New rifle purchase gone wrong

[Kacerdias]

Taking stock of my current arsenal I found some gaps. I've got the requisite firearms for various niches - the carry pistols, token revolver, plinkers (.22 pistols & rifles), hunting longarms (12gauge semi, 30-30 lever), the purely bizarre (cz52)... There was a big lack of evil-looking battle/shtf rifle in a commie bloc caliber so I fixed it. Who am I kidding, I got the gun bug again and bought a CZ VZ-58.

I ordered it from Impact Guns online because for the same price their deal included a second 30 round magazine. I checked and they already had my preferred FFL on file. Perfect. The week and a half wait was driving me nuts. I finally got an email early this week that it was shipped out via Fedex. I watched as the tracking page showed "delivered" and I called up my friendly FFL shop to confirm the arrival. When I get there, the guy congratulates me on my purchase of a Keltec SU-16. Uhh.... What? In the box was a Keltec with paperwork for a Mr Oshea, going to a dealer in California. A call to Impact revealed that someone had screwed up bigtime. The CZ I ordered is still unaccounted for - they're trying to track it down. I can imagine some poor sod in Cali getting hauled away for having a pair of 30 rounders. :banghead:

So while I wait for this mess to get sorted out, what is the worst online gun purchase experience you've ever had?

 

[SaMx]

That doesn't sound good.
I was going to start setting up my first online transfer today, but I keep putting it off.

BTW, when you get the CZ let us know how it shoots ok?

 

[Chipperman]

So did you take the Kel-Tec home?

 

[jakemccoy]

That's pretty bad.

The worst for me was receiving a thoroughly crappy 870 Police after responding to an awesome online description. However, the seller let me return it for an 870 Police that is completely awesome. The replacement was "used" but clearly never fired. The online seller was J&G Sales.

My advice for buying used online is to ask tons of questions and send a verification fax of the features to the seller. I formerly had a policy of not buying used online. However, I just never see certain guns locally.

 

[rbernie]

what is the worst online gun purchase experience you've ever had?

Intererstingly, I've bought dozens of guns via the Internet and only once did I not have my expectations met. In that one instance, I bought a sporterized Eddystone 1917 rifle that turned out to have a stripped rear receiver bolt hole.

Since I had no way to be sure if the seller even knew the rifle had an issue, I just chalked it up to the luck o' the draw.

 

[coyotewillie]

Not a purchase, but I sent a friends AR15 back to Colt, the scope mount hole in the carry handle was drilled off center. Colt replaced the upper receiver and sent it back. Best thing is, they also sent a Colt lightweight bolt rifle in 300 mag along with it. I'm in central Nebraska, and according to the rifle paperwork in the box, it belonged in Utah I believe. Had a notion to let it set here til they figured it out, let em sweat a bit. But, I called in a couple of days and told them I had it. They were pretty calm about it, never said an "oops" even. Sent me a return sticker for UPS to pick up at my home. Thing is, I hardly even got a thank you for it. Wished I'd have let it set here for a couple weeks+. Greg

 

[aguyindallas]

I know all about this sort of thing. A little over a year ago, I organized a local group buy for some AR stripped lower receivers. Ordered from out of state and "WAS" to be shipped to my FFL of course. Wife came home from work one day..."Hey, you have a package on the porch"

Holy crap - they accidentally sent ALL the lowers direct to me. I of course did the right thing and took them to my FFL to do proper transfers. When I called the selling FFL, he said, "Oops...mistakes happen" and sort of put the whole thing off on me.

 

[Kacerdias]

Thought I'd post an update to this ...

Impact sent a return tag to receive both mistakenly sent rifles - mine that was in California and the Keltec sent to me. I received a Fedex calltag via email which was supposed to go to my FFL. I called up my local shop and found that they physically mailed him a different tag and the rifle had already been picked up.

Some time goes by and I call Impact again. They've received the Keltec but are still waiting on the CZ. The lady on the phone was nice and gave me the option of getting the shipping for free or having them upgrade it to overnight when my rifle shows up. I chose the discount since I was off on a business trip and can afford to wait a bit.

A few more days go by. Impact leaves me a phone message saying that all is well and they will be shipping my *RUGER* on monday. :banghead: I called back immediately and asked the woman on the phone to please read the entire order back to me. She had me confused with yet another customer who had ordered a Ruger revolver! After some chatting she found the error and fixed it. I was assured the VZ-58 would ship that day.

Well, I picked the VZ-58 up today! It's very lightweight and the mechanicals appear very simple. The box it arrived in looks like it was beaten with a crowbar. The gun appears unharmed but I noticed a couple of things. There seems to be no little spring tensioned bar to adjust the rear sight elevation (looks like *something* goes there). The instruction manual is also missing. I called Impact again and reached a different employee who looked around and found a CD-ROM manual on the shelf where my rifle was before it shipped. He's sending it to me directly (I hope!) via US mail. I'm a bit disappointed that CZ is charging this much for a rifle that has a CD-ROM based manual instead of a real printed one.... Oh well. At least I can take it out for some riflery practice!

 

[Eightball]

The box it arrived in looks like it was beaten with a crowbar.

If that thing went to Kommifornia, I wouldn't put this out of the question.

 

[MrPeter]

I had an issue similar to this.

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=258776

but the thing with mine was that I got the wrong AK, so I didn't notice until I got home (FFL was MANY miles away).

Long story short I turned out with a bit of an advantage

 

[Catherine]

I never bought a firearm 'online'. I have heard good and bad stories about that though.

Most of them were GOOD stories with good results.

Best wishes with your 'mess' and I hope that you get it straightened out soon!

Sincerely,

Catherine

 

[FFMedic]

2 bad ones come to mind. Ordered a SU-16-C from Impact Guns. Was told it was backorderd for 2-3 weeks, I said fine, ship it when it's in. A month went by, I saw them listed as in stock on the website then backorderd again. I called then asking what the heck!?! They told me Kel-Tec bumped the price up $20 so they cancelled my order and never botherd to tell me or get a chance to pay more for one when they were in stock. Good thing I didn't pay the FFL fee up front.

Second was J&G Sales. Bought a "very good to excellent" condition PC4 with numbers carved into the stock and the handguard chipped to hell, lot's of blue missing as well.

FFMedic

 

[apollosmith]

My brother just had a $1400 rifle scope shipped from Impact's Utah store. They didn't insure the shipment or purchase tracking. Needless to say, the package is nowhere to be found and they are out $1400 to save $10 on insurance.

 

[CU74]

Hmmm - Impact Guns again. This isn't the first time I have seen negative postings here on THR about them. I'm taking them off of my Potential Buy List..........