Quote:
Originally posted by HardDrive
Moreover, if you guys (slakjaw, competentone) want to think I'm a jerk, thats fine. But I find it disturbing that you would so readily accept incompetence, and more fundementally, poor customer service. They're not selling donuts, they're selling guns. Its important that it is done safely and correctly.
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I'm not calling you a "jerk." I'm just thinking that you're getting more riled up about this than you need to be.
Federally licensed gun dealers exist
not because there is a market demand for many of them, but because an
artificial demand has been created by government statute. Subsequently you get many gun dealers who are not particularly good business people; they can continue to run a profitable business because their better competitors (better retail establishments) don't want to mess with the FFL hassle.
I've also been in enough gun shops to know that the sport tends to attract "groupies" who can sometimes be a little "off-center." (The guys working in the shops can often be such "groupies.") They're not always the most efficient operators and can have some pretty
wrong ideas about the law.
Case in point:
I was in a gun shop purchasing an "old" (1950s) shotgun (Sears Roebuck and Co. if anyone is curious).
I fill out the paperwork, but then the "kid" in charge (probably in his 20s) cannot accept the fact that the gun has no serial number. I explain to him that it was made in the 1950s and guns were not required to have serial numbers until 1968.
He tells me I'm wrong; that "he's the FFL" and that "all guns have had to have serial numbers since the 1930s." I detected that I was dealing with one of those "experts" who always knew more than his customer so I didn't argue anymore.
I didn't get upset. I just stood there and smiled politely while I watched him take apart the shotgun to find the "serial number" he
knew was there! He struggle for a while, getting frustrated that other customers were waiting -- and probably wanting to complete the transaction before I changed my mind -- he finally exclaimed, "Oh, here it is!" and promptly wrote the model number as the serial number.
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.
I think you could have experienced your "ordeal" as something enjoyable, rather than a source of frustration.