The Companies Behind the Lasers

From Crimson Trace's "Contact Us" page

Lasermax Genesis

As I noted earlier, when I began this project, the companies that make and stand behind their products are probably more important than the products themselves. Of course it is important that the products do the jobs they are meant to do, and that is difficult enough. Being open to customer inquiry, criticism, ideas and complaints is just as important. If your product is showing some defect, or perhaps a design flaw experienced by some users, it is vital that the company listen to those people. Perhaps there is little to be done, or it turns out to be a personal matter not directly related to the design and manufacture of the product, but sometimes there are changes and improvements that need to be, and can be done.

Competing products also live by reputation, especially in the world of laser sights. People now communicate frequently and at awesome volumes, thanks to the internet, email, blogs, forums, and so forth. Rumor and fact are often not distinguished and both can go "viral" over the internet. It is very difficult for a company to reacquire a former customer once the customer gets a bad taste for the company or product, whether that is justified or not. In the large corporation I retired from, the rule of thumb was it is ten times harder to regain a customer than to get a new one. So, for a continuing business striving to compete and build a great rep, customer service is more than a buzzword.

So, the way in which the two companies that are the subject of my comparison review of laser sights work with and relate to their customers, and to their reviewers is an important part of their reputation in the gun world. (Recall that LaserLyte has disappeared from the scene after an assurance that they would participate. That, in itself, is not a good sign for me.)

As was true with Lasermax, there has been an organizational change with Crimson Trace. I've contacted the new person who coordinates review projects in order to inform him of what I have now, how I intend to proceed and if Crimson Trace wants to more fully participate.

According to Crimson Trace's Contact Us page, this is what they have to say about customer service:

At Crimson Trace, our goal is not to meet your needs.  Nor is it to exceed your expectations.  Our goal is to create a “Raving Fan” out of you.  To us, customer service isn’t simply answering your questions, tracking your shipment, or talking you through installation.  To us, customer service is making your experience with our brand shine so brightly that you’re amazed.  That you’ll tell others about your experience.  That you’re not just a customer.  You’re a Raving Fan!

From the Lasermax site, their Contact page:

Contact Us:

Have a question? There are lots of ways to reach out to LaserMax and we
would love to hear from you. Use any of the methods below and let us provide
the exemplary customer service you've grown to expect from LaserMax.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this works.

Lasermax Update!

I can begin this post with the assurance that Murphy is alive and well. As you probably know, Murphy's Law states that if anything possibly can go wrong, it will.

After moderating many pro and con laser sight discussions on the old Elsie Pea Forum, and being pretty much on the fence myself, I concocted the idea that if I could get samples of the different, popular laser sights for a handgun, I could evaluate them, test out their usefulness for me and report on what I found. I got a Crimson Trace laserguard pretty quickly. The Laserlyte people promised a sample, but then didn't come through or respond to my subsequent emails. The Lasermax folks were cooperative and got me to the right person to set this up. Then, things fell between the cracks.

After a few emails, I discovered that the original person handling these situations was no longer with the company, and her replacement made contact with me. She liked the idea and we began to discuss how the evaluation and review would be handled. Then more delays. I was getting frustrated with the lack of progress and posted about this here. Then, I re-established contact and we both discovered that Murphy had been at work.

The order meant to send the evaluation items to me had entered their provisioning system, then got canceled. No one knows why as yet, but they are checking into it. They obviously don't want that happening in their ordering and provisioning systems. Then, my contact in Public Relations discovered that my later emails were being directed into her junk mail folder. I wasn't the only one, it turned out. Other important contacts' emails were also being mistakenly routed to the junk mail folder. Strangely, this exact thing had happened to me on a day before. Sometimes, software is too smart for its own good.

Anyway, I think we are back on track. As I see it, this was one of those things that sometimes happens in business, and life, where a few things get off track due really to no one's fault. I should have some review items from Lasermax soon, and I can get my comparison study underweigh.

I want to thank Lasermax for being responsive and tracking down the issues that we experienced. I think one big lesson in all this is to work with other parties to resolve issues instead of jumping to conclusions and slamming people or companies without justification. It resolves around assumptions. Almost every time I've made an assumption about an issue and acted on it, without asking questions and trying to understand all of the facts and circumstances involved, I've made a mistake.

So, a big thank you to Lasermax for hanging on to good customer service like a dog on a bone. It's good to find a company that understands their customers are what keeps them in business.

Lasers: no light at the end of the tunnel

As I posted here earlier, I am trying to get a detailed comparison going with the major laser sight manufacturers. I'm a normal guy, or so some people have said. (Don't ask my kids.) I want to do a "normal" evaluation conducted over time by a representative civilian legal concealed carry person. That would be me.

Crimson Trace was the first to respond. They were quick and effective, sending me a unit for my Ruger LCP. Nice. LaserMax responded, and then the long, long saga began. Some of that is detailed here. Unfortunately, it is still going on. I've had numerous communications with LaserMax, both via email and phone. They are very nice and accommodating, but have somehow run into continuing difficulties in getting their promised units to me for evaluation.

I understand how issues come up in business. After all, I spent fifteen years in a giant corporation dealing with issues resolution on a daily basis. However, I was usually able to get the issues resolved, and to keep the effected people in touch with what progress was, or was not, being made. LaserMax is, I think, trying to resolve the issue with supporting my evaluation and review of their sights, but getting information from them is like the proverbial water from a stone. Not happening.

If I get no action this week, I will have to call off the laser sight review and evaluations. I'll do more postings about Crimson Trace, the sight and the company, but I may not be able to compare the plusses and minuses with LaserMax's products.

Oh, and Laserlyte.... they said, sure, we'd be glad to participate. Then I never heard another word.

Crimson Trace Replies

Fastest yet is Crimson Trace. I got a reply the next day from their Media Relations Manager with the news that they are sending a unit for evaluation. No questions or delays. That's what I call good customer service.

So, I'll soon have a Crimson Trace and a LaserMax for testing and evaluation. I will post first impressions here as they arrive, then plan on another more extensive evaluation that examines operation, effectiveness, concealment qualities, and so forth. For now, first impressions are that Crimson Trace and LaserMax are in the lead as far as customer service and response are concerned. Now, if LaserLyte decides which department will be reviewing my request, I might have good news from them too.

Eventually.

Reviews, Evaluations and Customer Satisfaction

Many of the items I review here are provided by their makers for that purpose. Not all. Some I have bought courtesy of my credit card. After doing this for a while I have formed a few opinions of the way in which companies approach review requests. First, I am obviously not representative of a large publishing concern with a huge readership. I do have a fairly steady readership and have had almost ten thousand visits since I started this blog. However, I do concentrate on a specific area - concealed carry - and attempt to be rational and as objective as a gun-toting Second Amendment supporter can be. As you will have noticed, I try hard to keep politics out of the discussion. I find that when politics and guns are mixed, any chance for rational discourse goes rapidly out the window.

Back when I was a moderator of the old Elsie Pea Forum (RIP), I saw and got involved in many discussions concerning the use and value of laser sights mounted to concealed carry handguns. Now, being of the old school and having had my training and qualifications with a handgun courtesy of the U.S. Marines and an old Model 1911 pistol, I'm not one to favor laser sights right off the bat. It became quickly evident that many of those who had these gizmos attached to their pistols really liked them. More so, many gun makers provide some of their handguns with laser sights installed at the factory. Even so, many members of the forum lined up against them and their reasons were many but the most often cited were: dependence on another piece of gear that might fail at the wrong time; turning it on; trying to find the red dot instead of sighting on the target. The laser supporters answered these in various ways but it became apparent to me that I could not be an effective part of the conversations since I have no experience with this technology applied to handguns. And, furthermore, I was unlikely to do so since they are expensive and if I did want to equip and carry them on my self defense guns, I was looking at a considerable cash outlay for the sights and the new holsters I would need. So, I passed.

However, having re-thought this, I decided that if I could get some real-world experience with various laser sights on at least one of my carry pistols, I could do a thorough evaluation from a "normal" (yeah, I know...) person who legally carries a handgun for self defense. I don't have a bias, one way or the other, nor do I support any firearms related companies or have any interest in supporting one company or maker over another. I am basically interested in reporting, from my personal perspective, what works for me as part of my concealed carry systems and training and what doesn't. In this spirit, I contacted three manufacturers of laser sights for handguns asking for an evaluation unit that I could test and report on here. I also stated that I would return the unit to them after the testing and evaluation was done. This seems like a reasonable request. I get to find out about their products, test them, report here and send them back. They are out postage and some free publicity on my blog. Of course, the publicity could be good or bad or both.

Although I have not received any product to test as yet, the two responses I have gotten are interesting.

The first company to respond was LaserLyte. They were quick to reply to my query but vague about whether or not they wanted to participate. The person who responded to me is "forwarding my request to the proper department for review". Wow. Departments. I guess they are trying to figure out which of their departments should handle this request. I'm not too thrilled by this or what it portends for me actually getting a unit to test. I am certain that I am not the first person to ask for a review unit - there have been a bunch of reviews done to date already - so why would they have to find the proper department to review my simple request. It is possible that this is a stalling tactic, or perhaps this is just procedure, how they handle unknown people out there in cyberspace who are asking them for something. I don't know. That happened on November 21. It is now November 29, eight days later so either they have a great many departments, a great many requests of this nature, or my email is sitting on the bottom of a virtual pile of emails somewhere in the proper department.

The second company to respond was LaserMax. My request went to them on November 21 and someone responded to me on November 26. It was short and sweet. Yes, they have evaluation units and will send one to me. That was good and it was customer friendly and pretty darn quick. I'll let you all know when it arrives.

The third company I contacted was Crimson Trace. I sent an email to them yesterday. I thought I had sent a contact form at the same time as I had contacted Laserlyte and LaserMax, but I don't think I did that, so I sent one (or another) yesterday. I also was in contact with a friend who is a holster maker who told me that when the Crimson Trace became available for the handguns for which he made holsters, he contacted them and requested an empty shell that he could use to make holsters for guns with their sight attached. He needed something to fill orders until the blue gun makers released moulds of guns with Crimson Trace lasers for holster makers. He sent them his web site URL and tax number and the necessary information to prove he runs an actual business. They said, sure, he could buy one from them at a discount, but were not willing to provide even the empty shell. This is not very good customer service in my view. Who knows? Crimson Trace may have adopted a more customer satisfaction friendly policy in the interim. When I get a reply from them, I will post the results here.

So, laser sights. There it is. I will test and evaluate whatever unit, or units, I can get from the makers and report my findings and personal opinions here. As this little project gets going, it is obvious that part of the reporting will include how the companies handle requests, queries and issues from their customers. For me, the attitudes and practices of companies making products plays an important part in whether I will spend my money on their goods, or look elsewhere for a similar product with good support and service.