My Dad believed every boy should know how to handle a gun. He had good reason to. His dad always kept a 12-gauge propped up in the umbrella stand, right next to the front door. Maybe for defense, but mostly to pick off a random pheasant in the morning. That shotgun got as much use as any tool he owned. My Dad watched his brothers go to war … all of them. His oldest brother saw deep action as a scout on Mindanou, WWII. The second oldest in Korea. My Dad and his twin both enlisted as the Korean War was wrapping up. There are few reassurances when you go to war, but according to my Dad, one for him was having hands that already felt comfortable holding a rifle.
My History with Guns
So given my Dad’s philosophy, it was no surprise when he came home on my 16th birthday with a long, wrapped box. I knew it was coming. And knowing something’s coming makes it even harder to wait, to the point that I probably failed every test at school that day. But however rough it was getting to that moment, by the end of the evening, there was a pile of wrapping paper on the floor and a new Ruger 10-22 in my hands. Dad had bought a matching one for himself. The rest of my teenage years saw many, many evenings with my Dad, out in the foothills, enjoying our rifles.
Fast forward a few decades. Now I enjoy the same thing with my boys. We love finding outdoor ranges when we travel. We’ve put a lot of rounds through those same two rifles plus a number of other firearms I’ve acquired over the years.
But I’ve also found a practical side to guns. With as much time as I spend alone in the mountains, the right gun makes for a calming companion. I always carry, at a minimum, a tiny .22 magnum as a trail gun. If I get up into moose territory, I carry something with more punch, thanks to one particularly dark night in a high alpine meadow and the moose that decided to park itself on the trail. And stomp. And snort.
I’ve Bought Guns Online
I’ve always been drawn to the sort of gun the local gun stores don’t stock. I like revolvers. And lever guns. A couple of times I’ve had my local gun shop special order a gun for me. They’ll usually bend over backwards to find what you’re looking for.
But I’ve also bought a number of guns online. And it always went smoothly, to the point that it never occurred to me to write this post. I purchased through GunBroker.com twice with no hiccups. Got that .22 magnum revolver I was talking about – a North American Arms Black Widow that was very hard to come by locally – from Guns.com. That transaction was smooth as butter. And I picked up a revolver as a purse gun for my wife through BudsGunShop.com. Again, seamless.
Sometimes It’s Not Seamless
It was all seamless … until it wasn’t. My first negative experience came from Gunbroker.com. Gunbroker is the eBay of guns, so you never know what kind of seller you’re dealing with. In my case, a seller listed a short-barrelled Rossi R92 I’d been drooling over for years. I pulled the trigger. Then waited … and waited … and waited. Tense exchanges followed. I came to question whether the seller actually had the gun at all. Finally a tracking number showed up and a week later I had the gun. Whew.
A New Fiasco
Every time I ordered a gun online, I got the gun I ordered. Why wouldn’t I? The idea of getting the wrong gun never crossed my mind. Until …
I mentioned the revolver I picked up for my wife: a Smith & Wesson 632 Ultimate Carry with a stainless steel cylinder. It’s a sweeeeeeet little revolver. I’ll pause to say that you know you’re human when you give someone a gift and immediately feel jealous. Test firing her gun, I knew I wanted one too. I have other concealed carry guns, but the S&W would fill a gap – the quick-grab, lightweight, easily-concealable gap. Only I wanted the titanium model. For the wife, recoil management. For me, minimalism.
These guns aren’t easy to find. Luckily I found the titanium model on Guns.com, and at a very fair price. Given the great experience I had buying the Black Widow through them, I didn’t bat an eye at using them again.
They shipped quickly, gave me a tracking number, and set me feeling like my 16-year-old self all over again, waiting on pins and needles. The gun arrived. I went to pick it up. Gave it a thorough inspection. Checked the cylinder carefully. The color looked right for titanium – it sat a little dark against the aluminum frame, like titanium would. So I accepted the gun and took it home.
The Wrong Gun
It wasn’t until I compared it against my wife’s revolver that I noticed there wasn’t any weight difference. I threw them both on the scale. Identical. Then I grabbed a magnet …
Of course, the sinking feeling in my gut told me the magnet was going to stick before I even tried; magnets don’t stick to titanium. They sent me the wrong gun. That’s when I picked up the box and checked the SKU. Sure enough, Guns.com had sent the wrong model.
What Happens when a Seller Screws Up?
If Amazon screws up my order, Amazon fixes my order. If my order gets lost in transit, Amazon replaces my order. If my order gets stolen off my porch, Amazon replaces my order. No questions asked. Even if it wasn’t their fault. And not just Amazon. ALL of the big online retailers take a customer-first approach. They understand that any little loss they take on the front end leads to a better reputation and more orders on the back end.
But what about gun sellers? We were about to find out. Guns.com is one of the biggest online gun retailers in the world. Among the “Amazons” of gun stores, if you will.
Being new to this kind of trouble, I started researching. The trend among online gun shops is to hide behind the FFL transfer. Here’s what that means:
Every gun has a unique serial number. When you buy from a federally-licensed gun seller (“FFL dealer”), that serial number gets assigned to you. If they take the gun back, they take it back as a used gun because the serial number has already been assigned.
An awful lot of sellers cower behind the transfer. Take GrabAGun.com, another massive online retailer:
Returns on firearms that have been transferred to you are not allowed. Firearms found to be defective or blemished may be returned so long as they have not been transferred and removed from the FFL. Once a new firearm is transferred, it is considered used, even if unfired. It is the customer’s responsibility to fully inspect the firearm at their FFL prior to accepting it into their possession. We do understand that some manufacturer defects may not be identifiable upon initial inspection, however by purchasing a firearm from us, you agree that upon discovering a defect in your transferred firearm that you will work with the manufacturer for replacement or repair (in accordance with their warranty policy). (source)
The attitude is almost universal: “You took possession of the gun. It’s your problem now.” Even if they made a mistake. Like the FFL transfer exonerates them; like it wipes their mistake clean off the map.
Which Domino Fell First?
It’s easy to see why gun sellers don’t want to own their mistakes. It means they’ll take a loss. Guns.com, for example, would now have to sell this as a used gun if they took it back. But isn’t that the price of their mistake?
Putting it another way, an unfortunate chain of dominoes had cascaded to this point, with my innocently accepting the FFL transfer being one of them. But which domino fell first? Their shipping clerk grabbing a box without verifying the SKU. Every sad consequence originated there. Society expects better retailers to recognize that fact, own up to it, and take the hit. Most gun shops, unfortunately, don’t seem to fall into the “better retailers” category. They want to believe … falsely … that an FFL transfer shields them from consumer protection laws. It doesn’t.
My hope was that Guns.com did fall into the “better retailers” category. But so far it wasn’t looking good …
Dealing with Guns.com …
The minute I discovered the Guns.com mistake, I contacted them through their online form. I like to keep a record of these exchanges. Still having a good feeling about them, I figured they’d get right back to me with a solution.
Six days and a hundred Inbox checks later, this is all I’d heard:
On the seventh day, I finally got a reply:
Thank you for letting us know about the issue with your order and for sharing those details. Can you confirm if you have already completed the transfer for the firearm? Have you modified or done anything with the firearm? Are you wanting to return the firearm for a refund?
Promising, but one phrase gave me worry: “Can you confirm if you have already completed the transfer for the firearm?” I replied immediately:
Thanks for getting back to me. The gun is still new in box. Unfired. I did accept the FFL transfer because there was no obvious indication this wasn’t the titanium version. Nothing to set off my alarms. It wasn’t until I put it on a scale that I saw the mistake. Yes, I’d like to return this gun. Please advise.
Five more days of crickets. Then the reply I’d prayed for:
Thank you for confirming the firearm is new and has not been used. I appreciate you clarifying the situation. We will send you a return shipping label along with instructions on how to send the firearm back to us soon. As soon as the firearm comes back to us, we’ll issue your full refund. If you have any other questions in the meantime, please let me know.
And with that reply, Guns.com set themselves apart. Granted, it turned out to be a looooong process. It took five days for the gun to reach them and another two weeks for them to issue the refund, but Guns.com owned their mistake and made it right. No pushback, no questions asked.
On the Guns.com website, they make this assertion:
Since 2011, we’ve been on a mission to revolutionize the firearm industry’s online shopping experience and to be the most trusted resource for the Second Amendment community.
I’m relieved to see them putting actual effort into living up to that vision. Corporate mission statements, by and large, have reached Weird Al levels of laughable. But evidence suggests that Guns.com takes theirs seriously. I’m glad they have. The web could use an online marketplace that irons out the bad reputation all the rotten apples in the industry have been constantly fomenting.
There Are Other Options
BudsGunShop.com offers a “Buy It and Try It” program that, for $15, allows you 30 days to put a gun through its paces. As long as you don’t damage the gun, you can return it for a full refund. No questions asked.
But ultimately, I ended up buying the revolver through Sportsmans.com (Sportsman’s Warehouse). They offer a service that sits as a perfect hybrid between online and in-store purchasing: order any gun from their vast online offering and have it shipped to your nearest brick-and-mortar store. This gives you the ability to reject the gun for a full refund, on the spot. And while the prices are a bit higher, in the end I paid less thanks to free shipping and no FFL transfer fee, which together can add up to $50 or more.
But don’t forget the tried-and-true option: talk to your local gun shop. Most of them would love to do a special order for you.
No matter what avenue you choose, don’t feel limited to what’s on the shelves at your local shops. Just be wise about the source.