Along those lines, check out the owner of Robinson Arms. "If you criticize me, I guarantee bad service".

http://www.xcrforum.com/forum/8-robinson-armament/8624-changes-robinson-armament-co.html

 

At one time I was really interested in the XCR too. 

Wow - essentially, RA  acknowledges they are/were incompetent in design, construction, and execution of their product, but they don't want to hear you bitch about it.  And SEI, rather than admit they have problems meeting production, chose to put a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) on one of their more vocal customers.  

 

While this may be an interesting business model for both RA and SEI, unless they have a VERY strong parent company (and this is essentially the owner's hobby) they are doomed to failure.  

Wow - essentially, RA  acknowledges they are/were incompetent in design, construction, and execution of their product, but they don't want to hear you **** about it.  And SEI, rather than admit they have problems meeting production, chose to put a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) on one of their more vocal customers.  

 

While this may be an interesting business model for both RA and SEI, unless they have a VERY strong parent company (and this is essentially the owner's hobby) they are doomed to failure.  

 

This is the best part form the robinson arms post "Fourth, if you post a bunch of whiny petty negative stuff here or anywhere, I guaranty very slow service. I have made that a policy. Yes, we've made lots of mistakes with service but that is behind us."

 

They have a funny definition of behind us. I've handled all of 1 XCR. It wasn't a bad design other than the trigger sucked, and there weren't any options to fix that, and it was kind of heavy for what it was. That and the price was high and the wait was long to get one. 

 

As for smith, I have a rather unimpressive comp from them, and after seeing the guy bitch about his flash suppressor on the news to try and get it to be the standard suppressor on the m-4 as well as the attitude he threw to the existing customer base that liked their products after changing up their catalog,  I grew to basically dislike them. Seems people are rapidly swinging to my way of thinking. 

This is my favorite quote from the original thread talking about the SEI receiver issues... They sure did stand by their product, with a lawsuit.

 

I believe SEI is a company that will stay in play for years to come and any problems incurred with the purchase of a receiver will be resolved in the consumer's favor. This is a new product and will undoubtedly have some growing pains. Mr Smith has always backed his products and worked to resolve issues and this certainly won't be any different.

 

Now is a time for those of us who have made the purchase of these pricy items to stay focused on resolving the issues and stay away with letting things get out of hand with rants against a company whose products have always set the standard for quality.

 

I believe by staying on track and resolving the problems early, the future of this much needed product (competition is good) will result in a receiver that reflects the quality of all their other products. Let's keep it real, gentlemen. This is coming for a member who does have a dog in this fight and an SEI receiver in the safe.