Establishing reliability.

[VolGrad]

I have never purchased a gun that gave me reliability issues ....

Sadly I've sent guns back to SIG, GLOCK, Mossberg, and even Ed Brown. These are the ones I can think of off top of my head.

SIG and Mossy paid return shipping to them. GLOCK and EB did not. It is notable all these guns came back functioning 100%.

[VolGrad]

SecondsCount make a very good suggestion, and in fact when my thrice-cursed G23 needed to go back to Glock so many times, I did in fact use the gun shop to do all the shipping.

As for the time, expense, and aggravation involved in returning and re-testing the gun, I'm with you 100%. I've now put over 5,000 rounds through two Glocks that I paid for out of pocket, and am essentially at square one. It's beyond frustrating.

My LGS won't ship guns for me. I have to use FedEx overnight for handguns. Our local UPS hub acts nutty every time I've tried to use them so I avoid them like the plague.

[YVK]

If a gun comes back from the manufacturer and still doesn't work, then insist they pay shipping to get it back a second time for further warranty work.

I had zero luck making HK to pick up a tab for a second trip when my P7 stopped working immediately after returning from the first trip. This is just FYI...

[JodyH]

I don't have the patience to mess around with a malfunctioning gun.
If they don't work to my satisfaction they're replaced with a gun that does work.
That way I'm not rushed or frustrated if it takes a long time to repair.
It also gives me more time to "service rep shop" until I find one willing to pay the shipping.
I've found that pics or video of your problem emailed to the rep go a long ways towards establishing that you have a serious issue and they are more likely to pick up the shipping tab.