GrabAgun glitch? Legit?

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wojownik

wojownik

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Any thoughts on grabagun.com? Are they a reliable web-based vendor?

I tried to order a Colt 1911 Series 70 from grabagun over the weekend. The listed price was $778.83, but when added to the cart, the pistols price was $821.88, plus shipping. That struck me as a pretty sizable discrepancy.

I sent an email to them, and they did apologize for the confusion. However, they added, "There is a glitch in the system that causes the incorrect price to show until it is placed in the shopping cart. The price in the shopping cart is the correct price."

Just doesn't not seem kosher to me. FWIW, they are still listing the lower price on their site, and the higher price when adding it to the cart for checkout.

Just checking in on whether grabagun was an OK vendor - their "correct" price is on par with a couple of other sources. Their glitch raised a red flag in my mind ...
 
So, they know about it?
And haven't fixed it??

Myself, I'm kind of a skeptical old grouch.

But I wouldn't trust then as far as I could bowl them.

rc
 
I've seen that happen before. Their prices change frequently and something on one side of their computer system doesn't always talk to the other side. It is annoying though and I wish they'd fix it. I got excited about a price for a gun one day and was all set to buy it, only to experience the same type of glitch as you did. Didn't buy it after all. I seem to remember that sort of thing happening on other sites too so I think it's a bug somewhere in the e-commerce software.
 
That doesn't sound right.

For what it's worth, if you were to show up at a car dealership with a printout of one of their vehicles with you and your printout showed a lower price than what they had on the lot, they would be obligated to sell that vehicle to you at the listed price from their website if you were interested in buying.

If you were in a store and the advertised price was lower than what rings up at the register, the store is obligated to abide by their advertised price.


In my opinion, these people can meet their advertised prices or they can fix their site.
 
I've used them twice and both times the advertized price made it to the shopping cart and onto my credit card.

There is no excuse for inaccurate data, not to even mention bait and switch tactics, and there should not be any long-term programming glitches. My opinion on ALL website glitches, long or short term, is they can be fixed by a good programmer and they should be fixed expeditiously. But some sites just seem to not understand that.

If this had happened to me, I'd have stopped the sale right there. If it had already progressed to not being able to stop it on the website I'd have called them. As a last resort, I'd contact the credit card company and explain why I want the charge disputed. In my experience, and there have been several instances, CC companies have always been top notch when disputing charges by companies who are "sloppy" with their "financials".
 
I've never been on their web site and don't know the answer to this question, but I'm wondering if the price in the shopping cart is ever lower than the price listed on their web site. If it is, it makes me more comfortable that it's a true glitch. If not, it makes me wonder why their glitch only raises prices.
 
I've ordered from them and had no issues.

IT should indeed fix it, but working in that industry (programmer who does web work) there's reasons why it may be persisting. They may not even have an in-house team to work on things like this (which could mean they need to bid-out the job to fix it, or they may have cobbled together the site using someone internal who can't figure out the bug).

FWIW their site design did change within the last month or so, so it may be a bug that was introduced with the site refresh.

EDIT: Looks like the product page shows the correct price. It's listed at the incorrect lower price while browsing but if you go to the page specifically for that product it shows the higher price (or if you add it to the cart).

Just a hunch, but my guess is that they're pre-caching data in a temp table in the general listing and searches for performance reasons, and then you add to card or go to the actual product page it's querying the data for that specific item which is more up to date. Definitely should be fixed though.
 
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Grab a gun has been around for awhile. I bet if you called they would take your order over the phone.

These assertions of fraud are just ridiculous! From a web developer, trust me. Computers and software are buggy and things don't just happen because you think they should. Ecommerce can be very complex and there are many chain reactions.
 
These assertions of fraud are just ridiculous! From a web developer, trust me. Computers and software are buggy and things don't just happen because you think they should. Ecommerce can be very complex and there are many chain reactions.
Click to expand...

Of course. Any number of technical difficulties may cause a problem like this on the customer end. It may not be intentional fraud. In fact, it isn't really likely to be as this is the sort of thing that makes the vendor looks terrible, embarrassed, and unprofessional. Real fraud tends to be a lot sneakier than that.

But all tech guys should realize just what an embarrassment this sort of thing is, and how their jobs aren't worth much if they can't get the customer end of the e-commerce experience working smoothly.

It may not be "fair" but a tech department that lets things like this go is simply poisoning the business. And when the business owner hears complaints like this and there isn't an immediate correction ... well, there's LOTS of unemployed tech guys out there who'd love the chance to make sure his customers see the right price every time.
 
True Sam, I guess it just depends on the details. You can't accept a malfunctioning site forever, but you have to understand there will be bumps.

For all we know, the error was found late last week. Customer service was aware and I'm sure the development team is investigating and looking for a patch. Maybe they worked over the weekend, maybe they didn't. It certainly isn't fair to call Grabagun scammers or frauds like some people here are doing.
 
Just want to point it - it's working the other way around too. I just looked up a Colt Wiley Clapp Commander and the main handgun page lists it about $10 higher than it is if you add it to your cart.

The stainless steel Colt Series 70 is about $20 lower than the listed price on the main handgun page.
 
I've bought several guns from them and the process was very good, as were the prices, and delivery. I'd be inclined based on my experiences with them that if they said it was a glitch I'd believe it.
Were they willing to honor the price or make it right?
 
I had terrible service from them. I ordered a rifle and they failed to ship it week after week, despite numerous phone calls insisting they get it out the door. After 6 weeks of being charged for a gun that may or may not have even been in their posesdion I cancelled my order. Big waste of time.
 
armedwalleye said:
I've bought several guns from them and the process was very good, as were the prices, and delivery. I'd be inclined based on my experiences with them that if they said it was a glitch I'd believe it.
Were they willing to honor the price or make it right?
Click to expand...

I just spoke with them by phone - it sounds like a major glitch - if accurate, they have separate IT guys working on two different sections of their website, and things are not synching up.

Nice enough guy on the phone. However, to answer you question, no, the higher price (i.e. the one in the cart) is the one they will stick with. I'd go ahead if the price discrepancy wasn't so large.

If this were my company, I would have reverted to the old website, while the IT guys hammered out the glitches. Sometimes building ecommerce portals can be difficult. Sometimes the IT guys can make things more difficult than needed. Either way, I think Sam1911 nailed it earlier in this thread. Getting a commerce site wrong can raise questions about a business. It's also interesting how expectations differ between brick and mortar stores, vs. online.
 
They should at a minimum put up a notice on the site informing customers of the discrepancy.
 
BLB68 said:
They should at a minimum put up a notice on the site informing customers of the discrepancy.
Click to expand...

Yes, that kind of responsible disclosure would be appropriate, especially since this is an known, ongoing issue to the company that is at least a week old. That would be a very reasonable suggestion for them - the CS rep on the phone noted that he'd been seeing price discrepancies from $5 to $50, and the pistol I was buying was one of the bigger errors he'd seen all week. So, they know its an issue.

And, in retrospect, I'm not entirely sure, that the CS rep was himself 100% sure that the cart price was the correct one - i.e. he noted that there seemed to be two conflicting price databases in their ecommerce site. More a matter of, "well, if that's the final price in the cart, that must be the correct one."

1KPerDay said:
IMO they should honor the lower price. It'd be cheap advertising, good word of mouth.
Click to expand...

I hoped for, and frankly would have expected the same. I'm not a haggler by nature, though when he asked "so, do you want to still buy it," I let him know I thought it was a bit of a price difference. And gently let him know that the second "correct" cart price was higher than two other online dealers, and getting pretty close (after shipping and FFL fees) to what I would pay in store at an LGS.

The conversation kinda trailed off after that. Which I thought was interesting, as I literally had a credit card in hand while we were talking, and the sale was his to win or lose right there. Any reaction from the sales rep could have grabbed the sale right there ("how can we earn your business," or even "I'll make sure you get a good one"). Anything - be a sales guy - improvise!

There seem to be so few good salesmen in the firearms business.
 
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