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I have been following harleys thread for the last several days with interest. I actually sent an e-mail to kimber expressing my concern. You can view the e-mail I sent in the original "kimber - what a let down" thread if you want. Anyway, I sent that e-mail a few days ago. So, now its monday and they get it, I was curious what they would do. My wife called me at work and said that a gentleman named Dennis had called for me at home and wanted to know if he could reach me at work. He left a number and an extension so I gave him a call. Curiosity, more than anything I guess, as it was not my gun and not really my business; but being a gun buyer I l felt like I had an interest in it in some way. I want to try to be objective here so I am just going to try to recreate the conversation as best as I can. I did take notes during the conversation. I called them on 02 July 2001 at 1130.
Me: "Dennis, this is Jake Salyards returning your call"
Dennis "Jake, I was just about to hit the send button on my computer, can I talk to you about this issue?"
Me: "Please"
Dennis: "There is a lot of stuff circulating about this topic and I feel you are not getting the complete story. First of all, when I got the gun it had a one line note with it that said simply "Please fix this". That was it. I thought it was a recoil system problem. I called Dane and he told me it was a slide problem. Every gunsmith here, including the head gunsmith looked at that gun and we all determined that there was no way a slide could ever go on that gun again, ever."
Me: "Mr. Burns put another slide on the gun. He already did it and it runs fine."
Dennis: "Fine, I would never have done that. This is a liability concern. If someone uses that gun and it fails they won't sue Dane Burns, they'll sue kimber because that's where the money is. If we had that gun and knowingly sold a slide so it could be repaired and used in what we know to be an unsafe condition then we would be liable, no one else but us. We can not do that, it is not safe. The fact that we knew about it and allowed it would make us liable for it. We do not sell slides retail, we don't sell frames that way either. We do repair guns for our customers all the time. Just last week a guy sent in his super match and we repaired it with a whole new top end. We had the gun a total of two days and then shipped it back with a whole new top end. We did not charge for the labor either, just for the parts. That gun could still be safely used. This gun could not still be safely used. If it could have been safely used we would have been happy to sell him a new slide. Also, the a letter was sent to Mr. Burns explaining all this. And on top of that the head gunsmith here sent him an e-mail about it explaining our position."
Me: "Why don't you post that then?"
Dennis: "We have an official policy not to respond to internet threads but only to individual customers, we can't respond to every claim on every site, so we don't respond to any of them. However, please feel free to post all this if you want to. Post my phone number and extension and tell the guys that if they want to talk to me about this to call me. (Phone number is: 914-964-0742 extention: 228)"
Me: "Okay Dennis, thanks for your time."
This is all a reconstruction to the best of my ability, I didn't tape the phone call I just made some notes on a piece of paper because I thought if I had information on this topic I should go ahead and post it. I understand kimber's position on this better now. I also think that if Dane says the gun is safe then the gun is safe, however - given the litigation and safety concerns surrounding this matter, I also think that kimber's position is understandable. I am ending my one-man 2 day boycott. I'm not making any suggestions to anyone about what they should do; again, I am just adding this in because I thought the extra information would be interesting.
Mr. Burns - I in no way mean any disrespect to you. I like this site and I appreciate being able to come here and learn. None of this is meant to call your honor into question, that is why I tried to recreate the conversation with quotes so it would be clear that I am only posting what was said to me. If you told me a gun was safe I would trust my life to it.
Jake
_________________
A bad attitude or unsettled mind will destroy focus, guaranteeing failure regardless of training and preparation.
- Mark F. Twight, "Extreme Alpinism"
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jake Salyards on 2001-07-02 11:57 ]</font>
Me: "Dennis, this is Jake Salyards returning your call"
Dennis "Jake, I was just about to hit the send button on my computer, can I talk to you about this issue?"
Me: "Please"
Dennis: "There is a lot of stuff circulating about this topic and I feel you are not getting the complete story. First of all, when I got the gun it had a one line note with it that said simply "Please fix this". That was it. I thought it was a recoil system problem. I called Dane and he told me it was a slide problem. Every gunsmith here, including the head gunsmith looked at that gun and we all determined that there was no way a slide could ever go on that gun again, ever."
Me: "Mr. Burns put another slide on the gun. He already did it and it runs fine."
Dennis: "Fine, I would never have done that. This is a liability concern. If someone uses that gun and it fails they won't sue Dane Burns, they'll sue kimber because that's where the money is. If we had that gun and knowingly sold a slide so it could be repaired and used in what we know to be an unsafe condition then we would be liable, no one else but us. We can not do that, it is not safe. The fact that we knew about it and allowed it would make us liable for it. We do not sell slides retail, we don't sell frames that way either. We do repair guns for our customers all the time. Just last week a guy sent in his super match and we repaired it with a whole new top end. We had the gun a total of two days and then shipped it back with a whole new top end. We did not charge for the labor either, just for the parts. That gun could still be safely used. This gun could not still be safely used. If it could have been safely used we would have been happy to sell him a new slide. Also, the a letter was sent to Mr. Burns explaining all this. And on top of that the head gunsmith here sent him an e-mail about it explaining our position."
Me: "Why don't you post that then?"
Dennis: "We have an official policy not to respond to internet threads but only to individual customers, we can't respond to every claim on every site, so we don't respond to any of them. However, please feel free to post all this if you want to. Post my phone number and extension and tell the guys that if they want to talk to me about this to call me. (Phone number is: 914-964-0742 extention: 228)"
Me: "Okay Dennis, thanks for your time."
This is all a reconstruction to the best of my ability, I didn't tape the phone call I just made some notes on a piece of paper because I thought if I had information on this topic I should go ahead and post it. I understand kimber's position on this better now. I also think that if Dane says the gun is safe then the gun is safe, however - given the litigation and safety concerns surrounding this matter, I also think that kimber's position is understandable. I am ending my one-man 2 day boycott. I'm not making any suggestions to anyone about what they should do; again, I am just adding this in because I thought the extra information would be interesting.
Mr. Burns - I in no way mean any disrespect to you. I like this site and I appreciate being able to come here and learn. None of this is meant to call your honor into question, that is why I tried to recreate the conversation with quotes so it would be clear that I am only posting what was said to me. If you told me a gun was safe I would trust my life to it.
Jake
_________________
A bad attitude or unsettled mind will destroy focus, guaranteeing failure regardless of training and preparation.
- Mark F. Twight, "Extreme Alpinism"
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jake Salyards on 2001-07-02 11:57 ]</font>