I am disappointed w/ LTT

[CraigS]

Maybe 4 months ago I went to order another NP3 TJIB for a 92 and they were out of stock, so I left my email to be contacted when they are back in stock. Haven't been notified yet but 1-2 months ago I noticed they now have an NP3 upgrade kit where they NP3 just about every removable part and charge $460. The NP3 TJIB was around $240 I think. I want to make my trigger better and have no interest in a silver slide lock, take down lever, or safety lever. So last week I sent an email asking if I could get a NP3 TJIB plus NP3 trigger, trigger pin, and hammer pin and what would the price be. I got a reply and asked for a clarification. The result is they will sell a $460 NP3 kit or a $240ish NP3 TJIB (but it is still out of stock) and refuse to break out the parts I would like from the $460 kit. I also looked yesterday at their triggers, LTT trigger bar, and EliteII hammer, and none are available in NP3. I suppose I can understand supply problems although 4 months is hard to believe. Having the parts I want on hand but refusing to sell them except by nearly doubling the price and including stuff I don't want is not what I expected from LTT.

[JRB]

I can't speak to Beretta parts availability or LTT's business specifically, But having worked extensively in the automotive performance industry (which involves a lot of custom coatings, anodizing, etc.) and my brother in law owning a powder coating shop, I can offer a possible explanation.

Custom coatings are often ever-so-slightly different in appearance from batch to batch no matter how consistent your process and materials may be. NP3 is not exempt from this. So LTT is likely unwilling to break up those sets because they were coated together and are thus a 'matched' set. Any attempt to sell off just the trigger parts now, and replace them to re-complete the kit later would result in the finishes not quite matching - which would likely bother most customers that are comfortable spending $460 on a complete NP3 parts kit like that. So LTT keeps those sets intact for QC/QA purposes. At least, if I were running LTT's parts business that's exactly what my rationale would be.

It's also easy to postulate that the massive run on guns right now has resulted in less spare/loose parts available from Beretta proper, because all those parts are ending up in completed guns.

I say this as someone that's been waiting for a TJIAB for quite some time as well, and despite wanting one for my older Inox 92FS, I didn't want a full NP3 set either.

[FrankB]

If LTT sells “kits”, that’s different than selling “parts”. I’ve had to buy plenty of kits for various projects, because people don’t part out kits. Just saying....

[UNM1136]

I didn't want a full NP3 set either.

Care to share your reasoning? I agree with most of what you wrote about coating and consistency. I may have bought into the Robar hype in the 80s and 90s, but my mentor had a duty pistol done in NP3 and I watched him clean it after a 2,000 round weekend with a wet paper towel. That sold me. My duty Glock is about to get NP3 on everything it can. When I suppress my AR and build an AR10 in 6.5 Creedmore I will have the BCGs done in NP3.

pat

[Manbearspider]

I can understand supply problems although 4 months is hard to believe.

The ammo backlog is sitting at 1.5 years, various gun manufacturers are in the same boat, if not double that. 4 months is nothing with where all this is going.

[rd62]

Buy the kit and sell off the parts you don't want?

Perhaps someone else with an NP3 TJIB wants to replace the other small parts with those coated in NP3 now that they are available?

[TGS]

Maybe 4 months ago I went to order another NP3 TJIB for a 92 and they were out of stock, so I left my email to be contacted when they are back in stock. Haven't been notified yet but 1-2 months ago I noticed they now have an NP3 upgrade kit where they NP3 just about every removable part and charge $460. The NP3 TJIB was around $240 I think. I want to make my trigger better and have no interest in a silver slide lock, take down lever, or safety lever. So last week I sent an email asking if I could get a NP3 TJIB plus NP3 trigger, trigger pin, and hammer pin and what would the price be. I got a reply and asked for a clarification. The result is they will sell a $460 NP3 kit or a $240ish NP3 TJIB (but it is still out of stock) and refuse to break out the parts I would like from the $460 kit. I also looked yesterday at their triggers, LTT trigger bar, and EliteII hammer, and none are available in NP3. I suppose I can understand supply problems although 4 months is hard to believe. Having the parts I want on hand but refusing to sell them except by nearly doubling the price and including stuff I don't want is not what I expected from LTT.

This doesn't strike me as a legitimate complaint against a company.

Manufacturers group parts all the time for the sake of business efficiency, especially when they're parts that are typically bought together as a bundle, and especially at times of high demand they can't keep up with.

If they don't have the capacity or even SKUs in the system for breaking the parts out individually......tough noogies. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[JRB]

Nothing against the NP3 as it's a great finish. If I was setting up a 92 series gun for duty work I'd happily upgrade it accordingly.
But my Inox 92FS is a range toy for the most part, so a $165+shipping TJIAB is already pushing it for the dollars-to-sense ratio. A $460 full NP3 parts kit just isn't in the cards for that particular 'want' and the same cash would go a lot further in other directions on other projects.

[Caballoflaco]

This doesn't strike me as a legitimate complaint against a company.

Manufacturers group parts all the time for the sake of business efficiency, especially when they're parts that are typically bought together as a bundle, and especially at times of high demand they can't keep up with.

If they don't have the capacity or even SKUs in the system for breaking the parts out individually......tough noogies. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This. Say they break apart a kit to sell you individual parts. After that they have to either

A. Put that incomplete parts kit aside and wait until they have replacement parts (that might not even match 100% in color) and then task someone with adding the parts to the kit and updating their inventory system.

B. Break apart the the entire parts kit and re-do inventory on every part in the bag they have to now sell as an individual part.

I know that it’s frustrating for the OP; but understand that if they made an exception for you they would have to make one for everybody and then you end up with either too many individual parts or a shit load of kits that you can’t sell until new parts come in from Beretta and are sent to plating. All the while people are now emailing about why there aren’t any kits available and it’s a headache that I think any small business owner is smart to avoid.

[kwb377]

Kind of like going to the dealer to buy a part for your car, it being out-of-stock, then trashing the dealer online because they wouldn't pull the part off a new car on the lot.