I have been researching some youth-appropriate rifles for my 2 daughters, who have gotten bit by the shooting bug. After a lot of reading, I had pretty much settled on a Henry mini-bolt for the youngest (8), and an acubolt for the oldest (11). IN addition, I was looking to purchase an XD9, or a compact 45 1911 for myself. Cash burning a hole in my pocket, just *waiting* to be spent.
I posted on THR for some recommendations as to gun stores in Portland, as I
had to travel up there for something, and had some extra time. After reading the PM's, and riffling through the web sites and PM's, I decided I'd head out to
Keith's sporting goods.
My W and I walked into Keiths, and I was suitably impressed, quite a few guns everywhere, looked like several staff, nice and organized, should be pleasant.
So we walked up to the counter, and kind of stood there. Somebody next to us was doing the paperwork for their purchase, and the other staff were distributed throughout the store, carrying on a conversation about one of the members homeowner association meeting, and who said what about who to whom.
SO we wait, we wait, and we wait. Finally, after several minutes, one of the guys, we'll call him R, yells across the room and asks if we need help. So I told him yes, we were looking for youth rifles, and if they carried any Henry's.
"Yes", R. said. And then sat there and looked at us. "Can we see one"? "Yeah", they're over there up on the wall". We we turned and look,and yes, 8 feet off the ground are 2 rifles, which are presumably the items in question. "Can we look at them", we asked?
Eventually he drug his carcass over there, and handed us one. So I looked at it, and it looked fine, but not having much experience with the youth models, and not knowing what to expect, I asked him if they were good starters. "Yes, they're fine". "Do you have any others you'd recommend"? "Yes, but I'd have to go get them". And then he just looked at us. No, "Would you like to see them", or "Hang on, and I'll get one", or anything, just stood there on the ladder looking at us.
"Do you have any acubolt's"? "What's an acubolt?" "The Henry... forget it".
"Do you have any XD's in 9?" "Yes". And then he just stood there looking at us. Didn't give us anythign like "Yeah, follow me, and I'll show you", or nothing. SO I asked if I could see one. And he heads off to another section of the store, and goes over and gets his *sandwich*, stuffs a bite in there, then while chewing it, walks down to the end, chews, chews, chews, then asks me if I"d like to see the 3", 4", or 5" models, after he's finally swallowed.
Long story short, repeat the same story wen asking about the 45 compacts.
As they were the only place that had the mini-bolt in stock, I bought it, but there was no way in hell I was going to purchase the XD or the 1911 from this store.
I will never purchase another item from them, and I can't stress strongly enough that if you're going to spend money in PDX, spend it somewhere else.
THen contrast that with 2 hours later...
I stopped at the Salem Sportsman's warehouse. What a *GREAT* experience. Salesman stuck with me the entire time, offered helpful suggestions, handed me probably 30 rifles, and 10 handguns, and was pleasant, polite, and courteous.
They ended up getting my other rifle purchase, and I bought a bunch of ammo, scope, benchrest stuff, and next time I'm headed up there, I'll pick up the XD there as well. Quality operation like that deserves the repeat business.
Can't recommend Sportsman's warehouse in Salem enough, can't say anything good about Keith's, except they had a lot of guns. Didn't want to sell any of 'em, but they had a lot. If I could've found the mini-bolt in stock elsewhere, I woudln't have spent th emoney at Keith's, but I needed it.
Note that none of the issues were with price, or location, or transfer fees (even though Keith's charges sliding scale based on value of the firearm, so that's another reason I wouldn't use 'em, but I wasn't going to use them before I found out about it), just plain old, good vs absolute crap customer service...
I posted on THR for some recommendations as to gun stores in Portland, as I
had to travel up there for something, and had some extra time. After reading the PM's, and riffling through the web sites and PM's, I decided I'd head out to
Keith's sporting goods.
My W and I walked into Keiths, and I was suitably impressed, quite a few guns everywhere, looked like several staff, nice and organized, should be pleasant.
So we walked up to the counter, and kind of stood there. Somebody next to us was doing the paperwork for their purchase, and the other staff were distributed throughout the store, carrying on a conversation about one of the members homeowner association meeting, and who said what about who to whom.
SO we wait, we wait, and we wait. Finally, after several minutes, one of the guys, we'll call him R, yells across the room and asks if we need help. So I told him yes, we were looking for youth rifles, and if they carried any Henry's.
"Yes", R. said. And then sat there and looked at us. "Can we see one"? "Yeah", they're over there up on the wall". We we turned and look,and yes, 8 feet off the ground are 2 rifles, which are presumably the items in question. "Can we look at them", we asked?
Eventually he drug his carcass over there, and handed us one. So I looked at it, and it looked fine, but not having much experience with the youth models, and not knowing what to expect, I asked him if they were good starters. "Yes, they're fine". "Do you have any others you'd recommend"? "Yes, but I'd have to go get them". And then he just looked at us. No, "Would you like to see them", or "Hang on, and I'll get one", or anything, just stood there on the ladder looking at us.
"Do you have any acubolt's"? "What's an acubolt?" "The Henry... forget it".
"Do you have any XD's in 9?" "Yes". And then he just stood there looking at us. Didn't give us anythign like "Yeah, follow me, and I'll show you", or nothing. SO I asked if I could see one. And he heads off to another section of the store, and goes over and gets his *sandwich*, stuffs a bite in there, then while chewing it, walks down to the end, chews, chews, chews, then asks me if I"d like to see the 3", 4", or 5" models, after he's finally swallowed.
Long story short, repeat the same story wen asking about the 45 compacts.
As they were the only place that had the mini-bolt in stock, I bought it, but there was no way in hell I was going to purchase the XD or the 1911 from this store.
I will never purchase another item from them, and I can't stress strongly enough that if you're going to spend money in PDX, spend it somewhere else.
THen contrast that with 2 hours later...
I stopped at the Salem Sportsman's warehouse. What a *GREAT* experience. Salesman stuck with me the entire time, offered helpful suggestions, handed me probably 30 rifles, and 10 handguns, and was pleasant, polite, and courteous.
They ended up getting my other rifle purchase, and I bought a bunch of ammo, scope, benchrest stuff, and next time I'm headed up there, I'll pick up the XD there as well. Quality operation like that deserves the repeat business.
Can't recommend Sportsman's warehouse in Salem enough, can't say anything good about Keith's, except they had a lot of guns. Didn't want to sell any of 'em, but they had a lot. If I could've found the mini-bolt in stock elsewhere, I woudln't have spent th emoney at Keith's, but I needed it.
Note that none of the issues were with price, or location, or transfer fees (even though Keith's charges sliding scale based on value of the firearm, so that's another reason I wouldn't use 'em, but I wasn't going to use them before I found out about it), just plain old, good vs absolute crap customer service...
I spend where I get good service. Any gun shop that hires idiots with no manners does not need my hard earned dollars!
