Was I out of line?

[41 fan]

Just responding to the OP. Yes, you were wrong. The store owner or his employees are the only people that should get themselves involved in any deals at a shop. I have worked in gun stores and side dealing is not tolerated. If you are lucky, the first time you spoke to a potential seller, you would be seriously warned. If you are not lucky or it ever happened again, you definately would have to find another place to shop. What do you think would happen if you went down to your local car dealer and tried to purchase a used car from a potential seller on the lot?
In the past, I have been in local gun stores when a potential seller came in with a weapon for sale. I do not converse with anyone unless the shop does not want to buy the weapon. Then I ask permission from the owner or employee if I can speak with the seller. I have never been turned down, but if I was I would not speak to the seller.
You just don't try to deal at another persons business. Dean

 

[markeb]

The owner and seller had already made the deal. I just commented to the seller that I wish I had known he wanted to sell before he came in. I was looking at a similar model the owner had for sale that I liked much better and would still buy if he would work with me a bit. I hold no bad feelings in this whole deal. There are just a few stores in town that I deal with and he is one of them. I just think this was all a misunderstanding.

 

[Joe in SC]

There's a hell of a lot of difference in someone making a causal statement that might not be well timed and one that is a serious effort to buy the gun from under the dealer. I am amazed at the numbers of posters here that can not tell the freaking difference.

Had the OP continued the conversation then I would agree that he should be brought up to speed by the shop owner or employee involved. It would not require mean spirited or angry tones at this point, either. What ever happened to cival communication where appropriate and preserving the the working relationship between a business and it's customers ? Sounds to me like the shop is as guilty, perhaps more so, of not knowing common sense solutions as the OP has been accused of.

As far as booting the OP or anyone out of a gun shop under similar circumstances is much more uncalled for than the innocent remark made by the OP. I would suggest that if a shop owner over-reacted that way he should be subject to criminal and cival charges and rightfully so.

This kind of bad-*** mentality is hurting gun owners.

 

[41 fan]

Joe,
Mean spirited or angy tones or not, that is how it works. Most store owners are very sensitive about this subject. As I said before, you should not make any kind of comment to a buyer or seller. That is gunstore manners. The owner pays the rent, insurance, utilities and payroll. Any comment you might make could impact his business. If you think he bought the gun at a low price, wait until the seller exits and ask him what he will take for it right then and there. He will probably be willing to give you a good deal. If you are not interested in the weapon, or can't afford it, no comments are needed.
As far as booting someone out, you are way off base. A business owner or employee can put anyone out with or without a reason. In the last gun store I worked at, I threw a mailman out and told him to never set foot inside the business again. He got mouthy and I told him to get out or I would put him out. The owner was standing right beside me laughing at the mailman. Another good way to get the boot is to pull out a loaded weapon inside a gun store.
You may not like it, but that is the way it is in most gun stores. Conduct yourself as a gentleman and you will be treated as a gentleman. Run your mouth at your own risk. Dean

 

[BearBio]

Joe,
Mean spirited or angy tones or not, that is how it works. Most store owners are very sensitive about this subject. As I said before, you should not make any kind of comment to a buyer or seller. That is gunstore manners. The owner pays the rent, insurance, utilities and payroll. Any comment you might make could impact his business. If you think he bought the gun at a low price, wait until the seller exits and ask him what he will take for it right then and there. He will probably be willing to give you a good deal. If you are not interested in the weapon, or can't afford it, no comments are needed.
As far as booting someone out, you are way off base. A business owner or employee can put anyone out with or without a reason. In the last gun store I worked at, I threw a mailman out and told him to never set foot inside the business again. He got mouthy and I told him to get out or I would put him out. The owner was standing right beside me laughing at the mailman. Another good way to get the boot is to pull out a loaded weapon inside a gun store.
You may not like it, but that is the way it is in most gun stores. Conduct yourself as a gentleman and you will be treated as a gentleman. Run your mouth at your own risk. Dean

How many of the stores you have worked at went out of business?

 

[GTbob]

Joe,
Mean spirited or angy tones or not, that is how it works. Most store owners are very sensitive about this subject. As I said before, you should not make any kind of comment to a buyer or seller. That is gunstore manners. The owner pays the rent, insurance, utilities and payroll. Any comment you might make could impact his business. If you think he bought the gun at a low price, wait until the seller exits and ask him what he will take for it right then and there. He will probably be willing to give you a good deal. If you are not interested in the weapon, or can't afford it, no comments are needed.
As far as booting someone out, you are way off base. A business owner or employee can put anyone out with or without a reason. In the last gun store I worked at, I threw a mailman out and told him to never set foot inside the business again. He got mouthy and I told him to get out or I would put him out. The owner was standing right beside me laughing at the mailman. Another good way to get the boot is to pull out a loaded weapon inside a gun store.
You may not like it, but that is the way it is in most gun stores. Conduct yourself as a gentleman and you will be treated as a gentleman. Run your mouth at your own risk. Dean

I have to agree with all the comments made in regards to tha TUDES of GS owners and employees. If this is the way they conduct themselves, then they deserve to go out of business. I certainly would not spend my hard earned money there and would make sure none that I know did either.

As the saying goes.... Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Bob

 

[cal50]

How many of the stores you have worked at went out of business?

LOL!

If you run ANY business and treat people like you are doing them a favor it will catch up eventually. Just becasue someone owns a business its not a free pass to be a A-hole and collect money.


If I was that mail man that address would never receive mail again....

 

[BearBio]

Another point: Threatening the mailman while on duty is a Federal offense punishable by 5 years (no parole) in a Federal prison, I THINK. Postmen aren't really Federal employees==they are in a strange place==separate retirement, separate medical, unions==not like us Federal guys!

I wouldn't mess with a postman==late/lost bills are no fun!

 

[ladder13]

And if a letter carrier "loses" someone's mail on purpose, HE's going to jail real quick. My father was a letter carrier, the PO don't play games. Back in the day a letter carrier was dumping mail into garbage cans on the streets of Manhattan. I guess he thought the bag was too heavy. He was fired and prosecuted by the Feds.

 

[keith44spl]

To the OP...I would try not to do that too much.


My local gun dealer is also a good friend of mine...I don't ask for extra favors.
I like to see him make a good profit as well.
If he make 20% to 50% on one sale or 1000% on the next, good for him.

Ya see, I like hangin out there...I want to see him stay in business.

I don't butt-in to his dealings and I don't spit on his floor.


FWIW, If I bought a bunch of gold when it was $280.00 an oz. and sold it the other day after it hit $1500.00+,
Does that make me a crook?

 

[cal50]

And if a letter carrier "loses" someone's mail on purpose, HE's going to jail real quick. My father was a letter carrier, the PO don't play games. Back in the day a letter carrier was dumping mail into garbage cans on the streets of Manhattan. I guess he thought the bag was too heavy. He was fired and prosecuted by the Feds.

Sometimes but not all the time. I had a real douche bag mailman. The local postmaster was tight with the guy and did nothing about my missed deliveries. I ended up contacting a postal inspector on the federal level. They sent mail to me and tracked delivery and times. When they started asking my postmaster the same questions I did earlier and had no answers my delivery suddenly improved 1000 %. My dead beat mailman got moved to a different route but not fired. He made the mistake of mishandling mail that all of it had tracking numbers which I provided the postal inspector. The postmaster also messed up by defending the guy when all the facts proved otherwise.

I know I will not get a Christmas card from either one of them but I will get my other mail.Idiots.

 

[41 fan]

Bear and others,
The mailman was not our mailman. He was attempting to intimidate the store owner over a subject that was none of his business.
Most small businesses do close. Both closed way after I had worked there.
Why would anyone think it is OK to enter another persons business and make comments to his customer? Like Keith said, don't butt in.
Have any of you done such and not been chastized for it? That may fly where you are, but it won't in the metro Atlanta area. Just as I said before, conduct yourself as a gentleman, and you will be treated as a gentleman. Gentlemen do not interfere with another gentlemans business. Dean

 

[ladder13]

Sometimes but not all the time. I had a real douche bag mailman. The local postmaster was tight with the guy and did nothing about my missed deliveries. I ended up contacting a postal inspector on the federal level. They sent mail to me and tracked delivery and times. When they started asking my postmaster the same questions I did earlier and had no answers my delivery suddenly improved 1000 %. My dead beat mailman got moved to a different route but not fired. He made the mistake of mishandling mail that all of it had tracking numbers which I provided the postal inspector. The postmaster also messed up by defending the guy when all the facts proved otherwise.

I know I will not get a Christmas card from either one of them but I will get my other mail.Idiots.

Times have surely changed. Years ago not doing your job was a big deal. Though I suspect if they caught him throwing mail in a trashcan there would have been a price to be paid.

 

[cal50]

Times have surely changed. Years ago not doing your job was a big deal. Though I suspect if they caught him throwing mail in a trashcan there would have been a price to be paid.

I was told the guy had 28 years and was a union employee so its VERY hard to terminate him. I did not care how they handled it but I just wanted my mail delivered.Its bad when you miss something expected. I wondered what I did not know was coming that I missed.

I ordered some AK laminated wood from Poland. My point was why the hell would I refuse delivery for something I pre-paid and was waiting for?

I was happy he (mailman) was moved and my local postmaster now calls me Mr. XXXX. I also have a postal inspector located at the local post office with a direct phone number. I now get all my mail and packages.
Being a mailman is a good paying job and if he did not want to do it someone else would. The weekly drill for me was no mail for a few days then the box was stuffed full. I think the guy took 3 day weekends and delivered when he wanted to. My neighbors also complained and some of them had mail order prescriptions they were waiting for or missed. It would be really hard to catch someone in the act of tossing mail but anyone that would do that should be fired. I think the guy is retired now.

 

[blackflag]

The customer is NOT always right. If they were that would mean I was always wrong. Thats not the case.

Wingmaster

If that were true, it would mean you're "always" at odds with your customers. What's wrong with that picture?

The U.S. was built on "the customer is always right." And I can count on one hand the number of gunstores I know that have been in business more than 10 years.

 

[41 fan]

Theur,

Are you sure? I thought "the customer was always right" was instituted by large chain stores. Because the chain stores have adopted that policy, most customers think it is law. In the state I live in, there is only one circumstance that a retail customer can return merchandise for a cash refund. If the merchandise was defective when purchased. Otherwise it is up to the merchant. Some retailers post signs descsribing their policy, others do not. There are some people that cannot be pleased under any circumstance. Dean

 

[gyrhed]

Sometimes but not all the time. I had a real douche bag mailman. The local postmaster was tight with the guy and did nothing about my missed deliveries. I ended up contacting a postal inspector on the federal level. They sent mail to me and tracked delivery and times. When they started asking my postmaster the same questions I did earlier and had no answers my delivery suddenly improved 1000 %. My dead beat mailman got moved to a different route but not fired. He made the mistake of mishandling mail that all of it had tracking numbers which I provided the postal inspector. The postmaster also messed up by defending the guy when all the facts proved otherwise.

I know I will not get a Christmas card from either one of them but I will get my other mail.Idiots.

We did exactly the same thing years ago. It seemed like anything we mailed by leaving it in our mialbox never got where it was suppoesd yo go. You live in 75182?

 

[gyrhed]

You guys see the episode of hardcore pawn where the owner was trying to buy a boatload of handguns for his staff. Something like a $5000 sale of misc handguns of whatever his employees wanted and the dealer went berserk because he though the guy was trying to get him to come down on the total package price, which he might of been but hey $5K. What little I saw was this guys prices were really close to full retail anyway. At least everyone he quoted an individual price on was significantly higher than I would have to pay here. Not only did he get mad he ran them all out of the store and wouldn't sell to them.

I don't care if he was the owner, that is just stupid. Obviously it could get really anoying selling almost a dozen handguns to a buch of people that don't know what they want. But heck all sales can't be to well educated, well trained, individuals that know all the options and have considered them for hours before walking into the store.

I know we have all run into that type of gun salesman before and as far as I know only gun salesman get away with acting like that for long.

I don't care weather or not it affected the sale, the gunowners proper response would have been to pull him aside and very calmly explain how he felt about the comment. PERIOD. There is no justification of the gunshop owners actions. He is running a bussiness. Why run off a possible paying client?

Now when you get some dufuss in the shop that does that over and over OK run him out.

What bothers me most about todays gunshops are the dadgum "experts" that seem to be just hanging out there all the time. They rarely if ever buy anything, but are always there offerring advise and talking loudly about "full auto" or "blowing off someones head". Makes us all look like nuts. And I like playing with full auto weapons, but I recocnize they scare even a lot of gun owners.

 

[blackflag]

Theur,

Are you sure? I thought "the customer was always right" was instituted by large chain stores.

The phrase was started around the turn of the century, before anybody knew what a chain store was. I get nothing but horrible service in places like Best Buy, and I won't step foot in a WalMart.

Anybody who disagrees with the concept just needs to go work for somebody with some business sense. Or go work at a chain store, where they can gt away with being surly.

 

[cal50]

We did exactly the same thing years ago. It seemed like anything we mailed by leaving it in our mialbox never got where it was suppoesd yo go. You live in 75182?

Ohio (44001).

My odyssey was about a year ago. Our neighborhood has the locked drop boxes. If you get someones (the wrong) mail in your box you cant put it in the other (correct) box. I was getting my mail from neighbors on the weekend becasue the guy could not hit the correct hole. Then he just stopped delivery. I am not kidding. No mail for one to three days then it was stuffed. I never really noticed until I had a few specific gun part orders coming in. All pre-paid and I was waiting for them. I got calls from the sender (3 separate) with a notice of refused delivery. I was really pissed off as one was shipped back to the place I ordered it from.

As I mentioned I met with my local postmaster and she REALLY did not give a ****. I could tell she really did not like hearing what I was saying.
Its not until the ball got kicked over he head she got a new attitude.
I told her that if they (her and the mailman) just did their jobs I have no beef with them. Once I get the attitude I really dig my heels in and have a point to make.

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