A little long, but worth the read - Edgun West and the L2

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You don't need to drive there, call the courier and send it in for service.

btw, not necessarily a bent barrel but the main action block is a molded plastic (some sort of abs I guess), the hole could deform (in relative to the rail) if it was exposed to a higher heat for long enough time.

You can test it at 50 meters...index the barrel let say 4 shots each position, if the pattern moves around in a circle it may be a barrel, but if not ...it is the action block.
 
You don't need to drive there, call the courier and send it in for service.

btw, not necessarily a bent barrel but the main action block is a molded plastic (some sort of abs I guess), the hole could deform (in relative to the rail) if it was exposed to a higher heat for long enough time.

You can test it at 50 meters...index the barrel let say 4 shots each position, if the pattern moves around in a circle it may be a barrel, but if not ...it is the action block.

Yeah I would take the handguard off, eliminate all variables to isolate the barrel. If it wobbles on a table and doesn't roll true, that's a good indicator. But like Attila says, shoot some groups and rotate the barrel and shoot some more. I think the lower part of the action is housed in the molded plastic not made from it and is steel underneath. I could be wrong though.

*Pictures and or video would help
 
Man, I really hope it's not the main part of the gun. My only hope is that the gun was purchased as a KAAT50 with a 350 barrel and a Valkyrie 250mm handguard and the barrel was nice and straight and lined up in the hardguard. 

I bought a tishina 450 kit with AP 450 barrel from Edgun Spain, it came in today. I will know in a few days the answer. 
 
You read through the forum just about every seller has had problems and complaints. Just judge fairly and realize I only told my story. Many have had not so good experiences, some have had great experiences, with just about all of the major brands and brand sales outlets and dealers.

if you want alternatives, Utah Airguns sells the L2 and Edgun Spain off the top of my head. 
 
Three cheers to the Spirit Dog (Coyotegod) who lit the fuse on this thread as well as the honorable participating members who have spoken up with courage regarding their experiences with EdgunWest. The writing has been on the wall for many a year for all to consider; not only on this forum but numerous others. I listened but did not here (take heed) - there is no one to blame but myself. An individual should have learned by the age of 3 the difference between right and wrong. EdgunWest lost not only my respect but any future business as well.

Francisco, I sincerely hope you are reading this “You Sir” deserve all the best; well done, a true professional with a genuine heart.

Respectfully, Jami



 
coyotegod -

Not nearly so bad a problem as yours, I've also had questions ignored by Brian after buying my Lelya 2 from him. Luckily, I haven't had any actual problems with the gun, and finally figured out the answers my questions, on my own. Being my "first" air gun, I had a few...questions, and I did mention to Brian that this was my first, and may have questions, when I bought the gun. He said no problem, be glad to help. He did answer a couple of questions without hesitation, but it seemed that the "helpfulness" started to wane after the second or third phone call, to not answering the phone or my later e-mails.. Hey, I'm a new guy here with an expensive toy, I'd like to make sure that I don't damage something from my lack of knowledge.

I had a bit of a problem with two other sellers in the past. Luckily, one of them stepped up and corrected the problem. The other, I still have the broken part...as delivered from the dealer !



Mike
 
Problem is, I can see Brian reading this thread, and calling us all a bunch of complainers, and blowing off anything that was negative. That’s his problem along with Ed. While I love the product, the current monopoly called Brian sees this as nothing but an annoyance. Notice he hasn’t bothered posting here and trying to remedy the issue, or even message Greg to help. He just plain doesn’t care. 


as much of an FX fanboy I am NOT, you gotta give it to them for how they handle issues. Their customer support is better than most, and with their presence on the forum, no wonder so many of us own one!
 
Time to close the loop. I took the day off and headed to EGW in Yorba Linda. 2 hours drive, gave him a heads up before leaving but didn't "ask for an appt". When I arrived the door was open and he was there. The initial interaction was tense and somewhat aggressive. I was accused of not operating the gun correctly, while I assured him I had and I was not a "new guy". I know regulators and I know now to take apart and rebuild an airgun. While I also made it clear I wasn't going to get pushed around and make to feel like I wasn't doing my part as an owner and customer. I think I make my point with my "not taking your poop" demeanor. 

We laid the cards on the table and things started getting more respectable from both points of view. There is no doubt that Brian is extremely busy and EGW needs to either grow or get smaller, the status quo is not all that great for the end user or for Brian IMHO.

However once we were through the posturing we came to an agreement that the gun just needed to be fixed. I was going to just leave it and return another time. He insisted that he fix the gun right away and show me how to do it, not because the warranty would not be there for me, but because knowledge keeps me shooting. We found the small delrin cap under the piston to be malfunctioning. He showed me some tricks to fix that, but also replaced with new parts. He took the time to make sure it was all good, reg set and not creeping and the gun was cycling appropriately. He showed me how to very slowly raise or lower the reg pressure at 2-3 bar increments. I always did about 10 bar increments and cleared the plenum, I was told this was too fast and could ruin the reg. His way was better and I agree. While we were working on the gun we had pleasant conversation and things were good, We found common ground. 

With that said, while helping me his phone must have rang 100 times. There is no way anyone could be responsive to callers in that type of quantity. So I now know more and can be much more flexible on why I don't get a response sometimes. I left with an operating gun (so far). I got my returns taken care of and I am at this point square with Brian and EGW and can move on. 

I wanted to make sure I left this post with giving Brian a fair shake with a little more understanding. I walked a little while in his shoes, as I believe he did mine. Brian isn't going to change and all of a sudden become warm and fuzzy, but he is trying to get more help for customers with more employees, and he does try to get to most; I saw it first had. That is a step forward and should be taken into consideration when buying from him and EGW. His company is NOT a company to abandon. 

Thank you Brian for handling my warranty issues today, getting me some extra parts and getting me a little more knowledge of the L2. One last thing, do yourself a favor so you are not pulling your hair out. Use his website support area and fill out the service form. This opens up a "ticket" and he response to all of those pretty quickly. This is the correct way of starting a warranty work order, no a text or call. This will get you service faster. 

- Greg
 
Greg, thanks for posting this. Too often we see complaint threads with no resolution or any indication of how things turn out. Sometimes all we see is the guy posting the gun he complained about on the Classifieds as “Excellent gun with only 1 tin of pellets through it”.

I think you have nailed the issue dead on. EGW either needs to grow, or go back to being a small 1-2 person shop. The middle ground is like the No Mans Land of World War 1. Nothing survives there for long.

When I purchased my L2 from Brian 11 months ago he could not have been more helpful. I even spoke with him multiple times on the July 4th weekend as he helped me make up my mind on the caliber and length gun. I haven’t had any issues with the gun so far and so had no need to contact him since, but I have read many complaints as sales grew. Right now he is trying to run a growing retail. Business at the same time as being a distributor to other dealers and, I believe, trying to sort out some possible manufacturing/distribution for Edgun here in the US. All this with essentially the same 2 person shop he has had for a while.

Many people, especially those who have not worked in either big, or rapidly growing, companies really don’t appreciate the extent to which complexity increases as your size goes up. What worked when you were at 1X doesn’t do so well at 2X and can fall apart completely at 3 or 4X. Its even worse when the growth is rapid and suddenly one goes from being a one man shop with direct contact to customers to having to handle multiple issues and types of vendor/dealer/customer relationships at the same time.

I recently retired from being a senior executive with a multinational Pharma company, where I had to deal with lots of complexity, and had staff in the US, Europe and Japan. I then started what I expected to be a small consulting business, with 1 employee - me. Should be easy, right? NOPE. Fortunately (or unfortunately) demand for my services/expertise was high, then very high. Pretty soon it was unmanageable and, since I had no admin staff (my wife made it VERY clear that she was NOT taking on that role 😂) I was missing answering phone calls, or getting back to messages that were left. I was struggling to meet my commitments, much less deal with new customers. My solution was to dial things back. To decline new opportunities and stabilize my customer base around a smaller number of customers. It was either that, hire staff (been there, done that, and didn’t want to do it again) or drown/die.

I think Brian needs to either step up or step back.

Chris
 
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