Purchased broken gun, lesson learned

I purchased a used shotgun from a pawn shop. He spoke highly of it, but don't they always? I got no warning of any issues or that, if there were any once I purchased it, it was not their problem, but "all sales final" is posted on the wall. He told me it worked fine. I let a friend look it over and he noticed a lot of pitting. They didn't have or offer a light at pawn shop, so I wouldn't have noticed, but that's not what bothered me. It wouldn't cycle, and wouldn't latch with a shell in the chamber, so it'd be extremely unsafe to fire. There was no way of knowing that in the shop, short of trying to cycle shells or snap caps, which I don't exactly keep on me or try to cycle in a shop. The scene from Terminator comes to mind.

I took it back to the shop, and the wench at the register just pointed to the "all sales final" sign and told me it was my problem, and it isn't their responsibility to know if the products they sell function or not. They look at it, and if it looks functional, they sell it. I told them they'd no longer have a customer of many years (I got in every few weeks, usually just buy DVDs and such, but I always check to see if anything decent comes in) and she shrugged.

Yes, I should have inspected it better, but other than trying to cycle shells through it in the shop, there was no way of knowing. It was a Stevens 67, so fixing it was basically pointless. There's basically no takedown of that one without metal work. Just a warning to others, I haven't seen an establishment that wouldn't assist a customer with a total defective item in years, so I was pretty astounded. Luckily I didn't spend much.

joshk-k said:

On a side note, would you like someone calling your mother a "wench," regardless of her customer service?

Josh

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I actually replaced the original word I had with something less NSFW. If my mother were an awful person, nasty and deliberately scummy as this woman was... I probably wouldn't be as defensive of her honor, with which this woman in question has none.

clem said:

Tell us more about the shotgun. Some times the problem is just "assembled wrong" and as far as the barrel and parts, they can be found.

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It's a Model 67. Give it a Google. Most people who've found issues with them have been told "just toss it" because fixing it is, best case scenario, more expensive than it's worth, and at worst, not going to be possible or help much.

Searcher4851 said:

I reckon I'm just a little old fashioned. "ALL sales final" is a pretty clear warning flag.. If I don't know what I'm looking at, or can't make a determination as to condition / functionality, I'd just walk away.
You pay your money, you take your chances. YOU assumed the risk by not walking away. I wouldn't expect a pawn shop to have much expertise that I'd count on, and I wouldn't expect to be able to return it to them when their warranty policy is clearly posted. Instead of a firearm, you bought a decoration. If you actually LEARNED the lesson, as you stated, it was a cheap lesson that can pay off much more by saving you from a much costlier "lesson" in the future. I think you actually came out ahead in the long run.

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I don't take "all sales final" to be a warranty. I take it to be a "no returns" policy. I don't see bringing back something that didn't work from the moment it left the store, and while it was in the store, to be a "return." Maybe I expect a bit more honesty from people. I buy and sell online all the time, but every retailer, no matter what their return policy, will accept an item that never functioned for a refund. In fact, most are legally bound to.

Blackbeard said:

I'm no lawyer, but I believe any sale comes with an implied warranty of merchantability. If he represents it as a functioning shotgun, and it doesn't function as a shotgun, then he owes you either a repair or a refund. This is what small claims court is for.

Signs on the wall don't excuse him from his responsibility to sell goods that work as intended.

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It wouldn't be worth small claims. Just the filing is $75, and I'm sure these scum have gotten into enough trouble that they have a lawyer on hand. I agree with your statement, though.

JoeMal said:

The pawn shop might not have even known it was broken...sorry to hear about that though

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That shouldn't alleviate a seller's responsibility. I buy and sell all the time, generally musical instruments and camera equipment, and I'll tell you, "I didn't know" is never a valid excuse to stick a buyer with non-working products.

dogmush said:

An exploded view was pretty easy to find. Take it apart and see what's wrong before you get too wound up.

I think it is taken as given that pawn shops don't test stuff before they sell it, I wouldn't expect them to know whether it worked or not.

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There isn't much "taking it apart." Just to disassemble it requires metal work, more or less. You can Google the model and find plenty of people saying the same.

I already got rid of it. I don't want that junk.