pistol EAA wants me to pay for a new slide, pay their "gunsmith" to put it on, plus pay shipping to and from their location in Florida.
I guess I'm screwed because I am not spending $280 for a slide + costs for a gun I paid $350 for!

 

[BackWoods]

Wow! That's no bueno!

 

[Billrube]

Got an email from EAA that was not helpful at all.
Being that I am not the original owner of this pistol EAA wants me to pay for a new slide, pay their "gunsmith" to put it on, plus pay shipping to and from their location in Florida.
I guess I'm screwed because I am not spending $280 for a slide + costs for a gun I paid $350 for!

Sell it for parts and get as much out of it as you can.

 

[fistfullaholla]

What would I do? Depends how important it was to me. How much time do you want to put into this?

• Set up a Twitter account if you don't already have one. Tweet 2-5 times a day to @EAACorp about your poor service experience and disappointment in the product / support initially. After you write them (below) and if you get no where start making fun of their "“Dependable guns are not always pretty” slogan. http://eaacorp.com/about/
• Start ringing them up on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/EAACorp (don't get nasty yet) expressing dissapointment and asking them for help. If they start deleting your posts make fun of that on Twitter.
• Whomever replied to your email from EAA express your disappointment and request the email and mailing address of the CEO. This is easy enough to find but make them reply with it, or almost even better make them reply to you that "they don't give that information out". If the latter, make fun of that fact via Twitter too.
• Be "nice" but insistent until you get some sort of final "reply" to go pound sand, then start making fun of their crap products and support. Hopefully this'll never happen and you'll get an email from "the office of the CEO" or the VP of sales or service in a week or so telling you how sorry they are and they're going to replace your slide or whatever.

Meanwhile, before you get nasty with the tweets, write the CEO a hand written or a typed letter and after you do, send a softcopy via email as a "CC" mentioning you mailed the letter. I'm not gonna tell you how to do this but happy to help if needed.

There's plenty more you can do, but this'll get you off to a good start and is the best value-for time IMO as the tweets will take as little as 10 seconds each and the letter a couple minutes.

Finally, get yourself a G20 if you don't already have one.

Good luck, PM me if you want any help with this stuff.

Now that's a solid plan! Wish I had a guy like you on the 5 year strategic planning committee!
I've been all over the inter tubes looking up this issue and read about the horrible customer service that has become the norm from EAA.
One poster on another site relayed the story of him walking up to Fratelli Tanfoglio (one of the brothers who owns the company) at SHOT show and expressing his concerns about the slide cracks and the poor response by their U.S. distributor. According to this man's report, Tanfoglio simply smiled and turned his back on the man and walked away. The man then walked to the other side of the display and got loud with the Italians about why his shop will NEVER stock a Tanfoglio product again and supposedly got good enough support from the crows the Tanfoglio left the convention center!
If that is true about the owner of the company I have little hope my issue will be addressed to my satisfaction.
What has me more perplexed is that this issue has been in the public since 2008 and is still happening to many owners both new and used.
Is there no consumer protection or regulation on firearms in the U.S.?
If that slide would separate or splinter at 1500fps someone could get killed!
My fear is that someone will buy one of these that isn't as obsessive about maintenance as I am and end up severely injured, disfigured, or dead.
I really don't care about my gun or the money that much compared to the idea of some unsuspecting shooter ending up a victim.
I owned one Glock in my life, a G23 that was an issue piece for me and I never had any love for it, but today I am heading out to look at a G20... unless someone has a Javelina they think I should have

 

[FredAlert]

Most of this ... plus, why did you tell them you weren't the original owner?

And more importantly why didn't you search this on the internet first? Their 9mm, 40 and 45 guns seem to be decent but it seems like the frames cracking on their 10mm guns is a scourge across the internet. It's hard to believe but it seems like more of them do than don't from the descriptions.

I'm surprised all of these people haven't gotten together and sued the company for selling a known-defective product.

What would I do? Depends how important it was to me. How much time do you want to put into this?

• Set up a Twitter account if you don't already have one. Tweet 2-5 times a day to @EAACorp about your poor service experience and disappointment in the product / support initially. After you write them (below) and if you get no where start making fun of their "“Dependable guns are not always pretty” slogan. http://eaacorp.com/about/
• Start ringing them up on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/EAACorp (don't get nasty yet) expressing dissapointment and asking them for help. If they start deleting your posts make fun of that on Twitter.
• Whomever replied to your email from EAA express your disappointment and request the email and mailing address of the CEO. This is easy enough to find but make them reply with it, or almost even better make them reply to you that "they don't give that information out". If the latter, make fun of that fact via Twitter too.
• Be "nice" but insistent until you get some sort of final "reply" to go pound sand, then start making fun of their crap products and support. Hopefully this'll never happen and you'll get an email from "the office of the CEO" or the VP of sales or service in a week or so telling you how sorry they are and they're going to replace your slide or whatever.

Meanwhile, before you get nasty with the tweets, write the CEO a hand written or a typed letter and after you do, send a softcopy via email as a "CC" mentioning you mailed the letter. I'm not gonna tell you how to do this but happy to help if needed.

There's plenty more you can do, but this'll get you off to a good start and is the best value-for time IMO as the tweets will take as little as 10 seconds each and the letter a couple minutes.

Finally, get yourself a G20 if you don't already have one.

Good luck, PM me if you want any help with this stuff.

 

[Billrube]

What would I do? Depends how important it was to me. How much time do you want to put into this?

• Set up a Twitter account if you don't already have one. Tweet 2-5 times a day to @EAACorp about your poor service experience and disappointment in the product / support initially. After you write them (below) and if you get no where start making fun of their "“Dependable guns are not always pretty” slogan. http://eaacorp.com/about/
• Start ringing them up on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/EAACorp (don't get nasty yet) expressing dissapointment and asking them for help. If they start deleting your posts make fun of that on Twitter.
• Whomever replied to your email from EAA express your disappointment and request the email and mailing address of the CEO. This is easy enough to find but make them reply with it, or almost even better make them reply to you that "they don't give that information out". If the latter, make fun of that fact via Twitter too.
• Be "nice" but insistent until you get some sort of final "reply" to go pound sand, then start making fun of their crap products and support. Hopefully this'll never happen and you'll get an email from "the office of the CEO" or the VP of sales or service in a week or so telling you how sorry they are and they're going to replace your slide or whatever.

Meanwhile, before you get nasty with the tweets, write the CEO a hand written or a typed letter and after you do, send a softcopy via email as a "CC" mentioning you mailed the letter. I'm not gonna tell you how to do this but happy to help if needed.

There's plenty more you can do, but this'll get you off to a good start and is the best value-for time IMO as the tweets will take as little as 10 seconds each and the letter a couple minutes.

Finally, get yourself a G20 if you don't already have one.

Good luck, PM me if you want any help with this stuff.

I don't know how much this will help...their policy clearly states that used handguns are not covered by the warranty. From their site:

"B) If the gun is a used handgun then the factory warranty is no longer valid. EAA will still service the used handgun; but there will be a estimate for the repair."

It depends on how much time you want to invest in this kind of campaign. If you were the original owner and got shafted on the warranty work, I'd say tweet/twank/e-mail/snail mail all to be damned until you got some satisfaction. Yea, you've got a legit complaint on the crappy product.
But you don't have a leg to stand on concerning the out-of-warranty charges for repair.

 

[fistfullaholla]

There have been numerous posters suggesting a class action suit, but since there isn't a documented case of injury these folks have been told a class or individual suit isn't worth pursuing.
The reason I didn't research it was because it was an impulse buy at my local gun shop and I had some money in my pocket. Never owned a 10mm and saw this as an inexpensive way to see if I like the cartridge.
I'll most likely add this to my education expenses as I learn who to deal and not deal with in life.
Of course I will try to pursue this to a positive end and if not screw with EAA at every chance I get.