Posted: 12/11/2013 7:14:00 PM EDT
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After reading about some of the PSA good deals around Black Friday I finally decided to get two PSA blemished lowers. I have never assembled an AR but I am good at putting things together and there are plenty of videos showing the process.
It took two days to find an FFL to use so I ordered the lowers in early Dec 2013. I screwed up the FFL shipping info so had to email PSA with the info. It pays to read instructions carefully. I had signed up for the email alerts and saw the ad for the PSA 16" M4 CMV Rifle Kit, SKU 9005. Since I am new at assembling an AR, I was not not well informed on what I needed. Several people provided guidance so later I ordered the rifle kit. In one of their stickies they say to allow 15 BUSINESS days to get a rifle kit out. I expected delivery within a month. In reality, I should get it next week...two weeks after ordering it. That is a nice surprise and much better than my first AR related purchases of PMags from DSG a year ago. That probably took three months. Current impression of PSA is positive. I will update with my impression of the rifle kit and lowers when I get them, however, at this point in time, my expertise in evaluating them should be considered far inferior to many here. Update #1: The rifle kit arrived today. Two weeks after being ordered. That seems reasonable considering the volume of orders that they must have from that time frame. The rifle kit was double boxed. I cut open the outer box to the reveal the inner box with a huge PSA emblem and in the upper left a US flag with "Made in the USA" under it. I like that. I quickly make a mental inventory of the contents. The rifle looks great. I checked the barrel and found 5.56, 1/7 twist, MP and PSA. I had to print out a picture of the lower parts kit contents to inventory it and everything appears to be there. The finish looks great. There is a small PSA logo at the top of the upper receiver just under the rail. I will defer a quality evaluation to more competent people but at this point I have no concerns. I am now waiting on two PSA blem lowers. Update #2: My input on two lowers picked up less than two hours ago. I just picked up my two "blemished" lowers. First I checked the box tape to see if it appeared original. It did. Open the box and pull out one strip of brown packing paper. One lower is lying on a piece of paper (FFL paperwork?) with no protection. It is naked. Pick it up....remove the paperwork and there is the other lower...also naked. The two lowers were protected from each other by a piece of paperwork. There was another piece of brown packing paper at the bottom of the box. Despite the inadequate packaging (opinion), the lowers are in good condition. I assembled one lower today using the LPK from the rifle kit. Other than initially messing up the spring orientation of the hammer spring (first done from memory), it went together fairly easily for my first one. My enthusiasm for PSA was high but has been lowered because of the lower packing issue. At this point, I will likely not buy any more lowers from them until they fix the poor packaging problem. |
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I was a first time customer in October 2013 - I think about the worst thing one can do is read most of the threads on the board. Horror stories of shipping errors - delays - no response.
My experience has been none of that. I have now placed 5 orders (mine was first time build too) since then - each of them arrived safely, were shipped within the projections, had all the parts they should have, and quality was as expected as I read the descriptions. I did have 2 questions - and they responded to them (email and forums) - and they even sent a replacement part due to a really rough finish on a small part.(i sent them a picture) Before I received the first orders - I did become apprehensive because I did read the posts - but none of those "issues" became real for me. Hope you enjoy your build - I did mine with my 2 teenage sons, it was a good project. I bought : Stripped Lower Complete PTAC Upper / MI Rail Magpul STR PSA LPK 556 ammo 308 ammo Each order came as expected - most in about 8 days. pics here : http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_301/204461_PSA_Build_Pic_Thread__Post_your_PSA_builds_HERE_.html&page=30 |
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Quoted:
I was a first time customer in October 2013 - I think about the worst thing one can do is read most of the threads on the board. Horror stories of shipping errors - delays - no response. My experience has been none of that. I have now placed 5 orders (mine was first time build too) since then - each of them arrived safely, were shipped within the projections, had all the parts they should have, and quality was as expected as I read the descriptions. I did have 2 questions - and they responded to them (email and forums) - and they even sent a replacement part due to a really rough finish on a small part.(i sent them a picture) Before I received the first orders - I did become apprehensive because I did read the posts - but none of those "issues" became real for me. Hope you enjoy your build - I did mine with my 2 teenage sons, it was a good project. I bought : Stripped Lower Complete PTAC Upper / MI Rail Magpul STR PSA LPK 556 ammo 308 ammo Each order came as expected - most in about 8 days. pics here : http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_301/204461_PSA_Build_Pic_Thread__Post_your_PSA_builds_HERE_.html&page=30 Sweet setup. Is that tan or Dark Earth on the furniture? |
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It's the Flat Dark Earth - the STR stock , trigger guard and grip all came in the LPK from PSA.
I went to the midwest industries website and ordered the Dark Earth guard covers for the rail. Pretty close match - perfect in some light - a little different under fluorescent tubes - but they are far enough apart it looks very close. the QD butt plate cover is fde too - also a smidge off - but close. even the magpul stuff has a little variation between it. |
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Quoted:
I was a first time customer in October 2013 - I think about the worst thing one can do is read most of the threads on the board. Horror stories of shipping errors - delays - no response. I've had many trouble free experience with them as well, but that said, the horror stories are mostly legitimate and should be considered as well. They seem to do really well when things go as they should, but if there's ever a problem it *is* really hard to get things sorted out with them, and their customer service staff seems completely overwhelmed by the volume, especially during busy times. On the other hand, the people that have problems will always be the loudest, so it's good to keep that in mind. And they do seem to get things sorted out in most cases, eventually. |
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the horror stories are mostly legitimate and should be considered as well. I TOTALLY agree with you - some people have had valid issues , my point was:- reading the forum makes it sound like it's a coin flip if you get your order... It can cause un-needed anxiety. Like I said - I did contact CS and my questions were answered and a MINOR issue resolved. (my cam pin finish was REALLY bad - not even smooth - they sent me out a new shiny cam pin). Looking forward to hearing the OP's update when his order comes ! I realize I've squatted in your thread, and I apologize. |
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Quoted:
After reading about some of the PSA good deals around Black Friday I finally decided to get two PSA blemished lowers. I have never assembled an AR but I am good at putting things together and there are plenty of videos showing the process. It took two days to find an FFL to use so I ordered the lowers on 2 Dec 2013. I screwed up the FFL shipping info so had to email PSA with the info. It pays to read instructions carefully. I had signed up for the email alerts and saw the ad for the PSA 16" M4 CMV Rifle Kit, SKU 9005. Since I am new at assembling an AR, I was not not well informed on what I needed. Several people provided guidance so later on 2 Dec I ordered the rifle kit. In one of their stickies they say to allow 15 BUSINESS days to get a rifle kit out. I expected delivery within a month. In reality, I should get it next Monday...two weeks after ordering it. That is a nice surprise and much better than my first AR related purchases of PMags from DSG a year ago. That probably took three months. Current impression of PSA is positive. I will update with my impression of the rifle kit and lowers when I get them, however, at this point in time, my expertise in evaluating them should be considered far inferior to many here. Update #1: Monday, 16 Dec 2013. The rifle kit arrived today. Two weeks after being ordered. That seems reasonable considering the volume of orders that they must have from that time frame. The rifle kit was double boxed. I cut open the outer box to the reveal the inner box with a huge PSA emblem and in the upper left a US flag with "Made in the USA" under it. I like that. I quickly make a mental inventory of the contents. The rifle looks great. I checked the barrel and found 5.56, 1/7 twist, MP and PSA. I had to print out a picture of the lower parts kit contents to inventory it and everything appears to be there. The finish looks great. There is a small PSA logo at the top of the upper receiver just under the rail. I will defer a quality evaluation to more competent people but at this point I have no concerns. I am now waiting on two PSA blem lowers. Wait until you need their customer service. My experience has not been so great. |
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Wait until you need their customer service. My experience has not been so great. i've had issues with products before, and in the end they always made it right. some of the issues took longer than others to fix, but none the less, they were able to make it right, and that is what mattered. |
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Wait until you need their customer service. My experience has not been so great. Meh, I have placed about 10 orders with them this year, had one c-clip for ejection port cover rod missing from an upper build kit, didn't even email them since it wasn't too big of a deal, and on another order, I ordered 2 BCG's and only received 1. Emailed them and they sent a new one the next day, no questions asked. Had a couple other minor customer service issues and email didn't really work but IM on this site was very quickly responded to. Only problem I really had was an upper I ordered on Saturday and tried to cancel on Tuesday morning (build for a buddy who changed his mind) and they couldn't cancel because it had already shipped! I was surprised they were that quick. Didn't break my heart, can always use an extra upper in the safe! Edit: Typing skills suck. |