scooter.maclusky

I was at a local LGS to pick up a rifle today. I saw the owner and an employee take a customer's ordered custom 22LR rifle from the box and play around with it including dry firing. They were showing the other employee's and each person who handled it cocked and dry fired it. Maybe nothing was hurt but I would have been pissed if it were my gun. They got real quiet and cold when I started asking questions about it.
Don't think I'll ever go back there again.

BlkHawk73

Years ago my brother had a HK rifle on lay-a-way at a local shop. We went to one of the few gunsmiths in the area and there was the gun. Seems the owner had been shooting it and broker it. Guess who didn't buy the gun and never went back to that shop as a customer? Hmmm...shop closed not too long afterwards too.

nmrugershooter

At least I can say when I purchase and put it on layaway my LGS locks it up in his vault.

TMB

I would've too and let them know it

jaxrider14

We have a LGS here that was known for sales staff playing with new and sale transfer guns being held for the 10 day (Calif.) waiting period.

Worse yet, one of the gunsmiths would sometimes "borrow" upgraded parts from a gun being held the required 10 days for a private sale/transfer between parties. When challenged on it, the gunsmith would deny everything, and the shop owner would back him. Evidently there were some ugly scenes and a couple of lawsuits over this.

I won't do business with them, and I seldom see cars parked there when I drive by.

Breadman03

I wouldn't go back, either.

VietVet68

Absolutely unacceptable behavior but, I'm not surprised. A few years ago I ordered a custom 1911 & waited 8 months for it to come in to my LGS. After I ordered it I couldn't help but tell a few of the guys at the store about it, one of them was really interested & we discussed it many times. He was/is a 1911 geek. Anyway, the day came when I got the call from them that my dream gun had arrived & of course I jumped in the car & drove right down. I arrived & one of the guys saw me coming so he ran to the back room to get it & brought it to me. Before I opened the case I asked him if **** was working that day ( the guy who was so interested in it) so he could see it for the first time along with me, he said that something funny happened the day before, the guy just up & quit with no real reason. I was kind of shocked because he was such a gun nut I couldn't see him quitting his dream job but I guess he got tired of management & went elsewhere.
So, I opened up the case & there it was, beautiful beyond description. BUT, suddenly my jaw sank as I saw the "idiot scratch" that we all hate.
I've tried many different ways to photograph it but it just doesn't show up well but here's the best one I got:



I know it doesn't look bad but like I said it doesn't show up well but to me it looks like the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
After the flash of anger passed the next thought to cross my mind was about the guy who quit the day before so, I asked the guy behind the counter if he could tell me when the gun came in. He went into the back & came back to tell me it came in on Wed. & the day I was there was Friday so I asked him, why didn't you guys call me sooner? He said that the guy who quit told them not to because he wanted to call me himself since he was as geeked up as me about it coming in.
Immediately I knew what happened, he tore it down & played with it, then, when he was reassembling it his finger slipped & that was that.
I can't, of course, prove that's what happened & there were no witnesses but, what would you think?

kingpins9

Why did you take delivery of the gun since they damaged it? "Full refund" woluld've been the only words out of my mouth.

Ruger Redhawk

I was thinking the same thing. They could order me another one or refund my money.

computerdynamics

When I bought my SR22 the guy takes the "counter gun and starts paperwork? I'm immedialtley saying Stop! Stop! "If you don't have it in the box untouched I don't want it! He says well the deal was made on this gun, so i said well "No deal then"!! He goes into the back and produces a nice sealed box SR22. I bought it. No handled, scratched, racked, dry fired, nothing if i'm buying a new gun. As it should be!
Tony

heymatthew

I have a confession... In college and shortly after (2002-2008), I worked at Ritz/Wolf Camera off and on. I was a seasonal employee towards the end and just came in to help out. Anyway, we didn't stock much in-store because we just didn't do a ton of volume so a lot of times customers would come in and order something really special. I remember a guy coming in one time to order a camera and lens just for a safari he was taking in Africa or some place. He ordered a Canon 1D Mark IIn (Canon's flagship camera at the time and roughly $4000 for the body) and a Canon 70-200 L lens ($1600) and a Canon 2x Extender ($250). It was a dream sale. He bought a bunch of stuff with it and I made a few hundred bucks on the deal. Anyway, this camera and lens came in and me and my co-worker at the store that day were both camera nuts and that was a dream setup. So we opened it up and fiddled with it a bit before we called him. I mounted the lens and tripped the shutter a couple of times. It felt good to hold a camera that I could only dream of owning on my meager $7 per hour. When I called the guy and he came to pick it up, I remember him opening up the box in the store and saying, "That's her! Here, you wanna take a peek through that baby!?" I just smiled and said, "Nah. I've seen one before. You enjoy it." He popped in a memory card and snapped a handful of images right there in the store to make sure all was well and went on his way. He had no idea.

I always did kind of feel bad about that.

Now, I realize how stupid that was. If we had messed up that guy's stuff, our manager would have had our heads on a stick out in front of the store.

I suppose if I went in to a gun shop and ordered something special and someone dinked around with it before hand and scratched it or even so much as marred the surface, they'd be replacing it or refunding my money. Amazing that they would do that in front of other customers. It can't be encouraging. But then again, some people probably don't care and would love the opportunity to fondle a gun they'd never have been able to get for themselves.

Jayinsat

Help me here. I can't see the scratch! :/

heymatthew

Look above and behind the trigger and below the release (where the release meets the grip). Basically that black tab that can pivot down from above the trigger will leave an arc in the finish if you let it contact the gun before it drops in the cutout. It's hard to see in this photo, but I bet 90% of 1911's have them.

If I went to pick up a custom gun and it had that scratch, no matter how small, I'd be pissed. They'd be eating every bit of that pistol and ordering me a new one.

kingpins9

Your story reminds me of a few months ago when my brother went to buy a new Nikon D-800 ($3000 camera). They brought the camera out (boxed of course). He goes to take it out of the box and there were fingerprints all over the lcd display/screen. He asked them what the deal was and they tried to make excuses for it. He turned around and walked out and bought the camera somewhere else.

heymatthew

At Ritz Camera, we put cameras on display. They were behind glass and handled with supervision. If we got down to just the display model, we would sell it. Sometimes we would rotate cameras as new models came in and a previously displayed model would make its way into a box. I never thought it was right, but they sold them as new. A lot of times people would ask for something that hadn't been opened. If we had it, we would gladly provide it.