Bad Gun Shop Experience.

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flip888

flip888

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I'm not sure if this is the place this goes, but I went to Federal Way Discount Gun today in WA state to buy a used rifle, and I'm really dissapointed. The salesman was pathetic. I basically had to try to force any info I got out of him about the rifle, he acted like he new nothing about it one minute, then suddenly he knew the answer to my question minutes later when I asked an unrelated question. He seemed to try to tell me as little about the rifle as he could, like he was hiding something, probably hoping I'd buy it without knowing anything about it. At one point he even said I couldn't look at the serial number on the gun... No idea why, I feel like he didnt want me to even look the gun over before buying it. I just got a smug down talking attitude from him. But at the same time I felt he was mostly incompetent, I won't be back to buy a gun here.

Also, I let him look over a M&P I was thinking of getting rid of in a trade, he quoted me a rediculasly low price, around half of what I see them going for used online. I know they need to profit but come on... dont rip people off. I looked at him and laughed before putting it back in my car. I feel sorry for all the new people who actually sold their guns to this shop.

Don't go there...
 
Half the going used price is not an unusual offer for a retail establishment when it comes to selling/trading. Some places offer better, but it's still not uncommon.

Private sale/trade will just about ALWAYS get you a better deal as a result.

As for some of this guy's behavior, like not letting you look at the serial number...***, over? If his entire behavior is along those same lines, that would be a big turn-off to me for that place of business. If I'm interested in a item, it's the job of the business to exchange whatever information they have on the product in order to facilitate a sale to me. If they don't want to do that, then I don't have to buy.

Acting like one is hiding information gives me bad vibes...and I trust my gut feelings on bad vibes.
 
quoted me a rediculasly low price, around half of what I see them going for used online. I know they need to profit but come on...
Click to expand...

Says the guy who doesn't understand running a retail business or the cost of money...
 
Most dealers are looking to pay 60% of a firearms value. At a 40% profit margin, its worth their time, much less and not so much. As for the attitude, some folks are just a slang term for a donkey.
 
Jackal said:
Most dealers are looking to pay 60% of a firearms value. At a 40% profit margin, its worth their time, much less and not so much. As for the attitude, some folks are just a slang term for a donkey.
Click to expand...

I won't buy anything from a "Jack" donkey.:neener:

Now if she were a "Jennie" donkey,.....well........?:uhoh:
 
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There is a shop around here that I used to hate. First few times I went in there the sales staff was horrible. Arrogant, condasending jerks. Acted like all customers where completely incompetant. Low prices for trade too. Decent prices on new guns though.

A couple of years went by and a buddy ended up dragging me back in there. Night and day difference. Helpful courteous staff. I was pleasantly surprised. I am sure trade prices are still low, but I almost expect that everywhere.

Moral of that story is do not right them off completely. If they are a decent outfit they will listen to customer feedback (hard to ignore in the internet age) and change their ways, or weed out the bad apples among them.
 
You find them everywhere, but usually, at least some of the staff are decent human beings. Seek them out. If they're not there, leave pronto !

Give the business feed back, then check them out later.

Hey, "Money don't grow on trees" ! You don't have to spend it to support snobbishness !
 
I don't mind the disparity in the prices a retailer pays for a used gun. I understand it, just as I understand the differences between private sale price and dealer sale price for used cars. Different overheads, different dynamics.

I don't even mind the marginally higher LGS prices on guns, either, because I understand the dynamics of a brick and mortar store vs large volume retailer or internet.

But it galls me to this day to be shopping around for used firearms that are only a teeny-tiny markdown from the new gun price of the same model. I mean, really? I can buy a used gun with who knows what history on it OR, for $20-$50 more I can buy the same gun NEW with a full warranty?

I know guns have a relatively high resale price, but still...
 
I'm not sure if this is the place this goes, but I went to Federal Way Discount Gun today in WA state to buy a used rifle, and I'm really dissapointed. The salesman was pathetic. I basically had to try to force any info I got out of him about the rifle, he acted like he new nothing about it one minute, then suddenly he knew the answer to my question minutes later when I asked an unrelated question. He seemed to try to tell me as little about the rifle as he could, like he was hiding something, probably hoping I'd buy it without knowing anything about it. At one point he even said I couldn't look at the serial number on the gun... No idea why, I feel like he didnt want me to even look the gun over before buying it. I just got a smug down talking attitude from him. But at the same time I felt he was mostly incompetent, I won't be back to buy a gun here.

Also, I let him look over a M&P I was thinking of getting rid of in a trade, he quoted me a rediculasly low price, around half of what I see them going for used online. I know they need to profit but come on... dont rip people off. I looked at him and laughed before putting it back in my car. I feel sorry for all the new people who actually sold their guns to this shop.

Don't go there...
Click to expand...
Sorry you had to experience this, but that seems to be par for the course sometimes. I would have asked to see the manager and dealt with him and let him know about the incompetence of his staff member. I would have also made sure the incompetent salesman heard everything I told the manager about him, because most of the time someone like that will hang themselves when they hear what they did or didn't do when it is their job.
 
That particular chain of shops has the worst reputation of all gun stores in the greater Puget Sound area. OP's experience is not a surprise. There are many great gunshops in the region (especially the further over you go toward the South or West Sound).
 
That's their reputation. They don't know the meaning of customer service.

I tried the buy a program Glock 20SF from them but the sales clerk didn't know the mil discount applied to retirees too. I bought one from Mary's Pistols over on S Tyler for about the same price as the program Glock.

Six months later I wanted a G29SF too, went back to Discount Guns and told the owner of my previous experience in store. He yelled at the sales staff but didn't do squat to even try to make it right with me, instead I got the treatment the OP describes.

I've never been back.
 
Some gun counter clerks are helpful and courteous, some are condescending and ignorant...

Stopped at a Cabela's today and a guy was looking for a bedside pistol for his wife and the clerk kept steering him to the revolvers with comments of:
"Cause women can't rack the slide"
"Semi autos are too complicated for women"

:scrutiny:

Normally I just ignore stuff like that but I had to interject...

"Rather than giving her a revolver with only 5 or 6 shots, she could have a preloaded pistol with 15 rounds."
"Well...she'll just limp wrist it and stovepipe it and then she's dead!"

I had to walk away from that stupid line of thinking. My wife has no issues loading or operating any of her mouse gun to full size pistols THAT SHE OWNS and has never stovepiped them. And to comment that women can't operate an autoloader is about as absolute sexist as you can get. :eek: :fire::cuss:
 
hams beer said:
And to comment that women can't operate an autoloader is about as absolute sexist as you can get.
Click to expand...

Whether you like it or not, my experience in over 15 years of teaching pistol classes (12-15 students per class, 6 or 7 times a year) has been that significantly more women than men have difficulties with semi-automatics, primarily racking the slide and limp-wristing. There's even a page at the "Cornered Cat" website devoted to teaching women how to rack a slide.

http://www.corneredcat.com/article/running-the-gun/rack-the-slide/

Cornered Cat said:
It is true that a lot of women cannot rack a slide simply by muscling it through......But there are techniques which work with a woman’s strengths, rather than against them.
Click to expand...

Many females struggle simply because they aren't aware that there are techniques available to help them overcome their lack of upper body strength compared to a male.
 
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First of all, since he eventually answered your questions, sounds like he had to think about it to give you a correct answer. No idea about the SN thing though.

As for the low ball offer on your trade, maybe he really didn't want it? Might have a dozen of them in the back room and was just plain not interested in your gun. You also have to remember, you're competing with his cost on a new gun.
 
First of all they're a business thats into making a profit off selling guns. Why on earth would they give you a private party price on a used gun? They have to fork over the money to you and then hold on to it HOPING it sells.

My father works at a gunshop and has since he left nam' trade ins are fair but id do private sales for MAXIMUM gain. You wont get more then 70% of your firearms worth at ANY gun shop most the time unless its a rare firearm.
 
I gotta agree that half the price of what they sell for used is about the norm. But most shops will give you a bit more than that if you're trading towards a purchase from them not just selling it to them.

The serial number business and general attitude sound a bit odd.
 
I stopped selling/trading guns to the LGS when they offered me $50 for a NIB Mossberg 500 (won at a DU event).
 
There's more than one gun in the shop, right? Going thru the mental catalog to give you the right answer for the thousands that have sold over the years isn't something the average guy can do instantly.

If someone were to pick up a tool or knife in your home and ask where you got it, could you answer correctly in less than two seconds? Now imagine that you regularly sell them off and buy replacements a hundred times a year.

What kind of gun was it that was being looked at? It seems it was an impulse purchase if it was a casual visit and nothing was known about what kind it was, etc. A serial number means nothing at all other that to date it, and other features would do that faster if someone knows what they are.

It also boils down to the staff, if they have any experience, can tell if a customer is genuinely interested in buying, or is taking up their time entertaining themselves browsing around. Any decent car salesman does that on a minute by minute basis. Dress, hairstyle, shoes, and demeanor count for a lot.

From their perspective it may have come across as some guy with no real interest just badgering the help, and then trying to get an SN seems as if you are "investigating" them for some shady reason. If it's a storefront FFL they know to check various lists to prevent getting hung out to dry buying stolen firearms of recent note.

One thing for sure, posts similar to this pop up frequently, and the #1 common denominator is that the poster has never worked retail or held a job interacting with the public. Do that for ten or twenty years and the tone and perspective changes a lot when dealing with other retailers. Once you understand that "the customer always thinks he's right" then transactions are much more successful for both parties.
 
OP - Why would it be any different at a gun store? Is there some higher expectation at gun stores? Low trade in offers are pretty common when the goal is to resell for profit. Next time try to counter offer at the price you want for the rifle instead of laughing and putting the product away. That is a better negotiating tactic and does not cost anything. Most places I go have customer services that is average and product knowledge is minimal. Seems par for the course. Makes me really value good and friendly customer service. Sorry you had a bad experience.
 
Also, I let him look over a M&P I was thinking of getting rid of in a trade, he quoted me a rediculasly low price, around half of what I see them going for used online.
Click to expand...

Seems you already gotten eaten alive about this so I will go light. you are selling it to a guy who has to keep it on his shelf, with the small risk that it may eventually end up being used in a crime and taken from him or held for a long period of time, take up space on his shelf and hope someone is interested in it. There are risks of it not functioning well or at all and he may even have to offer a warranty or guarantee to keep his business reputation from taking a hit. He might even need to do some gunsmithing to get it to a condition he wants it to be to put his name on it.

He is there to turn a profit, not make one for others. If you don't want to be lowballed sell it yourself privately. I remember being young and walking through the mall with a friends father, he wanted to trade in some old video games for a new one. They of course offered him like $5 a piece for $70 video games. My friends fatehr was soo insulted he had offered him like $90 for probably $3000 worth of video games and consoles that he started to curse out the 16-17 yr old pimply face cashier as if he was the masrtermind for the pricing.

Meanwhile I sold mine on Ebay or whatever was trendy at that time for probably 5-6X that amount and could afford to buy whatever was the latest and greatest that we both wanted.

Selling an item back to a for profit retailer is the "lazy way out", when does the lazy way ever have the highest pay out?
 
As for the price for trade in, it's about normal. As for not letting you see the serial number and look at the gun for sale, I suspect he did not want you to buy the gun for some reason and was giving you a run around. Was it on consignment and not as profitable as other guns there for sale? Maybe he wanted it for himself or a friend and hoping the price would go down if it did not sell for a while. Either way, he did not want to sell the gun to you. If you like the gun and it was good price go back and hope you get another salesman. If you did not like the gun and/or it was priced high, it really doesn't matter.
 
~13-14 years ago I noticed a new gun shop where Rt28 enters Manassas from the south.

The Llama MiniMax .45 that I had seen at Rice's had been purchased, so I decided to stop in (at opening time) to see about getting one ... why not give the new local gunshop a little business, right?

I was the only customer and, after perusing the offerings in the case and on the back wall, asked one of the 2 fellows manning the shop about ordering a hardchrome Llama MiniMax .45.

They both then had what appeared to be a great deal of fun putting down the pistol, the maker and telling me that they hadn't been available for a long time since Llama was long out of business. They really yucked it up.

I thanked them for their time and left.

I went home, sourced the MiniMax at online retailer with little effort and had it shipped to my 'kitchen table" 01FFL buddy ...

... and didn't enter that shop, again, until last year.

During those intervening years, I bought a LOT of firearms, ammo and accessories from other places.
 
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