Strange interaction at Gunrunner 101 in Amherst, NH

No, its not a hobby for him. He was a carpenter previously and specialized in cabinet building. His last shop, was a small display area when you walked in, and the back 3/4 was a wood shop.

The gun shop is his livelihood.

Tough gig then. Shop owners have the liberty to do what they want.
I guess it's just human nature to have more stuff come out of your mouth than needed.

I stop into any gun Shop I pass when ever I can. Often I just look around as I must be the uncommon type as most of what I find in gun shops inventory is not what I want.
 
This shop is about a mile from my house, and I drive by it at least 4 times a day. I have never gone in, and I don't think I will bother.
 
This thread mixes in statements about [thread=179523]Gunrunners 101[/thread] and another shop on the same road, [thread=3732]Sportsman's Trading Co.[/thread] They really don't deserve to be conflated, nobody comes anywhere as close to as bad as Al.

Bob at Gunrunners is gruff and should probably study the ATF newsletters a little more, but I've heard a lot worse mistaken information out of younger staff at fancier gun stores, so I am willing to cut him some slack.
 
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When he said doesn't know you. You could have suggested taking a hot tub together. Haha.
or tell him most FFL's are fake.
 
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One important point . . . EZ-check ONLY works for dealer/mfr type FFLs. It will not verify a C&R FFL and that is intentional by BATFE, as it would expose home addresses, etc. to anyone searching and thus violate privacy.

There are many dealers who refuse to deal with MA people simply because they hear the horror stories about our laws and made-up laws by our AGs. It's hard to blame them, but honesty is the best policy. Better to simply state that "I won't do business with MA people due to confusion about what is legal and what is not legal" and let it go as that.
 
One important point . . . EZ-check ONLY works for dealer/mfr type FFLs. It will not verify a C&R FFL and that is intentional by BATFE, as it would expose home addresses, etc. to anyone searching and thus violate privacy.

There are many dealers who refuse to deal with MA people simply because they hear the horror stories about our laws and made-up laws by our AGs. It's hard to blame them, but honesty is the best policy. Better to simply state that "I won't do business with MA people due to confusion about what is legal and what is not legal" and let it go as that.

There's a difference between saying "I won't deal with C&Rs" or "I have a policy of no MA sales" than claiming that most C&Rs are fake and that a person is lying about using it or whatever other bullshit that "Bob" spewed at a customer what was willing to give him money.

This goes back to being upfront and honest about policies and not making up shit to avoid dealing with people.
 
There's a difference between saying "I won't deal with C&Rs" or "I have a policy of no MA sales" than claiming that most C&Rs are fake and that a person is lying about using it or whatever other bullshit that "Bob" spewed at a customer what was willing to give him money.

This goes back to being upfront and honest about policies and not making up shit to avoid dealing with people.

We are saying the same thing.
 
Hmmmm... I know Bob pretty well. He lives down the street from me, and built all the cabinet work in my house. I've also bought guns from him. He can be a bit curmudgeonly at times, but I've always found him 100% honest and trustworthy. He's also totally dedicated to selling only to responsible people.

Maybe he has opinions. Maybe he didn't decline to accept your C&R FFL as nicely as he could. But, in all my dealings with him over 20+ years, I've never fond him anything but straight as a die.

Now.. the guy at Sportsmans Trading down Amherst St is another matter entirely. He's a douche bag of the first order.
 
Hmmmm... I know Bob pretty well. He lives down the street from me, and built all the cabinet work in my house. I've also bought guns from him. He can be a bit curmudgeonly at times, but I've always found him 100% honest and trustworthy. He's also totally dedicated to selling only to responsible people.

Maybe he has opinions. Maybe he didn't decline to accept your C&R FFL as nicely as he could. But, in all my dealings with him over 20+ years, I've never fond him anything but straight as a die.

Now.. the guy at Sportsmans Trading down Amherst St is another matter entirely. He's a douche bag of the first order.

The point is if you decline to sell to someone say that, don't start talking nonsense about fake C&R ffl's. I won't slam someone for not wanting to do business with other states residents due to the laws, it sucks but he has a business to run and that's his choice. But you need to be up front about it, same as with people who quote fake laws on things when it's just their policy. If you have a store policy then you do and that's how it is, but don't act like something is illegal when you simply choose not to do it.

ETA:
I say we burn em he is a witch. He turned someone into a newt.
As long as you got better, I figure we should let it go.
 
Just more confirmation that gun shops suck, they don't deserve my money. Most are run by miserable fudds who are just angry at life, part of me thinks they get off by telling someone from mass to beat it. What a loser.
I'll transfer guns till the cows come home before i enter a gun shop.
 
Hmmmm... I know Bob pretty well. He lives down the street from me, and built all the cabinet work in my house. I've also bought guns from him. He can be a bit curmudgeonly at times, but I've always found him 100% honest and trustworthy. He's also totally dedicated to selling only to responsible people.

Maybe he has opinions. Maybe he didn't decline to accept your C&R FFL as nicely as he could. But, in all my dealings with him over 20+ years, I've never fond him anything but straight as a die.

Now.. the guy at Sportsmans Trading down Amherst St is another matter entirely. He's a douche bag of the first order.

How the hell does he determine who is responsible enough?
 
There's a difference between saying "I won't deal with C&Rs" or "I have a policy of no MA sales" than claiming that most C&Rs are fake and that a person is lying about using it or whatever other bullshit that "Bob" spewed at a customer what was willing to give him money.

This goes back to being upfront and honest about policies and not making up shit to avoid dealing with people.

This definitely wasn't a MA thing as I hadn't shown him my C&R or any Id whatsoever. This was just the start of a negotiation on price and I stated I'd be using a C&R, so it would save him paperwork and hassle. On used consignment guns it usually helps with bringing the price down a few bucks. Unfortunately we never got that far as he heard C&R and things stopped right there.

As I said before it wasn't that he was rude, per say, but calling someone a liar with an off the cuff comment isn't a good way to interact with your customers. To each his own. His shop his rules. He should though post a sign saying he doesn't accept C&Rs though as he did have a number of them in his cases.
 
The point is if you decline to sell to someone say that, don't start talking nonsense about fake C&R ffl's. I won't slam someone for not wanting to do business with other states residents due to the laws, it sucks but he has a business to run and that's his choice. But you need to be up front about it, same as with people who quote fake laws on things when it's just their policy. If you have a store policy then you do and that's how it is, but don't act like something is illegal when you simply choose not to do it.

ETA:
As long as you got better, I figure we should let it go.

What burns me up is this is commonplace in the gun world. Imagine going to rent a car and have the agent go "eh, MA IDs are easily faked so I'm going to decline to rent to you".
 
Hmmmm... I know Bob pretty well. He lives down the street from me, and built all the cabinet work in my house. I've also bought guns from him. He can be a bit curmudgeonly at times, but I've always found him 100% honest and trustworthy. He's also totally dedicated to selling only to responsible people.

Maybe he has opinions. Maybe he didn't decline to accept your C&R FFL as nicely as he could. But, in all my dealings with him over 20+ years, I've never fond him anything but straight as a die.

Now.. the guy at Sportsmans Trading down Amherst St is another matter entirely. He's a douche bag of the first order.

How the hell does he determine who is responsible enough?
I was wondering the same exact thing...LOL [rolleyes]
 
I would have just said to him.I am sorry I should have known better than to deal with a back woods moron.I bet any money your married to your cousin,and just walked out.
 
I would have just said to him.I am sorry I should have known better than to deal with a back woods moron.I bet any money your married to your cousin,and just walked out.

Although I understand (and perhaps agree with) the sentiment, calling someone a "back wood moron" with improper grammar is pretty ironic.
 
I was up in NH today in the Nashua area and passed the Gunrunner 101 store in Amherst, NH. I've never been to this store so I turned around and went in. Looked like a decent place even though the prices seemed a little high compared to other stores in the are. As I was looking at their handgun selection I noticed a nice FEG GKK 45acp w/ box and papers for one of the few decent prices I'd seen at the place. I ask to see it and made an offer on it indicating I'd be buying it with my C&R. The lady I was talking too said she'd ask the owner and went over to an older gentlemen at the other end of the counter.

This is where it got really strange. The lady tells the guy my offer and he looks up at me and states that he doesn't know me. Seeing I've never been there that wasn't a surprised. He then says he can't accept my C&R because he doesn't know me. He said most C&R's are fake and used by people to illegally buy guns. I stated that he could check online to confirm my C&R was real to which he replied that the web site never works and that he didn't trust that either. I'm thinking, OK so he doesn't want to take my C&R and then he states that most gun stores will not take it in NH. Thinking we were just have a conversation I indicated that I had bought C&R at many stores in NH and named a few. He said that wasn't true. [thinking]

Didn't want to get into an argument with the guy so I just left. Oh and he indicated to another customer that he was against the new NH Constitutional Carry law about to be passed. Very strange indeed.

I went in there a couple of times and bought some minor stuff, whenever I was getting my tires changed at Pete's, but had little interest otherwise because nearly everything was overpriced.

-Mike
 
Just more confirmation that gun shops suck, they don't deserve my money. Most are run by miserable fudds who are just angry at life, part of me thinks they get off by telling someone from mass to beat it. What a loser.
I'll transfer guns till the cows come home before i enter a gun shop.

LOL at some point or another you gotta go to one to pick up the transfer, although I do see where you are coming from. There are about a half dozen shops that I'll actually buy stuff from (one of which doesn't always have the cheapest price, but gets close enough and has bent over backwards for me on a few occasions, particularly with regard to getting guns repaired) and maybe a half dozen or more new ones that I respect (because I know ownership/guys starting them, etc) but about 50% of the random gun shops I visit, in about 10 minutes I give most of them a "soft pass", either because of shit prices (and an unwillingness to negotiate) or lack of selection. (and by shit prices I'll qualify that, as being way higher than the median).

A shops gotta give someone SOMETHING to keep people coming back. Even just a little upside- If we compared gun shops to women, 50% of them would be bald, flat chested or saggy titted, and not funny, with a dollop of a few that are also 110% bat shit certified crazy.

Or in other terms... like when I see some of these places, I visualize a guy like this is the actual owner, some guy that never shows up in the store...

(NSFW)



There is a big part of this industry that's simply defective and the only thing keeping them in business is the legacy demographic and the fact that guns are way over regulated. If it wasn't for these things the herd would thin pretty quickly; and only the best gun shops would really survive.

In saying this its also a TOUGH business in terms of rising above the herd in terms of quality AND actually
making money at it while simultaneously keeping customers happy enough to come back... but that shouldn't
excuse poor customer service, ever.

-Mike
 
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In saying this its also a TOUGH business in terms of rising above the herd in terms of quality AND actually
making money at it while simultaneously keeping customers happy enough to come back... but that shouldn't
excuse poor customer service, ever.

-Mike

With new FFLs starting up daily in the area, I see places like Gunrunner and Sportsman losing even the last of their customers and eventually going away.
 
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