For a time I worked in one of the largest gun shops (in terms of sales volume) in the country: Larry's in Huntsville, Alabama. At the time, we were the second largest Ruger dealer in the country (behind Walmart), the largest Springfield Armory dealer in the country and second in the world, the second largest Smith and Wesson dealer in the country, and right on up there with just about any other brand you could name. I say "at the time" because I don't know where the current rankings sit, but I know Larry's is still going strong.
Anyway, my point:
There is not a single manufacturer you can buy from that doesn't occasionally squeeze out a lemon. I've seen broken Sigs, broken Glocks, broken HKs and everything else. Almost all of them, even outside a warranty period, will make some effort to put things right if they go wrong. I have many, many Sig pistols, and I like them and even have had one CS issue (recall on the first batch of P238s that came out) which they handled extremely efficiently. In this case, it sounds like they dropped the ball a bit, but it's hardly indicative of their record.
A couple things: as has been mentioned, do not EVER send any gun company your gun with any kind of accessory installed on it, be it grips, sights (yes, I know in this case the sights were original, I'm just throwing it out there), extra magazines or what have you. In fact, if it's an auto, don't even send the factory magazines back with the gun at all, and I don't give a damn if the CS rep tells you to. Unless the magazine itself is the problem, don't send them in with the gun, period. That way, they can't be lost, and I promise you the manufacturer has plenty of mags to use for function testing.
Now as far as customer service goes---
When the store was handling the repair/warranty stuff instead of the customers (some people don't live anywhere near a non-satellite UPS drop off) these were the absolute top three companies to deal with:
Smith and Wesson---not the fastest turnaround of the three, but always very accommodating and easy to check up with for status updates. Lifetime warranty on all their products, consistently honored this warranty even on used guns.
Ruger---fast turnaround, not as easy to get updates from but mainly because they don't have as many people answering the phones. Lifetime warranty on all their products, consistently honored this warranty even on used guns. No I didn't just forget and copy-paste that line from S&W above--all of these companies stand behind their products, new or used.
Thompson Center---the best of an extremely strong group here. Fall all over themselves to make you happy. Only had two warranty issues with them while I was working at Larry's (and again, that store moves more guns in a month than most shops do in a year) and both were back from T/C in record time. One of those two was an older Contender with a trigger guard/lever that had been knocked out of alignment because the customer tripped and fell on it while hunting--that was the issue it was being returned for, and the customer was not even sure it should have been covered since it was his fault. When the gun came back, it had the problem fixed, new wood, and had been reblued. When we talked to them, they said that the replacement trigger guard "just looked way too new compared to the rest of the gun which had bluing wear, and after they'd re-blued it, the scratched/dinged stock didn't look good on it." Completely refurbished it, and had it back in our hands--and his shortly thereafter--in three weeks.
Not saying there aren't other outfits with solid customer service, just that those three were the ones I was most happy to deal with--whether as a dealer or as a customer--on the rare instances when something would go wrong with their guns, and I do mean rare. Part of being able to have lifetime, almost unconditional warranties is building the damned things right to begin with.
makes me wonder if the energy wasted on this thread could have been used more productively in the first place....glad it turned out good for you and i can't wait till you get your gun back so we can read your public apology to Sig.
