Well...I hate to post such a topic again...but I must vent. I just recently did a deal with a known dealer...one whom I had heard decent things about.
The guy was polite and kind and got back to me when ever I had questions about the gun I was looking at. I called and spoke with him a few times to speak about a certain gun he had. In plain terms, I had him get the gun and hold it while I was on the phone with him. I then went through a quick "check" list for him to do and tell me his findings.
The gun in question is a L.C. Smith. I was looking for a solid shooter...not a collector quality piece. This gun from the pictures and the description seemed to fit my bill to the T and the price was in line.
Everyone knows about the issue with Smiths cracking the stock and that was the VERY first question I asked him to look for. I could hear him handling the gun, etc...and he replied that there was not ONE crack any where on this gun. GREAT news... I thought as I did not want to start out with a gun having issues for the kind of money we were talking about. I next asked if the gun was tight on lock up, I heard him again handling the gun and he replied it's solid as can be and it would be a GREAT shooter gun. I asked him to break the gun down and check it out with me over the phone and he did and reported that the gun had NO issues at all, but that it was not a collector grade gun due to no case color.
The gun sounded perfect for me, so we agreed on a price that I would pay and he would pay for the shipping. He then shipped the gun to my local dealer. A few days later, I get the phone call that my gun came in. My local dealer always just sets my guns aside and lets me open the box. I get there and begin to open the box. This gun was packed better than any gun I have ever received! I finally get through all the packing material and remove the gun parts from their bubble wrap.
Immediately upon getting the reciever portion unwrapped I see a problem. There is a very large crack behind one lock plate and two smaller cracks behind the other. On the bottom of teh reciever one of the stocks "fingers" that go around the trigger guard assembly was broke as well!
TO be honest I was at a loss of words. I stopped examining the gun and put the parts in my truck and sat there and called the dealer on my cell phone. I got a hold of him and said the gun has cracks in it and it's coming right back. He acted very surprised and said it must have been damaged in transit. I explained to him that the gun was packed better than any other I had ever recieved and furthermore...the cracks were old cracks as they were dark and were obviously old. He again denied that it was cracked prior to him shipping the gun, but to send it back if I didn't like it. I told him over the phone right then to call me once he got the gun back in his hands so we can discuss this, he said fine.
Later that night when I was packing the gun up I noticed several other issues...MAJOR issues with the gun. The bottom rib was completely loose just ahead of the forend lug! With the forend off, one could shake the gun and the barrels rattled. I thought well it might be the rib, so I put pressure on that and did it again, still rattled. I then examined it further and the gun is also off face. Now I was very unhappy. I called the dealer the next day but he was not there. I left a message for him, TELLING him about these new issues. Never got a reply from him.
To try and wrap this story up...I get my refund check and it's short. The dealer deducted his shipping expense from my refund check. I contacted the dealer and told him that I am owed that amount back PLUS I feel I should get the shipping fees that I paid to ship the gun back to him PLUS I felt he should cover my FFL transfer fee of $25.00 since the gun was so misrepresented.
His reply was that he would not since he did not misrepresent the gun. The gun had NONE of these issues when he shipped the gun. I asked him once more to think it over as I told him if he did me wrong, and I was out my money...I paid the price...I own the rights to tell the story and I will. He told me to say what I want, he did not care.
I am not one to publically drag a mans name through the dirt on any public forum, so I will not do so here. However, in person or by private contact, I will share the story so that others can be warned about this guy. It is really a shame as this guy has a good rep but not in my book anymore. So if your looking at buying a Specialty Grade Smith...look at for the items I mentioned as it's still on the guys site with no mention of the problems the gun has.
