1.) DParker - 09/19/2013

Hearing stories from other reloaders coupled with my own limited experience has given me the impression that manufacturers of reloading equipment consistently offer some of the best customer service of any industry, and my most recent interaction with RCBS bolstered this impression. I ordered an RCBS neck-sizing die for 7.52x54R (actually a 2-die set, which included a seating die) from Amazon.com so as to squeeze more life out of my Mosin-Nagant brass. It arrived late last week and, thought it's still way too hot out in the garage to do any loading I decided to at least get the dies adjusted for proper depth in the press so that they'd be ready to go as soon as the weather cools down enough. So I took them out to the bench on Saturday morning, screwed them into a couple of Lock-n-Load die bushings, inserted the bushings into the press and adjusted both to the correct depth. Once done I twisted them out via their bushings and brought them back into the house to do a little more close-up examination of them. Without thinking, I set the sizing die down on the kitchen table, too close to the edge, which apparently is not quite level. Before I realized what was happening the die rolled off the table edge and onto the tile floor...squarely on the fragile decapping pin, which snapped like a twig.

Great. I haven't even used the thing and I've already broken it. Dies generally don't come with spare parts as a matter of course, so I needed to order some replacement decapping pins. The trouble is that, as good as RCBS's products are, their website really sucks as far as providing useful information on them. Between that and the fact that the instructions that come with the die are generic and don't include any part # information for parts that are caliber-specific I couldn't figure out which replacement pins (sold in packs of 5 for $2.99 + shipping) I needed. So I fired off an e-mail to their customer service folks explaining my dumbassery and asking for the part info so I could place an order. Yesterday morning I received a response stating that they'd just gone ahead and sent me not only a pack of replacement pins, but an entire replacement decapper/expander assembly (an $8 part)...all for free, including the shipping. So not only did they save me from having to pay $9 or more for $3 worth of parts that I needed (because of shipping costs), they also saved me the process of having to even order it AND threw in another $8 part as a bonus.

Not a big deal money-wise for either party, but a damned good CS gesture nonetheless. Breaking the pin was entirely my own fault and I was fully expecing to pay for fixing it myself, so :tu: :tu: for RCBS on this one.

Also, Hornady did exactly the same thing when I snapped a case retainer spring on my press a couple years ago (again, my own fault) and, after my sending them a similar e-mail asking about obtaining replacement parts they just dropped a pack full of extra springs and a few other small spare parts into the mail without charging me a thing.

2.) Jon - 09/19/2013

You are obviously not the only one with a non-level counter top!

3.) DParker - 09/19/2013

[QUOTE=Jon;10835]You are obviously not the only one with a non-level counter top![/QUOTE]

No...but hopefully the absent-mindedness required to set a cylindrical piece of equipment down near the edge of such a surface isn't as common. :-)