[BanderaScout]

I'm new to the forum and I have two Colt Defenders (O7000D (45ACP) and O7002D (9MM). I had the 9MM for 8 days and one of the white dots in the rear sight fell out. I contacted Colt and they suggested "I go to my local hobby shop and get some white paint and re-paint the dot". I'm not excited about that solution. The other option is to send my entire gun in to Colt for 90 days. I asked Colt to send me a new rear sight and they refused.

With all that said, I love my Defenders and I want to change out the sights for Tritium Night Sights. Trijicon says they don't make night sights that fit the new defenders (both purchased new in the past year).

Does any one know of a Night Sight that will fit the "new" Colt Defenders? If so, I would appreciate some assistance.

Regards,

BanderaScout
Bandera, Texas USA
Gig'em Aggies

 

[BigRam]

i think you can use the novack night sites because the colt custom shop sells them for around 250

 

[joecil]

Oh and if you decide to repaint the dot I highly recommend you use Sally Hanson Xtreme wear white nail polish. It holds up better than anything I've seen even to tough solvents once it dries. It is cheap and can be found anywhere they sale nail polish.

Now I do prefer the night sights over the white dots myself but have done a number of my target guns with the white nail polish.

 

[Col. Colt]

Trijicon may not have replacement sights themselves available yet, but you used to be able to send your slide to ToolTech (a related shop) and they would install the real Trijicon capsules in your existing sights.

I would explore this option, as I have had very long life (twelve years plus) from my oldest set of Trijicons and they do supply the US Military. CC

 

[BanderaScout]

Trijicon may not have replacement sights themselves available yet, but you used to be able to send your slide to ToolTech (a related shop) and they would install the real Trijicon capsules in your existing sights.

I would explore this option, as I have had very long life (twelve years plus) from my oldest set of Trijicons and they do supply the US Military. CC

Thank you for the information Gentleman.

Col. Colt, thank you for the information on ToolTech, I found them in Oxford, MI. I'll give them a call on Monday to see what they can do and when. This is the best idea I've heard so far because I do want Trijicon Sights. I've got Novak's on one gun and Colt sights on the other. Hopefully they can both be drilled out and upgraded without it taking weeks or months.

I really appreciate the information.

 

[BJT72]

Novak makes sights that are a direct fit. The tritium inserts are the same. You may find that having your sights drilled by ToolTech is more expensive.
Brent

 

[BanderaScout]

Novak makes sights that are a direct fit. The tritium inserts are the same. You may find that having your sights drilled by ToolTech is more expensive.
Brent

Thank you for the information Brent. Unfortuantely, I'm not impressed with Novak sights given they made the white dot sights that fell out after owning the new gun for 8 days.

I can't find anything about the warranty from Novak on the Novak website so I will call them next week to find out what warranty they offer.

 

[zin]

Just curious, should Colt not replace the rear sight if it is only 8 days from purchase?

 

[Toforo]

Just curious, should Colt not replace the rear sight if it is only 8 days from purchase?

If they told me "No" in this situation, I'd ask them where they'd want me to send THEIR new gun.

People are ENTIRELY too passive and accepting with poor levels of customer service - which leads customer service reps, their supervisors and the companies they work for to believe that their actions are acceptable; it's not.

MEDIOCRITY IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!

But that's MY oppinion and only my oppinion (your milage may vary - yada yada yada) and it's also an entirely new and different thread topic....

:hrm: :hrm:

 

[Civil 45]

Just trying to understand your post.....colt offered to fix your gun if you would send it to them but your not happy with that?

 

[Col. Colt]

Most companies have rules about doing any repairs themselves - if the customer screws it up with a part they supplied, it creates a liability for them, and the public frequently damages things from a lack of understanding. For example, I send you a new rear sight - which direction do you remove and install it from? If you don't know, you might hammer the crap out of the slide dovetail and destroy one or both of the rear sights in the process. Now when it comes back I must fit a new slide - and I encouraged you to do it, so I can't blame the customer.

And sending it back for a dab of paint - or white fingernail polish - in the tiny divot in the sight seems a bit wasteful and foolish. The paperwork processing alone costs Colt more than a bottle of alcohol to clean the sight and a bottle of fingernail polish and five minutes to do it. I would always report a problem to Colt that bothered me or had to be corrected so they know they have something that needs improvement, but I would not want to be without my gun over something so easily fixed. CC

 

[BJT72]

I can promise you Novak makes some of the best sights on the market. The white dot is paint, if there was something there to stop perfect bonding it will come out. There is also no way of telling this ahead of time. I will offer to issue you a call tag so you can send the gun in to us and I will re-dot the sights. Please PM me if this is what you would like to do.
Brent

 

[p11420]

Front site

I noticed a few weeks ago that the white paint on the front site of my new Colt Defender had also disappeared. I cleaned the hole and repainted it with some white paint with build in primer. Hopefully it will stay in place.

 

[BanderaScout]

Just curious, should Colt not replace the rear sight if it is only 8 days from purchase?

That is what I thought but Colt says that rather than "REPLACING" they will "REPAIR/REPAINT" if I send the gun back to them. I am okay with that if it doesn't take 90 days. It should only take 1-2 weeks maximum. I go to the range every single week and I am not wanting to do without my new gun for 90 of the first 120 days I own it.

 

[BanderaScout]

If they told me "No" in this situation, I'd ask them where they'd want me to send THEIR new gun.

People are ENTIRELY too passive and accepting with poor levels of customer service - which leads customer service reps, their supervisors and the companies they work for to believe that their actions are acceptable; it's not.

MEDIOCRITY IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!

But that's MY opinion and only my opinion (your milage may vary - yada yada yada) and it's also an entirely new and different thread topic....

:hrm: :hrm:

I spoke to the company I bought the gun from and he refused to give me a refund because he knows this month I can go elsewhere and buy the same gun for $150.00 less than I bought it last month from him. He doesn't have another gun to change it out either. I asked him if he wanted to buy a new rear sight from Colt and send it to me but he declined at this point. He wants to talk to his distributor first. He recommended I write a letter to the CEO/President of Colt Manufacturing.

 

[BanderaScout]

Just trying to understand your post.....colt offered to fix your gun if you would send it to them but your not happy with that?

Yes, they offered to repair/repaint my sights if I am willing to send it back to them. I was okay with returning the gun for repair until I heard (from the customer service representative) that the average repair time is 90 days. I really don't want to be without my gun for 90 of the first 120 days I own it.

The proper solution, in my opinion, is for me to have my local gunsmith remove the bad sight, send the bad sight back to Colt and have Colt send me a new sight (not a repainted one). Colt can either throw the defective sight in the trash or send it back to Novak for replacement. That would be great customer service.

 

[BanderaScout]

Most companies have rules about doing any repairs themselves - if the customer screws it up with a part they supplied, it creates a liability for them, and the public frequently damages things from a lack of understanding. For example, I send you a new rear sight - which direction do you remove and install it from? If you don't know, you might hammer the crap out of the slide dovetail and destroy one or both of the rear sights in the process. Now when it comes back I must fit a new slide - and I encouraged you to do it, so I can't blame the customer.

And sending it back for a dab of paint - or white fingernail polish - in the tiny divot in the sight seems a bit wasteful and foolish. The paperwork processing alone costs Colt more than a bottle of alcohol to clean the sight and a bottle of fingernail polish and five minutes to do it. I would always report a problem to Colt that bothered me or had to be corrected so they know they have something that needs improvement, but I would not want to be without my gun over something so easily fixed. CC

Great points Col, I'm not qualified to replace the sights myself nor do I want to attempt it because I don't want to damage the gun. Nor do I want to get into the touch up paint business either. I've been the VP of Operations in our company and run a manufacturing department that paints things every day and painting is a cleanliness, surface preparation and process control challenge that Colt needs to address. While I do have an engineering degree and could probably follow the directions that isn't why I bought a brand new gun.

 

[BanderaScout]

I can promise you Novak makes some of the best sights on the market. The white dot is paint, if there was something there to stop perfect bonding it will come out. There is also no way of telling this ahead of time. I will offer to issue you a call tag so you can send the gun in to us and I will re-dot the sights. Please PM me if this is what you would like to do.
Brent

Thanks Brent, I might take you up on your offer if we can get the work done in a couple of weeks rather than 90 days. Before I decide the approach, I want to wait on a response from Novak regarding a possible deal to sell me two sets of night sights (one at a discount due to the defective sight) to replace the white dot sights on both my defenders.

I'll message you next week if I don't get a response from Novak.

Regards,

David

 

[BCOWANWHEELS]

if you let colt (brent ) handle this you,ll be glad you did when its done trust me. he's A+

 

[Hank Dodge]

I had to do the nail polish trick on my gun as well. Whatever the white dots are from the factory, they are not holding up well in service. I had tried to get Colt's to change out the sights when they had it in hand for some warranty work, but they would not do it. I wish that Colt's would have supplied this pistol with night sights from the beginning, I would have gladly paid the difference.