Taurus knows exactly who they are. “We’re not out to make Rolexes, we’re making Timexes.” That’s what Taurus’s No. 1, Mark Kresser, told us. You remember that Timex tag line — takes a licking and keeps on ticking? Maybe not the fanciest or most glamorous watches, but they work when you need them to. We talked to Mark at the NRA show and he told us he wanted to change the way gunnies look at Taurus. And he knew what he was getting into when he started pushing that rock up a very steep hill. Before he got there, Taurus had worked long and hard to earn the poor to mediocre rep the company carried around. So what’s changed? . . .
A lot, actually. And as he predicted back in April, fixing things — something as complex as a multinational company — takes some time. While it never happens fast enough, all good things come to those who wait (and work their asses off.) And now their customers are seeing the difference.
Taurus has mostly focused on three things. Well, one to begin with: they want to be the most approachable gun maker out there. Meaning customers can call and, you know, talk to someone who knows guns. Their guns.
Meaning the woman who carries one needs to know that the TCP or Model 605 in her purse will go bang every time she needs it to. Meaning if she needs it fixed, she won’t be without it for months on end. And meaning the company takes carrying a gun as seriously as the people who buy their heaters do.
‘Cause the people who work there carry guns themselves. Taurus guns. And they preach concealed carry to anyone who will listen. Not just to boost sales, but because they see it as a right and a duty. How great is that?
And while re-making the company, they’ve figured a few things out along the way. Like exactly how much it costs – down to the penny – to fix a gun that comes back because it wasn’t right to begin with. And that’s why anyone on the assembly line can (in fact, is told to) hold a gun back that’s not right. Knowingly sending out a POS is a firing offense.
Have you ever called the IRS? Then you have a pretty good idea what it used to be like trying to get a hold of someone at Taurus. If, God forbid, you had to call Miami HQ, hold time averaged 90 minutes. Dial the phone, run out and do the weekly shopping, then come back and tell them your troubles.
Not any more. After upping their staff to 21 from 8 and spending a quarter million on a phone system that works, the average wait time is now three minutes. And the people on the other end of the line actually know guns, too.
But no one’s perfect, right? Guns break sometimes. Say your 24/7 needs fixing. Ouch…that used to be pucker time. In the bad old days, that meant launching your heater into a Floridian black hole. If you were lucky, it reemerged in 3 months. And if they didn’t have a part your gun needed (yikes!), it could have taken up to a year for it to reenter the atmosphere.
No longer. Now it takes about eight days to fix your firearm. Including shipping, door-to-door turn around time is under two weeks. And if, for some reason, they can’t get your gun fixed in 45 days, they send you a new one. Simple as that.
As for new models, those are on the way, too. Their new product development team has some guns in the pipeline that they think will be really well received when they’re announced. I saw one and they’re cagey about the rest, but they promise it won’t be more of the me-too stuff you may have seen before.
So will you run out now and buy a Taurus, a Rossi or a Heritage six shooter? Maybe not. Not yet, at least. But so far, they appear to be doing exactly what the top man said they’d do back in April. And if you’re in the market for an affordable home defense or carry gun, you just might put them on your list now. Mark Kresser sure hopes you will.
I would like to place some common sense on this subject. If you believe that Mexico’s cartels are spending the time, money and risk to purchase rifles legally in US there’s a screw loose in your head. Listen to these facts. They are likely purchasing in bulk from poor war torn countries and entrepreneurs from Europe, Asia, Middle East, and yes South America. According to the above report 68000 guns are moved across the border per year that means 186 are moving per day. That is logistically a larger deal than moving of cash and drugs. Law enforcement could literally pick the illegals off like flies. Out of every news real or real TV show I have never seen one person arrested swimming south across the Rio with rifles strapped to their backs. Now I know my writing is sarcastic and not as actuate as this site true data but think they don’t buy retail, legal, and not in anything other than bulk shipping containers. They have the money and means to do so and the only way to run a war.
I sent a Raging Bull in 6/26/13 through an FFL dealer.On 8/12/13 your site said it did not have my firearm.On the 13th it said you had it. On the15th it said it was repaired.On the 14th that would have been 55 days.Should I be looking for a new gun ? LOL Next week would be fine.
I just purchased a new Taurus 605 because the store did not have a Charter Arms Pug 357. I have not fired it yet but soon I will walk outside and do so in my back yard. I do not go to firing ranges because I do not have the time. If the revolver ever fails my backup is a 12 gauge magnum Remington 870 Wingmaster
Lenin used to say that the capitalists would sell the communists the rope to hang them with. I get the feeling that giving in on mental health legislation will be handing our enemies the rope to hang our rights with. If the other side was populated with rational people it would make a lot of sense, but the other side is populated with people chomping at the bit to strip all of us of our rights. Devil’s bargain IMO.
I bought the PT-111 millennium pro G2. It had several problems and I had to send it back. It took Taurus 7 weeks to get the firearm back too me. Not to mention I called every week to get an update.
The only response I got was: “your weapon had a few dangerous issues. It’s with our review board to determine if we can fix it or not.”
I will never buy another Taurus again and I will tell anybody thinking about buying one not too.
It’s a joke the weapon I bought made it through any QC.. if they really have any.
I think that 45-day rule is bogus.
My M44 has been in FL since Jun 5th. I called them yesterday (7-21) and they said that on July 1st, they ordered me a new barrel from Brazil. They told me that would take, going by the average, six weeks to come in. THEN, it would be a couple more weeks to finish the repair.
So I could very well be waiting on my gun to come home all the way into September. I bought the gun on 5/23.
Long story short, I’m already on the cusp of the two-month mark and I may have another month/ month and a half left to go.
So how does this 45-day thing work? Calendar days or business days? Do they start the count over if they have to order a part? I think it’s a marketing ploy.
I will say they’ve been uber-nice to me over the phone. But, from my experience, I’m still waiting for mine to ‘reenter the atmosphere.’
So this is day 61 for my M44. WAAAAYYY past the “45 day” mark any way you count it.
I called yesterday and was told that a supervisor would personally go down to the shop floor and ‘put his hands’ on the gun to see what the story was. I was told to expect a call back at 6:30pm.
Never happened.
I called this morning and was told the same story. I’m still waiting to hear back from someone at Taurus.
I actually bought this firearm based on this article. I thought maybe it was true that Taurus wanted to turn over a new leaf and at the worst, I’d get a new gun after 45 days if I had to return it.
Wrong.
Taurus has lost me as a customer. I know you hear that a lot online, but it’s true. I could have gotten a Ruger or a Smith. I chose to go with Taurus because I’d never had one before. Looks like I’ll never have another one, either.
Taurus, you’re in the fail boat with Mossberg. You two are the weakest link.
Just talked to Taurus about the 45-day thing. The 45-day count only starts once the gun goes into “Awaiting Parts” status. My gun was in “Under Repair” status for a month before going into “Awaiting Parts” status.
At the 45 day mark, there’s a whole slew of things that have to happen before you get a new gun and YOU pay FFL costs to get it, even then.
So there you go. My gun’s been gone since 5/26/14. Today is 8/5/14. STILL haven’t reached the 45 day mark yet. Sounds like they really know how to space out their status updates to stretch things out.
“Now it takes about eight days to fix your firearm.”
B.S.
8/7, Taurus called to say they ordered the wrong part for my gun. They offered to replace it, which is awesome. Only problem is they don’t have a comparable gun in stock. I could, of course, wait a month or two to see if somethig comes in. Awesome.
Taurus USA needs to have a better shipping/workng relationship with their parent company in Brazil. It took them a whole month to ship the wrong part for me.
So; still waiting on a gun I sent in well over two months ago.
8/15 I received a replacement gun. It’s a 4″ instead of the 6.5″ I originally purchased.
But it seems to shoot great.
I bought a new Taurus 44mag stainless 6 1/2″ barrel a few months ago. Since that time, my Taurus has been sent back to the factory twice now. It locks up. The cylinder does not and will not rotate. It is very undependable. I bought this gun to carry with me while hiking in bear country. I chose it due to its factory porting. When it does shoot, there is very little recoil even when shooting bear loads such as double taps 320gr hard cast bullet. It is extremely accurate too. But all of these things mean nothing since I can’t depend on it when I need it. I’ve been shooting for over 45 years. I have owned many revolvers in my lifetime and have never ever had problems until I bought this Taurus. The marines taught me too a lot about weapons.
This article is a load of shit. I purchased a NEW tcp and right out of the box it would lock open with one round left in the magazine. Slide release was never right either. Sent it back, it’s been sitting still for a month now. Nobody’s even picked it up. What’s the average phone call time? Cause I had to wait an hour and a half. How do you send out a gun that doesn’t function right? Spend the extra money folks!
Note: this article was written a while back. The CEO who was championing these changes was fired. Your experience is noted for an update. Thanks!
I’ve had one for 10 years now.. 9mm. I love it. Just got some additional mags for it. Grip is extremely worn off… back in the day they were making soft rubber grips… loved the feel… just couldn’t stand the test of time. Still a nail driver in skilled hands. Never… allow me to emphasize… NEVER had a misfire, fte, ftl. Smoothest firing gun I’ve ever had. Pondering getting the .45.
I gotta disagree about the aesthetics. Our home defense weapon is an actual honest to goodness pre-Springfield HS2000. Got a really sweet deal on it way back in the day. Ugly? No way, man, it’s a thing of beauty. Like a Glock and a 1911 fell in love under the full moon on a warm spring night. Though to be fair: no accessory rail to mess up those smooth lines and curves. Haven’t needed any lights or lasers yet anyway.
It goes bang right on cue, almost no perceived recoil. Reasonably nice trigger. So accurate it’s almost tedious to shoot. Got it in the black at 25 yards… again… Snore.
I purchased 2 of the pt111 g2’s a little over a month ago, one for myself and one for my wife, and a pt140 g2 as well. So far the pt111’s have performed flawlessly (once my wife learned the proper grip and stopped limp-wristing hers), but on the 30th round through the pt140 the trigger safety broke. Emailed Taurus SC and they promptly called back then emailed me a FedEx shipping label on their tab. Gun arrived at Taurus 2nd day and they again emailed me that they had received it with the disclaimer of up to 6 weeks turnaround. I assume that’s just standard repair speak, we’ll see how long it actually takes. So far, am very happy with their SC, though not so happy about the gun.
I plan to put a lot more rounds through the .40 when I get it back as well as the two 9’s to make sure there are no more problems. I love the guns, and if they hold up, I plan to buy the TCP as well! Keeping my fingers crossed.
Funny reading this older article considering the trainwreck that is going on at Taurus right now with their bogus “recall” on the entire Millenium/ 24/7 line. They havent taken one gun back after over a year they just stonewall. Taurus vs. a rock, at least the rock wont shoot you in the butt if you drop it.
Two words describe my feelings about Taurus firearms: NEVER AGAIN. I’ve had THREE Taurus pistols. The first one was a PT-40, a full sized frame .40 cal. The rear sight would come loose, and the weapon frequently would not fire. After sending it back for repair FIVE TIMES, I gave up and sold it.
Many years later, I started reading good things about the Millennium Pro series, so I went and bought a PT-145, which started out great, but became a horror story several years later (more on that later).
A couple of years after buying the PT-145, I decided to try the TCP-738… HUGE MISTAKE. That weapon started jamming IMMEDIATELY. It turned out that the takedown pin was working its way out, causing the slide and barrel to skew (made clearing the jam very difficult).
I sent the weapon back to Taurus and after FIVE MONTHS (and a lot of angry phone calls) they finally replaced it. That weapon would not retain magazines. They would just fall out. It went back to the factor 4 more times before they got it right.
The horror stories about the PT-145 started when a lawsuit was filed against Taurus because all of their “Millennium Pro” series weapons had a tendency to discharge when dropped (with the safety ON). I sent my pistol back in Sept. 2015. It is now Nov 2016 and I am still waiting for a repair or replacement. Every time I call Taurus the story changes (that is IF I can even get in touch with a person)
This was my LAST Taurus.
The single worst firearm I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen some stinkers) in American history is, IMO, the Winchester 1911 shotgun.
It was called “The Widowmaker” – for a good reason.