How long before you leave?

[John J]

That's unfortunate but at least you know.

To which point? More money than brains with guns....yea known that a long time

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

I did send an email, it was brief and I didn't come off like an ass. I did get a reply, I was mostly pleased with. However there were some slight jabs I didn't care for. Up till that point I probably would have gone back, met the guy and possibly bought something. Taking the time to respond reflects well on the business. But the jabs? I'll move on like an adult. If he only knew how much more money than brains I have when it comes to firearms....
John

What was the gist of the jabs?

 

[mark-hunter]

You cant teach an old horse new tricks.

When I was young captain, on big shipping company, I thought telling my managers what are they doing wrong was a favour to them, so they can correct and improve perofrmance.

Wrong.
In most of cases, my comments were ignored. I learned better, since then.

You cannot change the world, walk away.

There is also a saying: "never complain, never explain".
Just walk away. Go somewhere where the sales men show positive vibes.

 

[Philip Glass]

I couldn’t be a gun shop owner. In their defense how many guys just come in to handle all the guns and chat and never buy anything?

 

[johnnyblues]

I wish you could say bad customer service always leads to failure but it doesn’t! It’s incredible just how bad it can get. Heres a quick story. Last December my 3 month old Browning 725 S 12 gauge was giving me issues. I contacted Browning and they were quite nice and emailed me a form and shipping label ( insured) to send my gun back. So off I go to the oldest gun shop in my town for them to ship it off. Little did I know at the time I didn’t need to use an FFL to ship it back to browning. Anyway a week before Christmas I hand over the gun for shipping. At the middle of February I call browning to check on the process and to my dismay they tell me they don’t have it! Ok, so off to the gun shop I go. The owner has been out sick I’m told for several weeks and his long time employee can’t seem to find my gun, any entry into the ATF log book etc. After he makes several calls to the owner to try to find out an information nothing happens. My gun is still MIA! I inform him I now need to contact the police and report he gun either stolen or missing! Amazingly after the police got involved they mysteriously find the gun in the “corner of the safe” even though the employee claims he checked! Needless to say not only did I loose two months of time towards my repair they aggravated my gut! I will never set foot in that store again.

 

[CJW]

To which point? More money than brains with guns....yea known that a long time

Referring to the shop owner. At least you know he's a jerk if he's going to take jabs at a customer. You tried and can now find a new place to do business.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

@John J when I read your post, I thought you were describing my recent visit to a local archery shop. I could have just ordered some arrows online, but since I was going for something a little out of ordinary for me, I thought I would go to the local place and draw on their expertise. I had never been to this shop, but heard good things about the place. Go into the place, carrying my Mathews bow, and first impressions were quite good. Well stocked, clean, nice indoor range area. I go to the counter and basically get ignored by three people. Two guys are fletching arrows and cutting shafts. The lady is on the phone and never makes eye contact with me. Stand around for another 5-10 minutes and finally asked nobody in particular if I can talk to someone about buying some arrows and also get some work done on my bow. The guy that finally waits on me is the owner. I tell him I want to build some heavy arrows, 600 to 650 gr range total weight and use 200 gr single bevel broadheads. He said he couldn't help me with the broadheads, but could do the arrows. He promptly selects some shafts, no explanation or discussion, and asked what color of fletching I wanted and said the arrows would be ready tomorrow (it was about 30 minutes to closing time, so I could understand not being ready while I waited). I returned the next day and got the same treatment where nobody greeted me and nobody seemed anxious to wait on me. I finally asked if my arrows were ready and they were not. They'd be ready is another 15-20 minutes. I killed some time watching a few teenagers shooting and talked with another customer. Finally got my arrows and noticed they were left wing fletch. The single bevel broadheads I ordered online require right wing. The guy got a little irate saying all their arrows are left wing fletched. I asked how was I to know that? I did admit it was my fault for not specifying, but I did remind him that he was the expert and that's why I was coming to his shop and not ordering online. He said he would re-fletch my arrows but I would need to come back. This was Thursday, so I said, "Okay see you tomorrow." No, they were going to be closed Friday and the entire weekend, going out of town for a national tournament. Okay, see you Monday. I ended up going on Tuesday afternoon and had to wait while they did my arrows. I talked again to the owner and explained to him why I decided to try his shop as opposed to just buying online. I told him that 3 trips to his shop and having to wait each time did not bode well. I told him I might be interested in taking a lesson or two, since I was basically a self taught archer and could use some refinement. Again, he didn't act too customer friendly and basically handed me off, to the lady who was always on the phone, to discuss scheduling a lesson. I will probably take one lesson, just to see if my impression of the place improves, but so far the online alternatives are looking better and better.

 

[John J]

What was the gist of the jabs?

Low pressure is the way they operate. I do not want any special treatment, as another said how many guys walk in handle something and leave. This is a true statement. However when I'm standing at the counter and two others walk in and I watch them stop what they are doing, acknowledge and immediately assist I was annoyed. He made it seem like I wanted attention and to be waited on. He did apologize and say they don't do that, and that's clearly what I wanted. Some kind of friendly let us know if you'd like to see something would have been fine with me. I'm aware I could have asked but after I witnessed the above, no. He said he hoped my day gets better, my day wasn't bad to begin with. Minor yes, my view we are all on the same team. I want to support local businesses, not walk out of them.

 

[chashardy]

Unfortunately John J's experience is pretty common in all kinds of retail stores and in my experience it only gets worse in the big box retailers like Cabela's and Bass Pro. Even if you can find someone to help you they often are clueless about the merchandise. Good customer service is hard to find.
John J did what I would have done. Walk out.

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

Low pressure is the way they operate. I do not want any special treatment, as another said how many guys walk in handle something and leave. This is a true statement. However when I'm standing at the counter and two others walk in and I watch them stop what they are doing, acknowledge and immediately assist I was annoyed. He made it seem like I wanted attention and to be waited on. He did apologize and say they don't do that, and that's clearly what I wanted. Some kind of friendly let us know if you'd like to see something would have been fine with me. I'm aware I could have asked but after I witnessed the above, no. He said he hoped my day gets better, my day wasn't bad to begin with. Minor yes, my view we are all on the same team. I want to support local businesses, not walk out of them.

There’s low pressure and then there’s just ignoring your customers.

Sorry it was like that and that the owner doesn’t seem to get it.

As has been said, it does seem a lot of gun stores are like that. We had one near me that’s now out of business. They had a terrible reputation among the local shooting community.

 

[curtism1234]

I agree the customer service is horrific at gunshops unless you are a regular. I just buy from big box stores or have a local private ffl do the transfer. Both type of stores give equally bad advise for beginners imo. The firearms makers give good incentives for those selling their product and that influences decisions too often. I do my own research online...you know where facts are

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I don’t think the salesman saying,
“Anything I can help you with?”
Is a high pressure sales approach.

 

[Hank2211]

We had a store in Calgary called Wholesale Sports. For many years, they were the largest and in some cases the only game in town for firearms and related stuff. A big store. Clothing, footwear, optics, guns, ammo, the lot.

The guys behind the gun counter seemed to spend their time talking to friends, or to people who never seemed to buy anything. If you wanted some ammo, you could stand there, staring at these "salespeople" for an eternity. They were exceedingly careful never to make eye contact with you and seemed to have an uncanny ability to ignore pretty much everybody except the old timer they were chatting with. They eventually put in a number system - take a number and wait. It might have made them feel better, but it did nothing to stop the counter staff from wasting time with some customers at the expense of others.

When something with some actual customer service came along, Wholesale Sports went bankrupt.

 

[Riverman]

Well I have found some outlets have a clique type scene and if you are not in the clique then you are an outsider to be ignored or rebuffed. If I sense that as I enter a gun shop I turn heel fast as possible no time for that BS. Heard a case last big hunting expo where an old chap came onto a stand and was ignored, after 20 min he upsticked as the guys were talking to another hunter visitor and ignoring him. he went to next booth and signed up 6 back to back hunts for his sons company. Surely people serving should learn to be humble.

 

[Vintageguy]

My local shop is pretty much the same way. I honestly think it comes from so many guys just go in, sit down and just hang out. I believe it is such a standard thing, at least all the shops I know of, that they kind of get this family familiarity with everyone, like "just help yourself", even with first time strangers. My local shop did me the same way and I did the same thing you did, several times. But, they are literally right down the road so they're really convenient for receiving my Gunbroker purchases, LOL. They have very little stock, gun wise, but good reloading supplies normally. They mostly are a "what you want? I can order it for you" gunshop. However, I figured out if I wanted to pick up a gun in under 2 hours I needed to just walk in, ask which box is mine, get it out and lay it on the counter and get things going. Now, it's great, you walk in and exchange howdys', and get down to business or shoot the breeze. I even go behind the counter after things just like everyone else and walk up to the register and ask them if they want the circulation to return to their feet to get up and check my out.
I'm so glad I didn't say what I wanted to those first few times because now I've got that gunshop family. The last time I went in after a few things the owner tossed a half brick of shotgun primers on the counter and said he'd had them under the counter waiting for me and at no cost! Nowadays! Last gun he received for me was a pre-64 Winchester in 300 H&H and I while I waited on the background check he called a friend of his who came down to see it. Always great to have others affirm a new toy as a keeper. Not saying their customer service couldn't use some work, just relating what I've figured out locally.

 

[BWH]

As a small business owner/operator..... our company is obsessed with service & treating our people right, at all cost. Where & when that philosophy was abandoned... I’ll never know.

 

[Red Leg]

Man have I been lucky! I have had generally wonderful relationships with the various gun shops and dealers with whom I have dealt over the years. Admittedly, my taste tends to run to the obscure, but guns are where you find them, and I always seemed to have had good relations with my local gun shop. All that said, if you are a gun store owner, things like balance sheets, business cases, and customer relations are probably a fairly alien concepts. Otherwise, you would be doing something far more profitable.

Gunsmiths/ Gunmakers are another subject entirely. I have begun to suspect that nearly all of them must actually be trust fund babies and really don't need the work. No repair or build is ever when promised (assuming I could get a promise out of them). Ever.

 

[JimP]

Many years ago I would hang out in a gun shop on the weekends learning all that I could about the guns that they sold.

One Saturday I walked in and saw that they were swamped. The owner yelled at me to get behind the counter and to start helping. Before I was through that afternoon I had sold three or four handguns and a couple of rifles. I started as a fulltime employee the next weekend.

But we always had those who wanted to just come in and BS the time away and drink coffee. But if a actual customer walked into the store someone always greated them and would walk over to them to see if they needed any help. If there were enough of us in the store nobody waited more than 30 seconds for some help. And even then if we were busy and could break away from who we were helping we would.

That little gun store did more business than a lot of others did combined

 

[CoElkHunter]

I tend not to frequent my local gun shops/gunsmiths too often. They always seem to have these "groupies" just hanging around in the middle of the day during the workweek and many much younger than me. I currently have my two days off from work during that time. When I walk in I get the feeling that I've interrupted something. Last week I go into a local shop where I have a couple of guns on consignment, and in walks Wild Bill Hickock with his troll looking female companion. I'm waiting to see if other performers from his Wild West show come in. He has TWO 7-9" revolvers in holsters on each hip and a giant Bowie knife shoved into his waistband and another long knife on his ankle. I just knew he must be an AH member! Ha! Ha! Anyway, of course he knows the boys in the shop and the bullshitting begins. Probably a conversation about when his next stimulus or government check arrives so he can buy another gun or knife. I finally pace long enough to get the attention of an employee and handle my business. The guys working there are actually really nice, but in this case I guess they too were mesmerized by Wild Bill.
CEH