My New Fusion 1911 and Experience

[Olympus]

I just wanted to take some time and share some photos of my new Fusion 1911 and provide my experience. This is basically just to provide any potential buyers or future buyers with an actual account from someone who had a full custom Fusion built.

I ordered my Fusion in early May of last year. That's when I sent my deposit, along with the specs for how I wanted my gun built. I was told that the build would take 6 months. I received my gun yesterday. Actual time from when I sent my deposit was about 10 1/2 months. I did NOT make any design changes during the course of production that would have lengthened the overall timeframe.

I had concerns from the beginning. About 3 or 4 months after placing my order, I emailed Bob to make a small change on the gun. I wanted to switch the fiber optic front sight color from green to red. I emailed and Bob sent an updated invoice with the corrected front sight color. When I looked at the invoice, it was for a completely different customer's gun. I immediately called and explained that Bob made the correction to someone else's gun invoice. He said he corrected the mistake.

About at the 6 month mark, I emailed Bob again and asked how the progress was for my gun. He emailed back and said it was almost done and asked that I send a copy of my FFL. So I send the copy and reply back asking to see if he can send me photos. He then replies asking which gun was mine again. I was like, ***? How did you just tell me my gun was almost ready and then immediately ask me which gun was mine again? So I reply back and tell him about my gun. His response was essentially, sorry, I got your gun mixed up with another customer's gun (again) and that mine wasn't nearly ready. So I went back to waiting.

More time went by and I'd send an email asking how it was going. I would not get a response. I'd one wait one more week then send another email, followed by a phone call.

Finally, I got email on a Saturday saying that my gun was done and the email included the photos I'm posting here. FINALLY, I thought. So I call Bob promptly on the following Monday morning and give him my credit card info to pay for the remaining balance. He said that he'll get the gun boxed up and shipped out to me. So I'm pumped! I'm watching for the UPS/FedEx man to show up all week. Surprise, surprise...nothing shows up all week long. So I wait until the next Monday, a week after I gave my credit card info, and try to call Bob first thing that morning about what's taking so long. No answer and I leave a message. I get an email reply about 4pm that day saying that it was being packaged and would be shipping out the next day (What the heck has it been doing the whole week before?). So I'm expecting 2nd day air like most handguns are shipped. I'm thinking it should be here by Thursday. Nope, nothing on Thursday. Ok, no big deal. It will be here by Friday for sure. Friday comes and goes and nothing arrives either. Then on Saturday, my regular mail carrier comes to the door with a package for me. My Fusion gun shipped regular USPS Priority Mail in a flat rate box. Looking at my gun invoice, I was charged $48 for shipping and the flat rate shipping box was $13 and some change.

After inspecting my pistol, I was moderately pleased. One pretty large thing was not done like I had requested. I requested the slide to have a flat top and I wanted the fine serrations with reveal. Then gun has the fine serrations with reveal, but top of the slide is not a flat top, it's rounded.

So I guess the moral of the story is that my experience was not ideal. It was not exactly pleasant, it was not exactly easy. Bob Serva at Fusion did not make me feel like my satisfaction was his goal. At best, his attitude to me seemed very lackadaisical and indifferent. The gun took a lot longer than I was originally told. Communication was sporadic and borderline poor. The finished product, while it appears to be a fine piece of craftsmanship, was not exactly 100% like I had ordered. It is what is. I can certainly say that I won't be going out of my way to recommend Fusion to any of my friends. While I'm not 100% thrilled with my purchase, I'm not angry either. I'm just kind of resigned I guess. I still got a great gun that was almost exactly like I wanted. It took longer than I expected, but it's here now and I'll be shooting it and enjoying it. I wont' be going out of my way to tell others not to do business with Fusion, but I also won't be recommending them to friends. I'm basically neutral in my feelings. My purpose in this thread is not to vent, not start an argument, not to cry about being treated poorly, or anything negative at all. I just wanted to provide the absolute facts about my experience with my build so that a potential buyer can get more information other than sunshine and rainbow reviews. I understand that my situation may be uncommon and I understand that there are a lot of happy Fusion owners as well. So my experience should not be the sole basis for someone deciding one way or another.

[milkmanjoe]

Thanks for the input. I had read only good things about them. Which can be a problem cause alot of people don't post like you did when things go awry.
I remember when I was in business and had tooooooo much work. I was working 100 hours a week trying to keep up and make $$$. Finally I picked and chose my jobs......less stress for me, better quality for customer.

[Xbonz]

Congrats on the new pistol. Hopefully it's worth the wait and aggravation. Nonetheless, she sure is pretty..

Have you contacted Fusion with your concerns? I would recommend sending a copy of this post to them so they can get a grasp on how their business practices affect their business.

[MajO]

Congratulations on your new pistol. It's a shame you had the experience you did with Fusion.

[Sheepdog]

Congrats on the new gun. I hope she shoots as good as she looks. I have had limited experience with Fussion. Poor quality parts. To quote one of our other members. "Friends don't let friends buy Fussion's"

[Olympus]

Thanks fellas. The main 1911 forum doesn't allow posts that could be interpreted as "grievances", so I thought it best not even post this over there. And since Bob Serva can moderate his own subsection, the post might even get deleted altogether. I'm not trying to start any problems or air out any dirty laundry. I'm not dissatisfied or unhappy. I'm just less than impressed with the process and communication for the kind of money that I spent on this gun.

I had probably 6 to 8 members on the main 1911 forum send me PMs about their experiences which were very similar to mine. It seems like only good things can be mentioned on the other forum, so I know I'm not alone. But when it warms up, I'm hoping to try this gun out and hopefully it will perform well.

One thing I did notice when I did my first disassembly, was that the recoil spring would not come off the guide rod. I'm sure I can get it off if I spend a little more time with it, but a good firm pull wouldn't budge the spring from the guide rod.

[Riverpigusmc]

I'd want the difference back in shipping costs...that's nonsense.

[Olympus]

Originally Posted by Sheepdog

Congrats on the new gun. I hope she shoots as good as she looks. I have had limited experience with Fussion. Poor quality parts. To quote one of our other members. "Friends don't let friends buy Fussion's"

To be completely honest, quality to quality, I don't see any difference between this gun and any of the Dan Wessons I own. The only difference is that I got to design the gun from the ground up exactly as I wanted it in the caliber that I wanted. So that was worth a lot to me and that's why I originally went with Fusion.

Knowing what I know now, I might have been able to buy a DW Razorback 10mm and have Severns or another reputable gunsmith modify it to be exactly like this gun. I just don't know if that would have been more expensive and/or more time consuming.

[Olympus]

Originally Posted by Riverpigusmc

I'd want the difference back in shipping costs...that's nonsense.

Right off the bat, that immediately didn't sit well with me. But now it's more of a principle thing. The price difference in the shipping is $35. Considering the cost of the gun, that's pretty insignificant. But the sheer principle of it really left a bad taste in my mouth. Don't charge someone the cost of shipping 2nd day air when you turn around and ship USPS in a flat rate box. The $35 extra that he made from that wasn't NEARLY worth the affect it had on my opinion of Fusion.

[skosh69]

Thanks for the write up! As others have said, sorry to hear of your negative experience. I hope my experience with the Les Baer I ordered goes a whole lot smoother.

Don't take this the wrong way, but your Fusion looks similar to what my Kimber CDP used to: