Twin Cities Carry Forum Archive
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Attitudes of Gun Shops in Cities?
http://ellegon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1102		 Page 8 of 11
Author:  Dick Unger [ Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:21 am ]
Post subject: 
Most young people today never see a demonstration of customer service, because they seldom buy a big ticket item. The big box stores they go to are designed for self service.

If they get a "customer service" job, and they tend to associate their job with the people they've met in real life; the big thing is when you go "on break".

Many years ago I visited Jamaca at the start of the tourist industry. We ate in resturants staffed by locals, who themselves had never eaten at a resturant, or even seen a resturant until they came to work. It was interesting, knives, forks and spoons were separately delivered to the tables by three different persons, each doing their respective jobs, for which they had to be "trained" by the employer.

Customers will talk about "customer service", but they buy mostly on price. Which is why the big boxes are big, and the other stores are small.
Author:  old guy [ Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:08 am ]
Post subject:  almost lost gun
Early this year I bought a Charter Arms bulldog pug .44 spcl from Bills in Bloomington, over time I dry fired it a lot, I have dry fired Rugers and Colts endlessly with nary a problem. One day I took it to Bills north to shoot and it went click click click. So I peered and probed in that little hole in the recoil sheild and lo and behold no fireing pin, this was not the first time I fired it so I knew it came with one. I showed it to the staff person there and told him I had bought the gun from them, he said no problem, boxed the gun up and sent it to the factory for repair, this was the 15th of Feb. On the 9th of April I get a call on my cell from Brownells in Iowa wanting to know why they had my gun down there, I asked her who had sent it to them and she said charter arms was the name on the packing, Bills uses shipping paperwork that is sold by Brownells and Brownells name, address and num. is at the bottem of the sheet and Charter Arms sent the gun to them, now she needs Bills FFL so she can get the gun back to me. Ben at Bills North was extremly helpfull in getting this straightened out.

John
Author:  1911fan [ Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
One of the problems I have is the turn over at some of the local stores. Bills north had a pretty set group of guys who were working for a long time after the takeover from Jeff, but I guess they did not work out completely, BUT, most of those guys were pretty decent people in running the range and shop. The new blood, while pretty willing to help in most cases, seems to do a lot more talking to each other than to customers.

Frontiersman has had Marv for 20 years, and he seems to make his decisions on helping you based on dress code. come in wearing a suit and get nice help, come in wearing work clothes and you get ignored.

J&S had an ownership change, and the new owner does not seem to get the concept yet.

Joes is hit or miss, some are sharp, but some are complete dufuss's and are proud to prove it to you. The prices make me gag usually.

Al in WBL is a character, on a good day, nicest guy on earth, one of the most knowlegble around too on old stuff. Catch him on a bad day, and he's a mean pissy guy, but I think he gets tired of BS from some people who don;t understand that if he sells a used rifle, he has no idea if the scope is sighted in or not, or similar stuff.

gunstop, I like them a lot, Larry has good days and bad, the new guy seems to be a welcome addition of a smart, experienced person who has actually fired weapons. Of course we all kowtow to Jon boy in the reloading side.
Author:  EAGSMN [ Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:02 pm ]
Post subject: 
I walked into Frontiersman today about 3pm in my work clothes (dirty blue work shirt and carpenter jeans) there were a number of others in there. The fellow behind the counter greeted me right away and was nice enough to show me a LCP that was already spoken for because they had none in stock to sell. This is the 3rd time I've been there over the last year, always felt treated right.
Author:  RalphieRoo [ Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:15 am ]
Post subject:  Frontiersman
I walked into Frontiersman two weeks ago... Had just come back from vacation - hadn't shaved for a week. Messy hair, untucked shirt, and jeans. Paul (whom I had never met before) helped me immediately and I walked out with a spanking-new P-95DC. I have always felt very welcome at Frontiersman!
Author:  1911fan [ Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:55 am ]
Post subject: 
I stand corrected, perhaps someone had pointed this out to the fine men who work there. On more than one occasion in the past, I had gone in wearing work clothes and stood waiting while guys in suits were immediately waited on.
Author:  BGA [ Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:35 pm ]
Post subject: 
I have had pretty good dealings with Bill's in Robbinsdale. The range officers are excellent - very friendly and professional. I have been to The Frontierman twice and the service was great. Both these places have high prices. I bought my weapon from Bill's only to find out that I over paid by at least 10%. Still, they're better on price than Frontierman.

I should add the following about Bill's. I bought a P226 CPO. It was advertised as coming with 2 magazines, but there was only one in the case, so they gave me a new one off the shelf in addition. When I first went to fire it, it stovepiped on me every other mag that I loaded. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off. I went upstairs to complain, politely, and one of their employees came down to the range to look at it with me. There were two problems - I was limp wristing it, and the gun was dirty. He lubed it for me and showed me how to hold it without limpwristing it. Then it worked fine. I was pleased with the service but not at all impressed by the fact that they didn't clean their incoming used weapons - nor that Sig didn't clean their CPOs either.

A few weeks later I was back to the range for some practice. The front sight on the gun came loose. I took it upstairs to complain again. They said that it should be covered by Sig and they called Sig for me. Sig then arranged to have one of Bill's smiths fix it for me rather than having me send it back to the Sig factory. Here again I was quite satisfied with the customer service, however rather unimpressed with the quality of my Sig Sauer, which is supposedly a very high quality manufacturer.

In any case I haven't had any issues with it since then, and I recently called Sig because one of the springs in one of the magazines was worn out and they're sending me a new one free of charge.
Author:  nitzer [ Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:02 am ]
Post subject: 
Being new on the forum, but not new to the dealers in the area I can say that my experiences have varied from place to place pretty much every time I've visited them.

Gander Mountain in Burnsville - bought a gun from them solely on price. That experience was good, good sales people. Every visit since then it's hard to find anyone knowledgable behind the counter.

J&S in Burnsville - First visit I was just browsing and they didn't give me the time of day. Second visit I was looking to sell a gun and buy a new one. That experience was pleasant, but I didn't end up buying from them since they didn't have what I was looking for, but they did quote me a decent price on the gun.

Cabelas in Medford - ok, never had a good experience with them. Over priced used and new guns. Guys behind the counter seemed bothered with having customers to deal with.

Bill's North - Coming in to shoot at the range has always been a pleasant experience. As long as they saw me exiting the range then looking in the store, great customer service. The times I've come in off the street looking, it's been so, so. The last time I was there I asked if they had heard if Glock was releasing the 21 in the SF (short frame). They proceeded to correct me that it was the "slim frame". Almost to the point of arguing the point with me. Unfortunately, they were wrong. I had done my homework, they hadn't. The only Glock that is a "slim frame" is the 36. After they quoted me $620 for a Glock 20, I left.

Bill's South - Never had any issues with them. Stopped in several times to look and inquired over the phone and they were always pleasant. It was the first gun shop I had ever set foot in. I didn't end up buying from them since I ended up finding my XD-9 a lot cheaper on Gunbroker.

Ahlman's - didn't have a big selection of hand guns when I was there, but the folks there were pleasant and helpful.

Gander Mountain in Duluth - have nothing good to say about them so I'll keep my comments to myself.

Personally I like to browse until something strikes my fancy. I really don't want to be bothered until I ask to see something. Then I expect to have the salesperson's attention. I tend to be looking for some odd guns at times and rarely find what I'm looking for in gun stores. Since moving up to Grand Marais, I even miss the rude gun sales people since we don't have a "gun store" up here. What I have found is sales people have a perpensity to steer customers (me) away from what I'm looking for in favor of what they want to sell me. If I ask for something specific, that's probalby what I'm looking for. :lol:

Derek
Author:  Macx [ Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:32 am ]
Post subject: 
Frontiersman. Great service on all three guns I have bought there in the last year. I am expecting to do transfers through them soon on a pair of recievers I ordered, not because they are cheap (actually the clerk suggested I shop around for transfers at a lowwer rate) but because I like their shop and would rather throw a few extra bucks their way than burn more gas and chance bad service elsewhere.
Author:  Scott Hughes [ Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:59 am ]
Post subject: 
Courteous nature and customer service can outweigh price. To most good business owners it equates to a value added concept. That can go a long way toward building customer loyalty.
Author:  hypertech [ Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:59 am ]
Post subject: 
For some reason I've not had the same experience with Frontiersman as most of you guys. Don't get me wrong - always friendly, just don't seem interested in helping me. Maybe I just ask the wrong questions or something.

On the other hand, I've been pretty pleased with Bills (depending on the clerk) and Cabella's. I generally do most of my shopping at Cabella's now - especially when they are having a club sale.
Author:  Drizzle [ Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
Bought a used model 10 3 inch at Bill's North today, after looking at it Friday. I was lucky it was still there. Andrew did the paperwork for me, and while we were waiting for things to go through, I stood and BS'd with he and Chuck, who seemed to be the manager, about how they hadn't expected it to be in the case long (it had been on sale since Friday). Chuck joked for Andrew to turn me upside down and shake my pockets out, since he thought they'd priced the pistol too low, and I asked a couple of questions about my AR as well.

I mentioned that they seemed to be making more emphasis lately about uncasing only on the line, and I heard a story about some moron with an AK pistol who had loaded a mag and charged his piece facing the glass! Apparently five people hit the floor, and the guy was asked, politely, to leave. When we were done, Andrew shook my hand, and wished me good luck and said thanks for coming in.

I shoot there about once a month. The range guys have always been friendly, and I walked out today happy with my purchase and the BSing we'd done. The service I got today will keep me going back.

[/i]
Author:  Saunassa [ Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
Ganders seem to be high and unless another person is checking out a firearm usually getting someone can take a bit.

I bought my M&P at Puglisi's Gun Emporium in Duluth and i would recommend them to anyone that asked. :D Carrys the complete line of glocks, M&P and can order up anything you want without question. And if you are looking for long guns they have two whole rooms of them.
Author:  adjudicator [ Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:06 am ]
Post subject: 
Just read the the majority of this thread and wanted to give some credit where it's due to Nate @ Bills in Robinsdale. My brother and I shoot there a couple times a month and are always happy to see when he's working at the range desk.

+1
Author:  EAGSMN [ Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Never Called
I left my name and # with Frontiersman for a LCP this spring, never heard from them (althought now that I tried one at Bill's I'm glad they never called).
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