Sometimes it seems like the internet was created to drag companies through the mud. It is easy to get the impression that customer service is dead or at least dying if you spend much time on a gun forum. Thankfully, there are still companies like Parallax Tactical that are willing to go above and beyond for their customers.
You may recall that I recently reviewed a Parallax Tactical PXTreme FFSSR Upper. In that review, I showed a picture of a 10 shot 100 yard group that measured just over 1.5″ but, as noted, had no center. At the time, I thought it was an anomaly. After the review was completed, I began to notice that the center-less groups become the norm and accuracy continued to deteriorate rapidly. I tried different optics and mounts, tearing down and rebuilding twice, checked for barrel contact, checked that the barrel nut was torqued, checked that the barrel extension was tight, tried different ammo, I cleaned the barrel with products to remove fouling only to find that there was very little, and several other common problems all to no avail.
The upper gradually deteriorated to the point that at the 1400 round mark it prints 6-9″ groups at 100 yards depending on the ammo. The size of the groups was not nearly as alarming as how they looked. A normal group has a central cluster of shots with various outliers around the center cluster. These groups looked like 10 shots taken at 10 completely different and random points of aim. There was no center and there was obviously something wrong.
I felt I had done my due diligence and checked everything I could. I typed up my findings and sent them off to Parallax Tactical. Joseph Chen, the president of Parallax Tactical, returned my email in minutes and said that they would install a new barrel on the house. It was just that easy. Parallax Tactical is going to take care of it.
I think you can tell a lot about a company based on how they respond to issues like this. Kudos to Parallax Tactical for taking care of their customers.
I’m curious to hear what PT finds. Uneven chrome, bad crown?
I am not sure they will find anything. I am leaning toward a defect in the barrel of some kind. The crown looks fine to me and the barrel is melonite processed, not chromed. I have checked just about everything I possibly can on this thing.
I bought a blem rail from them and had a thread on the barrel nut was messed up. Mr Chen no questions asked had a new barrel nut on the way and received in two day. Polite, fast responce and making things right fast is all a customer could ask for. Quality on the rail was awesome. Still havent found a blem on that.