Fred's M14 stocks

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unrealtrip

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Anyone ever order from them with success?

I don't want this to be a bashing thread, I'm just curious if they are legit actually.

I placed an order on July 21 and got an auto-response email. Other than that, no communication whatsoever; they don't answer their phone and they don't appear to have a voicemail system. They also charged me right away which was odd as most reputable shops won't charge you till they ship and I haven't seen or heard anything from them since I placed the order.

I'm concerned as I'm moving in a week and while I've emailed them my new address, but I fear no one is checking their email.

Someone please tell me I don't have to write off yet another online gun related purchase as a lesson learned. Especially after that checkmate group buy fiasco on m1911.org
 
Fred's is legit, although he is a bit of an old coot.

His first FAQ is a warning that he takes his time.

Did your cc get billed? Fred's doesn't bill until your order is ready to ship, if it has been billed, you may need to see if your shipment has been lost.
 
He always takes forever to mail anything, it's not just you.

About the time you think that he stole your money and you've almost forgotten about it it'll show up in the mail. If you call within a month about your order to see what's taking so long the guys on the phone will act like you're trying to commit a capital crime and trying to make them accessories. They're pretty rude about the whole thing and they act as though they're above everybody because they work for Freds M14 Stocks (what an honor :rolleyes:).

But the stocks are good, so people continue to put up with their extremely lousy customer service.

In some of his ads that I've looked at before he even talks about how some guys had the nerve to call after "only 4 to 6 weeks". I'd do my best and try to find some place else that has them after my experience with them, but you've already placed your order so you're basically stuck in limbo until he/they finally send you the stock or stuff that you've paid for.

You'll get your stock or merchandise, but it'll be awhile.

That's been my experience with them anyway.
 
Ok well I feel a little better then, I'm just not used to such slow service.

CWL: I could have sworn I was charged at the time of order but now that you mention it, I was buying a bunch of things online at the time so I better go back and doublecheck.
 
unrealtrip : Ok well I feel a little better then, I'm just not used to such slow service.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasn't either. Just don't make any plans involving a quick delivery.

CWL: I could have sworn I was charged at the time of order but now that you mention it, I was buying a bunch of things online at the time so I better go back and doublecheck.
Click to expand...

He usually charges at time of shipping which completely screwed up my balance as I almost didn't have enough money to cover it as I thought that it had been taken out way before.

If you end up having to call them after a month or two you'll see what I mean.

Good luck.
 
Well my email bounced... and they still aren't answering the phone. I guess I'll try calling again tomorrow, and the next day and the ...

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

[email protected]

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 13): 552 5.2.2 Message would exceed quota for <[email protected]>
Click to expand...

I guess a lot of people email him... lol
 
Yeah I read the disclaimer and noted the part that said don't be unhappy if you don't get it in a week. But I'm coming up on 2 months, they can't get email and don't answer the phone. I might fax them tomorrow and see if they respond to that.

I mean, if its going to be 3 or 4 months that's fine, I'd just like some ballpark idea maybe, or at least a representative to answer the phone or respond to an email...
 
I've ordered a number of stocks from him on a couple of occasions. All came quickly and exactly or better than advertised. He usually includes a couple of nice/new handguards for free too.

Did you order something hes out of?
 
I've ordered from him a couple of times,and never had any problems.Items were always as advertised,and orders usually even had something extra in them-like 25 yard AQT targets.
 
I ordered a M-14 stock from him about 2 years ago. I arrived 10 days later with a nice handguard, several paper targets and some anti UN brosures.

It took a couple of days trying to call in the order though.
 
I've ordered from him a couple times. It took awhile to get my orders, but the items were exactly or better than described.

On one order, I got the same order twice. I checked my CC and sure enough I had been charged twice for the order. When I contacted "Fred" he said he must have gotten confused and billed me twice as well as shipped the same order twice. He said he'd refund my money, and when I asked him how to return the second shipment, he told me to just go ahead and keep it since it was his mistake. So he refunded my money, and I basically got a two for one deal.
 
I have placed many orders with "FRED'S" and have always been well pleased with them.
I have never ordered a stock though. Even he said " A stock takes time as I have many to pick from and want to send the best of the grade ordered."
I met "FRED" at a RWVA Boot Camp and he did me many favors at that time as my truck broke and he went out of his way several times to help me out.
 
About Fred's rants in SGN;

I remember paging through SGN and seeing that full page of info and thinking, "why would I want to read all this stuff?" But then I tried it and it really started to grow on me, enough to where Fred's columns are the first thing that I go to.

Do they take some getting used to? Sure does, and I usually get PO'd at least once or twice in the column. But it's a case of tough love. Sometimes it's really hard to hear what we need to, to motivate ourselves to do what we should do.

The package may not be what we like to see, but the message is needed.
 
Fred is great! But his owner can be a bit slow at times. Give him a break, you will get what you ordered, and it will be exactly as advertised. "Fred" is such a cool old fart it is worth the wait :)
 
I'm about 3 months into a wait for some books. It's nice he doesn't charge until they ship, but that's further oiut than I like to run my bank account personally, and the disclaimer doesn't say you'll wait months for a book order. In fact, it says that "Simple orders for targets and books usually ship pretty fast. "

I've tried to ask for status updates, but his emails bounce for me too. If he's not going to keep up with web orders, he shouldn't do them....and that's without neven going into how irresponsible it is to leave a bunch of people's bank account info hanging out for months on end in something as insecure as an email server...especially an email server that is referenced to from a public e-commerce website.

He may be a nice "old coot" and I admire the appleseed work he does, but he really should just do phone orders from his website, and judging by the age of this post, this has been his status quo for some time.
 
Does anyone really understand his rants in Shotgun News
Click to expand...

Yes. :D

To summarize, "You young whippersnappers quit making the gun go bang just for the noise, there's always more air than meat and only the meat hits count. You're great gran pappy fought for their freedom, but you can't give somebody freedom--every on's gotta earn for themselves. God bless America".

Or something like that.

Hopefully you'll get word soon, but Fred's no fly by night operation.
 
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