A gripe on gun shops

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We've only got one local gun shop, family run. We've got a Gander Mtn, so the local shop is a better deal usually. The owner is also the gunsmith, and in all honesty, he's one of the few people I wouldn't hesitate to let touch any of my guns.

The only gripe I have about him is that he's a die hard Hi Point hater. I asked him a while back if he'd order one of the 9mm carbines for me. He first gave me the "You need a Beretta Storm" speech. Then when he figured out there was no way I was paying 600 for a plinker he told me he'd order the Hi Point but wouldn't stand behind it.

I got aggravated at him for a little while, but after a visit to Gander, he and I are in each other's good graces again.

-John
 
When I go into a gun shop, my rule is this. If they treat me fairly, I will give them more business than they can stand, and tell everyone I know. If they mess me over or feed me a bunch of malarky, I will never visit their shop again, and tell everyone I know.

Word of mouth (or in this case word of internet) is still the best advertising, good or bad.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
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woof - I agree, the majority of gun stores don't have quite the customer service others stores do. However, when you find a good gun store, you're life will be forever changed.

I refuse to buy online now, after all the hassles i've been through. My local shop will order anything i want from guns to reloading supplies, etc. It took a lot of time to find a good shop, but now they're getting 100% of my business.
 
When I go into a gun shop, my rule is this. If they treat me fairly, I will give them more business then they can stand, and tell everyone I know. If they mess me over or feed me a bunch of malarky, I will never visit their shop again, and tell everyone I know.

Word of mouth (or in this case word of internet) is still the best advertising, good or bad.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
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Leon, you must be my long-lost twin brother because you've described my own policy to a T. I was just going to post more or less the same thing in answer to another post.
 
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PatinCO said,

I've found that gun shops are odd, in that the loyalty has to be built bi-directionally. Customer loyalty breeds shop loyalty.
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Should be the other way around.

Period.

I get a mixed bag in re shop owners also. Some seem to be good ole boy clubs, as someone pointed out. Well, I don't want to be one of the good ole boys. I just want to be treated like a customer.

I could really rant on one shop around here in particular, but general courtliness made me decide I wouldn't say anything specific about it. I wanted to buy a laser for my 1911 and started seriously looking for a basic simple AR-15 just to get my feet wet on black rifles. So that retailer will miss out on what, maybe $1300 - $1400 I will spend, not including accessories and upgrades in the longer run.

If I were more vindictive than I am, I would mail him copies of my future gun purchase receipts with a blow-off note on each one.

But.

I'm not that vindictive.

I'm going to visit Green Mountain Guns Saturday with many green dollars in my pocket. They were very nice and very helpful on the phone with me the other day.
 
Should be the other way around.
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Of course it *should* be the other way around. However, you're disregarding my observation that it often is not.

Another observation I've found, is that the smiley-face "everyone's our friends" shops tend to be overpriced badly. And the shops that get to know you as you get to know them tend to give you pretty good deals. Dealing with the gruff ole guy that just takes your orders without much to say is worth saving a couple of hundred bucks on a purchase to me. Of course, the big-box outdoor store around here will happily smile while bending me over the counter.

Coulda/shoulda/woulda is nice and all, but I'm just relaying my personal observations.
 
they can be gruff...

... in my hometown (I'm in SC) there's one store that's committed to selling firearms as it's principal business. The guys in there aren't exactly looking to win any congeniality contests, but if they think you're going to buy something, or just want to see a gun, they're very honest and helpful. They also run the only shooting range in the city, and when I go in there, I naturally check out what they have behind the glass, since guns are like beautiful women - if they're around, what the h*** else are you going to look at?

Today I was in there, and a woman was buying a gun, talking about how her ex was stalking her, and she already had a restraining order on him. She was concerned. I've seen gang-banger types in there trying to buy guns, only to get 'delays' on the background checks. I've heard a lot of talk about the upcoming election. Although the vast majority I see in there are just normal people, many with their kids just looking to use the range, I imagine the guys who work there see a lot more marginal or troubling cases than the ones I've witnessed. I imagine it makes you a little suspicious, skeptical or maybe even paranoid. That, and the 'tire-kickers' like me who want to just look before they shoot at the range (although I did recently buy a weapon from them), and the fact that there's gunfire constantly in the background, might give you a little edge.

My guess is that if any one of us was in the same profession, we might take on the same habits.
 
All I hae to say is I'm now in my 4th year of business as a FFL and side gunsmith, customer serice is the most important thing to me, thats one reason I started my business, I was tired of being and seeing other people getting ripped off or treated poorly, we all make mistakes as we learn anything, I've made my fair share, but I do my best and I really dont have any unhappy customers that I'm aware of, and seeing as I'm in a small area, I'm pretty sure I would know if I did. My business continues to grow, I invest as much if not more into my business each year as I sell out (thus posting loss the last three years) my biggest issue is money, I also work a full time job and have a family, I cant stock 20-30 guns...I mainly do special order, but do have some inventory, my ideal customer is someone that will come in and say "I want _____ please get it for me....." Someone that knows his/her stuff in other words.
 
J Star nailed it.

People who have never worked in retail don't know just how much of a horse's arse customers can be.

If you don't like the shop, either find a new one, or open your own, but don't expect to walk into another man's business and tell him how to run it. That's just asking for bad service.
 
People who have never worked in retail don't know just how much of a horse's arse customers can be.

If you don't like the shop, either find a new one, or open your own, but don't expect to walk into another man's business and tell him how to run it. That's just asking for bad service.
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I got my retail training behind the gun counter of a large department store in about 1970. Since then, whenever my regular business was slack, or I was between assignments. I've worked retail on and off. I even owned my own store. (Got tired of working 70 hours a week, so sold it.)

The only "horse's arse" I ever had to 86 was a guy who would come in, finger all the merchandise (small electronic parts in bins) and just had the look and actions of a klepto --looking to see if I was watching, etc. He never bought a thing. I don't know if he was baiting me for fun and games or actually stealing, or what, and I could not catch him slipping a part into his pocket. I finally just got tired of wasting my time watching him and asked him to leave and not come back.

All other folks who came in were treated as I would have liked to have been treated, and as a result I had techs and engineers from Denver and Boulder come all the way out to my shop instead of buying at a large shop downtown. Customers and I would have bull sessions, but as soon as a customer came in, I'd excuse myself from the group and go help that customer and make him or her feel welcome, and would usually introduce him/her all around.

And point out the coffeepot.

Welcome, you understand?

Unlike some of the small gun shops I've frequented, where you could almost feel the "who the heck are you and what the heck do you want" attitude the very first time you walk in the door.

Must be a difference in training. I guess a lot of gun shop owners are just not properly trained in retail, and seem to think you just buy stock, try to sell it at a profit, and whoop-de-doo.

But there's more to retail than that.

Much more.

And if you don't think that jerky gun shops are a problem, this must be about the tenth thread I've seen on this issue in the past two years.

That should tell you gun shop owners something!

I say again:


That should tell you gun shop owners something!
 
I think my biggest quirk about gun shops is "you don't want this, you want that."

Sportsman warehouse: "Hi, my name is Kitchen, I want to buy a ruger super redhawk 454 casull"

Behind the counter man: "you want a smith and wesson 460 for $200 more" :what:???? he continues, "it shoots 45 colt, 454 and 460!"
me: "But, I already have brass, bullets, primer, and powder for 454 and I do not need any extra power from the 460 (it's "minimal" anyway) and the gas blow by on the cylinder might damage my gun over time"
counter: "no it won't, you NEED this." - funny how I have only bought a ruger 10/22 at that Sportsman's Warehouse.

or the most recent at a gunshop in Seattle: "Wow, maverick 88's for cheap, these use mossberg barrels right?"

Really scary guy behind counter: "no, none of the parts are interchangeable"
me: "oh, I thought they were, well except the forends. but since they are not I don't want to buy one" - come to find out I was right, just the FORENDS are not interchangeable. So i went to Big 5 and bought a mossberg 500 with two barrels for $10 more.
 
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It's funny... people like to make fun of the state of guns in California. In Los Angeles, things can be particularly stifling when it comes to what you can and can't buy.

Anyway, the one thing I have never had at my local gun shop is a bad experience. The staff is friendly and they know their stuff. I am on a first name basis with the counter staff as well as management. If they don't carry it in stock, they will order it (CA legal of course) and I've never heard anything but objective opinions come from them as far as gun choices.

Maybe I'm lucky - or this store is just a little more concerned with keeping the customers coming back. I will still order from Bud's if I find a better price, but after FFL fees, that is rarely the case anymore.
 
"Try telling them that you will put a sizeable deposit down on a gun you want ordered and see what happens."

Why should that even be up to the customer to initiate? Why wouldn't the gun shop employee say, "We can order that for you, but we'll need a deposit on the gun." Isn't that what somebody who wants to make money would say?

"In many shops, the disparity between the treatment of the anonymous browser versus the regular customer seems to be much wider than other industries. And you know what? I'm absolutely fine with this arrangement. Because I get to feel a shop out, and they get to feel me out over time."

I personally hate that arrangement. I just moved to Utah recently. Does that mean I have to do my due diligence with each gun shop before I buy a gun? That is a stupid way to run a business. They make money, but not a lot. That's why their store space is in some junk location and the hired help is some local riff raff. And they'll never get out of their little middling retail hell. I can't stand arrogant and ignorant gun shop employees. It's like they're not even human. They've never been in a social situation where they've actually had to interact with another human being in a way that might make the other human want to interact with them again some time.
 
My experience with gunshops here around is Seattle is mixed.
Very few are staffed with people very friendly and helpful, others so so and some of them have no idea what customer service is.

Unfortunately the excessive gun regulations keep the big chains away from "all inclusive" gun business (rifles, handguns, accessories).

If some nation-wide stores would emerge like any other sectors, with excellent customer service, generous return policy, no credit card surcharges, etc, they would wipe out the small grumpy-staffed stores within one year.

By the way I noticed that even gunsmiths often are not very friendly and I refused to do business with 2 of them (one in particular a REAL A**hole)because of that.

Lastly, going to gun shows and hanging around gun shops I noticed that quite few people that "are into guns" around here are unfriendly, grumpy and weird....some are real creeps....this is one of the aspects that I really dislike in this hobby....at some gun shows, we "ordinary" folks we can literally spot each other and wave each other :D:D:D
 
A friend of mine sells cigars. Good cigars. Not the best on the market, not anywhere close. But people come from miles around to buy cigars from him because he treats each and every customer like they are the only person in the world. They come in, he introduces himself, asks what they like, gives them a little sales spiel, and in five minutes you feel like you've known him forever. He remembers customer's names, what they like to smoke, who their favorite team is, their favorite drink. The whole nine yards. If they want something he doesn't carry, he says "We don't have that - but this is just as good..." then gives them the substitute for free for them to try. (I wish you could do that with guns.) When a customer buys, he offers them a drink (Scotch, Vodka etc - free) and invites them to sit down and relax, have drink and a smoke and watch tv or chat.

I've often wondered why gun shops don't cater to customers this way. (I realize some things aren't do-able with guns that are do-able with cigars, but if I sold guns in a shop I'd offer a buyer a free Scotch. Why the hell not? He/She Just spent a few hundred bucks.) I've seen gun shop owners cheat buyer/sellers and then laugh about it as soon as the customer/pigeon left. It sickens me, really. I always try to give my customers more than they expect (I'm a graphic designer) and I think mom and pop gun shop owners should do the same. If I want to be treated like a number, I'll buy my guns from a retail syndicate. Funny thing is, I often feel more welcome at Gander Mtn than I do at Carter's Country.
 
After being flagrantly dissed
in a local gun shop a year ago,
I walked out, and will never return.

I've almost got all the guns I need/want.

For others, I'll go elsewhere.
 
AU

Here in Australia everybody is against us. Yes the whole population so its in the best intrest of the gun shops to be nice.
 
Welcome to the house, LR1.

Gunshop owners here would do well
to visit your country/continent.

You should offer workshops for them.

I'd set the price at $3K, meals extra.

Bring them down two full notches,
then send them back w/ humility.
 
hearin ya

Yes we still are going through the fall out from Martin Bryant and the sad loss down in Tasmaina. Even though it happened over 15years ago the goverment did the most amazing scare show ever seen here. overnight we went from autos to very restricted ownership of bolts.
 
It's funny... people like to make fun of the state of guns in California. In Los Angeles, things can be particularly stifling when it comes to what you can and can't buy.

Anyway, the one thing I have never had at my local gun shop is a bad experience. The staff is friendly and they know their stuff. I am on a first name basis with the counter staff as well as management. If they don't carry it in stock, they will order it (CA legal of course) and I've never heard anything but objective opinions come from them as far as gun choices.

Maybe I'm lucky - or this store is just a little more concerned with keeping the customers coming back. I will still order from Bud's if I find a better price, but after FFL fees, that is rarely the case anymore.
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M47 Dragon, What's the name/location of that store? I'd like to give it a try.
 
230RN, I wish you ran a gun shop in my area. You'd probably get all my business.

There was one here a while back that was great, and ran Just Like That. I effectively LIVED in that place. I spent money there too. But for some reason or other, they closed up their bricks and mortar place and moved to online only. They never were very high volume. Which is something I really didn't understand.

Why DID a shop with the utopian customer experience you relay (and competitive pricing) have to shut down, and the guys 10 miles away who look at every customer as if they're an ignorant clueon and have outrageous pricing stay in business? There is something screwy about the firearms market and customer experience.
 
I like my local gun shop, the guy behind the counter is gruff but he knows a hell of a lot and is happy to help or answer any questions.
 
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