Let me give my summary: the owner of this store is the worst. Before doing any business there realize this:
1) every gun store near by is cheaper than this place, for everything.
2) The transfer fee for firearms is $200, so don't do it, everywhere else is cheaper.
Here is my personal story with them. I went in considering making a purchase. Weapons on other websites were cheaper and had exactly what I wanted so I purchased online. I was a first time gun buyer so I had no idea there was such a thing as a transfer fee. When I went to the store I found out that I was going to be charged 200 to just pick up the gun. I realized then that I was stuck. I couldn't return the gun, restocking fees, the stores own shipping fees, and other costs were going to be significant. Taking the gun also seemed like a bad option since I realized I was being scammed by this hidden fee. However, the less bad of the two in terms of cost, time, and effort seemed to be to go ahead with getting ripped off and take the gun from the store. The owner read my online review of his ridiculously high transfer fee and sent my gun back without telling me. When I arrived at the store to get it after waiting the required 10 days he told me he sent it back. I asked him why, he told me... But, so you know how you can expect to be treated and what kind of character this curmudgeon is, he did not simply tell me what he did but SWORE AT ME USING PROFANITY UNBECOMING OF SOMEONE OWNING A BUSINESS. For my part, I took the high road, and only asked for explanation of what fees I should be expecting since returning the weapon to the online store is not free, and I believe he will end up paying these since I will be taking him to court if necessary.
The entire thing was so completely stupid on his part. This is what he should have done, were he not a ignorant neanderthal.
1) He should not have charged such a high transfer fee. Were his fees in line with other stores nearby this would not have felt like such blatant extortion but rather a newcomers mistake to gun ownership. I see that the fee is raised in order to make online purchases prohibitively expensive. I would probably do the same were I the owner of such a store. However, I would not make it so high as to divert business away from my store charging double, triple, or quadruple the market rate. Once you have the firearm shipped you are really without options and are pretty much forced to pay the fee. Therefore, it is very deceitful to charge such high fees.
Furthermore, if the fee were not so high he would have lost the premium he charging on his in store weapons, a loss true, but he would have had a lifelong customer for the purchase of accessories, ammunition, and perhaps other firearms in the future. These profits would likely exceed the small amount he lost for this one purchase. What an idiot.
2) However, he did charge a high fee and therefore, I as a customer, was lost forever. But he should not have sent the weapon back, especially without telling me. Instead, if the negative review meant so much to him he should have worked out a deal with me to take it down, for instance, offering to discount some of the fee in order to take the negative review down. He may not have liked doing this, but it would have definitely been the more profitable route in the long run. Negative reviews are costly, and each one on each platform harms a businesses reputation. So in this case, it would have been worth it to him to make a deal. Now, since I know that negative reviews mean so much to him, I am very motivated to write more of them on every platform that it is common to do so, especially since I am justified in doing so by the atrocious manner I was treated.
3) But he was not smart and did not do this, instead choosing the stupidest path of all, sending it back and then CURSING AND SWEARING LIKE A LOW CLASS IMBECILE AT A CUSTOMER. This is how you will also be treated if you shop there, future customer. Now he has made an enemy, will possibly be going to small claims, and given me a lot of validation for how true my first review was. Now I am very determined to make this story known, and this is certainly the worst outcome for him, since I am pretty certain that he will bear the cost of the return from the online store and the fallout of future customers from bad reviews. read more