Need help with Gunbroker deal gone bad

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steady shot

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OK, here's the story.

A few days ago I won an auction on Gunbroker for a new Tactical shotgun. The price was well below wholesale and I knew this, that's why I bought it. The seller had the pay by credit card through Gunbroker option, so I paid the extra 3% by credit card because I wanted to make sure the seller couldn't back out before I paid.

So today, 4 days after the end of the auction I get a phone call from the gun shop that sold me the gun. Sure enough they are trying to back out of the sale. They told me they had already sold the gun I bought and they tried to get me another one but the price has went up. First off that was a bold face lie, the whole sale price of the gun I bought has not went up, they just screwed up and priced it too low to begin with. I ask to talk to the owner or manager and was told he was not in at this time.

The guy on the phone told me he could get me the gun at their cost, which not surprising is much more than I have already paid or refund my money...

I told them I will call back later and let then know.

So what are my options? This has never happen to me before and I have bought several firearms off Gunbroker in the past with no problems...
 
Make sure you get 100% of your money refunded, or file a dispute with your credit card company
 
GunBroker should be able to do something. It's right in their Buyers Protection.

"While fraud is virtually non-existent at GunBroker.com, our Buyer's Protection Program gives you as the bidder the peace of mind to bid and buy with confidence. Our Buyer's Protection covers two specific forms of fraud:

You pay for an item and never receive it, or
The item you receive is materially different that its description, such as winning a stainless steel pistol and receiving a blued one instead."
 
I have filed a complaint with Gunbroker customer support and I'm currently waiting for a reply back from them.....
 
As already stated get your refund through the CC Co and leave negative feed back if you still can. Gunbroker is full of shady deals. I had a similar situation several years ago. In my case I won a no reserve auction with a low starting price and the guy just wouldn't make contact with me. I watched for him and that rifle for several months and he and the rifle never showed up.
 
This time of year it may take a week or more to hear back from them but they will take care of it.
If the seller don't give you your gun for the price you won it for they will be banned.
 
And this, dear reader, is why you don't buy stuff at online auction sites. Look on the bright side, at least you haven't lost any money.
 
Don't swear off gunbroker altogether -- I've probably made about 50 deals on the site, never had a problem. I guarantee I've saved many thousands of dollars in taxes and gun costs.
 
Get your money back and walk away. Make a note to not do business with the cretins again. You could file a negative feedback but they will probably do the same. If you really want to file negative feedback, set an alarm for 89 days and 11 hours from the transaction. :evil:
 
I had something similar happen a few years ago with a Colt Officer's model. I won the bid and then they said they'd sold the gun.
 
Well, I received a response from Gunbroker customer service. They didn't do much, but I wasn't expecting them to do very much, so I'm not really that disappointed.

Anyway here is what they said:

(If the seller does not have the item available which was offered on the site, you will need to request the seller process a Full Refund.
We ask you to post appropriate feedback for the seller - the seller may respond to your posting, but will not be able to post feedback for you.)


LOL, so the only thing they really did was prevent the seller from giving me feedback.....
 
steady shot said:
OK, here's the story.

A few days ago I won an auction on Gunbroker for a new Tactical shotgun. The price was well below wholesale and I knew this, that's why I bought it. The seller had the pay by credit card through Gunbroker option, so I paid the extra 3% by credit card because I wanted to make sure the seller couldn't back out before I paid.

So today, 4 days after the end of the auction I get a phone call from the gun shop that sold me the gun. Sure enough they are trying to back out of the sale. They told me they had already sold the gun I bought and they tried to get me another one but the price has went up. First off that was a bold face lie, the whole sale price of the gun I bought has not went up, they just screwed up and priced it too low to begin with. I ask to talk to the owner or manager and was told he was not in at this time.

The guy on the phone told me he could get me the gun at their cost, which not surprising is much more than I have already paid or refund my money...

I told them I will call back later and let then know.

So what are my options? This has never happen to me before and I have bought several firearms off Gunbroker in the past with no problems...
Click to expand...

1. If the seller is in the same state as you, there might be legal recourse. If out of state it's likely that the cost to litigate would exceed the value of what you would have saved on the gun.

2. I bought a barrel on gunbroker.com that was not as advertised. Gunbroker.com was pretty worthless as far as making the seller do anything to rectify the situation. The bright side is that I was able to resell the barrel with full disclosure of its defects for as much as I paid for it.

3. The only other negative gunbroker.com experience I've had was when I won a Blaser shotgun barrel for, as I recall, 3 cents (yes, $0.03). The seller claimed there had been a listing mistake and maybe there was. I was in Ohio and he was in Florida. The barrel was probably worth north of $3,000 so, if I had chosen to, I probably could have pursued the matter and come out ahead but I kind of believed him because he was new to gunbroker.com. I still left him negative feedback though.

4. ALWAYS check the feedback of sellers and DON'T deal with bad actors. Even a few negatives or neutrals are very significant. From back in the day when eBay listed feedback from forever (unlike now where it's only a year) I learned that some could have hundreds of transactions with no negative feedback while others would pick up some. I would consider even 3 negatives or neutrals out of 1,000 significant.
 
I'd be a little pissed off! It says plain as day that when you click that submit bid button this is a binding contract...
Unless of course the seller had listed in the description that it was for sale locally etc...


But I bought a gun off GB, paid wednesday morning. It's arriving today! That as good as AMAZON prime!!!


lol
 
Follow Gunbroker's advice and move on.

Make clear in your feedback that you were told the gun was "already sold" and you were then offered to pay MORE for the same gun, or more for a different one. That is the ultimate shady thing in all of this - that they would totally upcharge you no matter your options from them.

They placed an auction, you won it, you get that at the price or get a full refund.

Be very polite in your interactions with them. Don't get too emotional, just move on.
 
stonecutter2 said:
Make clear in your feedback that you were told the gun was "already sold" and you were then offered to pay MORE for the same gun, or more for a different one. That is the ultimate shady thing in all of this - that they would totally upcharge you no matter your options from them.
Click to expand...

Your classic bait and switch.

They may have done this before, and the person ends up agreeing to pay the higher price.
 
Not only did they renege on the sale, they re-listed the same gun a day later at a much higher price of course and to no surprise, it didn't sell.

The funny part, if you can call it that, is the gun shop in question has it's own on line web site. So I took a look and they have several of the same model shotguns in stock on their site.

This will be the first time I have ever had to leave negative feedback for a transaction on Gunbroker.:(
 
Can you see the serials numbers in both ads so that you could prove to gun broker that they did not sell the gun?
 
danez71 said:
Can you see the serials numbers in both ads so that you could prove to gun broker that they did not sell the gun?
Click to expand...

No, I can't see the serial numbers, however this is what it said on the page with the item I won:

This item has been Sold!

This auction has ended but the item has been relisted.
Click here to view the new listing: Item # XXXXXXXX
 
Steady shot, I can understand your frustration, especially when they relist the same gun days later. Get your refund. If they will not process it, contact your credit card company.

If you feel compelled, you can file a complaint with your state's Attorney General Consumer Division and provide them with the original listing info as well as the relisting info. You would be surprised how quickly that will get the seller's attention and how quickly they stop that type of bait and switch activity.

Good luck!
 
3. The only other negative gunbroker.com experience I've had was when I won a Blaser shotgun barrel for, as I recall, 3 cents (yes, $0.03). The seller claimed there had been a listing mistake and maybe there was. I was in Ohio and he was in Florida. The barrel was probably worth north of $3,000 so, if I had chosen to, I probably could have pursued the matter and come out ahead but I kind of believed him because he was new to gunbroker.com. I still left him negative feedback though.
Click to expand...

You knew the barrel was severely underpriced and still left negative feedback?
 
If you perceived the deal too good to be true (meaning the price was likely a mistake) and the vendor was not aware of the mistake in his pricing (which is quite common especially in online sales), you will not be allowed to take advantage of that if the matter ever went to court. The usual legal remedy i that situation would be rescission of the contact (i.e, each party is restored to their former position with property/money being returned). If neither of you were aware of the mistake than a reformation of the agreement would occur and the price would be adjusted to what is fair.

If the vendor was aware of the mistake (i.e., such as in the case where the vendor was employing a bait and switch) and reneged on the deal, then the contract would be enforceable and the vendor would be in breach. Your remedy would be specific performance or damages equal to the extra cost you would incur to buy the same item from someone else.
 
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