Spike’s quality but poor qc - Spikes Tactical 5.56 Cold Hammer Forged 14.5in Upper Receiver

I ordered this upper wanting a complete, 14.5”, midlength gas system with a pinned and welded Smith Enterprises (SEI) Vortex flash hider. I priced out building one myself; with buying everything from quality manufacturers and getting the pin/weld done this upper came out cheaper but also included the BCG, charging handle and a mounted front sight post. I now wish I would have just built the thing myself.

The first problem...handguards. I bought the one with the standard AR model handguards because they are cheapest and I might replace them. They sent me one with Magpul MOE handguards. I thought I got a free bonus but the handguards are broken. The screws/rivets attaching the heat shield to the lower handguard are completely missing. So, now I’ve paid for a cheaper handguard I didn’t get and it was replaced with a broken one. I paid for a handguard but got none.

The second problem is the flash hider pin/weld job. While the pin/weld was done well they did not use the pre-drilled hole provided by SEI from the factory. SEI makes pre-drilled Vortexes with pins for doing this yourself. The flash hider is hardened steel and can damage tools in the drilling process and they saw a market for this. However, Spike’s drilled a new hole opposite the SEI one and pinned and welded the Vortex. So, now I have an open hole allowing moisture, fouling, dirt and other contaminants to work their way into the threads on the end of the barrel. The weld job is fine but I don’t appreciate the fact that now the pre-drilled hole is now a conduit for corrosion.

I am sure everything works fine and all parts used and built by Spike’s are high quality. I just do not appreciate their QC allowed both the wrong handguard and it being broken on top of that to make it to a customer. I also can’t accept the extra work (and probably cost) they did to drill a completely new hole in the Vortex and leave the pre-drilled one open to contaminate the barrel threads. Now I have no ability (both mechanically and legally) to remove the flash hider and clean the threads.