How would I know there was a problem in November unless I'm "that guy" that calls every week? I can't solve a problem I'm not made aware of. I didn't get any notification until the first week of January. It sounds like the NFA tries to contact the transferor first, then the transferee. The SOT is the transferor. They are transferring the property from their posession to the posession of the transferee. Perhaps since the issue was with an improper ink signature from the transferor, the NFA mailed it back to the transferor?
Unless we get a few other guys who've gotten kicked back Form 4's, I don't know what's SOP at the NFA.
I've both had a few kicked back, AND had one transfer that showed why IMHO one DOES need to call every few weeks, after perhaps 90 days.
The ones kicked back were in two cases due to error on our end, in another it was a NIB gun that had two previous F3's transferring it...with what ATF believed to be the wrong barrel length. Yet another had the serial number of record matching an entirely different made/model (not a bogus remade M11, this was a SBS).
In all cases except that SBS, I had an approved F4 back within a few weeks after sending in the corrected paperwork. Whether this represents "SOP" or not, I cannot say...but that seems to be the general report online from others as well.
As for the need to call ATF occasionally to check up...well, I had a case where I bought a MG from a well-known dealer, who was brokering the sale for an individual who still held the gun during transfer to my dealer. (Bear in mind that approved F4s go to the transferror of record.)
I had my dealer call ATF (as I usually do) 30 days after check cashed, just to get a pending date. I then waited, without asking him to calla again for some months (transfer was to him, so I couldn't call myself).
Imagine my reaction when I had him call in April, and learned that the %^&* transfer had been approved in January! The seller claims he never got it, the brokering dealer didn't know squat, nor did my guy. It took ANOTHER month after that to get a "replacement" F4 sent to the seller and get the gun...almost five months after transfer had been approved.
One doesn't have to "be that guy who calls every week"...but I won't again be that guy who doesn't call for months. I now call (or have my dealer call if it's the front end of a double) after 90 days, and every month thereafter. JMHO.
from what was typed, made it seem like the CLEO is meant to check them off. Of course, that was an assumption on my part, and I apologize.
