Gun show dealers are so polite!

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Simple answers to you guys who sell and don't want them handled Don't leave them in the open where people can get to them, and if your at a gun show expect it, ya I know I am a little hard but it is common sense, I was at a small show even today and handled a PS90 and a 6920 both around $2000.00 not a word from the dealers (the one I bought from before though) but you can sure bet that if I got the "touch if you want to buy" I would be here in a second with a warning, I have dealt with a lot of dealers and the vast majority 95%+ are very nice, as a matter of fact I think I saw Bob from Bob's Gun Store very nice guy. As for the show I was surprised when I saw a M82A1, $10000.00 too.
 
**channeling Alec Baldwin**

The man doesn't walk on the lot lest he intends to buy. Make him sign on the line that is dotted. coffee is for closers only. etc etc.

what's my point..? good question. I'm glad you asked. The o.p. may not have gone up to that table with the intention of walking away from it with an AR over his shoulder but he might have if the owner/salesman guy/booth dude had any kind of a salesman in him.

If he's not guilty of being a jerk, he's at least guilty of being a crappy salesman. can I say crappy? hmm.. anyways, no one who sells for a living ever takes the old "I haven't got any money" routine. How many times have you used that when you didn't really want to buy but the guy was pushing you on the hard sell?? C'mon.. the OP is right. People can fool you these days. You never know who the whales are, which one is going to be the one that comes over and drops a few grand in my hand.. I tell you who it's going to be.. it's going to be the guy who appreciates and knows a good salesman when he sees one. If the dealeer had played it right, this guy would have dragged his dad back there to buy that AR but instead, here we are talking about how big a jerk that guy is who isn't going to make a sale..
 
The gun show is a good place to handle guns that you normally wouldn't get a chance to hold in a local shop. That said, I always ask before I touch.

:rolleyes:BTW "Please don't touch without permission" signs on the table are common and easy enough to make.:rolleyes:

I've never told a dealer that I have no intention of buying or that I have no money. Why does he need to know? As far as I'm concerned, I am always a potential customer, even long after I've walked away from the table. I usually make a few rounds of the whole show before I decide to buy.

I've spent more $ on the same product at another table because I did not want to give some jerk my money.
 
I guess some of you Gun Dealers have never picked up anything
in a store and looked at it . Maybe someone at the Gun show didn't have the money this month but next month could be different .
I agree with the OP wouldn't go back to that Dealer no matter what .
I also agree you shouldn't touch the guns with out asking .
But your dealing with the public and you dealers are the ones that set them out in the open .
Most if not all dealers I have met at Gun shows here in Pa. have been Great .

Bill
 
Some interesting perspectives coming forth here.

I guess I have the time to toss in my 2 cents worth , so here it is :

If you don't want anyone to pick up your guns, then put a sign on the table that says ( PLEASE DO NOT HANDLE GUNS WITHOUT PERMISSION ! )

Most people come to the gun show to LOOK . Many will buy if they find something that attracts them enough, price wise and otherwise , but if I can't look without buying the damn thing ,than tell me that up front with a sign.

If there is no sign present and you are chatting away with the guy next door or another customer, I will handle your gun if it interests me to do so - even if I don't plan on buying it. This does not apply to collector grade weapons, which I will not touch without verbal permission.

As a patron at a gun show , it is curtious to ask before handling a gun - sign or no sign. It is not acceptable to take the gun apart without permission, or mistreat it in any way. If you don't know how to handle a gun properly , then don't pick it up .

I have been on both sides of the table as well as a promoter of gun shows. For whatever that means regarding my opinion .
 
BS..... if you don't want it handled.. put sign on it or don't have it out. Problem solved.

By some of this logic, I suppose my wife has to buy every clothing item she tries on, returns or just touches. Gun Shows are retails stores... put a sign on it.
 
Brad Johnson said:

If you are an attendee...

What is it with people who think that it's okay to go around fondling stuff you have no intention of buying just because it happens to be on display? If it ain't yours and you have no intention of buying the gun, keep your grubby mitts off it. Doing otherwise is rude, inconsiderate, and just plain unneighborly. Being offended that someone would actually suggest you do so is juvenile and selfish.

If you like it and have a reasonable desire to purchase it (or one like it), then follow a little personal etiquette and ask if it's okay to handle it.

If you are a dealer...

Presume that there are selfish retards who are going to fondle, drip on, smudge, smash, scratch, spin, dissasemble, and otherwise manhandle your merchandise. If you don't want it to happen, case your guns. If you choose to case them then have plenty of staff on hand handle questions and request to see stuff. One person working a hundred-gun three-table display is not conducive to getting much of anything sold. Be prepared for the dumbest of dumb questions. And teach your staff how to diplomatically end a conversation with a time-monopolizing non-buyer. That person may well come in tomorrow with a roll of hundred dollar bills. Or they may be a prolific poster on many gun enthusiast web sites.

If you're on either side...

Be realistic in your expectations, considerate in your actions, and pretend like you are talking to Art's Grammaw, not like you just crawled from under some rock. A little courtesy, tact, and respect for the person across the table would work wonders.

See, that's not so hard.

Brad
Click to expand...

This should be copied and handed out to EVERY person at every gun show...
 
You guys have made me totally unsure of the ettiquette rules that are going to come into play next gunshow I go to... I want to build an AR from a stripped lower. I have very little idea of the brands I want to use for furniture, sights, etc. I had planned on going in, finding the guy with the best deal on a good lower, then going around and fondling as many AR's, in as many different configurations as I can. Only then can I find out if that SOPMOD stock or that Ergo Grip are really worth the extra caysh.

Now, you've got me feeling like I HAVE to buy from the dealer that lets me fondle his uppers, instead of finding the best price I can through mail-order. :cuss:
 
Brad - I don't think there is conflict there at all . Read the whole post !

If there is no sign telling me to not handle your stuff , and you are busy BSing with the dealer next to you , or chatting with some other customer, how long should I stand at your table with my finger up my nose before you turn your attention on me long enough so I can ask ? With no sign, I assume ! When it is appropriate , I ask .
 
Not only at gun shows...I went into a shop in Birmingham with the intention of buying an AR or a clone. I had a thousand bucks in cash in my pocket. It was lunch time so the salesman's lunch was interrupted. I TOLD him up front what I was looking for and he proceded to show me a $2500 match rifle(this was in the mid '90s). When I told him that that was more than I could pay he very abruptly stormed back to his lunch and told the other clerks not to bother him again! I bought a Bushmaster from his competion. Do you want to guess how much money I have spent in his shop since then?
 
Hands on selling is common at many music shops around here. They want you to play with their stuff, so that when you do have the money you will come back to them.

Anything they think is too valuable to fondle, they put it out reach.
 
It's amazing how some dealers manage to stay in business in spite of the owners worst efforts.
 
So we don't completely bash gun dealers, I have a similar experience but backward to jimmy's post above...

I was at a gun show with a friend looking for single shot 20GA...he called my cell and said he had one at the opposite end I should look at. It was a nice gun but at 125, a bit more than I intended to pay. Told the dealer it was nice but a little high for what I was looking for. He offered it to me a little bit lower after asking how much I was looking to spend. Still a few bucks over, but it was a nice piece...I walked around, came back and bought it from him. It was a great transaction and the dealer was wonderful to do business with. If I am ever in that part of the state I will look his shop up and see what he has. Maybe buy some ammo at the very least.

A local store (after I had been to several competitors trying to find ammo for said shotgun) was out of stock...the salesperson didn't dismiss me with a shrug and a good luck. He called 4-5 other stores the company ran, found one that had what I was looking for and is having it shipped to their store for pick up. I will be frequenting them a lot more often, even though it is a little bit (a lot) out of my way.

Good customer service, for the paying customer or the one who is simply browsing, always reaps rewards and much return business.
 
I go to a gunshop and I don't pick up anything I am not willing to buy if it is in the condition I want. I don't pick up everything in the store I just handle things of intrest that I want to buy.

Yesterday( I think LOL) I went on my rounds through the shops and handled one gun, and bought it. It was of the quality I desired so I put my money down. Had it been of less quality I wouldn't have bought it.

I am down to the last gunshows as a private party that I will do. Patrons have no respect in general for a mans property. Some of us work for what we have and don't like the disrespect. When you add up the cost and the BS it doesn't make it worth while for men like me to do a table. It's the guys like me you get the best deals from cause we don't do it for a living.

You guys want to buy something then look at it and make a choice. If your there just to fondle something then pay the guy to fondle it. LOL LOL

jj
 
To each his own....I respect your viewpoint and see your point. With anything there a lot of people who give the rest a very bad name.

Same gun show, there were several things that I can't afford NOW, but had it in my mind of things that I would like to look for over the next year. Things that often aren't on the rental shelf at a range and that I don't have access to through friends. The gun show was a great way to see:

a) what dealers are in the area...what they were like, the quality of their merchandise, their prices etc.

b) gave me a chance to see how a particular rifle felt to me and how it fit me

c) gave me ideas I had not considered before

By the logic thats presented, I should just wait till i have 300-400 in my pocket and buy right then and there.
 
FN2000? Did you mean FS2000 or is the FN2000 something different that I'm not aware of. I've shot the FS2000 at an FN sponsored event (only 10 rounds), and I figured there were better ways to spend in access of $2000.

My BMW car dealership got a Z8 in for a customer that had ordered it, but when it finally came in had lost all his money in technology stocks. It had a MSRP of $132,000. It was on the show room floor when I took my M3 in for service. A couple of days later, on a Saturday, I asked my wife if she would be interested in seeing it. She said yes, and I called the salesman to see if it was still there he said yes and to see him when I came in and he would unlock it.

My point: it was locked so people wouldn't be getting in, scuffing the door plate, scratching the steering wheel with their rings, etc.

If things are valuable, then the dealer should protect them.

Yes, but I do miss the M3.
 
Besides do you go out and burn up a bunch of dealers gas to try out cars you have no money to buy??
Click to expand...
But picking up and handling the gun is not the same as driving the car. Handling the gun is the same as sitting in the car. FIRING the gun would be the same as driving it, so the analogy doesn't hold up.

All the same, I can understand the merchant's position. I just don't agree with the way he handled it. AND, I agree that the OP should have probably asked if it was OK to handle it, but even if he didn't, the merchant could have been a little more respectful. I probably wouldn't go back to him either... ...and I DO have the money.
 
If it is sitting out like it wants to be touched and held, and there are no signs present, and the proprietor is busy, I might well pick it up without asking. Even if I am not likely to buy it. If it offends them greatly and makes them feel disrespected, well, I won't handle anything else of theirs. I won't even pause at their table from then on.

Handling a gun won't hurt its value (unless it is made of metal so soft it would never survive a firing). Abusing it will, and I won't abuse it (I understand there are idiots out there, which is why folks make "ask first" signs). No other store I've ever seen has a "don't bother us unless you're buying" attitude. They understand that folks might walk in who aren't in the market, but might change their minds then or at a later time.

There's enough dealers out there who respect me as a consumer, I don't need to patronize those who are obsessed about being disrespected by window shoppers.
 
Yeah

Dark Sun is a little strange, but they get my business because they've never tried shoveling any BS on me and have some really good prices.

Rabbit Ridge. Hmmm. What did this guy look like. Large guy? Glasses? Might have them confused with another dealer, but if you're referring to who I think you are, They're on my never buy from list too. Also on my friends never buy from list because of a separate incident.

It's amazing how some dealers manage to stay in business in spite of the owners worst efforts.
Click to expand...
It really is.

Gun shows are crap. I don't even bother to look to see when they are anymore.
 
For those of you that have never sold at a show
It is a long grueling weekend of dealing with gun gurus and know nothings that all want to tell you how you should be selling
Click to expand...


With all due respect, this is the life of the retail business. If someone does not like it, there are other career choices. The other retail enterprises do the exact same thing, seven days a week. This whole thing if you do not have money or credit card, do not touch is a pure crap. One wonder how these people stay in business.

There is another aspect of this rude behavior. When folks new to guns and the gun culture encounter this type of nastiness at your "friendly" gun dealer, they might walk not only away from the store but from the movement all together. It does not take much for someone who is shy and intimidated by guns in general to be put off from behavior like that.

Bottom line: gun dealers like the guy in the original thread do disservice to gun the culture and the gun buying experience.
 
I used to sell firearms at a big-box retailer, and it'd bother me to no end when people, who obviously had no intention of buying a gun (some would even tell you that) had no reservations about handling every firearm in the store. In one instance I painfully witnessed a customer drop a 12g Beretta Silver Piegon EELL on the glass counter, marring the wood badly, and cracking the glass countertop in the process. All of our guns got beat up pretty badly, and we ended up having to sell these "display" guns at reduced cost, which kinda bothered me. I realize they weren't my guns I was selling, but if I was a dealer and they were my guns I was selling, I'd be concerned about them being handled by so many people, with the increased potential of them getting damaged. I'd like to have a Porsche, but since I don't have that kind of money, I wouldn't go to a dealer and test drive one. It's the same principlr IMHO.
 
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It's a double edge sword. People are idiots and ruin it for the rest of it. However, its no excuse for rude and condescending behavior.

The OP's experience could have been much different if the dealer had explained the firearm, showed off the features, inquired about the buying status and left it with heres my card, come back and I'll see what I can do when your ready. He then could have explained that he would like to keep his table open for those intending to purchase that day. Done with a smile, he might have had a sale at some point. I could see the dealers response in the cases quack pointed, someone with NO intention to buy said gun.
 
All of the shops in my area tolerate me stopping by regularly to see what is new and to check out the new arrivals. I dont buy very often but when I do,it usually justifies their tolerance of me the rest of the time.
 
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