zano said:
I love the lines of the f2000 and I am very disapointed with FN for not being customer friendly to the civilian population. I have an fs2000 and I am pleased.
Before hearing your complaint, FN released a FS2000 with the standard military optic. Unfortunately, the optic is nothing special.
That said, I do not see how you equate FN's delay in releasing a FS2000 with the standard configuration optic with not being customer friendly. From my point of view, FN has been very customer friendly to the civilian population. The company actually went through the difficulty of re-engineering the P90 and F2000 so they could be imported into the US for the civilian market as the PS90 and FS2000. You probably know this is not just a matter of adding length to a barrel and removing full auto parts. They actually had to make it so that critical P90 and F2000 parts could not be used in the PS90 and FS2000 to make them go full auto.
Also FN has been very responsive to what American customers say they want. When the PS90 came out, people complained about the optic. First, FN changed the optic and then FN offered a model with a rail so we could mount the optic of our preference. With the FS2000, we were initially given the option of mounting the optic of our choice which is huge because optics are generally task specific.
Additionally, if you look at the past five years, FN has been actively innovating firearms. It has been a while since I could recall one company having so many different, new designs being developed and marketed for the civilian market. I do not want one, but I have to admit that it is encouraging they are even considering a semi-auto version of the SCAR for the American civilians. Seriously, if you think about it, Colt, S&W, Beretta, Glock, Springfield, and Sig make good firearms, but they are not really pushing the envelope.
I am not saying that FN is the best. I am not brand loyal. If another company comes out with something better that I need or want, I will buy it. However, if you look at FN's operation over the past few years you can see that it is very interested in the American civilian market. When there was a small recall with some early FS2000 rifles, FN stepped up and gave owners free C-More optics for their trouble. Recently, FN ran a C-More optic promotion for those buying the FS2000 and (I believe) the Triple Rail version of the PS90. Now they are giving away (relatively) expensive ammo to push the Five-seveN pistol. While it is a promotion, it is customer friendly.
Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but when you consider the conduct of the competition, FN has been very customer friendly. The one area I think they could improve upon is the availability of spare parts.