What's up with dilon these days?

[DiverJay]

Been dyed in the wool Dillon blue since I first laid hands on a RL550B some 20 years ago. Over the years, I've added two more Dillon presses to my bench. Phenomenal machines which have produced 100's of thousands of rounds over the years. As with anything mechanical, things do break from time to time. So far it has always been something small. A spring, a pawl, or some plastic doo-dad that had just plain had enough. Used to be no problem. Just call up Dillon and get the replacement part in the mail within a couple days. However, these days, there seems to be more BS to their "No-BS Warranty" than I am accustomed to. Keep in mind, I am in no way an abuser of their warranty or my equipment. I call Dillon maybe once a year for what doesn't amount to more than a couple dollars in small parts. However, these days when I call, I am more than likely to get someone who is having a bad day on the phone, questions me as to how the parts broke, promises me the parts will be mailed, then fails to do so. Three times I called Dillon for a primer indexing arm for my XL650. The first time, I waited a month, nothing arrived. Called again, waited another month, nothing arrived. Called again this morning and we'll see. I'll pay for the darn thing. I don't care. I just need it. Getting to be too much BS for me but what to do?

[Rick459]

if you get a spare parts kit that arm is included in it. after 22 years i used the spare parts kit to rebuild my 650 works like new now.
Rick

[M-Tecs]

Blame that on eBay and people taking advantage of Dillon. People would call and get their free parts from Dillon and sell them on eBay. That forced Dillon to tighten up on how they sent parts out.

[Papercidal]

Other than that they now charge for decapping pins they have been as good as ever with me and usually throw in doubles and extra parts I didn’t order.

[redneck1]

I'm not knocking dillon here , but I got irritated many moons ago when I bought a tumbler with a lifetime warranty and paid quite a bit more then other brands to get that lifetime warranty only to find out 6-7 years later that things had changed from lifetime to one year when mine quit . When I got my replacement there was a nice little note included , New model replacement tumblers have a 1 year warrenty same as if purchased new .

When I called Dillon and inquired about the lifetime warranty that I bought originally I was told that's to bad for you we no longer do that
Once the 1 year runs out your on your own .

Haven't bought anything blue since .

[M-Tecs]

The change was to 5 years on electronics. The rest of the until is still under lifetime warranty. They replaced a tub and a motor for one I had since the mid 90's a while back. At the time I was told 5 years on the motor. That is also what the current add. states.

https://www.dillonprecision.com/dill...8_8_23658.html

[3006guns]

In defense of Dillon's "no BS warranty".........just recently, my 550 suddenly refused to feed primers...then it would feed three or four at once. An examination revealed that the plastic tip on the primer tube had simply given up. I called Dillon, got a really nice guy who promptly sent out both large and small replacement tips. While on the phone, I mentioned that one of my powder measure tubes was dark with age. He added that to the order and I received everything within three days.

[Larry Gibson]

A couple months ago I was loading 45 ACPs on my SDB when something fell on the floor. Thought I'd dropped a bullet of casing and kept loading.....another 600+ rounds. looked for what dropped and I noticed something odd. A small piece of the aluminum cast frame.....it was the projection that is on the left side to stop the handle. It had busted off. Now I've loaded 8 different cartridges on that SDB over 30+ years to the tune of a bajillion rounds give or take. On Monday I went over to Phoenix area (Scottsdale is just the northeastern part of the Phoenix metro area now) and took the SDB press in to Dillon late that afternoon. I'd stripped the SDB down to the press, ram and handle/linkage. Nothing but excellent reception and the guy took the press apologizing that they couldn't get it back to me for a few days but would mail it....was that okay? Well heck yeah that was okay!! Yesterday, just 4 days basically including the shipping time, the press arrived. It was all new, the ram, linkage, handle small parts, everything...... I mounted it back on the bench and put it all back together to load 45 ACP again. Loaded another 100 rounds in no time and it runs smooth as a baby's hind end........

Absolutely no complaints about Dillon machines from me. Understanding some products Dillon does not make are going to give up the ghost short of "lifetime" like electronics including the case cleaners it is understandable the warranty is different. However, on the products they make I've found in over 40 years they do stand by their "no BS warranty". No complaints from me.......

[redneck1]

The fact that Dillon makes great stuff isn't in question , they do .

But again what chapped my hind end is the fact that they sold me a lifetime warranty and then they didn't deliver on it .
Why should it matter to me in even the slightest bit if they made the item or not ?

Mtecs ... it may have very well been a 5 year warrenty instead of year
It's been quite awhile . But 1 year or 5 years isn't the lifetime I paid for and didn't get .

Just try to keep in mind this is my personal "blue whale" I've still recommended Dillon to more then a few people because the quality is not in question

[Barman54]

Recently I had my 550 sent back to Dillon to repair the Crank for the 3rd time, previous two were done by me.
They sent back "MY" press good as new, very pleased.
Even more recently I sent my Swager as it needed to be looked at, and they replaced it, Outstanding !!

I could not see using any other Progressive Press.


Barman54
Out

[Newboy]

redneck, I do not remember Dillon ever having a lifetime on their electrical components.

Can anyone substantiate they did?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[M-Tecs]

For the first couple of years they had lifetime on the trimmer motors. That is the only one I am sure of. I have one of the first FL 2000B tumblers. That was the one without the seal on the lid. That did not have a lifetime on the motor. I am still using that and the did replace the tub and the lid.

If I remember correctly their first electric scales had a lifetime but I am not sure. My first 650 was purchased within 3 months of them being released and I am pretty sure that did not have a lifetime on case feeder motor.

[cat-mechanic]

For the first couple of years they had lifetime on the trimmer motors. That is the only one I am sure of. I have one of the first FL 2000B tumblers. That was the one without the seal on the lid. That did not have a lifetime on the motor. I am still using that and the did replace the tub and the lid.

If I remember correctly their first electric scales had a lifetime but I am not sure. My first 650 was purchased within 3 months of them being released and I am pretty sure that did not have a lifetime on case feeder motor.

Yes the original digital scales have a lifetime warranty. I still have one of those. Now they only have 1 year.

I thought the FL2000 tumblers had a lifetime as well. Then they went to a 1 year and now a 5 year warranty.

[Surculus]

Well, Mr. Dillon up & died, so maybe there's a leadership crisis going on? He sure had a gift for finding gorgeous gals for the cover of the Blue Press tho'...

[Nueces]

Well, Mr. Dillon up & died, so maybe there's a leadership crisis going on? He sure had a gift for finding gorgeous gals for the cover of the Blue Press tho'...

He had a pilot's taste for pretty ladies...

[scattershot]

Never had a problem with Dillon service. That may have changed since Mike Dillon passed, though.

[Pighunter]

I got free parts last week for my RL 550B, no BS. That came to my house 5 days after calling. Maybe the person was having a bad day?

[Old School Big Bore]

I bought two 450s back when rocks were soft. I keep one set up for large primers and the other for small. I rebuilt the frames to the 550 toolhead type when Dillon was selling the upgrades. I left the powder and primer systems and plate indexing manual for QC purposes because I also have a Square Deal in .45 ACP and do not like what happens if you have to stop mid-run to fix something. I also bought the roller handles back then and they ran that way for decades. I have also used a 650 and cordially hate most of the subsystems on it, especially the priming system. I recently got the ejector kits and then the strong mounts. Since the strong mount kit comes with a dedicated chute and bracket for the loaded-round bin, I repurposed the brackets from the ejector kits to act as bullet-bin holders on the left rear corner bolt of the strong mount. All it takes is drilling one hole. "Some day" I'll saw the chute portion off of 'em. Sometimes getting the right powder funnels for the manual powder measures has been a headache but got easier when I started getting them from Dillon's site instead of over the phone. Both my manual measures have started gritting and hanging up despite polishing and first graphite, then Moly Disulfide treatments. Just wear, I guess. I heard that they are not servicing the manual measures any more. I guess I'll be discussing that with them soon. In the meantime I obtained a Lee Pro Disc measure and am having a lot of headaches with it.
My Square Deal has suffered a lot of parts breakage; back when the handle was being redesigned, mine happened to just break in two and when I called them, the guy said, "yeah we're aware of that and have a fix" and sent me the new stronger one. I was loading a lot of .45 ACP back then and the SD was showing some wear, so I got the rebuild kit for it and it perked right up. Right now it's down due to the powder measure retainer stripping. The plastic spent-primer bracket is also broken, for the umpteenth time. When I can find a big enough box I'll send the whole shebang for a 'yard period' and then gift it to one of my sons who's shooting a lot of .45 ACP.
The motor in my very old 1200 tumbler gave up the ghost a couple years ago and Dillon said they have no source for that motor any more, and that if I sent it in they'd discount a new one for me. That rubbed me wrong, so I ordered an 'equivalent' shaker motor from a reputable electric supply company, replaced its weight with the one from the Dillon motor, and made sure the little fan blades would turn the right way to cool it. It promptly burned out, even though I had an additional fan pointed at the base. I found a used new-model blue tumbler on Oy-Vey for appreciably less than a new one, and bought it to spite Dillon. It's working great but I'm stuck with the burned-out old model. I may try another aftermarket motor in it so my son will have a bigger one than my Lyman tumbler he's currently slated to get.

[alamogunr]

Many years ago a friend and I went halves on a 550B w/three complete caliber conversions. He did the ordering since he had the large shop in which to set it up. Three or four years ago I bought out his half because I had built a small shop and he never used it anyway. I hardly used it because it was so inconvenient to drive to his house in the country. When I got it set up in my shop, I discovered that several things were rusted(his shop was unheated and a little damp).

I had some questions and needed to order some parts so I called Dillon. I did not expect the parts to be sent free of charge since for all they knew I was one of the Ebay buyers. I mainly wanted some information on reconditioning and setting up. I must have gotten one of the customer service people that had been dealing with contrary customers all day. Talk about attitude coming thru the phone lines.

It was awhile before I could bring myself to contact Dillon again for some needed parts and another conversion package. I have no problem with the quality of their products. I really do hesitate to contact them by phone on the chance I will have to speak to one of those employees that is having a bad day. If I do, I will not expect any free, no BS warranty parts. I will pay the price whatever it is. All this is not because the person I spoke to was abusive but he was not at all accommodating or friendly. I'm glad the rest of you have had a different experience.

[alamogunr]

After my semi-rant above, I need to back up a bit. I just received the Blue Press in the mail. In it there is a followup article to the article in the previous issue that essentially said that .45ACP was finished. This month there are several rebuffs to that article. I'm not in the same class as those who wrote in support of the .45ACP, but it is my favorite auto pistol round. Mainly, because it is much easier to reload. The vaunted(?) recoil has never bothered me, maybe because I don't reload 230gr boolits at max levels. Regardless, I am glad to see support for the round.