Originally Posted by Dirty Harry Callahan

I only have limited experience ordering firearms from online retailers, but I'm generally a "three strikes" kind of guy, and this will have been my third negative experience ordering firearms online. All of the orders I've placed were from different retailers who have a generally good reputation, but I'm going to withhold their names.

Now, before anyone makes any rash assumptions, this has nothing to do with shipping time. I'm well aware that shipment has been slowed down by COVID-19 and thus I was fully prepared to wait patiently for shipment/delivery to my FFL.

The problem is how the retailers I've dealt with have managed my orders. Problem number one is lack of communication. When I purchase something as expensive as a firearm, I expect to be kept up-to-date regarding the status of my order. I want step-by-step notifications, frequent updates, and in-depth information. (If Amazon.com can do it for cheap little things, then there's no reason why an online firearms retailer cannot.) Unfortunately, it appears that all online firearms retailers I've dealt with have a very hands-off approach to keeping customers notified, take their sweet time to update the status of the order, and generally only provide information after the fact.

Shipments are another problem, as they often don't provide very many options, and sometimes they only use USPS Priority Mail, which I've had nothing but trouble with. USPS Priority Mail is slow, provides poor tracking, and frankly doesn't pay any attention whatsoever to business hours when it comes to the recipient, they just deliver it whenever and if nobody is there when it arrives, then it gets stuck in limbo and either you have to reschedule the delivery (sans time of day, so they can easily deliver it outside of business hours all over again) or the FFL has to take time out of their day to go pick it up from the post office.
Frankly, USPS Priority Mail shouldn't even be used to ship firearms because they're just not reliable enough to be trusted with it, but the retailers don't care because they aren't the ones who have to deal with it when the USPS screws everything up by delivering outside of business hours.

Lastly, I dislike their hands off approach towards problem-solving. Sure, you can provide them with all the information, but if something goes wrong, then they're slow to inform you of it, and need you to hold their hand if not take the reigns when it happens. For example, the last retailer I dealt with needed additional information from my FFL to complete the order, and although I provided them with my FFL's contact info, they wanted me to contact my FFL to tell my FFL to contact them, without providing me with a phone number, Fax, or e-mail address to give my FFL. So I ended up having to e-mail the retailer, politely yet sternly reminding them that I'm paying them and that they should be making use of the contact info they had me fill out for my FFL, not complicating the matter by using me as a middle-man to relay a message to my FFL.

Currently, my latest firearms order is stuck in limbo at the Post Office because the USPS attempted to deliver the package at 8:40am despite the fact that there a big roadside sign outside my FFL which clearly lists that they don't open until 10:00am due to COVID-19. Of course, the mail man couldn't simply go about his business and swing back around later to deliver it, so instead he left a notice at my FFL, took it back to the Post Office, and now I either have to either reschedule a delivery or the FFL Dealer has to go retrieve it.
I'm going to wait until the end of the day, just in case my FFL decides to go pick it up, and if it isn't retrieved, then I'll reschedule a delivery for tomorrow. Problem is, the option to reschedule a delivery does not include what time of day to deliver it, meaning the mail man might just end up trying to deliver it outside of business hours all over again, so hopefully my FFL Dealer will retrieve it instead.

Regardless, I'm pretty sure that this is the last time I'll ever order a firearm online. It's just too darn stressful.