Way back when I was in the 8th grade, I saw a Springfield Armory M1A, and decided that I just had to have one. So, I saved all the money from my paper routes for a year. And my allowance. Plus my birthday, Christmas, and junior high graduation presents to buy one.
I paid in advance, to have the dealer order it. When it arrived, the parts were parkerized in different colors, and the stock had a big chip missing by the butt plate. Somewhat disgruntled, I took it out to the rifle range to see how it worked. It jammed a couple of times in the first 20 rds.
I saw an old Springfield Armory ad saying "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back." I sent them a letter asking for my money back, and calling them a fly-by-night company trying to make a quick buck off of someone else's good name (Springfield Armory, Inc. bought the trademark rights for the former military Springfield Armory). I got no response, so I sent them a polite letter explaining the situation. All they would do is send me a new rifle. This one was real pretty. The parts were nicely reparkerized to match. (Of course, there was some pitting on the trigger guard, so the parts were not really as new as they looked.) And it had a nice new walnut stock, without the selector cut out.
Now, it was time to test fire the beauty. It had a great trigger and sights. Nothing could compare. It was a bit too heavy, but I figured I would grow into it. (I haven't.) The accuracy was as good as you could expect with iron sights. But, this one jammed every 20 rds, just like the previous one. I tried different magazines, and messing with different lubrication methods. It still jammed every 20 rds.
I got sick of playing games, and sent it back to the factory again. This time, it came back in the prettiest box you could ever imagine. They had replaced the entire gas system. Springfield Armory will spare no expense in fixing its rifles! There was a marked difference in performance this time. It was like night and day. Now, the gas piston fell out after 20 rds.
Then, I sent it into the factory for the 4th, and final, time. They tightened the gas piston, and it has never fallen apart since. There was a letter with the rifle saying they had even test fired it 100 rds. (But, not saying how many jams they got!) I decided to do an extremely rigorous test of the rifle. I concluded that with 4 different magazines, it jams every 20 rds with USA, American Eagle, and one other brand of FMJ ammo.
I spoke to a guy at the rifle range who said that the M1A is famous for its reliability. It can be fixed, no problem. But, of course, he wasn't willing to buy it from me. He convinced me to take it to a local gunsmith in whom he had great confidence. The gunsmith worked on it, and claimed to have fixed some problem that he found. I am not sure whether he fixed it or not, since I am not willing to waste my hard earned cash on ammo to find out.