Dang Shipping Gorillas..

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Trent

Trent

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Illinois
This sucks.

I ordered a TNW MG34 a couple of weeks ago through CenterFire systems in KY. They received my check, and had the FFL on file; when they went to pull it to inspect and verify serial # before shipping to me, they found it was damaged in shipping to them.

They said the stock was cracked, charging handle broke off (guess that's an impressive thing)...

I'd asked for pictures before sending them money, as I don't like buying things that expensive without seeing them first, but they said their photographer was out with Scarlet Fever. He said they were in great shape, built like tanks, etc.. So .. I acquiesced and sent money anyway.

In hindsight, I should have insisted on photos before sending money.

They are currently trying to get TNW to send replacement parts to fix it before shipping up to me.

The parts in that thing survived the battles of World War 2.. survived occupation and disarmament, survived 70 years of storage in some eastern European country's armory, survived getting torch cut, imported to the US, and rebuilt in to a semi config..

But .. fails to survive a trip across the US in the back of a truck.

Go figure.
 
ATBackPackin -

Yeah I wasn't too pleased about that part. I did a lot of business with Centerfire when I had my FFL, never had a problem with them. But.. that was several years ago. Things change with time.

I'm upset at this point, but not angry. They have a little while to make it right, before I get angry. I'm only about 7 hours away from them, and they are in a neighboring state. I'm SERIOUSLY considering driving there to inspect it in person before accepting delivery (neighboring state rule on long arms).
 
Might not be a bad idea, you can make a road trip out of it. Not to mention inspecting in person versus through pictures are worlds apart.

Good luck
 
Trent ....I'm upset at this point, but not angry. They have a little while to make it right, before I get angry. I'm only about 7 hours away from them, and they are in a neighboring state. I'm SERIOUSLY considering driving there to inspect it in person before accepting delivery (neighboring state rule on long arms).
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Let me get this straight........you think Centerfire is at fault?:scrutiny:

Seems to me they did an excellent job:
-They inspected your firearm before shipping it to you.
-Notified you of a MANUFACTURER caused problem.
-They contacted the manufacturer to get replacement parts.

Why on this green Earth would you be upset with that level of CS?
 
Yeah, I'm impressed that they pulled it out of the box for inspection before sending it to you.

Any reason they can't just send you a different one while they deal with fixing the damaged one?
 
Dogtown - reason I'm upset is this has drug on for so long:

Requested to be on notify with Centerfire on two rifles previously:


7/26 -
I receive:
"We got them in yesterday, actually. I have one set aside for you on order #xxxxx."

I sent an e-mail requesting pictures. "Can you send some pictures? This much money, would like to see what I’m getting before I send the cashier’s check."

I receive the response: "Yessir, will do. Our photographer is out sick today, but as soon as she’s back in, we’ll get it taken care of. "


7/27:

I sent:
"Just a reminder (I know how Friday’s can be!) Still would like pictures, and an invoice so I can get a cashier’s check drawn for you."

I receive:

"Sorry, photographer still out, so no pictures yet. Our order system is completely offline, but the total for both rifles and the two extra drums, is $xxxx, and the order number is xxxx."

7/30:

I send:
"Will get the cashier’s check out tomorrow as well (have to drive a half hour in to town to get it, and hit the post office, was going to kill both birds with one stone)."

I receive:
"Photographer has managed to contract scarlet fever, so still no pictures."

8/1:

I send:
"Check in the mail. Do you already have an FFL on file for {my Local FFL}"

I receive:
"Yessir, we have them on file, and I have applied the to the order. All set."

August 6:
I send:
"You get my check? Things shipped yet?"

I receive:
"Yes and no. Check arrived this morning, and the guns have gone to shipping. Should be on their way by the end of the day."

At this point I assume everything is OK.


Then out of the blue on August 7th, I receive;

"Well, things went pear shaped in a hurry. They pulled the MG34 to ship, and noticed that the charging handle was sticking out of the side of the box. Apparently it broke through during shipping, which is impressive, considering how they wrapped that, but that’s neither here nor there. The charging handle has been damaged, and there’s a crack in the stock, so we’ll have to get them replaced. Of course, TNW is in Oregon, so it will take a few days for the replacements to get here too. I’m very sorry about this. We can get the RPD out to you right now if you want, of course.

Again, very sorry about this."


Synopsis:

** I'd been told they'd pulled my rifles aside for shipping on 7/26 (over two weeks ago.)

** I'd repeatedly asked for photos, and never received any (I thought most everyone has a cell phones with a camera nowadays..)

** At SOME point they should have visually verified the serial #'s on the receiver for their bound books - I never trusted the cardboard box sticker or invoice when I was an FFL. Even found one rifle from FNH come in brand new in the wrong box once (serial # on the gun didn't match the box, or the invoice).

** If they HAD taken a picture as I requested, they would have found the damage over TWO WEEKS ago and they'd likely already have the replacement parts in. Now I have NO ETA WHATSOEVER on receiving the firearm; MG34 parts aren't exactly in plentiful supply these days..
 
Like I said, I'm not angry yet, just a little upset; this entire process could have gone down a lot more smoothly.

AIM, on the other hand.. those guys are just downright sluggish. Took them 8 days to pull and ship 6 cases of ammo for me after they'd charged my card.
 
I ordered lead bullets and they were in boxes, inside a thick plastic bag then inside a USPS flat rate medium box. All the contents were mixed with shredded inner boxes and the outer box was less than 50% there.:eek: I think that they rolled it here from Brads.:banghead: Good thing you cant hurt lead that much. Glad they were inside the thick plastic bag for sure.:)
 
Frogo;

I had the same thing happen when I ordered bullets from MidwayUSA. I ordered 10K of 185gr 45 wadcutters back in 2008. Only damn thing they had in stock, was during the great Reloading shortage of '08. (I'm *still* shooting them, BTW!)

I come home from work and find the boxes on my driveway - looks like the UPS guy pulled in and rolled them out of the truck; they were just laying there in the middle of my driveway in a pile.

Three of the five 2000 round boxes of 45 bullets arrive intact. Two are split open (they were double boxed with HEAVY cardboard so that alone is impressive). I discovered I have 45 bullets scattered ALL OVER my damn driveway. There's quite possibly a TRAIL of the damn things on the highway all the way back to the shipping depot.

Get them collected, bring it all inside, and take a count. I'm short nearly 1,200 bullets.

MidwayUSA wasn't at fault; wouldn't replace them. UPS didn't return my phone call / voicemails.

It's like.. large bore breadcrumbs man. Last year I found one a half mile from my house on the side of the road, walking my dog.
 
Trent how was this not Midways fault, you ordered a product, their shipping carrier damaged the product before it was delivered to you. UPS will only deal with the sender as they were the ones who paid them to deliver the package. Midway should have opened an insurance request with UPS and sent you a new shipment.
 
Midway directed me to file a claim with UPS. UPS ignored my claim.

I don't see how it was Midway's fault - they actually packaged the items excellently. The heavy inner box was surrounded by a 1/2" layer of styrofoam and it was all tightly packed in to another heavy duty box, with all sides and corners wrapped with packing tape. It *was* a very sturdy setup they used.

It didn't survive whatever torment it went through, but that's par for the course with UPS/FedEx. (You should see some of the pics I have of *SERVERS* we have shipped to customers, at work - some of them have arrived in a thousand tiny, little broken pieces.)

I'm no stranger to filing claims with UPS - but they treat business claims, and residential claims, with VERY unequal levels of customer service. Residential customers are treated very poorly, in my experience. Businesses tend to get better support (especially when the claim is on a server, properly shipped, which was destroyed in transit, while insured for $8500).

EDIT: in hindsight, you are correct; it is the SENDER who normally has to file the claim. WE do this at work, not our customers (our customers just take pictures and hold the broken pile of equipment until a UPS field rep inspects it).

Now I'm kind of kicking myself in the ass for not pushing the issue.

1200 rounds x .20c a round is not an inconsequential amount of money.
 
20 days since Centerfire received my money ($3700 of which was for the MG34), 25 days since the MG34 was set aside for me on my order..

Since the last time I posted, I have not received any news on the state of repair or when I'll receive the MG34 rifle.

I have sent 3 e-mails to the sales rep in the last week asking about the status of the MG34, all of which went unanswered.

Wise-Lite RPD was received last week. Had some issues firing, but I've worked through those. (RPD wouldn't fire reliably when the trigger was pulled - only went bang about 1/4 of the time, had to hone some metal off the disconnector to get it to function properly)
 
Fed-ex once lost a gun that was being shipped to a shop I worked at. We recieved an empty torn box. It was a brand new Beretta 92. Turns out it was stolen by a Fed-ex employee at one their facility It was found in an empty trailer on their property and it was no longer a "new" gun. This is why the carriers now insist on overnight shipping (and they make more money that way). The longer they have it in their possession the greater the chance one of their own people will steal it. And then you get to talk to the nice folks from BATFE. They made out like we stole it and then reported it missing. It's a crazy world out there.
 
Yeah no doubt. I never label any guns I ship "firearms" and any time I ship to a company with "firearms" or "gun shop" or whatever in their name, I cringe a little inside.
 
Update 8/24

Called and spoke with Centerfire.

No ETA yet. I learned they shipped the firearm back to TNW and were awaiting a replacement.

Almost a month in now...
 
If you stick it to the shipping companies stuff can and will change, lets just say, when they are handling thing from people able and willing to sue their pants off, I'm pretty sure they don't drop kick if off the back of the truck into the middle of the driveway.
 
I had UPS utterly DESTROY a set of servers once - properly packed, double boxed, 4" of fitted styrofoam, etc. Each server was insured at a declared value of $7500, each was shipped seperately. All were destroyed. I'm talking, little tiny pieces destroyed.

They actually payed the claim to my company (after a loooong fight).

Then they refused to accept ANY shipments from us, ever again.

So we use FedEx or consigned carriers now.
 
At least they didn't toss them off the side of the road in a ditch, behind tall grass, under some trees (how one home FFL received his gun - and the kicker was, the pistols were 'signed for')

he found them 3 days later when he was mowing, just, um the reason he was mowing 3 days later, was that it had been raining...
 
they found it was damaged in shipping to them.
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Nothing surprises me since I got a package in from UPS with a large muddy footprint on it right next to the "Fragile, Handle with Care" sticker.
 
No photographs because "photographer is sick" sounds like suspicious BS to me. Smartphones have cameras and taking a picture isn't that hard. Find a new FFL.
 
Hit the one month mark today.

No MG34, no ETA.

Evidently the firearm is in the manufacturer's (TNW's) hands in Oregon at this point, and now I'm (still) waiting without any information whatsoever.

So if you guys spent $3600 on a firearm which was "in stock" at the time you ordered it, and a month later you hadn't received it, or any indication whatsoever of when it will arrive.... what would you do?
 
I might take a little road trip if I could find a physical address and ask in person why they are not at least answering my inquirys in a timely manner. That's just me---I would always want them to know I was serious.:eek::fire:
 
Years ago in another job we received a replacement laptop main board (mother board) in a box with a tire tread mark over the top of it... Needless to say we did not install the part.

A friend of mine ran a custom computer shop, built and shipped out a computer to an individual, upon arrival the individual was POed he called up and said there was a hole in the middle of the computer. When my friend received the computer back the shipper had driven a fork lift straight through the middle of the computer.
 
Frog; there are three FFL's involved.

TNW is the FFL manufacturer. Rifle is currently in their hands in Oregon, if the information given to me was accurate.

Centerfire is the FFL distributor / seller (they do retail AND wholesale). They are who I ordered through.

Pekin Gun is my LGS FFL. They are just handling the final transfer to me when it comes in to the state of Illinois.

Centerfire doesn't have any information to relay to me from TNW. TNW is the responsible party at this point. Centerfire DID drop the ball, and hard, but now the buck has been passed and it's up to TNW.

Finding an alternate source for an MG34 at the same price level is proving difficult, everyone is out of stock. I've looked (not deeply), but checked the usual spots; atlantic, gunbroker, etc.

Could I find one around the same price? If I'm patient, perhaps, but there's no guarantee I'd find one any quicker than TNW will replace the original.

As far as TNW is concerned, I'm sure my rifle has a MUCH lower priority than putting out current production because they have already made their money on it.
 
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