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When Things Go
Wrong by Brian Powley
Success is the result of good judgment.
Good judgment is the result of experience.
Experience is the result of bad judgment.
It happens to the best of us. Some things get screwed up and we are
responsible for it.
No matter how inconvenient it is, we must pursue the “fix” in
order to keep the customer happy.
I learned years
ago as a manager working in a large steel mill that there is always a solution to any problem. I can’t say I always like the solution, but
like it or not, we all know where the buck stops.
Recently, I was
doing an upgrade for a customer. His project is a Kreighoff Model 32 shotgun.
He wanted the engraved birds gold inlaid and recut the forend iron to
match the scrollwork on the receiver.
The gold inlay
was a snap. I was actually able to undercut and gold inlay the birds without taking the
gun apart or disturbing the original factory bluing. I thought that alone nominated me for
some kind of Medal of Honor. You can’t believe how proud I was of my skills and
rightly so.
I then proceeded
to sand and polish the forend iron for engraving. Nothing unusal here. I’ve prepped
gun metal for nearly 30 years without a glitch----until this piece.
When I started
to engrave the forend iron, my graver literally sank completely through the metal on the
edge. You can’t imagine what went through my mind. A real panic set in and my eyes
could barely believe what they saw. WHAT THE HECK
WENT WRONG?
Upon inspection
of the iron, I hadn’t noticed that there is a small, thin recessed lip that lets the
forend wood slide under the edge of the iron. My sanding and polishing it made it thin
enough to actually bend it over with fingernail pressure.
It appeared to be ruined and now I was faced with the difficult task of
making it right.
At first I wanted to just figure out how to fix it and, if successful,
not mention anything to the customer.
Experience has
taught me to get it out in the open and admit my dilemma. Making that phone call to the
owner was a very hard thing to do. After nearly 30 years of metalworking and engraving, I’ve
had my share of mistakes, but it still didn’t make this phone call any easier to
place.
I was surprised
to hear the owner understand my problem and actually suggest solutions.
I really believe contacting the customer immediately and admitting my
fault did more to remedy the situation than keeping quite. Doesn’t seem like when you
try to cover something up you, only end up making things worse? Honesty is the bedrock of
good business.
That phone call sure made the rest of the day a little easier to suffer
through.
I thought long
and hard about the remedy. I really didn’t know anyone that had the welding skills to
pad this up and I sure as heck didn’t have the machining tools to recut the iron. I
believe my honesty with the customer eased my mind enough to come up with a logical
solution: Call Kreighoff International.
To my surprise, they were more than willing to give it look. I sent the
piece to them and they said “No problem, we’ll just simply reweld the metal and
reshape it for you.” I felt very much at ease having Kreighoff work on this. They
gave me an estimate and I agreed.
What a relief! A simple solution to a most difficult situation.
For the record, I said “simple”,not “inexpensive”.
I think Kreighoff charged a fair price for the work they did. It wasn’t
cheap, but they didn’t take advantage of me either. I was happy, and upon inspection,
the iron looks as good as a brand new one.
Now, all I have to do is get it right this time.
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