[ohiobuckeye]

Just wondering about other members that have experience with Mark Hartshorne's Pinnacle High Performance gunsmithing in Kempton, PA. I sent him a Trooper MKIII for custom work, along with a check for half the estimated costs, and have been unable to contact anyone. I'm used to long waits for gunsmithing, and waited until last week to inquire status of the gun that was received by him in early March of this year. Four months ago. Two emails and two phone calls to his answering machine have not been answered.
The check has not been cashed and I cannot even get a response to find out if there is a problem or just delay from a heavy workload. I'm well aware of how backlogged and slow gunsmith work can be, but the lack of response is a bit unsettling. A single sentence e-mail would suffice. I sent the gun after reading a glowing report about his work here on this forum last winter, but I'm beginning to feel a bit uneasy. Has anyone here had experience, good or bad, with Pinnacle gunsmithing?

 

[WIL TERRY]

NOW THIS JUST MIGHT BE ME, but I would be damned leary about anyone who called himself the Pinnacle of anything.
I've been shooting 62 years and have used a number of fine gunsmiths, Shufelt, Bowen, Stroh, Gallagher, Forkin, and none ever indicated they had to be the pinnacle of anything, Nor did any of these men ever let me down in the past fifty years [ going back to Roy Shefelt 1962 ], nor ignore me, nor not answer correspondence.

 

[Pinduck]

This is his current website ,Pinnacle-Guns.com: Pinnacle High Performance Custom Gunsmithing ,says not taking on any new work due to backlog.
wish you luck.

 

[ohiobuckeye]

This is his current website ,Pinnacle-Guns.com: Pinnacle High Performance Custom Gunsmithing ,says not taking on any new work due to backlog.
wish you luck.

Already tried this route. Because of the web site notice, I called and spoke with Mark prior to shipping the gun and he accepted the work and stated he would be setting up to do the type work I needed the following week, so I rushed to ship it out and it was signed for at his shop on Monday of the week he stated.

 

[Oyeboten]

The problem with no communication, is how is one to know what is up?


Maybe we have a Member here who lives in the area, and, who could go knock on their Door and find out?

The guy might be having health troubles, or worse, for all one knows.

You could try googling 'obits' for that City or County or look into the Social Security Death Index, which usually notes passings pretty promptly.

 

[Oyeboten]

I myself am a small Mail Order business doing Custom Work ( not Guns though ) and much of the time, managing a Day Job as well, and, Lord knows, I can screw things up sometimes without even trying.


One can get a little overwhelmed, over tired, 'myopic', harried, in a 'time warp' and or set things aside and so on.


But if anyone calls or emails, I reply promptly and or get hopping on their "Ooops! runnin' late! Sorry!" thing.

 

[justintyme]

I have heard good things of Pinnacle on the S&W forum as well, especially about doing moonclip conversions. Hopefully you get through soon!

 

[ping10]

Did you send your gun with a tracking number that you can at least trace to him receiving it? Then at least you know he has it and you can prove it. Good luck.

 

[ohiobuckeye]

Did you send your gun with a tracking number that you can at least trace to him receiving it? Then at least you know he has it and you can prove it. Good luck.

Yes. It was received and signed for at his shop address.

 

[ping10]

Well at least you are covered.... I would just keep hounding him until you get a response

 

[muddyboot]

I've had the same experience with several gunsmiths. They run on their own schedule, not much you can do about it.I have a Remington Model 81 undergoing full restoration. A local smith has had it for a year now, and I expect it will be a least one more year before I get it back. You just have to be patient. Continue calling until you get through, but don't expect to get your Trooper back anytime soon.

 

[smokehaus]

In my opinion there are a lot of small businesses today that the owners don't have and its called common courtesy, its seems they seem to think they are the only game in town and can treat their customers like crap and get by with it. I recently wanted a well dug on my property, but I didn't want a big drilling rig coming onto my front yard and leaving ruts, so , I found a guy that still hand digs wells and will put them where you want them within the city code, I called set up a time for him to do the work and he never shows, this goes on for a month, repeated calls to him got me no where, finally the 5th week he calls and says Ill be there tomorrow and gives me some lame excuse for not returning the calls. A sickness or death in the family is one thing but ignoring your customer is another, word of mouth goes a long way. This guy put in a good well for me but I wont recommend him to anyone. The same goes for gun smithing, I just jotted down the company's name in this issue and he wont get any of my business.

 

[Joel6180]

Lack of common courtesy is not limited to small business owners. At least 25% of the individuals I deal with have poor communication skills when it comes to conducting online transactions. I rarely deal with folks a second time if they communicate poorly the first time.

 

[Oyeboten]

There is something I have been running into the last few years ( not saying that it is what is going on here, but...)


Various Service-providers, will neglect a project they had accepted, or do a crappy job, or both, and, then if pressed will say "Well, if you wanted a GOOD job or wanted it sooner ( than a year or whatever ) maybe you should have PAID ME four times as much, and or paid most of it up-front!!!"


Not only me, but, other people I know, have been running into this.

Yet, the service-providers in these instances, never apprised the Customer of these 'options' up-front...never touched on this aspect when accepting the Commission/Job/Project.

 

[ohiobuckeye]

Problem solved and Mark will remain on the list of recommended gunsmiths until further notice. It seems the time I chose to check on the status of my gun was while he was on his family vacation....No problem with the gun work or parts, just another backlogged gunsmith...False alarm....

 

[smokehaus]

It would of been nice if he would of left a out of office until and gave a date status on his email. It would of saved some very concerned customers from having coronaries . Goes back to my common courtesy statement.

 

[11866]

common courtesy

+1.

Recently asked three fencing contractors of various size to give me a quote on a fence. One returned my phone call within a day and gave me an estimate based solely on my description. One called me back, said he would come check it out, but never did. The third I dont think even returned my phone call inquiring about his services. Economy must be doing better than I thought, cause no one seemed to want my business.

So, I simply built the fence myself and gave my local lumber yard a whole lot of money. Problem solved.