Hello,

I am looking for some ideas. I have a rifle at a gunsmith, that was sent to him back in Sept/06. The projected finish date was Dec/06.

After numerous calls and Emails, he finally acknowledged that the rifle had made it to him. This was in Jan/07, however he did not give an updated finish date.

I gave him a couple of months to get caught up, and did not try to contact him. As of today Aug/07,after numerous attempts to call and email him over the past 90 days I have tried to contact him, with no replies from him. Today I go to try and call him again, only to find out that his web site comes up "WEBSITE UNAVAILABLE"-PLEASE CONTACT SUPPORT. Needless to say I AM NOT HAPPY. His phone number still works,but I am only able to leave messages, that go unreturned.

I have had work done by smiths before (not this one though), and am no stranger to projects taking much longer than quoted. This is usually fine with me, as long as I am able to stay in contact with the smith and get updates.

At this point I do not want to name him in case this turns out to be a minor problem.

My question is this. Short of legal action, flying in to contact him in person, contacting his local law enforcement ,or heaven forbid the BATF. Do you have an other ideas on how to get his attention.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Rick D. - Southern Oregon
NRA/VHA life member

Wow this one is hard to answer. I can however give you one of my experiences. I gave a family airloomed .30-30 to a gunsmit once to re-blue. After a year and a half much like you I never got the rifle back. I called and he asked me to give him another month that I wouldn;t be dissappointed. Not only did he re-blue the metal he re-finished the stock. The rifle is beutiful now. Give him a chance first they do get backlogged. However he should answer his phone...

Welcome to the forum nemisys451. Rules are simple, be nice and join in.

I don't know what he was doing to your rifle, but having it this long is the reason many gunsmiths are out of business.

You need to send him a certified return receipt letter and ask what the hold up is and for him to get in contact with you before you proceed with legal action.

I ran a shop for 27 years and this is no way to treat a customer.

The above posts are good advice. Both of them.
A person can't work and answer the phone/e-mail very well at the same time. Perhaps he/she is overwhelmed with work or customer contact?

Detail work like gunsmithing demands attention to the piece at hand. Perhaps he is just understaffed and over burdoned with "work"?

I am not a "smith". I do not know of any "good ones" in my neighborhood.

I get "asked" sometimes if I would do "this or that" with a firearm? BEFORE I take on the project? My answer is ARE YOU IN A HURRY?" If so, go elsewhere. I have a day job. Prefer to let the "real smiths" perform thier work.

Do not bite off more than you can chew!

Cheezywan

Welcome to the forum nemisys451. Rules are simple, be nice and join in.

I don't know what he was doing to your rifle, but having it this long is the reason many gunsmiths are out of business.

You need to send him a certified return receipt letter and ask what the hold up is and for him to get in contact with you before you proceed with legal action.

I ran a shop for 27 years and this is no way to treat a customer.


DITTO!

When I'm searching for things that customer's request, it sometimes takes longer than expected (deal with a lot of one-man shops and there are times like recently when I had to wait on several of them to get back from shows/vacations.

Having a gun at this guy's shop and he's not returning calls or answering the phone.....that's just plain uncalled for. I could see if it was a week or two, give the benefit of the doubt considering something may have happened like a family emergency or something. Given the time frame on this one, go with the certified return receipt letter. Check the local laws where his shop is located and see how much time you need to give him the date he receives the letter, you have to keep it legal or it won't hold up if you need to proceed with legal action.

When I'm doing something for a customer, I always try to give them progress updates along the way like stock inletted, barrel being finished or whatever. It only takes a couple minutes to send an email or make a phone call, it gives them the peace of mind that you're actually doing the work they are paying you to do. It also makes for good relations with your customers because they know you care enough about them to keep them informed. I mean, even if you get back-logged, the amount of time and effort to make a call or drop an email note explaining the delay is not too much to ask from any business owner!

Go get your gun, keep all your gas and time receipts and send him a love letter from your lawyer. Post his name and address the hounds of hades will come upon him. Don't know what you needed done but if he can't get it done in a timely fashion he should at least answer your phone messages. His web site is likely still up he just blocked you. Post that site also. I would call him words but alas I'm above that.

Thank you very much for your replies.

I have been lurking on this site for quite a while now . I am continually pleased with how much information and help that I have seen given here. Even the "disagreements" seem to end in a fairlly civil manner.

I will be proceeding with the certified mail with return receipt. Hopefully this will get his attention. If not I guess stepping it up a notch will be the next step.

Call me soft, but at this time I do not want to post the smith's name or specialty YET!!!! I am still hoping for an amicable solution to this problem.

I will post my progress (if any) as it happens.

Again thank you.
Rick D.

That sounds like a reasonable next step, nemisys. Keep us posted

It doesn't really matter what his name is, but when using any gunsmith that you haven't used before ask him for customer references.

His reaction to that question can tell you if you want to entrust a firearm to him. Most folks that do good timely work will be glad to give you some references. If not then stay away from him/her like the plague.

Good luck on getting your gun back.

And don't forget about a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. They will send him and you an inquiry to see if the complaint was settled. No good business wants and outstanding BBB complaint on file.

Suprise, Suprise.

I was finishing up my letter draft last night, and was going to type it out and send it today.

Guess who should call at 7:51am this morning. Yep it was my missing in action gunsmith. Luckily for both of us, I was asleep and he got to explain things to my wife.

He explained that he wasn't going out of business, he was still working on his backed up work, and he did not know why his web site was down. He assured her that he was making progress, but he did not give her an updated finish date.

He ended her conversation by telling her that he would be calling back to talk to me directly.

I am still patiently waiting. I have also typed out my letter to him , should the need arise.

Thanks again
Rick D.

You haven't received any response from him for at least 90 days. You posted yesterday requesting a suggested course of action. You got several suggestions. And this morning he calls you on the phone.

In my best Artie Johnson voice;" Very interesting. Very interesting."

There may be a good likelihood that he reads the shooters forum. If he does good and well, but his business practices are terrible and I'd sure make all us other shooters aware of who he is simply to protect us all from sending him a gun.

These are the kind of folks and services none of us need.