Rant: stupid gun emails

[Monkeyleg]

As some here on THR know, I run a site that gives gun shops a place to advertise.

On the site is a Contact link. I don't know how much more clear I can make it that the Contact link is for contacting me or the people who run the servers, etc. Here's a link so you can see for yourself the verbage, fonts and colors: link.

I thought all of that would be plain enough. But I still get emails like this one from today:

*****************
Email address: XXXXX

Subject: i need a gun

Body: This form is for contacting the staff at Gunshopfinder.com, and not
any of our subscribing stores. We do not have the resources to give
estimates on the value of used firearms. We cannot provide prices for
current production firearms, since we do not sell firearms. We do not have
access to parts for out-of-production firearms, or for antique firearms.

Please only use this Contact link to inquire about firearms that our
subscribing shops are not able to find, or to make suggestions on how to
improve our site.

Thank you.
*****************

I've also received emails that have said, "I want to buy a gun. How much will it cost?"

Or, "I live in Yugoslavia. I want to buy a Sig P220, a Glock 19, and a Smith and Wesson Model 60. Can you tell me how much you want, and can I pay with Mastercard?"

Or, "I'm looking for a Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun. If your price is lower than WalMart, I'll buy it from you. Otherwise, I'll buy it at WalMart. What's your price?"

********

Sorry for the rant, but the number of dunderheads just seems to be increasing.

 

[zinj]

This is why I keep an eye on everyone else at a public range. Sometimes the lights are on but nobody's home.

 

[mc223]

Believe it or not, happens right here at THR.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Your average person is smarter than half the population. Scary.

Time to be a dork...

Monkeyleg, looking at that page with both IE 7 and Firefox, it's really long. I can page down like ten times. Doing a quick "View Source" shows this about a third of the way down

td colspan="3" height="1053"

which may be part of the reason.

Good idea and good site. I bookmarked it.

 

[Monkeyleg]

DirtyBrad, I'm aware of the scrolling problem. The site is database-driven, with no limit on page content.

Thus, I have no way of setting the bottom settings for pages.

I've asked and offered to pay web designers to come up with a way to stop scrolling once the page content is finished. I've already paid a number of ASP and other programmers no small amount to help build the site. But the scrolling problem?

No takers.

Anywho, I wasn't talking about the site. I'm just amazed at some of the questions that gun owners or would-be gun owners ask the store owners.

Actually, I've thought about asking Oleg and the moderators to open a "Stupid Gun Question" forum, and supply them with the almost daily emails I receive. Somehow, though, I don't think they'd view that suggestion as being in the spirit of The High Road.

 

[hexidismal]

Is this the place where I buys the gun ? Hello ? Why doos nobodys talk to me here ? I want 9 guns. A Glock .359 revolver and a colt vakerro. I am 16 years old. Tell me how much it will cost to bring them to me.

hehe, j/k . Anyway MonkeyLeg, it's bound to happen. You have a website which is one of, if not the first thing that comes up in a google search of "find gun". Overall of course, that should make you happy and I'm sure it does. That being the case though, you're bound to be exposed to the entire internet, the best and the worst. With your level of exposure I would think that these aggravations should be considered minor indeed, and par for the course.

 

[gdvan01]

This is why I keep an eye on everyone else at a public range. Sometimes the lights are on but nobody's home.

Ain't THAT the damn truth...

 

[230RN]

Man proposes, Reality disposes...

To chime in a little bit with DirtyBrad, my staff and I process something like 2000 to 3000 applications a year for a particular service.

When I started this job a decade ago, I was very frustrated with the high number of applications we had to send back for various deficiencies --even the most obvious things on the application form were sometimes missed or misinterpreted.

I discovered that even though things might look simple to you and me, there was some proportion of folks who simply perceived particular items on the applications differently from the way my staff and I saw them.

This was just reality.

And as an old programmer once told me, "If reality conflicts with your system, there is only one thing you can change."

And it's not reality.

Consequently, I had to revise the "system," that is, the layout of the application, to conform to reality.

If you're getting consistent problems with the layout of your page, that's reality. Therefore your only choice is to change the "system.

-------------------

Afterthought after seeing your response on the paging problem, which appeared while I was composing this offline:

How do forums such as THR control the scrolling/paging problem? Or, for that matter, Google, when you've got 15 pages of "hits?" Something to look into? IANAP. ("Programmer.")

 

[bogie]

Believe it or not, about 15 years ago, I had to do some minor changes to part of a user manual for some software that was designed for line-level managers in a telecommunications company... I'd heard the story before myself, but I didn't believe it, and I sent something out the door without really thinking about it.

I had to change "hit <enter>" to "hit <return> or <enter>"

There were two differently marked keyboards in use.

Yes. People ARE that stupid.

 

[gwine]

I had to change "hit <enter>" to "hit <return> or <enter>"

I'm surprised you didn't have to change it to "press <enter> or <return> to continue". Hitting the keyboard can damage it.

 

[DirtyBrad]

PM sent

 

[SoCalShooter]

This is why I keep an eye on everyone else at a public range. Sometimes the lights are on but nobody's home.

.

Aint that the truth.

Sorry you have to deal with these people Monkeyleg. I understand your problems, having to sell anything is always a patience trial.

 

[Monkeyleg]

SoCalShooter, I don't deal with the emails, I just delete them. The only exception to that rule is when I get an email from a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan looking for something, or wanting to contact a store to arrange a purchase when he gets back home, or whatever else he needs. I'll also help people who are trying to find a particular gun for their spouses as gifts.

Here's another weird one: if you do a search on Google for the terms "gun shops" or "gun stores," my site comes up anywhere from #1 to #4. I never optimized the site for either of those terms, as I didn't think anyone would be dumb enough to do a search on such generic terms.

Wrong. There's something like 20,000 or so different search terms that people use to find my site. The #1 term is "gun shops," with that term constituting 1.6% of the total of the search terms. #2 is "gun stores" at 1.4%.

Go figure.

 

[Working Man]

The only exception to that rule is when I get an email from a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan looking for something, or wanting to contact a store to arrange a purchase when he gets back home, or whatever else he needs.

Monkeyleg, for what it's worth... that right there will get you an atta-boy from
me and I know from some buds of mine that have or are currently serving.

Sad part is they are that confused over the phone too.

Me: May I have your last name please?
Caller: My last name?

Or

True story..... just happened about 30 mins ago.

After finding out what they needed and that we can not assist them today.

Me: I'm sorry that office, actualy all offices are closed on the weekend and
we do not have accesses to that information. If you can call us back on
the same number you just called on Monday between 8:30 am and 5 pm
EST we can get you right with that department.
Caller: So you can't help me.
Me: No ma-am unfortunately you will have to call back on Monday.
Caller: So what you are saying is there is no one there who can help me.
Me: That is correct.
Caller: Well then when can some one help me?
Me: If you can call us back on Monday between 8:30 am and 5 pm EST
we can get you right with that department.
Caller: What number should I call?
Me: The same number you just called on.
Caller: Fine, I'll call back at 8.
Me: No, at 8:30 ..... hello? Hello?

Oh yah.... the reason it says EST and I'm in Texas is because the company has
a call center here as well as in MD.

 

[CrazyIrishman]

Sadly,this problem happens not only with businesses but in everyday conversation too.

People hear but they don't comprehend! Almost like being a few fries short of a happy meal!

This is why I keep an eye on everyone else at a public range. Sometimes the lights are on but nobody's home.

If someone wants to go down to the range with me I make darn sure that they're coherent & safety conscious!

I don't want to be a statistic or find out what it feels like to be shot!

 

[zoom6zoom]

Bogie, we actually had stickers that we put on the keyboards of some of the staff we were supporting. I'll bet you can guess... Yup, they said "ANY". We were tired of explaining which key was the "any key".

 

[230RN]

A bit of DOS code I wrote a long, long, long time ago...

CLS
@echo Press Any Key To Continue
pause
@echo No, no, not THAT one! The one next to it!
pause
@echo That's better. Thanks!


Somebody else must have thought of that, too, 'cause I've seen it as a joke in recent years..

 

[Declaration Day]

You should hear some of the questions we get in the lawnservice/landscaping industry.

For example, people will stop me while we are mowing, and ask if we cut grass. It's bad enough when they call my office, I answer "Northwest Lawn Care, Bryan speaking, how may I help you?" and they ask the same question....but to SEE us doing it and not make the connection?

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

I had to change "hit <enter>" to "hit <return> or <enter>"

There were two differently marked keyboards in use.

Yes. People ARE that stupid.

In my opinion, one of the biggest problems with computers are the software engineers who assume that all users surely must be at a certain level of knowledge, and that only people totally stupid would not know something like this. There are a lot of otherwise intelligent people out there, older ones mostly, who just have never used computers much, and have only ever seen keyboards with "enter" on them, and knowing how strict computers are with input and afraid of doing anything wrong, aren't sure what to do.