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Sinclair Competition Rest

JEFFPPC

Gold $$ Contributor
2 years ago my above mentioned rest developed a problem. Before I took it apart I called Brownells. Oh no they said, do not take it apart send it back. I did, and just a few days later a box arrived. They sent me a whole new rest. Great customer service. This summer my rest has developed a similar problrm. This time I took it apart. Problem was obvious, the plastic end on the windage knob was worn and that area of the rest had no grease or lube. I called to order a new knob. No knobs, not sure if any new knobs are coming....ever. So I had a friend turn out a new Delron end. Rest works perfect. Turns out he had already had this problem himself. I hope Brownells does not drop the ball. It has been 8 days since they told me, we will ger back to you. Could not wait, I have a match this weekend. Hopefully they will keep this rest available, I see they show out of stock. They need to at least keep service parts on stock.
 
Its like that everywhere..they too are have issues with keeping employees and or hiring.
Same goes for getting shipments on parts....Its a crap shoot out there and not getting better
any time soon...sol for us.
I have parts that used to take a couple months getting quoted 12 to 18 months now.
 
JEFFPPC said:
2 years ago my above mentioned rest developed a problem. Before I took it apart I called Brownells. Oh no they said, do not take it apart send it back. I did, and just a few days later a box arrived. They sent me a whole new rest. Great customer service. This summer my rest has developed a similar problrm. This time I took it apart. Problem was obvious, the plastic end on the windage knob was worn and that area of the rest had no grease or lube. I called to order a new knob. No knobs, not sure if any new knobs are coming....ever. So I had a friend turn out a new Delron end. Rest works perfect. Turns out he had already had this problem himself. I hope Brownells does not drop the ball. It has been 8 days since they told me, we will ger back to you. Could not wait, I have a match this weekend. Hopefully they will keep this rest available, I see they show out of stock. They need to at least keep service parts on stock.
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I have a Seb Neo. It has served me well, but a friend came to the range with a Sinclair Competition rest and after giving it the onceover, I really liked it. Have you used the Seb and if so how do you compare them?
 
Nick Caprinolo said:
I have a Seb Neo. It has served me well, but a friend came to the range with a Sinclair Competition rest and after giving it the onceover, I really liked it. Have you used the Seb and if so how do you compare them?
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I have tried joy stick rest twice but do not care for them. Hopefully a good knob twisting rest will come along if the Sinclair Competition is history. Good opportunity for a young machinest.
 
JEFFPPC said:
I have tried joy stick rest twice but do not care for them. Hopefully a good knob twisting rest will come along if the Sinclair Competition is history. Good opportunity for a young machinest.
Click to expand...
I really would like to get the Sinclair Rest. They have been out of stock for some time, Now I am leary because of the problem you had. It is much easier to get on target than the Seb and it stays where you set it. So much easier to shoot in free recoil.
 
JEFFPPC said:
They sent me a whole new rest. Great customer service.
Click to expand...

It's not great customer service, it's having enough profit built into the sales which allows them to skip all the labor intensive tear downs/reassembles and simply put a new rest in the mail.

Actually, the Sinclair rest , utilizing those plastic parts is the origination of those problems. Obviously, this is a high wear area and should have used a different material or design. But like every insurance company, they examine the payout/pay back and costs associated with this product to determine just how much loss they can tolerate, then build from there.

We all have a buddy somewhere who contacts us with just such a problem. Mine was in robotics and they were suffering with costly shut downs from small parts failures. He showed me one which was fairly simple but built out of some aerospace plastic. After signing all the NDF stuff, I got the prints and made a couple of variations using different stainless steels. Their engineering department tested and approved in (get this) 24 hours. All they needed was 5 original pieces which took me no time at all. Now I can't get away from them! But they are good people and wonderful customers.

:)
 
Kurz said:
It's not great customer service, it's having enough profit built into the sales which allows them to skip all the labor intensive tear downs/reassembles and simply put a new rest in the mail.

Actually, the Sinclair rest , utilizing those plastic parts is the origination of those problems. Obviously, this is a high wear area and should have used a different material or design. But like every insurance company, they examine the payout/pay back and costs associated with this product to determine just how much loss they can tolerate, then build from there.

We all have a buddy somewhere who contacts us with just such a problem. Mine was in robotics and they were suffering with costly shut downs from small parts failures. He showed me one which was fairly simple but built out of some aerospace plastic. After signing all the NDF stuff, I got the prints and made a couple of variations using different stainless steels. Their engineering department tested and approved in (get this) 24 hours. All they needed was 5 original pieces which took me no time at all. Now I can't get away from them! But they are good people and wonderful customers.

:)
Click to expand...
I agree with your first paragraph but is that not true of pretty much true of most of what we buy?
 
Larry Koch said:
I have used Brownell and Sinclair since the 80's but the last 6 months there customer service has dropped off quite a bit. At first I thought it was a fluke, but it has presisted.
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I've been a customer since the early 90s and find the same with regard to customer service. Had a small issue with a Gen II expander body I ordered in Feb - the top surface of the cap looked like someone had taped it to their shoe and dragged it around the shop floor. Perfectly functional, but still.

Rather than post a bad review I contacted customer service explaining condition of the cap in hopes they would replace it. I got an immediate reply stating a customer service representative would get back to me. Someone did a few days later and I shared my concerns. Rep said they'd take care of it and get back to me. Heard nothing more. Received a second response asking if someone had contacted me about the problem, yes, but nothing was done, so I provided this rep with the same information. When the 3rd response came, I told the rep neither of the 2 prior reps had resolved my concern, pasted the info I provided to those 2 reps, and included pictures of the scraped up cap. That was 6mos ago and I haven't heard a word since.

This never happened prior to Brownell's aquisition. Every time I use that expander body I'm reminded of what a great company Sinclair used to be.
 
JEFFPPC said:
I agree with your first paragraph but is that not true of pretty much true of most of what we buy?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, unfortunately. This is one of the main reasons I find myself going back to my early training. Build it myself, the way it should be built. Don't get me wrong, convenience is great, I have a deep appreciation for convenience as a time saver. But having to tear down and assess a problem then design and build new parts is simply an aggravation.

Best of luck with your rest!

:)
 
PhilC said:
This never happened prior to Brownell's aquisition. Every time I use that expander body I'm reminded of what a great company Sinclair used to be.
Click to expand...

Every time a company gets bought or sold, the price is higher than the current prices of the products will support. So, prices go up and the quality gets compromised in one of several means.

If customers don't complain vociferously about the finish on those products, the finish is handled more cheaply. Dies and brass handling products suffer from this all the time. Look at R******. What's worse is how they have demeaned customer service. Now it's all about making those dollars faster and cheaper. These companies were bought out to be cash cows and that's what we should expect until we've had enough and force a correction.
 
Nick Caprinolo said:
I really would like to get the Sinclair Rest. They have been out of stock for some time, Now I am leary because of the problem you had. It is much easier to get on target than the Seb and it stays where you set it. So much easier to shoot in free recoil.
Click to expand...
Nick! I have the Sinclair Varmint rest with the Shadetree top! I’ll trade ya!:cool::eek::eek::eek:
 
I saw a very unusual front rest last weekend in a match in VT that a friend of mine bought. It's called a NOTA professional benchrest UK front rest. Made in England and like I said it was really unusual.
 
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