10 guns gunshop employees are uncomfortable selling

[fflincher]

Is the customer always right?

What rules/customs prevail at your store?

Gun shops are retail establishments. They can't sell what they don't handle. If they do handle it, and your job is to sell it and that makes you uncomfortable, perhaps you should seek different employment.

The fact is, for me, the more I know about guns the more I am eager to help others learn about and appreciate guns. I have an urge to help others solve their problems and, sometimes, have given too much information to a shopper and deflected what might have been a sale.

I now will answer a shopper's questions honestly and to the best of my ability, if not encyclopediaically. Unless asked, I won't offer an opinion that is negative about any firearm. I have to remember what my mission is and stick to it. Enjoyable as it is to me to display my extensive knowledge and experiences, not many people shopping for guns would sign up for my seminar, so I try to find out what a customer's needs are and to the extent that his needs coincide with my own, fulfill them.

 

[Tom Fury]

Think you missed something.

I think if you were as ethically squared away as you think you are, you'd have to admit to some qualms.

Even the comparison dialogues here which have nothing to do with buying or selling expose weaknesses and bad experiences which, since you know about them from lurking here, you must now be responsible to factor into your judgment about whats' good and bad in your retail performance.

If you're unwilling to face this ethical dilemma, maybe you should consider another line of work.

I think your "mission" mentality is a cop out.

But for the sake of argument:
The rules in our shop were "Make money." (Sounds retail, doesn't it?) The customs of our shop: Wheel and Deal, but be real.

The best way to make money?

Repeat business...satisfied customers who felt taken care of.

My best return customers knew when I was taking care of them and the bottom line, and appreciated it. Thats' why they came back.

We had another salesman that didn't get it about that for a while. Customers who were frequent buyers wouldn't deal with him; they'd ask for somebody else, or wait for someone else. Eventually, he moved on.

Is the customer always right? No.
Is the bottom line the bottom line? No.

Customer service is exactly that; they have figured it out, and thats' what they expect and value; if your "mission" is to make money for the shop, get a clue. Your job may require you to wrestle with your ethics a bit more than you seem to want to.

All expertise carries a weight of ethical responsibility; if I know, I can't not tell you. If you decide you can't be bothered and don't want to know, thats' another story. If they ask for my expertise, and I know better, (and lurk THR to keep it educated) how can I not tell what I do Know?

Cheers, TF

 

[fflincher]

Gee, Tom, thanks to your post, I did reexamine my take on things. As a result of that reexamination, I am satisfied that my ethics are unchallenged in this regard.

I've probably been inside more cheap handguns than most people here. The most common causes for failures with the Ring of Fire guns has been broken firing pins, lack of lubrication, missing pieces, dried lubrication/rust, ammunition that was not compatable with a particular gun, etc. I recall one Jennings that came to me with the sear put in backwards.

There is and always has been a market for basic, inexpensive self defense weapons. I fully understand that some people cannot afford a lot for what they see as an emergency device that may never be used.

I won't tell 'em right off the bat that a Jennings/Bryco/Lorcin/HiPoint pistol is a POS. I will educate them NOT to dry fire it and recommend ammunition that is most likely to be compatable with it.

Some people don't want any input at all from me. They've decided what they want and what they want is to pay me for it and have as brief interaction as they can have. If that makes them happy, then I'm happy for them.

I've seen a fair number of people dressed with clothes much too large for them, hanging off their pierced and tatooed bodies, wearing unique hair styles and matching the appearance of gang members as featured in television and film, who are shopping for guns. If I lived in such a neighborhood, I'd want a self-defense weapon, too. I had to come to recognize that it is not a person's style or politics which is a bar to firearm ownership, it is past criminal behavior, age or immigration status and, sometimes, place of residence which matters.

That said, there are some people who make me uncomfortable, and I will not deal with them because whatever profit or advantage may come to me during the anticipated transaction, it's not worth the time it would take to discuss the matter with anyone in authority.

There are pharmacists who will not dispense certain medications. I don't think that's their right for them to decide which nostrums their store stocks I can and cannot have, but I can always shop elsewhere.

 

[Tom Fury]

Still don't get it.

fflamer:
You seem to have a point you want to make about freedom which would be better served by coming out and stating it rather than trying to fold it into a reaction to opinions of others; and dismissing their right to that discussion.

You also seem to want to do it without discussing responsibilities that go with freedom.

70 some odd other folks who joined this discussion got the point, and managed to discuss it without turning it into an opportunity for posturing.

Try harder, and give up patronizing.

Cheers, TF

 

[fflincher]

The handle is "fflincher".

I gave up flaming some years ago.

I will admit to having been sucked into your intial request for meaningful discussion. That is not, in my experience, often advanced by name calling.

You told us in your first post there were some guns you didn't feel comfortable selling. I've told you what I have done and what I do, and what I think about it.

You may consider that meaningful discussion. Or not.

 

[mattk]

As a former gunshop employee, the guns I was uncomfortable selling are as follows:

1. Anything by Lorcin or Jennings or Sunrise et. Why? The generated more complaints and aggrivation then the they were worth. We had a range as well as gunshop and everybody wants to shoot their new gun. The Lorcins and Jennings usually didnt work well.

2. NAA Mini Revolvers. Hard to shoot and couple of people got burned by the flash from the cylinders on the .22mag versions.

3. Walther PPK. The triggers suck and the slide bites and then I have to render first aid.

Ahhh Good times. It was fun while I worked there. I only almost got shot twice.

 

[Master Blaster]

The one you want, that they don't carry, and has to be special ordered.

 

[Newkid]

Ok! just a thought. Why do people get ignorant over something that is free to all? Like this web site. We live in an open freeminded country where we must be able to express our right to that freedom, however there are and always will be human beings that consider anything that they didn't think of, a sort of blasfimy, for no other word for description. Thus declaring the ignorance that accounts for some of the belittleing and most aragant reflections of what is really inside and between the lines of some these human beings that strive to wreck it for everyone else. Be fair, Be kind, and Be generous.

 

[trueblue1776]

Ok! just a thought. Why do people get ignorant over something that is free to all? Like this web site. We live in an open freeminded country where we must be able to express our right to that freedom, however there are and always will be human beings that consider anything that they didn't think of, a sort of blasfimy, for no other word for description. Thus declaring the ignorance that accounts for some of the belittleing and most aragant reflections of what is really inside and between the lines of some these human beings that strive to wreck it for everyone else. Be fair, Be kind, and Be generous.

This isn't the "10 words a gunshop employee is uncomfortable spelling" thread.

 

[GotGlock]

Hi point anything