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On October 23, I purchased an extended choke from Wrights. It was a Win-Choke in their 00 constriction, which was for my Remington 1100 Stan Baker barrel.
When I received the choke, the exterior was very nicely finished, but when I checked the interior, it was very roughly machined. Uneven and deep tool marks throughout the first 1/3 of the choke tube. You could see it with your eye, and feel it with your finger. It looked like someone opened the back 1/3 on a lathe, but did it by hand, not using a power feed, and didn’t clean up the tool marks.
So I emailed Wrights on 10/24 with my concerns (email was sent directly after they showed up in the mail), and told them I'd like to exchange this choke, and order another one, a 0 constriction, figuring the first one was a fluke, and knowing I had an issue with the first one, they'd make sure to send me 2 good ones on the second go around. I was really excited to try Wrights chokes after hearing so many good things about them over the years, and really like the cosmetics of their chokes as well.
Stuart got right back to me (within 17 minutes), and told me "Ian, We will send you a new 00 and a 0. Return the rough one after you get them." I figured “Great, no problems”.
On 10/28 the replacement and new choke arrived. The replacement was even worse than the original one I received, very rough tooling marks in the first 1/3 of the choke. To be honest, the OEM flush Mossberg choke I have has a VASTLY superior internal finish. It also appeared that it may have been a used choke, since the external finish looked like someone tried to clean it up with scotchbrite. The new 0 choke was slightly better, but still had an imperfect internal finish, and it appeared to be a different generation of choke as the knurling and text on the outside was different.
I decided at that point that I’d just return the chokes to them for a refund and move on, since the chokes aren’t exactly cheap ($65/ea) and they had 2 tries. I sent an email on 10/28 advising my intentions to return, to which a response was not received.
So I sent them back that day (10/28). They were rec’d USPS on 10/30. On 11/4 I dropped them an email to make sure they’d rec’d them ok, and that my refund was being processed. After not receiving a response, I emailed again on 11/6 and 11/8. Neither email was ever responded to. I finally called them the afternoon of 11/8 and inquired as to the status. I was told the refund was being worked on, and that if I didn’t have it in a week, to call them back.
Flash forward to today. I receive a check in the mail from Wrights. It is for $104.00. The original amount I paid was $146.00, so its $42.00 light. Written on the receipt was “minus 20% restocking fee” and “we do not refund shipping charges”. I called Wrights, and spoke with Sharon. I was told that the chokes they rec’d looked fine to them, and the 20% restocking fee is on their website. My question to her was if they chokes were fine, why did I bother to have them exchange the first one for the EXACT SAME CHOKE, and why did I spend my money to ship them back?
Well after 20 minutes of searching, and employing google to find it for me after I got off the phone, yes, I did finally find the 20% restocking fee on their website. It is listed on the “turkey chokes” section of their website (and ONLY in that section), something you would never come across unless you were looking at turkey chokes, which I was not. If you are going to have a restocking fee, it should be a little easier to find, and a little more obvious.
Regardless, generally in the case of defective items, restocking fees are waived, and shipping costs are refunded. After all, it was certainly not my fault that defective items were sent. I had already eaten the cost of returning all of the chokes to them.
One of the comments I made was go ahead and send the chokes back to me (they still have my CC on file) so I can take pictures of them to post on ts.com, and was denied that opportunity.
After going back and forth with Sharon on the phone for 10 minutes or so, I finally got her to agree to send me the other $42.00, as long as I promised to never order anything from their company again. I also stated I would be sharing my experience on ts.com, and was told that if I did, I would not receive the remaining refund, so whether or not I receive my refund remains to be seen.
I asked to speak with Stuart directly, and was told that he was with another customer. So I asked if he could call me back, and was told that he would not be as “accommodating” as she had been.
So anyone ordering chokes from wrights, beware. If they send you chokes that are more poorly machined than $10 mossberg chokes, and you don’t like them, good luck getting a complete refund, even if you had them in your hands for about an hour.
I would have bought chokes for my Kolar from them at the Grand, but they didn’t have the constrictions I wanted, and have thought of sending them barrel work in the past. They seemed to be very nice people, including the younger guy I spoke with at the Grand, and the lady that answers the phone.
Guess I’ll stick with other companies going forward, it’s not like Wrights is the only game in town. BTW, for anyone curious, they don’t make their own chokes, they job them out to a company in another state (which is what the younger guy told me @ the Grand).
BTW, after I sent the chokes back, I ordered a new one from Angleport through their website. About 10 days after I ordered, I had a custom choke in my hand, which was exactly what I requested, fit and finish were excellent, and it was 25% cheaper than Wrights.
When I received the choke, the exterior was very nicely finished, but when I checked the interior, it was very roughly machined. Uneven and deep tool marks throughout the first 1/3 of the choke tube. You could see it with your eye, and feel it with your finger. It looked like someone opened the back 1/3 on a lathe, but did it by hand, not using a power feed, and didn’t clean up the tool marks.
So I emailed Wrights on 10/24 with my concerns (email was sent directly after they showed up in the mail), and told them I'd like to exchange this choke, and order another one, a 0 constriction, figuring the first one was a fluke, and knowing I had an issue with the first one, they'd make sure to send me 2 good ones on the second go around. I was really excited to try Wrights chokes after hearing so many good things about them over the years, and really like the cosmetics of their chokes as well.
Stuart got right back to me (within 17 minutes), and told me "Ian, We will send you a new 00 and a 0. Return the rough one after you get them." I figured “Great, no problems”.
On 10/28 the replacement and new choke arrived. The replacement was even worse than the original one I received, very rough tooling marks in the first 1/3 of the choke. To be honest, the OEM flush Mossberg choke I have has a VASTLY superior internal finish. It also appeared that it may have been a used choke, since the external finish looked like someone tried to clean it up with scotchbrite. The new 0 choke was slightly better, but still had an imperfect internal finish, and it appeared to be a different generation of choke as the knurling and text on the outside was different.
I decided at that point that I’d just return the chokes to them for a refund and move on, since the chokes aren’t exactly cheap ($65/ea) and they had 2 tries. I sent an email on 10/28 advising my intentions to return, to which a response was not received.
So I sent them back that day (10/28). They were rec’d USPS on 10/30. On 11/4 I dropped them an email to make sure they’d rec’d them ok, and that my refund was being processed. After not receiving a response, I emailed again on 11/6 and 11/8. Neither email was ever responded to. I finally called them the afternoon of 11/8 and inquired as to the status. I was told the refund was being worked on, and that if I didn’t have it in a week, to call them back.
Flash forward to today. I receive a check in the mail from Wrights. It is for $104.00. The original amount I paid was $146.00, so its $42.00 light. Written on the receipt was “minus 20% restocking fee” and “we do not refund shipping charges”. I called Wrights, and spoke with Sharon. I was told that the chokes they rec’d looked fine to them, and the 20% restocking fee is on their website. My question to her was if they chokes were fine, why did I bother to have them exchange the first one for the EXACT SAME CHOKE, and why did I spend my money to ship them back?
Well after 20 minutes of searching, and employing google to find it for me after I got off the phone, yes, I did finally find the 20% restocking fee on their website. It is listed on the “turkey chokes” section of their website (and ONLY in that section), something you would never come across unless you were looking at turkey chokes, which I was not. If you are going to have a restocking fee, it should be a little easier to find, and a little more obvious.
Regardless, generally in the case of defective items, restocking fees are waived, and shipping costs are refunded. After all, it was certainly not my fault that defective items were sent. I had already eaten the cost of returning all of the chokes to them.
One of the comments I made was go ahead and send the chokes back to me (they still have my CC on file) so I can take pictures of them to post on ts.com, and was denied that opportunity.
After going back and forth with Sharon on the phone for 10 minutes or so, I finally got her to agree to send me the other $42.00, as long as I promised to never order anything from their company again. I also stated I would be sharing my experience on ts.com, and was told that if I did, I would not receive the remaining refund, so whether or not I receive my refund remains to be seen.
I asked to speak with Stuart directly, and was told that he was with another customer. So I asked if he could call me back, and was told that he would not be as “accommodating” as she had been.
So anyone ordering chokes from wrights, beware. If they send you chokes that are more poorly machined than $10 mossberg chokes, and you don’t like them, good luck getting a complete refund, even if you had them in your hands for about an hour.
I would have bought chokes for my Kolar from them at the Grand, but they didn’t have the constrictions I wanted, and have thought of sending them barrel work in the past. They seemed to be very nice people, including the younger guy I spoke with at the Grand, and the lady that answers the phone.
Guess I’ll stick with other companies going forward, it’s not like Wrights is the only game in town. BTW, for anyone curious, they don’t make their own chokes, they job them out to a company in another state (which is what the younger guy told me @ the Grand).
BTW, after I sent the chokes back, I ordered a new one from Angleport through their website. About 10 days after I ordered, I had a custom choke in my hand, which was exactly what I requested, fit and finish were excellent, and it was 25% cheaper than Wrights.
