Ok... Lovin my Rohrbaugh(S)...

[JoshA]

I'm glad you saw this and let us know. Thanks DDGator.

Owning a website of my own and NOT being a geek at all either: perhaps you could inform him that it just takes a phone call to their webmaster and they can put whatever he may want on the homepage to inform people of what's going on... OR NOT : )

Any way, thanks for the information. It's good to see that you care enough to inform the forum members of what's going on with the lack of communications etc.

Now on to the move... Wow that's exciting stuff! More room. More freedom. Very cool. The only funny thing I am imagining is a New Yorker living in N.C. Nice people in both places, but I am imagining some serious culture shock going on.

Congratulations Rohrbaugh!

[DDGator]

In defense of the brothers I would just say this... 

While great guys and great friends, they are not technically savvy beyond programing the CNC machines.  Eric still carries a flip phone.  Karl may or may not have a mobile phone.   The factory didn't even have e-mail as a communication avenue for many years.

They don't have a webmaster.  They need to engage and pay someone to modify their website and I think they want to do it once -- when the phone numbers are changed and they reveal the new address (after they are actually licensed there).  They did what they could, which is change their voicemail.  They will get around to returning calls as soon as they can but understand they are really limited in what they can do -- they have no guns to sell, they can't accept guns for warranty work (license in limbo between locations), their work computers are in boxes, etc.

Their best customers tend to get their information here -- so here it is!  A bit late, but you are all us up to date as possible right now.   

[JoshA]

I get it now. Thanks DDGator.

[MRC]

In defense of the brothers I would just say this... 

While great guys and great friends, they are not technically savvy beyond programing the CNC machines.  Eric still carries a flip phone.  Karl may or may not have a mobile phone.   The factory didn't even have e-mail as a communication avenue for many years.

They don't have a webmaster.  They need to engage and pay someone to modify their website and I think they want to do it once -- when the phone numbers are changed and they reveal the new address (after they are actually licensed there).  They did what they could, which is change their voicemail.  They will get around to returning calls as soon as they can but understand they are really limited in what they can do -- they have no guns to sell, they can't accept guns for warranty work (license in limbo between locations), their work computers are in boxes, etc.

Their best customers tend to get their information here -- so here it is!  A bit late, but you are all us up to date as possible right now.   

You don't have to be "tech savy" to know you don't just walk away from your business and not have someone answering the phone.  Answering services are not that expensive.  Have your calls transferred and give the operator what she is tell customers calling in.  She will forward messages to you to sort out what needs to be answered.

It's not "technical", it's common sense.

[DDGator]

[/quote]

You don't have to be "tech savy" to know you don't just walk away from your business and not have someone answering the phone.  Answering services are not that expensive.  Have your calls transferred and give the operator what she is tell customers calling in.  She will forward messages to you to sort out what needs to be answered.

It's not "technical", it's common sense.
[/quote]

An answering service?  Is this 1989?  They have a voicemail and it says there will be a delay because they are relocating the business.

What calls can't wait a week or two?  They can't do any warranty work right now.  Everyone will be taken care of in Rohrbaugh fashion as soon as they can.

[MRC]

I am glad that you like talking to machines that never return calls when you need an answer.

I don't!

A week or two?  Let's use postcards, that's faster!

[Richard S]

All of this trivial criticism brings to my mind the old expression, "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

[DDGator]

I am glad that you like talking to machines that never return calls when you need an answer.

I don't!

A week or two?  Let's use postcards, that's faster!

When did I suggest this was ideal, or that you should like it?  I am merely telling you the circumstances.

I think Rohrbaugh makes such a great product that people overestimate the size and resources of this company.  Frankly, I think the company was lucky to survive the devastation of Super Storm Sandy.  They found an opportunity to move that required fast action and now they are putting all of their effort into the move.  Even if they returned calls, there is not much they could do for their customers right now.

If that is unacceptable to anyone, then so be it.  I'm not in the shoes of someone desperately trying to reach the factory in the last week, so I guess I can't judge.  But, history suggests that everyone's problems will be solved in due time.

And in some ways, the world was a better place when correspondence by U.S. Mail was an acceptable form of business communication.

[JoshA]

I'm 42 (not a spring chick lol). I'm used to a little different level of customer service than "we'll move and if somebody needs something we will get to them in a couple of weeks or a month" (hopefully).

I guess it's just where they are with the plans of their company. Won't be giving The big name brands a run for their money on service at this point, but if its who they are and their people live with that then I guess that's ok.

I will say that every dr office I know of has a after hours answering service.

Every service company in town that cares about their customer base will answer the phones or return VM's in a timely fashion.

I will also say that even the great companies of old (imagination here) sears, wards etc would have given the time to be Johnny on the spot with phones and other forms of communication which means this is not as much of a old school mindset IMHO.

I personally think this is more about the R Bros. have a good understanding of the fact that they have a niche product which allows them some latitude (and maybe even some longitude : ) in not having to bend over backward to be all they can (some would say should) be with communications. What do I mean? Well they have a niche product...

A) $1000+
B) kinda finicky
C) very loyal and upbeat fanbase (kudos to y'all)
D) great looking and unique design
E) smallest and lightest 9mm auto on the face of planet Earth (for now)
F) hand crafted quality

All of this stacks up to a niches market. IMHO the rareness of this piece affords it the latitude to not have to do all of the things that production gun companies have to do to keep pace with their customer needs (can you imagine if Sig or Kimber did this? Lol!!)

Sounds like during normal business they do a pretty good job with communications.

Oh well. Just ciphering. They care, but they don't need to care about communication and reliability quite like a full blown production company cares.

Will this impede their growth?

Do they care about growth (not saying its a bad thing if they don't)

In the mean time I am still working the bugs out of mine. Looking forward to post results of 7 clips fired. No more than 2 clips per day to stave off fatigue and keep good grip strength. Also, I want to run the clips several hours apart. We will see. So far 124 grain GD is improving results.

I definitely wouldn't have gotten this far with it if it wasn't for you guy's help. Actually I would be very sour without the assistance of this forum and the help of you guys. THANKS!!

I want to love my Rohrbaugh...BUT at least I can say I understand it and its niche place in my collection and even like it now : )

I'll post more later.

[bamboobob]

Hi Josh,

Hang in there, I feel  they will make it right(if needed), timing is off now.
Your idea to get an extension, to try may be a good one. If you send me 2 plastic Pearce ones I will do my best  and return 1 altered for r9. I think single stack Kahr works. I would gladly make a hooked one straight to better fit any size hand.
Try pre-loading ("Maria") and keep mags pre- loaded. Start shooting (maybe best/only carry) with only 5 in mag ("Instructor Buddy").
I hope to soon compare a bunch of silver-tips 115 and gold dots 115  (a few GD's 124 too! )
Previous shooting session of 100+ rds. right hand was beat up but grip felt fine. Reloading and racking became much harder for me.


Good luck, Bob
ps   good job all on this thread

[DDGator]

Even I was off a bit in my understanding of what was going on.  There is much more afoot, and this is much more complicated than simply moving without notice or whatever.

See this:  http://www.rohrbaughforum.com/index.php?topic=7305.0

[JoshA]

Wow! What types of changes have been made to products that are now made under the freedom  brand rather than the original makers?

Can we expect an improvement or decline in service/quality etc?

Marketing will probably increased and price and production will likely also be affected.

What will happen to our pre-freedom R9's warranty and values? Values seem like they would surely go up. Buy one now if ya can : )

INTRIGUING!

[JoshA]

Bamboobob,

Thanks for the tips. I will be interested to see your posted results of the 115 silver tips. Mine were not as good as the GD124 results. Let us know how you fare.

What do you mean about sending you a couple of Pearce extensions?

Also, what is a Maria mag?

Also, also, what do you mean about preloading the mag?

Sorry, but I'm kinda new to some of this terminology (ok I admit it. I'm a bit slow : )

[bobsmith]

.....you can't love it, because it's defective and likely came defective from the factory.  Sounds like some work and some don't.  Sounds like poor quality control to me.   I bet the prior owner sold it after trying all the fan-boy tricks.  Now the fan-boys are labeling it "a questionable history" pistol.

I've got one that never worked from the day I opened the sealed box.  I could put it on gun broker and dump it now, but that would be pretty low to sell something that doesn't work.  Now the factory is "moving" and I've got a $1200 single shot. 

I despise mine. I think i'll do my first youtube review.  I'll show how it jams on all 7 types of high quality 9mm I've tried in it.  Even better I'll compare it to a $400 Ruger that my buddy keeps telling me I SHOULD have purchased instead as his never jams on anything he feeds through it.

   

[DDGator]

Bob -- I am sorry you are having problems, and the timing is bad.  However, your experience is unusual.

The term "fan boy" is somewhat perjorative.  I think that if you read this forum you will see some well-founded love for these guns that goes way beyond blind fandom. 

If you despise the gun, you should sell it.  You could list it in the classifieds here.  I think that "New York" guns are going to start going up in value to collectors and there are likely people here who will take it off your hands.

Otherwise, I would just hold on until Rohrbaugh comes back on line better and stronger than ever with a staff of customer service professionals.