Picking a shop - Customer Service 100%. Our local gun shop is run by really nice people. When it comes to buying a gun from the shop - how fast can they get it to me and how much will I pay.

 

Customer service to a point.

I currently work in a customer service environment, and the people that I am paid to deal with unfortunately do not understand that the predicament they got themselves into 6 or 7 months ago buying product X, is not necessarily going to be an instant service. Let alone the warranties involved may not necessarily cover sending someone out to repair product Y. Even still, product Z does not necessarily qualify as a repairable product and we can try, and we will try and get you as much information on the repair as possible but when you think about it later and you never got your special product R out of it and you get upset at me for not telling you it was still in there...

I cannot help that.





And when you post to the internet before telling the company of your issue. Then the company fixed your issue, and you leave your internet bash still live, that leaves bad marketing everywhere and suddenly the 'reputation' you have is trashed.

 

Make sure your employees are informed about their products so that they aren't featured in the "Gun shop stories" threads.

 

I buy rifles and shotguns either from my uncle (who has an FFL) or through a local store. The uncle part is kind of a pain in the ass as he lives in New Mexico, but I got a really good deal on my G3 through him.

I'm in the market for an M1A and I'm looking at a local store where I picked up my HK USP. Gun shows are a really good option in the state of TX, but pickings can be slim.

 

Thank you everyone for your input. You confirmed not only my personnal experience with buying but also my thoughts on our eventual store.

 

I have bought from two different retail stores, both are dbags.

I would suggest that you go and check out who others conduct their business (most likely very jerky) and take note of what not to do.

In CA for whatever reason, lots of retail shops are these guys with attitude who think they know everything. Or they would charge you 80 bucks to do a simple DROS, or they try to tell you that OLL's and bullet buttons are illegal. Basically, they are rude and ignorant, and their pricing sucks on top of all that.

Be friendly, knowledgeable, and competitive on price, and you are about a million steps ahead of allthe dbag retail places out there. Let me say that again, you don't need to be the lowest price guy out there, but if you share your passion and be friendly with your customers, you will have a loyal following. Oh, and lurk on calgun's sponsor section and see how those guys conduct their business.

Did I mention how much I hated the two places that I bought my stuff from? And no, thedude, I am not talking about the san fernando place, but the jackasses in Culver City and Burbank.

 

This.

Check out the stories on calguns and make sure you don't have one of thse asshats as your employee.

 

Not to derail this too much, but are you thinking of the Whizzin's range next to WoodRanch and BlueTable? Not sure what is happening to that property/range right now with all the re-model construction; better get it before the price per sq. ft. goes up!

 

Good Lord, No shit on this. Some of those vendors, makes me wonder how they ever stayed in biz.

 

Yea I've heard the owners of Whizzins are a PITA, and dont want a range there anymore, so I'm sure its an uphill battle. But the space has been vacant so long, I'm sure they would entertain some $$ in their pockets. I've also heard mixed rumors on why the range is gone (fire, suicides, landlord, etc.) I would just love to have a range over here again, and I think it would do pretty well.