Odd experience with gunsmith today... or am I being a crybaby ?

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You say there is a history of "weird vibes". Could be a conflict of personalities or the guy is just an arse. If a guy does good work at a decent price, I myself, generally don't worry about his people skills.....but you say this ain't the case. Sounds like you finding a new 'smith would make everyone happier.
 
this guy sounds like a d-bag. you should let him know you'll spend your hard earned money elsewhere and you don't give lessons in customer service.
 
If a guy does good work at a decent price
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That seems to be the problem though - if he won't tell you what he did, how do you know it's quality work? If he's proud of his work, he'd tell you every little bit about it. Maybe not -how- to do it, but still.
 
When He pointed to to his sign, I would have told him he could be a professional and tell me what he did(car mechanics do)or you would never be back. Along with this would go a lot of word of mouth negative advertising. Now what did you do to my gun? Sear's gave me a hard time over a credit card balance during a divorce. I haven't been back to Sear's in 27 years! I would have no problem distancing myself from this self proclaimed gunsmith.
ll
 
The excellent guy who is well-known in this area would never expect somebody to be a mind-reader, or 'cloak' his activities as if they were
mystical medieval alchemy, or 'medicine'.

Our guy has been glad to answer my few questions, however ignorant some of them sound.
Glad that you found somebody else.
 
Actually, I had asked about the sticking cylinder in another thread, and had been heeding responses and trouble-shooting a bit before resorting to professional help. The cylinder was very difficult to open, but only in 4 of 6 positions. I'd already cleaned and lubed everything, and looked closely with a flashlight and magnfying glass for any obstruction, and finding nothing, I figured it was time to seek outside help.
As for the "weird vibes and personality clashes", we used to talk quite amiably, pretty much agreeing down the line, politically. The weirdness started when he just let my rifle sit in his shop for weeks, with no intention to do the job, or any intention to let me know that.
I know now he's a moody guy, so I always approach him on pins and needles, being very careful NOT to come off as rude or impatient.
When all this happened today, the general mood was pretty calm and freindly among the four of us there, but I sensed pressing him further would result in an "awkward" situation, and since the pistol appeared fixed.....
And, he was quite cool about doing the transfer for my SP101, especially since he's just a gunsmith, he doesn't have a retail operation,so that wasn't any source of discontent.
But I do agree that it may very well have been a very quick,easy fix, and something the other smith would have done immediately, and for less money, but that's just a guess, and now a moot point. Hi Ho !! :D
 
I would have told the guy that if i had sent it to S&W they would have given me a detailed invoice with "replaced this, adjusted that". I would hazard a guess that there are some consumer protection laws in your state that require him to tell you what he did.
 
Pretty much 99%

It looks like 99% of us have the same feeling about this particular situation. I like that your newly-found experienced gun-smith was a gentleman and didn't bash either...... shows why he's been in business for a while AND people want to come back to him.

It's going to be the word-of-mouth thing that keeps your fellow shooters away from experiences like yours. I'm not saying you should bash him publicly, but you have every right to share your story with others so that they can form an intelligent and informed opinion.

This hobby/business/addiction some of us here called shooting does not need any more egotistical jack-wads........we have enough.:rolleyes:
 
Gunsmiths can be...odd. I had one replacing a trigger bar on an HK USP. He couldn't do it (and in fairness, USPs are a BITCH to work on--I now do my own stuff with 'em). He explains to me: "With a small bag of parts I could keep a 1911 running for 20,000 rounds. Why the military uses this piece of garbage, I don't know..."

I said simply "Because they don't want to carry the small bag of parts?" (That gun was a 1993with over 70k through it when it broke).

Needless to say, we didn't do anymore business, and I'd suggest likewise with your guy. His name isn't "Pete" is it? LOL

Dan
 
I fix computers for a living. Whether the issue is the customer's fault (more rare than you would think) or not, if they ask for an explanation, I simply give it to them straight.
Regardless of whose "fault" it is, they're paying me for the time I need to invest to get their PC up and running again.
I explain as best I can... Most times, they simply nod their head. Sometimes, they put a hand up and say, "OK, that's more than I needed to know" and rarely they ask for more deeply technical data, which I endeavor to do as best I can.
 
I'm the type of guy who would not have taken that crap. Did you pay with a CC? I would call up your CC company or if its a bank card I think you could do this too and tell them not to pay since he didn't complete the transaction. Once he offers an explanation of work done, pay him.
 
When I first started as an apprentice I learned really quick, most gunsmiths have an engineer's type of mind. They have dry humor and are spacey to say the least but very smart.

The guy probably did a little tweaking that took about 15 mins. If I read correctly you said it was hard to open, well he probably sanded the the yoke aka polished it.

I can't say for sure haven't seen the gun but I will just about bet he fixed it right after you dropped it off and then waited to call, like I said a 15min. fix.

True you are paying for knowledge and some people get mad if they get charged an hour for 15 min. work but most places have an hour minimum.

I know we charge an hour min. and if there is time left in that hour, I clean the gun and just kinda go over it. Try to give a little more, but I do agree he does have a bad attitude.

Your biggest problem is this, if he is good then then is it worth chancing on someone else? My tattoo guy can have his moods but in general is a good guy and an awesome artist so to me it is worth it.
 
Confidentiality and secrecy are usually just a way of covering up incompetence. If they can't/ won't explain the problem I'd go somewhere else.
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Exactly! This guy got away with doing nothing and is charging you for it. He's a jerk and doesn't deserve any of your business.

My tattoo guy can have his moods but in general is a good guy and an awesome artist so to me it is worth it.
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lol so is mine but I promise you he is not putting anything on me without my total and complete consent, and then explaining exactly what he's doing the entire time.

I guess I'm just like somebody else said on this thread, I have a short fuse for people not earning their money and being professional about it. I would have told him about his ass as soon as he pointed to the sign and then challenge him to a range session.
 
The S&W 28-2 came with the dull blue/black finish not the high polish blue of the other models. It was designed to be a less expensive 357 for lawmen to use. Switching gunsmiths in this case is a good idea. Call S&W about the proper finish on the 28-2. They will be glad to help you. Also if you decide to have S&W do the job you can Fed-Ex it to them over night without going through an FFL. They will ship it back to you the same way.
 
"Moody?"

I wouldn't tolerate moody in a really smoking hot gf, much less some guy I'm paying to fix a mechanical object. Doesn't matter whether we are on the same wavelength politically or any other touchy-feely. I'm paying for work on the gun. I want to know what was done and why.
 
The problem with most gunsmiths (and gun shops and guitar shops, fly fishing shops, custom motorcycle shops or pretty much any specialty shops) is that they are run by hobbyists, not businessmen.

My guess is it was an easy fix and he doesn't want to listen to you complain about the cost.

As many others have said I'd just find someone else ... if he ticks off too many folk he goes out of business ... that's how free market capitalism works.
 
Exactly...probably a piece of Lint under the extractor Star, took him four seconds to find it and remove, and he was "done" and he sure as heck did not want to tell you what the 'problem' was, especially for whatever he had charged.


A reputable and and ethical Smith would have 'fixed' the tiny piece of Lint under the Extractor Star issue, charged you nothing, and, told you what the issue had been, thus respecting himself, respecting his occupation, respecting the Gun, respecting his Customer, and respecting the future with that Customer.
 
I agree the guy should tell you what he did, I always tell people.

Not charging isn't a fair thing to say he is in business to make money and even if it's more knowledge than labor.

This goes 2 ways he needs to man up and tell customers what he did and a lot of people in general need to just understand they couldn't fix it, now it works you agreed to a time frame and price pay it. I know it's a butt when a guy can fix something in 5 minutes and you might have fought with it for 2 days but how many times has he seen the problem and how many times have you?

Before I worked on guns I was an electrician for 10 years, we charged by the hour as most do with a 1 hour minimum. I might fix you problem in 10 minutes but you still owe me the hour, you agreed on that before I showed up.

Besides owning a business isn't cheap and really isn't for a gunsmith. You have taxes, utilities, licenses, insurance ( it's high ), possibly rent, and numerous other fees.

Still doesn't give the guy a reason to be a jerk, though. Maybe you have a knack for catching him on bad days?
 
I used to work customer service/sales at a high end independent euro car shop. Since then I've become much more sensitive to the type of customer service I receive.

Sounds to me the smith in the original post is a grade A d-bag. It's easy to tell a customer what was needed and why without giving away your trade secrets.

I would also find a new smith.

As for the comment about getting your car fixed... I used to write, sometimes ridiculously, detailed invoices and work descriptions. My bosses freaking loved it. I let the customer know exactly what was wrong, why, and what fixed it. It was the easiest way to justify charging twice or triple the amount as the other indy shop next town over. I trained my replacement as well as I could to write the orders up the same way.
 
This guy is a rectum, find another smith.
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Bah, that poster was perfectly fine.

I do custom framing, and while I'm happy to tell people how I do things if they want to do it themselves if everything is a common size, I can't invite them back into the shop, haul all my tools onto the counter, or give them an A-to-Z walkthrough this time of year when I have more orders than I can finish even without the interruption.

Think of it like this: when I spent time as a mechanic, I was happy to let you watch from the bay door and learn to do an oil change. Not to let you borrow my engine jack and 1/2"-drive impact wrench the next time you need to replace your clutch.

What I would have done, is tell him that since the gun was malfunctioning, unless I know what the problem was and what he fixed, I feel it may be unsafe to fire, or at least may relapse and be unworthy of a carry piece.

I mean, the times I had people come in after botching a Haynes-manual job, I could at least say "You had this in backwards and didn't torque these bolts down." Even occasionally apologize for having to charge the shop fee, but tell the writer to cut out the cost of new brake lines and wheel cylinders like he expected.
 
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