I am an unabashed fan of the Beretta 87 Cheetah. I have had it for a long time and while I haven't kept a round count it is well in excess of 10,000 rounds (I’m thinking over 15k, I have ran a lot of boxes of bulk pack lol). Only issue was I thought I had chipped the extractor (still think I might have) because I had a string of extraction failures. I ordered a new extractor and while waiting I did a detailed strip and cleaned it mercilessly and the extraction issues stopped. I never installed the new part but the old one definitely looks shiny and rounded where it didn't look that way before. It works still though so I kept the new extractor for a cloudy day.

This week I took my visiting BIL shooting and when I got home I wiped down the 87 and the firing pin was past the channel and sideways. Ugh. Sure enough I now had a 2 piece firing pin. No big deal right? Well, nobody has firing pins and a call to Beretta indicates they don't stock the "small" parts, Numrich and Midwest Gun Works are their stockers. Well they don't have any. A very long CS call confirmed this but he had me wait while they checked the warehouse. He actually found a small supply. Bad news is that he couldn't sell one, good news is he could send it to me for free.

I installed it tonight and now I continue looking for a spare, just in case, but I am once again enamored of Beretta CS. They do some goofy things but they always seem to do right by me when I need their help.

Beretta, Sig, Ruger, Keltec, and probably a few others I'm forgetting have all done this for me. Not always 100% track record with this, but it's one thing that I appreciate about the firearms industry: when they look out for their customers, they really do it better than anyone else. I also appreciate supporting the factory workers in this trade.

The 87 Cheetah is my favorite 22 LR, I don't think I've ever had a failure and I put some pretty crappy ammo through that beauty.

That’s excellent, I’m glad they took care of you and got your Cheetah back up and running.

Agreed about the comment about the firearms industry tending to take care of their customers. It’s not always, but generally the firearms community tends to look out for our own.

Nice to hear some good customer service feedback!

I debated about posting this. But I was so mad at Beretta, I had too. I own an assortment of Beretta guns and have always liked them. Last year I had the worst experience I have ever had from a gun maker's service department with them. I have been collecting and shooting guns for over 50 years and have never been so disappointed or angry with a manufacturer before. I have dealt with Sig, S&W, Ruger, Ithaca and even Century Arms and had better service.
I bought one of the used Beretta Model 84s that the Beretta Factory imported and stamped their Acokeek MD. name on. I grew up near there and live about 60 miles away. I have driven by there 100s of times. I used to shoot at a public range not to far from them. I bought it from a dealer in CA. that had a bunch of them on Gun Broker. There were a variety of dealers selling them at the time, but I payed extra for one with the Acokeek name on it. I picked it up from my dealer and took it home, cleaned it and took it to the range. I shot it and was happy with it. I cleaned it and noticed the takedown lever was floating in the frame, no spring tension. I did some research and found out that the spring is the end of the trigger spring. I took the gun apart and saw the tip of the spring was broken. So I called Beretta and asked about a spring. I thought maybe I could take the gun over to their place and get them to replace the spring. I found out later, after talking with several people over a period of about 6 months, that most of the ladies I talked to were not in MD and had no idea where the place was. I was told that I could not take the gun to them, I had to ship it. They also would or could not send me a spring. I found the spring online, but with shipping it would have cost me almost as much as sending the gun to Beretta in MD. I had talked to my dealer and he would just charge me for shipping. So I called Beretta back and got all of the information I needed and sent the gun. I figured that they would make sure everything was good. I got the tracking # and saw the gun was delivered. I waited about 3 months and had not heard anything, so I called. I got transferred to several different people and finally got someone at the plant. He went and looked and said they had the part and would get to it soon. I waited a couple of more months and called again. I talked to a lady that said she would check and call me back. Never heard from her. Played the game with them for several more weeks, was told they would get too it but nothing happened. I asked to speak to supervisors and got no where. After about six months, I called and was told the gun was shipped and I should get it in a day or two. I was told they did not have the part and could not fix it. I was furious. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told they would call me back. Never happened. When I got the gun back, I don't think they ever took it out of the box. I called one of the repair shops on the Beretta website and told them I need the spring. They had it, I paid for it, got it in a few days and replaced it myself. I am very happy with the gun, but would really have to think about buying another Beretta. I went to the NRA Convention in Indianapolis and told a guy from Beretta about my experience. He said they had made some changes in the service department and tried to sell me another gun. That is the worst experience I have ever had with a gun company.

Sorry to hear about your experience. Telling us that the shipping cost of a spring was as much as shipping a firearm is complete hogwash though. That isn’t even remotely possible. The trigger spring in question is $5.25 from Midwest Gunworks. Are you really telling us they were charging $45 for shipping? Going USPS they charge $7.99. I just looked.

Very few gun manufacturers will let you “walk in” a gun. Glock used to but I believe they stopped that years ago.

Why didn’t you just buy the 5 dollar spring in the first place?

If it happened the way you described you talked to some horrible CS agents. Being talked into shipping a firearm for a 5 minute spring swap is ridiculous.

I should tell you Beretta also gave me a brand new gun in exchange for an old used out of warranty Cougar that cracked. Moral of the story is that if the guy/gal on the other end of the phone sounds like an idiot, call back and talk to someone else.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Sorry to hear about your experience. Telling us that the shipping cost of a spring was as much as shipping a firearm is complete hogwash though. That isn’t even remotely possible. The trigger spring in question is $5.25 from Midwest Gunworks. Are you really telling us they were charging $45 for shipping? Going USPS they charge $7.99. I just looked.

Very few gun manufacturers will let you “walk in” a gun. Glock used to but I believe they stopped that years ago.

Why didn’t you just buy the 5 dollar spring in the first place?

If it happened the way you described you talked to some horrible CS agents. Being talked into shipping a firearm for a 5 minute spring swap is ridiculous.

I should tell you Beretta also gave me a brand new gun in exchange for an old used out of warranty Cougar that cracked. Moral of the story is that if the guy/gal on the other end of the phone sounds like an idiot, call back and talk to someone else.

Good points and good questions. You are right about the spring. I just have a thing about paying more for shipping than the cost of the spring. The dealer shipped the gun for about $30.00 dollars. In hindsight, I would have bought the spring and never looked back. But I did not anticipate a 6 month ordeal.

I think if you do some more research you will find that replacing that trigger spring is a lot more complicated than " a 5 minute spring swap" I figured that having Beretta do it was worth the extra money. My thought process was that they have someone that has probably fixed a bunch of them and that I have never fixed one before and probably will not need to fix one again.

I also talked to multiple people at Beretta and got a pretty consistent response. They were not interested in sending me a spring and recommended I send the gun.

I am pleased that Beretta has been so good to you. That was not my experience. I have never mentioned it on a forum before. If someone else had told me they had an experience like mine, I would be skeptical also. But it is what happened and I do not think I am the only one that has had problems with Beretta. The guy from Beretta that I talked to at the NRA Convention was not surprised with my experience and said they had made some changes.

I bought a Beretta BM62 rifle in the mid 1980s and had a very pleasant experience with getting an owners manual from them.

I would probably buy another Beretta, but it was the worst experience I have ever had with a gun maker.

The trick with that spring is to have a set of needle nose pliers with a semi circle ground out. I first starting using those with HK’s but found they work with all trigger springs. All of a sudden you don’t need 3 hands and it’s a pretty quick swap.

As for the rest. The guy I talked to was quite clear. They don’t stock the small parts for old guns. At all. What you are characterizing as they didn’t want to send you one was actually they don’t stock them. Call them again and ask. Small parts are stocked by their service centers which for parts are MGW and Numrich. They should have been clear about that. I got lucky to get that part. It was a mistake on their part that I benefitted from.

That sucks that your experience was that bad. Next time come on here and ask because these guys have a lot of combined knowledge and could have pointed you to easier results.

Funny thing is that I never warmed up to my 84 and sold it. Kept an 85 because it’s a nickel gun, my only nickel gun.

I had a bad experience with Beretta customer service with a shotgun once. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but a couple years later, I ended up buying another Beretta shotgun. Overall I've been happy with their products.

Their new-ish shotguns interest me. What was wrong with yours?

Now what I complain about Beretta is stupid shit like this new (lol) 80X Cheetah. Wtf? Then they go and build it with the safety that seems like there is a third cocked and locked position, their reps tout it as such, then have to backtrack because that third position doesn’t exist technically and it can fire while appearing to be on safe. You only had 50 years to fix this but no.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pedropcola,

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Sorry to hear about your experience. Telling us that the shipping cost of a spring was as much as shipping a firearm is complete hogwash though. That isn’t even remotely possible. The trigger spring in question is $5.25 from Midwest Gunworks. Are you really telling us they were charging $45 for shipping? Going USPS they charge $7.99. I just looked.

Very few gun manufacturers will let you “walk in” a gun. Glock used to but I believe they stopped that years ago.

Why didn’t you just buy the 5 dollar spring in the first place?

If it happened the way you described you talked to some horrible CS agents. Being talked into shipping a firearm for a 5 minute spring swap is ridiculous.

I should tell you Beretta also gave me a brand new gun in exchange for an old used out of warranty Cougar that cracked. Moral of the story is that if the guy/gal on the other end of the phone sounds like an idiot, call back and talk to someone else.

Before my bad experience with Beretta, I would not have followed your advice. But after my experience, your advice to not believe what one of the oldest gun makers in the world tells me on the phone and ask for advice on an internet forum instead of calling the manufacturer makes perfect sense.

Beretta being the oldest arms manufacturer means nothing here in America where they are drawing employees from the same pool as everybody else. A few are great and most aren’t. There is no such thing as a large corporation nowadays that doesn’t have their share of idiot employees. I love Sig but I have had some ridiculous conversations with them during the 320 fiasco. S&W refused to fix a Walther they sold years ago that snapped an important piece in half (P99) 10 years later I tried again and they sent a label, fixed it, and had it back to me inside a couple weeks. You missed the best advice which was hang up and talk to someone else who might not be dumb. Lol.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Beretta being the oldest arms manufacturer means nothing here in America where they are drawing employees from the same pool as everybody else. A few are great and most aren’t. There is no such thing as a large corporation nowadays that doesn’t have their share of idiot employees. I love Sig but I have had some ridiculous conversations with them during the 320 fiasco. S&W refused to fix a Walther they sold years ago that snapped an important piece in half (P99) 10 years later I tried again and they sent a label, fixed it, and had it back to me inside a couple weeks. You missed the best advice which was hang up and talk to someone else who might not be dumb. Lol.

It seems like we have both had good and bad experiences with assorted gun makers.
Your last, best advice is spot on and very true. I will try to follow it in the future. However, when you get the same response over multiple phone calls with multiple employees it is sometimes hard to figure out who is or is not dumb.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Their new-ish shotguns interest me. What was wrong with yours?

This one patterned over probably two feet off at 40 yards. I sent the gun back and Beretta "fixed" it by shimming the stock to the point that it was point way off when you shouldered it. It was a "fix" that a Jr. High school shop class might have attempted. I ended up slowing bending the barrel while checking it with a dial indicator until it shot to point of aim. It takes very little bending to dramatically affect the point of impact.