How do you protest on GUNBROKER? Horrible experience!

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I guess the only advice I could offer is too little and too late. I use email as my primary means of communication. UNTIL something goes south. Phone calls are the best way to handle tricky situations in my opinion.

I am not saying you did anything wrong, you didn't. And this guy/company certainly handled everything wrong... but, for what it's worth a phone call may have made for a different outcome.
 
Taken from Gunbroker's user agreement...

2. Listing. Placing an item for auction is an irrevocable offer to sell an item to the winning bidder. The winning bidder is the highest bidder on the item, or in the event of a tie, the bidder who placed the highest bid chronologically earliest. In the case of a reserve price auction a bid is only a winning bid if it meets or exceeds the reserve price on the item. In the case of a Dutch auction there may be more than one winning bid depending on the quantity of items available and the number of bids placed.

Listing an item constitutes entering a binding legal agreement to sell the item to the highest bidder as determined by the rules of the auction. Items listed on this auction site may not be concurrently offered for sale on any other online auction site. Once an item is listed and has received a winning bid, the item may not be withdrawn from sale. Please consider carefully whether you want to place an item for auction.
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If you really want to push this with the seller, your in a good position to do so..
 
Obviously this seller is to be avoided.
Terrible shame as I have bought several firearms from G.B. pretty much incident free.
I say pretty much because a couple of weeks ago I bid and won a Ruger Security Six and paid that day by CC and had my FFL fax them that info within the first hours of the auctions ending.
However after a few days of not getting any sort of tracking info I called the seller who happened to be a pawn shop and he informed me that the police had come back to his shop and said the pistol was stolen.
So no sell and he had the charge withdrawn from my CC.
Luckily last week I snagged and even better deal for a much lower price on a Service Six that should arrive tomorrow.
 
How about $549 delivered!

I just checked with Bud's Gun Shop in Lexington, KY and they have your very rifle in stock (lefty version) for a good price.

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/78564

Bud's Gun Shop
1123 Winchester Road
Lexington, KY 40505
Phone: (859) 368-0371

P.S. I have 2 Weather Warriors in varmint calibers and they are two of my most accurate rifles ever. My model 16 (WW) in .204 Ruger shot a disappointing (for Savage, anyway) 1.5 moa - 2.0 moa during break-in and for the next 50-70 shots. I took it prairie dog shooting and put only 50-70 add'l rounds through it. When I got home and started shooting paper again, I noticed that the groups had gotten better, quickly! Using totally the same factory Hornady ammo, the groups went from my previous 1.5 - 2.0 moa to 0.5 - 1.0 ! Needless to say, I was very happy again with Savage Arms.
 
i've ordered 3 items on gunbroker, and the transactions were just fine. however, recently there was an item where the sellers in question had some feedback that gave me second thoughts. i decided it would be better to pay an extra few bucks to deal with a reputable online dealer like bud's rather than a faceless GB seller. the item was not available locally. so that might be an option for you. deal directly with a dealer that sells online often. don't go through GB.

EDIT: MinnMooney beat me to it...
 
I try to avoid the ones with 4 pages of hoops to jump through and a "my way or the highway" attitude, then maybe one sentence about the actual gun.

I never use one of the "call before you bid" sellers. If you don't have it, take the damn thing off GB. I think a lot of them are just order taking middle men. If their supplier is out, you're screwed.
In the guys defense a bit, he might have been completely swamped and actually could not give you an ETA and didn't want to admit it. Rather than spend time and money on long distance calls to his supplier to get an ETA it was easier to just blow you off.

I think more likely he never had the gun but thought he could get one quickly or he sold the gun out from under you and couldn't get it replaced.

All of this is a bit academic until you tell us the name of the dealer.
 
I may have missed it, but I've read all the posts and haven't seen the name of the seller. I know that often times they use a screen name, but maybe you have the company or store name he operates under in one of his e-mails. I'd like to see it posted so that I can avoid him and maybe others on THR that use GB would also appreciate knowing his name. With this info you can also file a complaint with GunBroker, the Better Business Bureau and his state's Consumer Affairs Office. Based on your post, I'd like to see him suffer in the market place, read pocket.
 
Please don't hold your experience with GB against all online auctions. We rarely have a customer service request sit in the cue more than 4 hours and we generally can resolve everything. We rely on our customers to help us weed out sellers who aren't good in fact. This situation would have been resolved the same day on GunsAmerica, if it would have happened at all. People generally know they can't get away with the same stuff on GunsAmerica that they get away with on other auctions so they just don't do it to start with.
 
Clearly. I confronted him with that exact accusation & he denied it, stating he just returned the correct rifle to the distributor.
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Just a guess, but he may have never had the rifle. There is generally a pretty specific time frame for returns, and most (not all) places have (relatively) heavy restocking fees if the mistake wasn't on their end, so he'd lose money on the return.

I had a similar experience. A customer wanted a specific, hard to find gun. I checked all of my distributors and couldn't find one in stock. I found one on gunbroker listed with a stock photo, and did the "buy it now" thing.

Turns out the dealer was just advertising things that he didn't have in stock. Upon someone ordering something, he would call the distributor and order it. That way there was no risk of getting stuck with the inventory.

Like me, all of his distributors were out of the specific gun as well. The guy lied to me several times before coming clean. He had 30 or so positive feedbacks and they ended up shutting down his account after I sent in all of the emails.

Just saw nitetrane beat me to the punch.
 
Its good to know that Guns American is listening on this site. I know that there are even a few gun companies that patrol the forums helping people out with their product.

Good job GA!
 
In defense of GB, sellers advertising things they do not have but think they can get is common practice on the gun auctions and even on our classified ads. We have an "in hand" policy that is strictly enforced, and we even created a whole "on demand" system so that gun dealers don't list guns they don't have, and still have the facility to order guns for people who may be looking for something they don't have in hand. But keeping guys from putting the whole remington catalog into our "in hand" section is very difficult. We catch people, but a lot of times not until after a complaint. It will be interesting to see if this story is updated that he was in fact banned.

ps: we were writing at the same time Walden. Yes, I got addicted to this site about a month ago. It has a very positive atmosphere compared to many other forums and the questions are good and not the same ones every day.
 
Just a guess, but he may have never had the rifle. There is generally a pretty specific time frame for returns, and most (not all) places have (relatively) heavy restocking fees if the mistake wasn't on their end, so he'd lose money on the return.
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I think this is right. What I don't get from a business perspective is his "F" rating for me. Anyone reading the text will see what he is, and that this was clearly retaliation for my honest review.

Thanks to those who offered the Bud's guns selection; that is a great price, but it is the older dual-pillar bedded version. I am looking for the accustock.

To bring this full circle, I was able to order the correct rifle through Cabela's. It is more expensive, but after factoring in shipping and FFL transfer fees that I will not have to pay for the store pick-up, it is only costing me an extra $24.00. More than worth it. It is a 60 mile drive, though.
 
I may have missed it, but I've read all the posts and haven't seen the name of the seller.
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I enjoy my THR anonymity, and I have provided enough specifics to jeopardize that if I name him. Second, If I fail to see a refund soon I will be forced to get into this legally. That would make every word of all my posts subject to microscopic parsing, and I do not want to subject all my prior postings to his legal discovery process.

Once I have my money back, and after it is clear he is not going to reverse his rating, I will let everyone know who he is. I am holding out hope he will do the right thing.
 
Given your account of your experience with this seller I think it would be right to let the rest of us know who he is even if you get a satisfactory resolution.

None of us want to repeat your experience.
 
There is case law for this, it's called bait and switch which is what it sounds like happened. If they're selling something they don't have and expecting to have it dropshipped from somewhere else and they're out then that is fraud, you can't sell something you don't have. Gunbroker is required to help you if the seller refuses to respond and that BS about feedback is being used as blackmail pure and simple. Keep all the E-Mail and get an lawyer I think the threat of a Law Suit might get this AH's attention.
 
Living in Oklahoma myself, I had found some of the Oklahoma dealers on GunBroker and bookmarked them when I was in the market to buy a Kimber 1911. The first one I thought of is the one you dealt with. I don't think I will consider that seller in the future based on your experience.
 
Taken from Gunbroker's user agreement...

Quote:
2. Listing. Placing an item for auction is an irrevocable offer to sell an item to the winning bidder. The winning bidder is the highest bidder on the item, or in the event of a tie, the bidder who placed the highest bid chronologically earliest. In the case of a reserve price auction a bid is only a winning bid if it meets or exceeds the reserve price on the item. In the case of a Dutch auction there may be more than one winning bid depending on the quantity of items available and the number of bids placed.

Listing an item constitutes entering a binding legal agreement to sell the item to the highest bidder as determined by the rules of the auction. Items listed on this auction site may not be concurrently offered for sale on any other online auction site. Once an item is listed and has received a winning bid, the item may not be withdrawn from sale. Please consider carefully whether you want to place an item for auction.
If you really want to push this with the seller, your in a good position to do so..
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Ebay has this same policy too yet seller's continually break this agreement when they don't get the price they wanted for the auction. My opinion is that it is an auction site for a reason. No buy it now prices, no reserves just auction to the highest bidder and see what the open market will bring you. This doesn't even account for the shill bidders. If you want to sell something for a fixed price, do so on a sale site not a supposed auction site.
 
Given your account of your experience with this seller I think it would be right to let the rest of us know who he is even if you get a satisfactory resolution.
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Read the feedback for any seller BEFORE you bid. Just because it happend to me does not mean it will happen to you; the seller for my item has a 99% A+ rating. In reading his reviews, (64 pages of them), you find the vast majority were perfect, but when it was bad, it was REALLY bad. Details VERY similar to mine when it went south.

For more popular items, I doubt most people would ever have my issue.
 
Use AuctionArms.

I have had a couple of poor to downright rotten experiences on GB, and switched to AuctionArms. I have heard that my GB experiences were "not the normal" but two out of 3 are poor odds.
 
Ronsch, can you explain why you would use aa when there are very few guns there, and it has the same auction format weakness? Is it that you feel like you are getting better deals "bidding" than "buying"? Because I have so much experience buying for myself off of GunsAmerica, I know that using our Wishlist is where the deals really are. I have a safe full of guns because of deals I just couldn't resist. Guns are commiditized. Everyone knows what they go for. Therefore any auction format is going to be at or very slightly below market value. I have Garands that I paid $300 for, a P14 I paid $250 for, numerous Nagants under $100, 4 FALs for under $350 built and in perfect condition... I could go on and on. I never hear about deals on the auctions but I see them every day on GunsAmerica. Just the sheer number of guns available on a given day is staggering compared to the auctions. I don't get it.

I ask because I am wondering if I should push our auctions more. They are much more buyer friendly than the auction sites because we have no 15 minute rule, so you can snipe stuff. I steer people off of them because I find the classified ad so much more compelling for guns, because they are again, completely commoditized. Everyone knows what guns are worth.

I am however a firm believer in giving the people what they want. If the auction format is that much more compelling, I may just guide sellers more towards them.
 
I received my refund today. Anyone wanting to ID this Oklahoma seller is free to PM me. Since I received the money back, I am not going to out him publicly.

Case closed for me. I will be checking out other on-line auctions for future purchases. The GB model of giving true feedback only to get slammed with retalliation has me turned off that site. Buyers giving into the "change your rating & I'll change mine" extortion probably happens a lot; bottom line, the ratings can't be trusted.
 
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