My Eclipse is at Kimber for a new front sight also. Here's the email I got on 8/2 from Kimber after I questioned why they continued to ship night sight equipped pistols with a known problem:
"Thank you for your letter.
We are aware of the problem that existed with primarily one batch of front night sights, and addressed the problem by removing the batch from the production line. New batches of front sights are, in fact, screened to insure they are glowing properly, and any suspect units are culled. The sights are manufactured by Meprolight, and underwent a nine week qualification test program that included vibration, mechanical, mechanical shock, thermal shock, rapid fire, brightness, humidity, low temperature, salt fog, high and low pressure and solvent immersion. In addition to in-process and final inspections, each day’s total production receives random sample testing for scintillation count. Lot acceptance testing includes sampling in accordance with MIL-STD-105D, and 100% testing for comparative brightness and batch wipe or immersion testing. The warranty on the sights is 12 years. Overall, Meprolight has experienced a one half of 1% failure rate over 2 ½ million sets produced.
We will promptly replace your sight under the terms of the warranty. Please return the slide only to us:"
This is a pretty foolish answer in light of how common this problem has been over the past months. It's one thing to ignore your customers' concerns, but it's really silly to think they're foolish enough to accept a lie. Warranties are meant to cover random failures of products which every manufacturer has from time to time. These don't chase customers away. Shipping your products with known problems for months maintains cash flow, but then suggesting that your quality is really statistically just fine and the customer has the mistaken belief that there IS a problem....well that's really sinister in my book.
