I got my P3AT back from Kel Tec today, almost six weeks to the day after I sent it in. The little slip says they “polished feed ramp” and “Test Fired.” That’s exactly what the slip said the last two times I sent it in. The barrel and frame look the same, but I sent them a Parkerized slide and it was returned with a blued slide (a scratched up blued slide) . . .
While they had the pistol for the past few weeks, I also tried to return to them some mag extensions and a pocket clip accessories I bought, installed, decided I didn’t like. No dice. They felt these like new items were too “used” to return. Fine. I also asked them to buy back this pistol based on it having its third return to factory. No dice on that, either.
The MO at Kel Tec seems to be: sell pistol and hope it works or owner does not run it. Much. If pistol is returned, throw new parts at it, shoot it one or two times to confirm function, then return to customer. Repeat as needed. I believe they are counting on most owners of this particular pistol not shooting them much, if at all, despite their advertised 5000 round service life. The returns are just part of doing business and I imagine a vast majority of owners just don’t bother.
My experience with Kel Tec has been one of non-functioning firearms with barely decent customer service. I can not recommend them as a company in any way. Buyer beware. As for this P3AT. I’m not even going to bother running ammo through it. Straight to the safe, or cheap sale with full disclosure of its issues. At no time did Kel Tec know I wrote for this website during our interactions. One wonders if they would have even cared.