giggitygiggity
Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2009
- Messages
- 2,251
I went to a gun shop this afternoon for NFA engraving on two items. I was a little taken back by the atmosphere of the shop. The shop does lots of custom work (machining, Cerakote, engraving, gunsmithing/modifying/rebuilding firearms). The shop has a manufacturing license and an SOT.
There were a number of guns on display. I am not sure if they were for sale or displayed to showcase their Cerakote jobs. Most of these guns were ARs, AKs, and subguns outfitted with suppressors.
The shop was fairly busy. As I was waiting for my engraving, an employee had an appointment with a customer. The customer's father had died, resulting in his mother being in possession of an MP5 and a Colt SP1, both of which were full-auto and registered. The gentleman was attempting to sell the two items. It was rather odd that the conversation was involving tens of thousands of dollars and a family death, but yet the employee and customer were discussing it in front of everyone else in the shop. I'm not saying that it was completely inappropriate, especially if the customer was fine with it, but I just would have expected them to have relocated to another part of the building so everyone in the store wouldn't be privy to the 1.5 hour-long conversation.
There was a young guy who walked in and explained that he recently purchased an AR15 and had a grip and a cheap (looked to be an NCStar) reflex sight that needed to be installed. He asked if they could do it. One of the employees went back and installed both items in about 10 minutes. They charged him $85!
Before anyone chimes in and lectures everyone about how businesses can charge whatever they want, shops have expenses that they need to cover, how it's foolish to charge less than what you could charge, etc., I'll offer a few thoughts. 1) The customer was not told the cost of the service in advance. 2) Just because people might pay something doesn't mean that a business should charge it. It may actually be detrimental to charge a high amount as doing so may discourage interest, thereby reducing the potential pool of customers. 3) There is a fine line between making a profit and taking advantage of someone.
I viewed the interaction today as one in which a shop was able to take advantage of a kid's lack of familiarity with guns (he told an employee that he was just getting into guns and that this was his first). The job took 10 minutes, maybe. Swapping an AR grip and installing a reflex sight (no leveling of reticles, lapping of rings, etc) are basic tasks that one can accomplish with a flathead screwdriver.
The me, the situation was rather off-putting to the extent that I have decided not to patronize the shop in the future. The NFA engraving work that they performed for me was great, but their interaction with that kid rubbed me enough that I'll take spend my money elsewhere. I would have had a vastly different impression had they charged him $20 or done it for free and told him, "hopefully you'll come to us if you need something in the future."
I'm curious to know from other members that own/work in gun shops what your thoughts are. I'm also curious if anyone else has had similar experiences or encountered a situation that pushed you away from a shop or earned your loyalty.
There were a number of guns on display. I am not sure if they were for sale or displayed to showcase their Cerakote jobs. Most of these guns were ARs, AKs, and subguns outfitted with suppressors.
The shop was fairly busy. As I was waiting for my engraving, an employee had an appointment with a customer. The customer's father had died, resulting in his mother being in possession of an MP5 and a Colt SP1, both of which were full-auto and registered. The gentleman was attempting to sell the two items. It was rather odd that the conversation was involving tens of thousands of dollars and a family death, but yet the employee and customer were discussing it in front of everyone else in the shop. I'm not saying that it was completely inappropriate, especially if the customer was fine with it, but I just would have expected them to have relocated to another part of the building so everyone in the store wouldn't be privy to the 1.5 hour-long conversation.
There was a young guy who walked in and explained that he recently purchased an AR15 and had a grip and a cheap (looked to be an NCStar) reflex sight that needed to be installed. He asked if they could do it. One of the employees went back and installed both items in about 10 minutes. They charged him $85!
Before anyone chimes in and lectures everyone about how businesses can charge whatever they want, shops have expenses that they need to cover, how it's foolish to charge less than what you could charge, etc., I'll offer a few thoughts. 1) The customer was not told the cost of the service in advance. 2) Just because people might pay something doesn't mean that a business should charge it. It may actually be detrimental to charge a high amount as doing so may discourage interest, thereby reducing the potential pool of customers. 3) There is a fine line between making a profit and taking advantage of someone.
I viewed the interaction today as one in which a shop was able to take advantage of a kid's lack of familiarity with guns (he told an employee that he was just getting into guns and that this was his first). The job took 10 minutes, maybe. Swapping an AR grip and installing a reflex sight (no leveling of reticles, lapping of rings, etc) are basic tasks that one can accomplish with a flathead screwdriver.
The me, the situation was rather off-putting to the extent that I have decided not to patronize the shop in the future. The NFA engraving work that they performed for me was great, but their interaction with that kid rubbed me enough that I'll take spend my money elsewhere. I would have had a vastly different impression had they charged him $20 or done it for free and told him, "hopefully you'll come to us if you need something in the future."
I'm curious to know from other members that own/work in gun shops what your thoughts are. I'm also curious if anyone else has had similar experiences or encountered a situation that pushed you away from a shop or earned your loyalty.
Not to mention repairs performed "while you wait" are almost always priced at a premium. 
They don't see my alarm bill, my dealers inventory insurance, the time spent maintaining my records or anything else.
