Carolina Sporting Arms fail
I had a bit of an unfortunate situation today. I recently picked up a fairly difficult to find handgun off of GunBroker.com…a Glock 20SF. I usually buy locally, but this time I decided to just get it off of the Internet. After I won the acution, I called Carolina Sporting Arms to ask them to do the transfer. The gentleman that answered the phone was very cagey, and asked me what the gun that I was transferring was. I told him, and he told me that it was “store policy” not to do transfers on new guns. I asked him if he had a Glock 20SF, and he replied “No, not in stock.” I pointed out that they had done a transfer for me in the past, and he said that they will sometimes do them for “good customers.” Now, I’ve spent well into four figures in this shop in the past year. I told the gentleman this, and he told me to “Come into the shop and we would see what we could do.”
No thanks. I went over to Firepower, Inc. in Matthews and got the transfer done in about 30 seconds. I bought a gun, too, in a fit of pique. (I normally do most of my shopping at Firepower…great prices, great people. CSA was on the way to school, though. And, before this, I had never had a problem with CSA.) But, honestly, at this point I was pissed.
Now, you have to understand, I am not a complainer. I eat food in restaurants that is not cooked properly. I’m the first guy to say “It’s ok” even when it is not. But this time, I was pissed. So, I got in the car and drove over to CSA, and asked to speak to a manager. I got to the manager, who it turns out is the guy in the shop that I know pretty well. He knows who I am, and how often I shop there. I explained that I had called to inquire about a transfer and had gotten the runaround. I said that I was disappointed. He replied, “Store policy is no new gun transfers. You have to understand the position that we are in…” I cut him off and replied “<name>, I know. I get that you have to support your local gun shop. I buy ammo here, not at Walmart. You know that I am in here at least every other week. If you had had the gun, I would have bought it here. But you didn’t. I was just upset that I had to go through this.”
That is when he ‘fessed up. He was the guy I had spoken to. “If I knew it was you, there wouldn’t have been any problem. That’s why I told you to come into the shop.”
Sorry, guys. I get the desire to sell guns at retail. But you can’t make you customers feel like they are somehow screwing you by using your services. If you think you need more margin on transfers, then increase the price of transfers. In my mind, you get $40 for a few minutes paperwork, without any inventory overhead at all. In fact, you should be JUMPING at the opportunity to do transfers. $40 for ten minutes work is $240 an hour. With essentially zero variable cost. And, I would probably have bought a holster and ammo at whatever your regular markup is. The MBA in me wants to jump at that business model. And, when I complain, don’t tell me I am wrong and that I don’t understand the business. You took a very good customer and pissed him off.
Bottom line, it will be a LONG while before I spend money at Carolina Sporting Arms again. I still strongly recommend Firepower, though. Ask for Steve and tell them Newbie Shooter sent you.
Do your part!
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