This is the story of my experience of sending a receiver in for additional barrels. This is the 2nd time I have sent a receiver in. The first time was a couple of years ago and it went smoothly and took about 6 weeks.
This time I was sending a different receiver in to purchase two .357 barrels, some sights, a scope rail & hammer extension, and an extractor part. I also requested the free trigger job with the pull set to 3 to 3 1/2lbs. I timed it so that the receiver should arrive after the plant shut down and about the time they told me that they would be getting the new batch of .357 barrels in. The receiver arrived at NEF on Aug. 10.
While I was waiting on the order I got interested in a couple of other ideas and had another paycheck. So I emailed an addition to my order. I ordered a .50cal muzzle loader barrel. The same day I got an email reply that they were out of the muzzle loader barrels and it would be 6 to 8 weeks before they got any. They wanted to know if I wanted them to hold my order and wait until the muzzle loader barrels came in. (I found out today that they have been waiting since last spring for them) I told them no, add another .357 barrel to my order, to make it a total of three .357 barrels. I got a reply back, No problem, it should ship out the following week.
The following week I saw that MSP Ret was looking for a small part. So I called NEF and my order was still there, so I added the part he needed. I have watched my charge card on-line and today I saw that NEF posted an amount to my account. So I knew it was ready to ship. BUT the amount was too small. I thought I knew about how much the bill should be and this was way short. So I called to check to see if they ran out of barrels or what. I had about a 5 minute wait on hold when I called. She couldn't find my paperwork but knew that my gun was to shipping to be sent out. She put me on hold and went looking. About 5 min later she was back. She found my paperwork and it only had two barrels listed. So she said she'd call me back.
When she called back I went over the email addition information, that did not get included in my order, probably on a post-it somewhere. She sent someone to pull my order to check the box. It was on the big brown truck and they pulled it off. It only had two barrels. She checked with her gunsmiths to make sure they had more .357 barrels, they did. So they were fitting the third barrel on my receiver this afternoon and shipping tomorrow. That is 5 weeks from when they received my receiver.
While she went through my invoice and order she said that it was noted that they did not reduce my trigger pull. It is already at 3lbs and 7oz. They did disassemble and clean it.
I am happy with this experience and they are good people to work with. One thing to remember is that they don't always have control over their suppliers. If they don't have something, they can't ship it. I do think they could do better in letting you know the status of your order. A little communication would go a long way in public relations and making satisfied customers. I talked to them 4 times on the phone today and never felt rushed, I felt like I had her undivided attention. Of course it didn't hurt with her calling me Honey.
