Thompson Center Customer Service Problem!!

M

msinc

New member
I recently posted here for feedback regarding the R-55 rimfire rifle made by T/C. The few responses were favorable so I ordered one in 17 mach2 and it made it into my hands. It comes with a single 5 round magazine and I scoped it and sighted it in the next day. It shot well and did not jam. The website for T/C shows some accessories for the rifles including scope bases {which I ordered with the gun}, a ten round magazine, and a little device to help load the ten round mag. Midway had the ten rounder and the loader so I bought two. Incidently, these mags are almost $30.00 each. The rifle in 17 mach2 will not function with the ten round magazines. The "finest rimfire rifle in the world" as they call it will only fire 5 rounds at a time. Nowhere in the written catalog or the website advertisements for this line of rifles does it say this. In fact they show pictures of the rifle being loaded with the 10 round mag next to the text "available in 17 mach2 and 22 L.R." Not until I tried to contact them did I see a FAQ section and one of the last questions was "Are you going to make ten round mags for the mach2 ?" the answer on the webpage is "Not in 2007, maybe in the future."
I honestly would have never bought this thing if all I could get was 5 rounds in a mag!!!! I called their customer service and the response was...." yeah, we dont make a ten round mag for that and we are not going to. But we can send you a free five rounder to help make you feel better."
This rifle cost over $500.00 with the extra mags and the best they can do is offer another 5 rounder??? I couldn't even get the people at T/C to look into adding the fact that 5 rounds at a time is all you can get for the 17 mach2 on their website so nobody else gets stuck with a rifle that wont do the job they advertised it would!!!!
 
First the difference in the magizines is that the 17mach 2 has a red follower and the 22 Lr magazine is black.

The magizines you were sent were for the 22 LR if they did not have the red follower. You can take the magizines apart.
Take the free 5 round magazine and inset the red follower
from the 5 rounder into and see if it will work.

Due to the bottle neck of the 17 mach 2 case the red follower is designed to hold the 17mach2 round higher in the magazine.

I have your gun and the 5 round is OK for me. I still rip off enough ammo thru the R-55 17mach2.

By pass customer service and have your call transferd to one of the classic/R-55 technitions. They are very good.
I had one call my cell phone today on a Encore forend issue and offerd to exchange stocks for me that I had customed dipped and won't even match what T/C offers.

The slight bend of the 10 round magazine may be an issue
with the bottleneck 17mach2 case. Ask the techs about it.

Let us know what happpens.
 
I was scratching my head after my first reply so I called
T/C's r-55 tech department. I spoke to Rich who handles the R-55's.

T/C had started working on the 17mach2 10 round magazines but stopped. He did not know why but we both concluded
that it was a feeding issue due to the angle of the magazine. He did say that he had recieved numerous calls
in substituting the red follow into the 10 round magazine.

Rich said one had called him back as to whether it worked or not. What do you have to loose...try it. If you do this
just keep feeding the mag until it will jam at some point,
if and when it does.

No doubt T/C will reslove this 10 round magazine issue for the 17mach2...it's a matter of when.
 
Today I spoke with a man at T/C who said he was a manager. He said that not only do they have no plans to fix the lack of a ten round magazine they dont even care about correcting their advertising either!!!!! They could care less how many people see their webpage/2006 catalog and conclude as I did that the ten round mag would work, buy the rifle and get mad after finding out it dont work that way. It is beyond belief to me that an innovative company like T/C operates this way but they do. It will catch up to them in time...it always does when you treat your customers this way. With the way some American gun companys are operating it would not surprize me to see more of them falling by the wayside like Winchester did.
With regards to the mag followers, the color is not the only difference. The red 17 one encases the spring which is bent smaller to fit in. The black 22 follower is longer to prevent it from flipping over in the longer ten round mag. I got nothing left to try besides swapping the two but I doubt it will work. Nothing sticks as good as a $500.00 lesson.
 
Call the Better Business Beauro or Consumer Relations That will take care our problem. Hate to see it done since TC is normaly a great company.
 
I just checked out TC's website and you're absolutely right! The adverts for the R55 and the 10rd mags are misleading.
 
Last edited:
The website and advertising pictures are shot by a ad firm
and not T/C but T/C does provide the product.

T/C did run into engineering problems with the 10 round mag
and have to work it thru. The 17mach2 reqires a different set of criteria than just adding a 17 cal barrel to a 22 LR reciever. The 17mach2 operates a higher pressure, more bolt thrust etc.

Remington ran into magazines problems with the 597 and T/C
had magazine feeding issues with the first classic rifles.

When they get the design right and it functions correctly
they will likely get it into production. It just takes time.
 


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