FFL Transfers- How long should I wait?

[dogtown tom]

mg.mikael Well hears the story, I just bought my first gun online as I'm more preferential to buying in-store where I can actually handle a gun. Nevertheless, I purchased a gun from Buds on July 13th and it arrived at my FFL on July 24th.

I'm a kitchen table dealer.....while packages may show "delivered"....that just means the box is sitting at my local UPS Store where I receive packages. This means your dealer may not actually have the package in his possession.

mg.mikael .....I'm pissed had the FFL told me he wouldn't have been doing business, taking a vacation, or whatever else he's doing, I wouldn't have sent it to him in the first place. Now I have to wait untill August 13th and being a college student I have to go back to school around the 20th. That means I was given a royal screwjob as now I won't be able to take it on the vacation I was planning.

The dealer has no idea if you actually placed the order with Buds. Every month I'll have three or four guys call me up about their latest purchase and the need to do a transfer........that never arrives. Do you think I should cancel my plans with the expectation that those guns may appear any day now?

Taking a planned vacation or business trip beyond a few days and not warning your customers IS BAD FORM. Keep in mind that businesses close for reasons other than vacation....like a death in the family.

When I see this guy I'm gonna rip him a new one, since he's charging me for keeping my gun nearly half a month when I want it now! Lousy FFL,

Did you really agree to let him charge you a storage fee while he's on vacation? If he didn't mention it and you didn't agree....shouldn't jump to this conclusion.

waterhouse What exactly was the arrangement you agreed to before ordering?

I think the FFL certainly should have told you they were going to be out of town for an extended period of time, but if you called and said you were placing an order with Bud's on the 13th they may have been expecting it before the 24th.

I've had customers call and tell me "hey, I'm ordering a gun from Bud's" ......and then they mailed a check. That means the shipment might not even begin processing for TWO WEEKS. (pay via credit card and you're looking at a few days).

mg.mikael .....We had an email relay going as it was my first time using this FFL(or any FFL in general) and we talked about his services/pricing. When I ordered the gun I notified him immediately so he very well knew to expect it.

I transfer a number of Buds firearms every week (fifteen last week) I'm not privy to Bud's shipping schedule.....so i doubt your dealer was either.
Bud's typically does not notify the receiving dealer that a shipment is inbound. If they already have a copy of the receiving dealers FFL they just ship when ready.

A couple of years ago I had a customer ream me out because he ordered a Cricket .22 for his daughter four days before Christmas. I left town on the morning of the 23rd, the gun arrived that afternoon. He wigged out because "you didn't tell me you were going out of town!".

Odd, if it was THAT important that he have that Cricket ASAP........HE SHOULD HAVE ASKED prior to placing his order with Bud's.....he didn't.


OP,
I decided to get my own FFL after two similiar experiences with my former dealer. Although the first five went smoothly (he notified me immediately), the sixth transfer he waited eleven days to call to schedule a pickup (I had the tracking info), he ignored my three emails and two voice mails. I wrote that off as a one time problem. Two months later i won a GB auction and it was twelve days before I received a call......turned out he was letting his high school age son help run the transfer business and the kid only wanted to work a couple of days a week. The kid was scheduling transfers as he saw fit and only two days a week....if his schedule was full your transfers got bumped to the next week.

I knew I could do better, so I got my FFL and make it a practice to notify customers as soon as I have their package in hand.
(and my former dealer? "Accidently" let his FFL lapse with around thirty customers guns in his possession......needless to say he's no longer an FFL, and moved out of town shortly after. He was a great guy who made a stupid business decision.)

 

[mdauben]

Is this guy a kitchen table FFL, or an actual shop? Bad form if it’s a shop, but if it’s one guy working out of his kitchen, I think that's just the risk you take dealing with someone like that. Sure, he's probably 1/2 the price of the local shop for transfers, but then things like this happen. Her may only work on transfers part time, and he obviously has no one to "cover" for him when he takes time off.

Personally, despite how disappointing this experience was for you, I would not "ream him out" but just chalk it up to experience and don't deal with him next time if you're that dissatisfied.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Mine is a home based, I call him, I usually let him do the final shipping arangements (why I use him) and he lets me know when he gets them (not that I don't have the tracking info too)

He's also pretty active as a guide and such during the summer, so I know not to sweat it if I can't pick it up for a week cause I can't get out that afternoon. He had a vacation, let me know, last order came in the day he was leaving, and he had been holding the previous shipment so I could pick them up all together. It was no big deal, but then I'm in contact, talking to him, and usually know just what to expect.

 

[mg.mikael]

Is this guy a kitchen table FFL, or an actual shop? Bad form if it’s a shop, but if it’s one guy working out of his kitchen, I think that's just the risk you take dealing with someone like that. Sure, he's probably 1/2 the price of the local shop for transfers, but then things like this happen. Her may only work on transfers part time, and he obviously has no one to "cover" for him when he takes time off.

Yes he's a kitchen table FFL, with a side gun smithing business out of his house. And yes, I went with him because of the price $20 compared to everyone else in the area that wants at least $50 on average.

I take issue with the fact if he is taking time off, he could have at the very least had the courtesy to tell me that he's going out of town(or whatever his reason) and that any transfer will be a few weeks (or in my case 21 days.) The funny thing is I contacted another FFL before this one, and he told me that he would be out of town till the 15th of August hence my reasoning for going with this particular FFL. That obviously didn't work out too well....

 

[mg.mikael]

The dealer has no idea if you actually placed the order with Buds. Every month I'll have three or four guys call me up about their latest purchase and the need to do a transfer........that never arrives. Do you think I should cancel my plans with the expectation that those guns may appear any day now?

Actually he did know the order was from Buds, I notified him a few days before my actual purchase to see if he was accepting transfers and if so that I would be using Buds. Yes, I also payed by credit card so their were no long delays and the day of my purchase I gave him the specifics of my order. In all the time we were communicating he didn't warn me that he wouldn't be doing transfers or going out of town for any extended period of time and therefore unable to do any services. Which as a customer(one-time now) I would have really like to have know beforehand, so at very least I would have the ability to use someone who could perform a transfer in a timely manner.

 

[larryh1108]

What town is he based out of? There are more than one that do transfers in the $20 range. Whenever my guy went out of town he sent an email to his customer base stating so. Being a first time user you may not have been in his database yet. These kitchen table FFLs in Chicagoland get swamped because the bigger guys rape you on prices and couldn't be bothered after they charge $80 or so.

 

[35Rem]

Maybe his reason for leaving town is unexpected? How would you feel if it's a death in the family?

Please be considerate. Your FFL is a person, too.

 

[dogtown tom]

mg.mikael

Quote:
The dealer has no idea if you actually placed the order with Buds. Every month I'll have three or four guys call me up about their latest purchase and the need to do a transfer........that never arrives. Do you think I should cancel my plans with the expectation that those guns may appear any day now?

Actually he did know the order was from Buds, I notified him a few days before my actual purchase

Again, he has no way to verify that you actually placed the order with Bud's. While the majority of handgun shipments from Bud's arrive within a couple of days, some may take a week or more.

Bud's will keep you in the loop as far as processing, tracking, shipping, etc....but your dealer doesn't get that info.

 

[mg.mikael]

Bud's will keep you in the loop as far as processing, tracking, shipping, etc....but your dealer doesn't get that info.

Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure everyone else using an FFL isn't suffering through a 21 day wait to get their gun transfered over.

 

[Shuler13]

You aren't alone with missing expectations with an FFL. I have used some places that I have also purchased in store from and the small LGS a mile from my house took as long as the busy police supply store 10 miles away. Both on multiple occasions had the pistol or rifle delivered and hadn't called three working days later. They usually asked for a 24 hour period to get the item in the books before calling, but I tried to give them some extra time during this busy gun selling year. It wasn't until I called on day 3 that they "located" my delivery and told me they could get it in the books in the time it took me to drive over. It upsets me every time when an FFL sits on my delivery and is the exact reason I will NEVER pay for overnight shipping. I despise the FFL process for this very reason.

 

[Shuler13]

Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure everyone else using an FFL isn't suffering through a 21 day wait to get their gun transfered over.

yeah 21 days is ridiculous. Time to look elsewhere next time unless you take this opportunity to relay with the FFL your expectations and whether they can meet them in the future.

 

[dogtown tom]

Shuler13 You aren't alone with missing expectations with an FFL. I have used some places that I have also purchased in store from and the small LGS a mile from my house took as long as the busy police supply store 10 miles away. Both on multiple occasions had the pistol or rifle delivered and hadn't called three working days later. They usually asked for a 24 hour period to get the item in the books before calling, but I tried to give them some extra time during this busy gun selling year. It wasn't until I called on day 3 that they "located" my delivery and told me they could get it in the books in the time it took me to drive over. It upsets me every time when an FFL sits on my delivery and is the exact reason I will NEVER pay for overnight shipping. I despise the FFL process for this very reason.

If your dealer is waiting several days to log your transferred firearm they need to be reminded of this ATF regulation:

§ 478.125 Record of receipt and disposition.
(e) Firearms receipt and disposition by dealers.
Except as provided in §478.124a with respect to alternate records for the receipt and disposition of firearms by dealers, each licensed dealer shall enter into a record each receipt and disposition of firearms. In addition, before commencing or continuing a firearms business, each licensed dealer shall inventory the firearms possessed for such business and shall record same in the record required by this paragraph. The record required by this paragraph shall be maintained in bound form under the format prescribed below. The purchase or other acquisition of a firearm shall, except as provided in paragraph (g) of this section, be recorded not later than the close of the next business day following the date of such purchase or acquisition. The record shall show the date of receipt, the name and address or the name and license number of the person from whom received, the name of the manufacturer and importer (if any), the model, serial number, type, and the caliber or gauge of the firearm. The sale or other disposition of a firearm shall be recorded by the licensed dealer not later than 7 days following the date of such transaction. When such disposition is made to a nonlicensee, the firearms transaction record, Form 4473, obtained by the licensed dealer shall be retained, until the transaction is recorded, separate from the licensee's Form 4473 file and be readily available for inspection. When such disposition is made to a licensee, the commercial record of the transaction shall be retained, until the transaction is recorded, separate from other commercial documents maintained by the licensed dealer, and be readily available for inspection. The record shall show the date of the sale or other disposition of each firearm, the name and address of the person to whom the firearm is transferred, or the name and license number of the person to whom transferred if such person is a licensee, or the firearms transaction record, Form 4473, serial number if the licensed dealer transferring the firearm serially numbers the Forms 4473 and files them numerically. The format required for the record of receipt and disposition of firearms is as follows.....

 

[Shuler13]

Good to know. I'll give both the benefit of the doubt, but I definitely won't be shy to call after the second day from now on.