Did this tech ruin my AEG?

[Mukaluk]

Hey guys this is kind of a unique situation and I didn't come up with a good answer when I searched for one.

I got a new G&G SRL to get started in the sport. Took it to my local reputable airsoft shop and asked them if I bought a spring there to lower my fps for CQB limits at my local indoor field (350max w/.20) if I could pay them to install it. I have three kids and work 60hrs a week and don't know what I'm doing, so yeah to all you "you should do it yourself" people, that's my situation.

Them "Oh yeah of course and while we're in the gearbox it's a great idea to do our tune up service we will shim the gears properly, check/adjust the seal etc" and rattled off a couple of other things.

Me - I am a total noob I don't know what FPS my new gun is even shooting as I haven't gamed it yet. I was told by the place I bought it at it would be at least 366 for import and that this particular gun normally chronos about 400fps brand new. All I want is a spring that will get it to shoot as close to but still under 350fps w/.20 bbs please. Yeah sure do the other things to if you recommend for X fee that sounds great.

Them - Ya we'll have this ready for pick up in two business days. One of the two senior techs will do the work either soandso or the owner soandso.

So after a total run around - two weeks later I get the call it's ready and drive an hour to pick it up. I find out the new guy I talked to when I dropped off who confided in me he just started working on AEG's, he did the work.

Me - Great thanks a lot, what's it chrono at BTW?

Tech - oh like 240.

Me - oh that's way less than we talked about what's up?

Tech - I don't know, it's weird I put an M100 in. I didn't chrono it before I changed the spring I meant to do that but... Do you want it or?...

Me - That's way lower than we talked about, is that normal? Can we chrono it again?

We chrono it again and it's shooting 230-233fps w/.20

Tech kept saying "I checked the seal" over and over again but couldn't give any satisfactory explanation as to how we lost (approx cause he didn't even chrono before hand - how would he know what spring to change to??) about 170fps.

The tech is a really nice guy and said I could bring it back and he could try some things but seriously what was he thinking, yeah 230fps that's cool right? With zero explanation? I have no idea what has been done to my new AEG but I'm new to the sport and the gear so maybe I'm over reacting and I have no reason to worry. If anyone is able to provide any insight I would really appreciate it! He is working with me - I'm going to take it and game with it this week and then he said I could bring it back and he can try and get the FPS up closer to 350 no extra charge, but I have seriously lost confidence in the shop and tech. I do not want to unnecessarily hurt the business owners reputation by running this past all the local players at my field.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Flame or lecture if you must, sorry in advance if I've wronged any of the rules with this post - I'm new to the sport.

[Styrak]

You asked for 350. You didn't get that. And obviously like you said this tech had just started to work on guns and obviously did something wrong.

I would ask for a complete refund and take it to someone else (or do it yourself). And who else knows what else is left wrong inside.

Also, not chronoing beforehand is a bit of a mistake but you don't need to know that to get it under 350. An M100 or M110 would do that.

[Cliffradical]

Oh boy.

There's some kind of airseal issue here, or several. It's unlikely that the tech ruined anything, there just hasn't been any effort put into "making things work more better".

If it was a simple (especially complimentary) spring swap, it's nearly guaranteed that zero effort was put into anything other than a straight spring swap. That's understandable, but the service stuff your tech did wrong regardless which sticks out here is

A) Giving any kind of explicit or implied guarantee on fps targets without selling you specific 'tuning/ compression' service
B) Giving an estimated completion time less then '7 business days' or "when it's done"
C) Not doing a chrono/ function check on sign in

I've been on both sides of the counter for situations like this. From the customer perspective, you are paying good money to not have to worry about something, so having to worry about it after paying money is pretty much the worst. From the tech perspective, you can sometimes do everything right and still fail, but if you don't set yourself up for recovery through ass-covering policies and huge windows of work time to sort out problems, you end up looking like (and feeling like) a wiener and that's pretty much the worst.

If you paid for tuning/ compression service along with your spring swap, they should definitely be getting this gun to match their claims.

If you didn't, well, it may be a case of rushed/ half assed work or it may be bad parts and QC in the gun (you got a lemon, it happens) which they have no control over. They may have led you into false expectations, however, which they need to own.

If they seem to be trying to make good on it, take them up on it, if you didn't pay for 'tuning' service or whatever, maybe offer to meet them half way on costs or something.

No doubt the tech/ business wants to retain a good reputation and customer, but then you're unhappy with the service you paid for. Don't be a pushover, but you'll get more bees with honey than vinegar if these guys are decent folk. The tech guy is getting it from both sides right now, so if you're at least kind of nice to that guy he'll probably be inclined to go farther with it rather than being stressed out and wanting it the hell off his desk.

Gun techs like expensive fancypants guns because they can establish a routine and follow it front-to-back, catching 90% of common problems and QC failures before they're even noticed just by following that routine. Techs don't like middle or low end guns (especially ones who have gone through a shitty rush-job spring swap before coming over the border) because the routine cannot be uniformly applied or relied upon, and tons of problems can just snowball so hard it's infuriating.

More than a few people will tell you to grab your pitchfork, and that may be justified, but if they are even offering to attempt to make you more happier it's a good sign. Good luck.

Edit: Re-read your post. Yeah. If you paid for extras then you get your gun fixed.
If they won't own it, they're being ding-dongs.

[RainyEyes]

Originally Posted by Mukaluk

Flame or lecture if you must, sorry in advance if I've wronged any of the rules with this post - I'm new to the sport.

Nah we only do that to self-entitled noobs with only 2 kids and work only 59 hours a week jkjk

Ask the tech which part of the air seal they were checking.

There are typically 3 components:
piston to cylinder
cylinder to cylinder head
nozzle to cylinder head

And the less common is the hop-up to the nozzle.

Generally to upgrade your gun is relatively inexpensive. Parts range anywhere from 30-40 in total. That said, tech service + parts should not run you more than $80. If you paid more than this for such bad service I would ask them to redo the maintenance. A quick spring change should have only costed you $50 tops with spring and technician fees. You paid for more so you have a right to complain about their services.

[ThunderCactus]

It could very well have had an issue to start, or he could have made the noob mistake of overgreasing the piston head.
Instead of having to learn a whole bunch of new stuff about airsoft guns to try and diagnose what went wrong, if we know where you're located, we could refer you to a good, private gun tech who'll just fix the gun properly, and you don't have to worry about going out of your way to do anything.
Not to shit on airsoft store guntechs, but it's rare to find good guntechs working FOR a company (as opposed to running the company). Those that do, aren't usually around very long since they can make way more money fixing guns on their own.

[Ricochet]

Airsoft guns are not rocket-appliances, so any tech, who's a tech, and calls themselves a tech, should be able to nail down the problem. The 366 bullshit doesn't mean anything except for import, not an ownership issue, so yes, your gun can legally shoot 350, or whatever, it's not hard.
I'd go back and demand (politely) a proper diagnosis and overhaul, or tell them you'll bring it to a proper gun tech and send them the bill.

Also, you've had an account for ten years and you're just getting into it? What city are you located in and what store did the work?

[lurkingknight]

without having the gun in front of me it would be difficult to diagnose exactly what is wrong. More than likely he just did something wrong or didn't account for one thing or another when he did his 'improvements'.

It's not ruined. It can be fixed if the issue causing the extreme leak is tracked down.

Where are you located? We can probably recommend you someone competent once we know where you are.

[Drake]

You should name this place, cuz fuck clowns.

Don't offer a service professionally if you don't have qualified people to do the work. This shit is beyond unqualified its downright clueless.

[BenG]

I bet I know what place this is, but seriously get private techs to work on your guns, as frank said any tech who knows how to make a gun actually work will either be running the store or working privatly, I can charge 40$ an hour and up for tasks on my own, id have to be soft in the head to work for someone and get paid 12$ an hour or whatever minimum wage is to do the same thing.

[ox56]

Next thing you know its because he put a ported cylinder the wrong way

[Mukaluk]

Originally Posted by RainyEyes

Ask the tech which part of the air seal they were checking.

There are typically 3 components:
piston to cylinder
cylinder to cylinder head
nozzle to cylinder head

And the less common is the hop-up to the nozzle.

Thanks RainyEyes I'll ask him about this.

[Mukaluk]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

It could very well have had an issue to start, or he could have made the noob mistake of overgreasing the piston head.
Instead of having to learn a whole bunch of new stuff about airsoft guns to try and diagnose what went wrong, if we know where you're located, we could refer you to a good, private gun tech who'll just fix the gun properly, and you don't have to worry about going out of your way to do anything.
Not to shit on airsoft store guntechs, but it's rare to find good guntechs working FOR a company (as opposed to running the company). Those that do, aren't usually around very long since they can make way more money fixing guns on their own.

Thanks ThunderCactus I'll ask about the piston head. I'm located in Calgary and I would have happily paid the same 80 bucks to a local reputable owner/operator to change the spring and shim the gears. I should have asked here first!

[Mukaluk]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

Also, you've had an account for ten years and you're just getting into it?

Yes me and my friends were paintballers back in the day and I signed up to ASC cause I was airsoft curious/questioning bought a couple used guns for plinking and resold them on the forum 10 yrs ago. Now I've started playing, it's so much funner than pb.

Thanks everyone for the input this forum is awesome.

[BenG]

Both Thundercactus and myself are located in calgary and can easily fix it for you, and I can get you age verified at the same time!

[ThunderCactus]

$80 to install a spring and shim gears? And they didnt even do it right?
Shit I need to charge more.... id of done it RIGHT for $45 lol