So I've bought a LOT of stuff online. Thousands of dollars worth over the years in fact. I have a side biz repairing and upgrading PCs (Newegg is my friend). So I am quite used to buying everything from hard drives and CPUs to comicbooks and clothing online. I been 'WebHobbit' on eBay since 2000. But I have never bought a gun online until very recently.
Last week I bought a Ruger Acuposrt Bisley Blackhawk .45 on GunBroker. Actually it's not really an Acusport as this was manufactured this year (so technically this is a parts "clean up gun"). But anyway let me tell you how the transaction went down.
I ordered from a dealer out of Illinois (2 hours from here actually). This guy had a good rep - thousands of A+ positives and only one neutral. And he'd been a member for many years so I figured it was worth the risk. A couple of oddities:
1) He would only accept a money order..no CC option
2) He would NOT accept emailed FFLs. He did accept faxed or snail-mailed copies however. In this day and age I find this completely baffling. Anything BOGUS that can be done with an email attachment can most certainly be done with a hard copy. After all doesn't the hard copy generally COME from a scanned copy from a computer?????????? And I am fairly certain that most (all?) FAX machines are not capapble of anywhere near the quality or resolution that can come from a GOOD crisp high rez scan attached to an email.
3) The guy would NOT answer ANY of my email questions which I sent after the auction ended. I didn't ask any before hand. After I asked him not once but twice for a tracking number. He never supplied that. I also asked him TWICE to acknowledge that he received my FFL holder's FAX. He never responded to that either. It seems to me if you are going to business of any kind online then you should make an effort to respond to ALL email messages quickly and efficiently. My own rule of thumb is to reply in LESS than 24 hours to any and all email sent my way.
But now the good:
I sent his money order priority mail and it was delivered in less than 24 hours. He sent the gun to me priority mail the SAME DAY and I got it in about 24 hours.
Ultimately I'm happy. The gun was indeed NIB and I got it quickly. We both left positive feedback for each other. So what I'm wondering is the inattention to email typical for GunBroker dealers or is this just luck of the draw?
I paid for a Ruger SP101 from JaxShooters on GunBroker on May 31st using my debit card. I've emailed them twice now for a tracking number (and also asking if it has shipped yet) and so far I got nothing. I know it hasn't been all that long but honestly I feel like when the seller has MY MONEY in hand they should be getting the box on the road rather quickly. To me 24 hours is long enough for them to have my money and NOT send my item.
Think I'm being impatient? This is the Internet...things move pretty fast (most of the time!)....if you can't keep up you should probably not be doing business here.
Opinions please.
Last week I bought a Ruger Acuposrt Bisley Blackhawk .45 on GunBroker. Actually it's not really an Acusport as this was manufactured this year (so technically this is a parts "clean up gun"). But anyway let me tell you how the transaction went down.
I ordered from a dealer out of Illinois (2 hours from here actually). This guy had a good rep - thousands of A+ positives and only one neutral. And he'd been a member for many years so I figured it was worth the risk. A couple of oddities:
1) He would only accept a money order..no CC option
2) He would NOT accept emailed FFLs. He did accept faxed or snail-mailed copies however. In this day and age I find this completely baffling. Anything BOGUS that can be done with an email attachment can most certainly be done with a hard copy. After all doesn't the hard copy generally COME from a scanned copy from a computer?????????? And I am fairly certain that most (all?) FAX machines are not capapble of anywhere near the quality or resolution that can come from a GOOD crisp high rez scan attached to an email.
3) The guy would NOT answer ANY of my email questions which I sent after the auction ended. I didn't ask any before hand. After I asked him not once but twice for a tracking number. He never supplied that. I also asked him TWICE to acknowledge that he received my FFL holder's FAX. He never responded to that either. It seems to me if you are going to business of any kind online then you should make an effort to respond to ALL email messages quickly and efficiently. My own rule of thumb is to reply in LESS than 24 hours to any and all email sent my way.
But now the good:
I sent his money order priority mail and it was delivered in less than 24 hours. He sent the gun to me priority mail the SAME DAY and I got it in about 24 hours.
Ultimately I'm happy. The gun was indeed NIB and I got it quickly. We both left positive feedback for each other. So what I'm wondering is the inattention to email typical for GunBroker dealers or is this just luck of the draw?
I paid for a Ruger SP101 from JaxShooters on GunBroker on May 31st using my debit card. I've emailed them twice now for a tracking number (and also asking if it has shipped yet) and so far I got nothing. I know it hasn't been all that long but honestly I feel like when the seller has MY MONEY in hand they should be getting the box on the road rather quickly. To me 24 hours is long enough for them to have my money and NOT send my item.
Think I'm being impatient? This is the Internet...things move pretty fast (most of the time!)....if you can't keep up you should probably not be doing business here.
Opinions please.
