Arrogance at a local gun shop...

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Early this year I went to a Mom 'n' Pop gunstore north of here for the first time as I'd heard thay had a pretty good inventory. I spent half an hour or so looking at revolvers with Mom patiently showing me everything I asked about. I had decide to purchase a NIB Ladysmith as a surprise gift for the loving wife and asked if she could cut the wire tie off the gun so I could feel the action on that particular example. She went over and said something to Pop, I'm assuming she asked him if it'd be alright to remove the wire tie from the gun. He came back over, looked me right in the eye and said "No." "Buy the gun and you can 'feel the action' all you want."

I just turned on my heel and walked out the door. I did purchase a new gun from another small shop that day and have purchased 14 additional new guns this year. None from that store though. He'll never know how much business he lost because of his attitude that particular day.
 
I consider myself fortunate. I do business regularly with three gunshops and one usually has better pricing than the others, but none are run by Jerks. All appreciate my business......Essex
 
I just turned on my heel and walked out the door. I did purchase a new gun from another small shop that day and have purchased 14 additional new guns this year. None from that store though. He'll never know how much business he lost because of his attitude that particular day.
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Just my vicious streak showing... but I would have taken the other gun you bought, carried it into the store all boxed and pretty, and stuck it under his nose and said "guess what these guys let me do?"

Brad
 
I just turned on my heel and walked out the door. I did purchase a new gun from another small shop that day and have purchased 14 additional new guns this year. None from that store though. He'll never know how much business he lost because of his attitude that particular day.
Click to expand...

Just my vicious streak showing... but I would have taken the other gun you bought, carried it into the store all boxed and pretty, and stuck it under his nose and said "guess what these guys let me do?"
Click to expand...

I would have done it for each of the other 14 guns purchased as well. Reminding him each time that due to his poor customer service skills, his competitors were getting my money.

Sincerely,

Prof. A. Wickwire
 
The store i bought my bersa from did the same thing with the ties on the slides. They would not take it off if you were asking to "just" see a pistol. But when i wanted to buy it that day i said, i want to work the slide before i pay for it. Then they said ok we will take it off, only because you are buying it. I even had an employ ask why i wanted it off, becuase there is no reason at all to pull the slide back. I gave him 3 reasons and he just said "oh well theres that":scrutiny:

So that was ok especially sence i was buying the display model, i know that other customers had not really hurt it, or play iwith it much.



Another thing at that store, there was one employ telling a customer how there Bersa gun is a piece of sh@@ and that it will blow up after 250 rds, and the custom should buy this other nice gun that cost 150% more. The whole time i was thinking WOW how nice of a gun store to sell pistols that blow up great way to treat your customs.

Of course they had one employ who owned a bersa and spoke highly of it. Having shot 1,000s of rds through it.


Oh well i dont go there anymore.
 
I think a lot of gunshop owners really want to go out of business. and many of them are successful in this regard.

If you drive away a customer over some wolf ammo, what's that cost you? the seven bucks two boxes of ammo costs? More like the several thousand that person will spend over their lifetime in guns and ammo and accessories, but not from your store.

I buy everything I can from the same shop. If they sell it and I want it, that's where I buy it. The only reason is that they aren't rude or indifferent to me.

I run a business too. I figure that if someone gives me some money, I should treat them like they're feeding my family for that day, or paying my electric bill for that month.
 
I would have done it for each of the other 14 guns purchased as well. Reminding him each time that due to his poor customer service skills, his competitors were getting my money.
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This one shop I gripe about... the manager and I have been around and around plenty. I got to where I rub his nose in it every chance I get. I haven't had any chances lately because for one thing, I don't bother to go in that shop. At the range, if he's there, is a different story.

BTW, the guys at that store... they didn't seem to like my custom rifle ideas either.
 
I am fortunate in that there are a dozen gun stores within a reasonable drive for me. That said, I choose to drive right past 3 of them to get to a little hole in the wall that has the smallest selection of guns of any store with 50 miles. Why? Attitude. This guy doesn't stick a lot of stuff, and rarely things I want - but he will order it for me. He will do FFL transfers for me for a small reasonable fee for guns I buy online. They will talk about anything - and even ask questions when I transfer in something odd.

It is a two way street though. I make a point of buying from him if he has something I need - either ammo or firearm. If I am looking at something on Guns America I will call him and ask if he can order the same thing and match the price. If he can, then I get it from him. Many times he does not have access to it since he doesn't get preferential treatment from the distributors like Ellot Bros. Point is, I try - and I support him when I can - and he knows it.

There are several other gun stores in the area that have more guns then they know what to do with - and attitudes to go along with them. You can easily tell which manufacturer has a special that month by what they are pushing on everyone as "the finest brand" at the moment. It would be comical if it were not so sad.

As for not selling all the ammo to you, some people I know in those niche businesses come from the large box retailers and are used to "loss leaders". These are items you sell below cost to get someone to come in to the store. Home Depot sells 2x4's below cost - knowing that you need the joist hangers, nails, hammer, etc. as well. These guys try that approach in a small store - but it just doesn't work the same way. Slap the asking price on the box and sell it to whoever throws the cash on the counter. If you run out, maybe you should have ordered more? (OK, small shops cannot afford a big inventory).
 
Ebd10, oldfart and Ambulance Driver I will have to say I have the same opinion of "The Gun Room". It seems like I have similar experiences at other gunshops in Portland also. I am 55 years old and wear a neck brace because of severe arthritis and deterioration of my vertebraes in my neck. I walk into a gunshop and it seems like they are wathching me all the time and are very kurt in their answers. What stock they do have that I am interested in, the prices are way out of line IMO. I have gone to 2 out of the last 3 gun shows in Portland and have bought 2 guns at them. The gun shows seem friendlier and have better prices. Where do you buy your guns in Portland and why? Thanks.
 
Here's a couple of excellent examples of great salesmanship: I used to go into a "Pop" store that was a little bit off the beaten path, where the owner/operator would greet potential customers with "Whazza matter, couldn't you find it a Walmart?" Needless to say, he is no longer in business. There also is (or was one) in the town where I now live, who absolutely refused to carry any reloading supplies or equipment-- his comment was that "reloaders are the cheapest tightwads in the world". I noticed that his place of business had a "For Rent" sign in the window the other day when I drove by. I am thankful that there is a small "Pop" operation in a small town about 10 miles away that carries a decent line of reloading supplies and tools at reasonable prices along with a smattering of old mil-surp rifles not to mention a really "good ol' boy" attitude. Life is good!!:cool:
 
I can't see why retailers of any sort would want to introduce negative comments into any customer interaction. Let's face it - most of us buy guns primarily because we like them. Why someone would ever want to kill that vibe in a potential customer is beyond me. Modesty counts.

I pay something like 16USD per 50 rounds of practice ammo for the .45ACP at the gun shop I shop at in FL. Not the cheapest price, I know. But the shop is about the same as I understand that it was in 1970, part hardware store and part gunshop with a gunsmith that likely worked for JMB, if you know what I mean. :) They do all sorts of FFL-specific services and everything else for me, so I don't mind shopping with them.

The other stores in my neck of the woods seem to have gone 'tacticool', for the most part. Want an AR-15 with 3 pounds of laser on it? No prob, they've got three. How about a Vietnam-style AR-15, from Colt, etc? 'Why would you want one like that? It will jam up and you will be killed.' Comments like that make me sick, personally. When I say that I know a particular M16 (with triangular handguards and A1 suppressor) that fired about 10 000 times without a jam, the eyes, they go a rollin'.

Don't worry folks, the days of the rude gunshop are likely limited. If you look at the economy, we may at last be going back to the idea of quality versus quantity, with regards to how we go from day-to-day.

JE223
 
Gaucho, I like a couple of places:

The Gun Broker, down in clackamas, has a pretty good selection of new & used, and certainly has reasonable prices. They also really don't mind if you come in and fondle the guns, shoot the breeze, as long as you don't mind getting momentarily ignored for a paying customer. Most of my gun purchases have come from them. Also, they have two or three bins of old used holsters, magazines, etc right by the door that you can search through and find pretty good deals.

The other one I like is Northwest Armory over on McLoughlin just south of Milwaukie. I like them for many of the same reasons that I like Gun Broker...

Unfortunately, GB doesn't carry reloading supplies, and NW Armory is getting rid of theirs. So for reloading, I just go to Sportsman's Warehouse. Same for BP firearms and supplies...
 
I haven''t had issues at my local guns tore, but I have seen this type of attitude from vendors at gun shows sometimes...
 
Decades ago, a guy came back from Rays Gunshop in Dallas shaking his head. He went in and looked at a Dan wesson revolver wanting to buy it. It was on display with the other merchandise. Ray told him. " I won't selll it to you. Those guns are made out of powdered metal and the frames crack! I won't sell it!"

Local store here in Waco has grown a bit of competition from a new Academy and a couple of suburban stores, so they have stopped ordering some of the customary merchandise. They have paradoxically become too busy to be polite to the customers and a lot of the customers, being the helpful sorts they are, have stopped going into the store so as to remove themselves as irritants to the staff.
Midway USA gets a lot of business and they don't seem to resent customer orders.
 
What the !@#$ is powdered metal??? Are they made of metal filings and epoxy resin? Are they hacksaw dust? Geez, I think the guy had been snorting black powder one too many times.
 
That was about the time some companies were experimenting with investment casting and making action parts out of sintered metal. I think that is the bug that got in his brain.
 
My local shop is the same way. I've not bought any thing from them in quite a while as a result - even though I'm on first name basis with all of the employees - simply because they've treated friends who don't stop in as regularly to BS and browse poorly (for instance, $400 for a like-new, barely-fired Carbon-15 wtih accessories and a dozen mags and turned around to sell it for $900 the next week without any of the accessories or mags). Still, they're generally just jackasses to everyone - most of the guys who work there are immature under-30 and single types, and don't know how to relate to people at all.

Then there's the 'tacticool' gun shop somewhere in upstate NY which I visited with my grandfather - the name of hte shop escapes me. Small shop, lots of different types of guns. Lots of 'impression' type hardware like ARs with pinned stocks and mock folding 'tactical' shotguns and the like; there were some leather biker products for sale; the guy behind the counter had a big beer gut a long beard and lots of bad tattoos. Basically, it's the kind of gun shop that people tend to think is into things like straw purchases and which the muggles assume is for 'people of ill repute'.

But what happens to me? Let's just say my experience was contrary to likely popular perception. I go in there and start browsing around. I'm wearing a nice jacket, slacks, and golf shirt, and my hair is cropped short with a #2 on the sides (ie not quite military short, but close). I see a rack of ARs and other such fun toys like FALs, AKs and G3s, and meander on over. They've got a fluerescent cord in front of the rack, just a couple inches from the guns, and on the end of the rack there's a sign which says 'LEO Only' or some such hokum, which I promptly ignore as, to the best of my knowledge, there's no law against simply handling such firearms by mere 'civilians', even in NY. I pick one up, adjust the stock, and put it to my shoulder, and the barmaid-tempered women (also covered with tatoos) gives me the 5th degree. At which point I inform her that I'm not from NY state, and - correct me if I'm wrong, lady, but I can legally buy these from you and have them shipped home. Then I promptly left.

The flip side of the coin: Last Stop Gunshop in Rapid City, SD and Gus's Guns in Goshen, NY are two of the damn best shops I've ever been in - in terms of general friendlyness, helpfulness, stock, and price. Granted, the stop at Gus's being a good experience may be due to the fact that I was with my grandfather at the time, but the people working there (a 50-year-old+ couple) were nice to everyone and had the best prices I've ever seen; I'll call from time to time on the phone to see if they have any steals they'd like to let me have (haven't bought anything yet as there's not been anything that struck my fancy, but some good deals - I'm not entirely sure what would even be involved in getting a gun from NY state out to SD). :p
 
Also, another thing: reading through these posts, I can see that all the ATF would have to do is put an additional restriction or three on shipping firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition in a couple of years - after the big stores have mostly kicked out the little ones from local areas completely, and most everyone buys their stuff online - to severely cripple the firearm industry and the ability to acquire firearms.
 
You did the right thing by walking out.

All the moron had to do was pick up the phone, call his distributor, and he would've had his ammo in a couple days. There is no shortage of Wolf right now, contrary to popular belief...I was in a store today that had about 30 cases of Wolf Classic 7.62x39.
 
Not sure, but i seem to be seeing the Sellier and Belloit and Primi Partisan imports less subject to the recent hikes in ammunition prices and maybe the shortages that are running through the domestic supplies right now. Domestic producers have cut way back on anything that isn't seasonal or fairly common. Remington is making only a couple of types of .22 rimfire. .22magnum is hard to find. Remington hasn't made percussion caps in a while and all the distributors show zero inventory. Brass for all calibers is in short or non existent supply and people who shoot weatherby magnums and other less common rifle calibers are out in the cold. CCI/Speer/Federal seem to be in more normal distribution than other sources.
 
I visited there. bought some vintage books. Big time gunshop. A friend of mine warned that it was best to avoid the employee who looked like Captain Kangaroo but otherwise liked the staff.
 
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