doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com incompetent dealers

infantry's experience with that Cabelas is much like my own. Management there needs to do some house cleaning. I had even worse service with Collector's Firearms in Dallas. I asked if they took trades and was told to send photos and description. I did so. In two weeks there was no reply. I sent an enquiry and was told the appraiser was on vacation. Two weeks later I asked again and got an apology but no further response. I asked a couple times more. ( I was serious about their rifle.) Then I decided to hell with it. With help like this I wonder how either of them stay in business.

I have had exactly one dealing with Cabela's/Bass Pro on a long distance gun deal. I spotted it on line and went to the store closest to me. Talked with them about how the inter-store shipping worked and was told, "Call them and buy it. Have them ship it here. You can refuse the purchase after inspection if you wish." I asked them if that was something we could do now as I was here and a very nice young lady hauled me in an office and called the other store. She had to jump through a couple of hoops but wouldn't take no for an answer. Got me in touch with the other Gun Library and I made the purchase. It so happened that I would be driving through La Vista, KS in about 3 days, so I asked them to hold it for me there and they agreed. Once there, I inspected the rifle and did the paperwork. The feller I spoke with on the phone made a point of stopping by and making sure I was happy with my purchase. Other than adding an hour to my trip, it was a very good experience.

Just another data point....

Hmmm, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."

Realistically, it goes both ways, sometimes their incompetence works for us, like when a seller doesn't know what he has and it goes for a great price.

Knowledgeable firearms people who want a job in a gun dealership aren't found on every street corner. IMO, the problem isn't with Cabela's corporate, it's with the employees they hire to run the libraries. That, of course, goes back on the manager who should ensure the gun library employees re performing acceptably.

My only experience with buying over the phone from a Cabela's was several years ago when one Tom Bryant was at the Sidney gun library. I called in to talk about buying a Dickinson .410 S X S with specific dimensions, and that's when I got to know Tom. He was perfectly suited for his position, knowledgeable, and extremely helpful. LSS, we did the deal and the gun was shipped to him some time later. I had it in time for the dove season opener a few weeks away. Tom is a prince of a man and Cabela's is poorer because of their loss of him.

Looking for a smooth deal on an interstate trade seem unlikely to me~
If you can just take the gun in and hand it to the potential trader is the only way I would even try.

I've had one bad experience in buying close to 30 firearms off line and out of state and that wasn't really a 'bad' experience. The drilling I had ordered from Cabela's in WVA had a hairline crack in the receiver. I wouldn't have noticed it until too late but when I opened the package in the gun shop one of the gentleman watching saw it. It was tiny and barely discernible. It went back and I received a full refund along with profuse apologies.

I've made two purchases from Cabelas, and had issues both times. First time I heard they'd bought a collection of antique rifles, and I picked 4 I wanted to buy. I luckily had taken my reference books as they wanted to do background checks on all of them. I showed them one by one they were antique, and they finally agreed. Then they took me next door to check out and began writing them up, and once again tried to do background checks. I got the supervisor from the gun library and he told them no, but they still wanted to. Then the paperwork got checked for mistakes by 3 more people, and each told the first person they'd left off the background check fee! It took me 2 hours to check out and pay for the guns!
The next gun was a single purchase, and a gun I'd had brought in. They were busy, so took a ticket to pay for it. When my number was called I was 25 ft. away, and I got to the counter and the guy called the next number! I handed him my number and he told me I was too late, and would have to wait. All of maybe 5 seconds to walk over to him. The older couple who were next said they'd wait, but he insisted they go first. They were embarrassed and asked a quick question and left.
Now I got nothing but attitude from the clerk and when he brought the gun out in a box for me to look at it I grabbed the box lid to pull it aside to see and got my hand slapped! That set me off and I told him if he pulled that again I was going to drag him across the counter. Of course his attitude got even worse, and he intentionally made the checkout miserable, and it took 3.5 hours to complete the deal. I would have left except I really wanted the gun.
I got home fuming and sent a nasty email off to customer service with a detailed description of what happened. The next day I got a call from a Cabelas customer service VP who said she was horrified, and wanted me to verbally describe again what happened. I told her I'd left a few things out, but relayed the whole story to her. Every so often she kept saying, "Oh my God". When I finished she apologized profusely, and said she couldn't do anything to fully compensate me, but asked if I'd accept a large store credit if she sent it? I told her my gut tells me "No", but my wallet says I should accept it. I've never bought another firearm from Cabelas in the last 10 years since. I wont even look at what they have just to make sure I wont be tempted.

Cabela's has been the Walmart of sporting goods for a good many years, but whatever problems they had grew considerably when they were bought out by Bass Pro. Among other things the wage scale took a hit. If you want an employee who is knowledgeable about the entire length and breadth of collectible guns you might consider offering more than $11.00/hour. So, to say that the problem isn't with corporate HQ is not entirely accurate.

I don't think the Scarborough, ME Cabela's has any dedicated gun library employees. They hire for the gun department in general and assign people to the gun library daily. The current gun dept. manager was the lead in the gun library when they had a specific team working in there, but as far as I know they no longer do it that way.

Of course none of this excuses rude behavior or physical battery. If a store employee slaps my hand they should expect to get slapped back.

I'd be upset if I didn't exclaim my local Bass Pro/Cabela's Gun Library here in Fort Worth is amazing. There are a few dumb A's but for the most part they each have their own niche they are knowledgeable about and call others in when they do not. Plus...i find gems and well-priced guns in there (along with a few overpriced but hey we are all human). It is definitely where I buy the vast majority of my firearms at.