dirtypool40 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 All my friends have been beating on me for putting up with this guy, now you guys get a chance. For me to save SOME face, let's just take one case. There are several. Let's accept as fact that the guy does incredible, almost pornographic, gorgeous, magazine cover quality work. I'm a steady customer over the seven + years I've been shooting and have pretty much put this guys kids in braces with all my business. I don't ask for favors, I've never questioned a bill and I pay up front or on delivery, in full, every time. So anyway; A high cap he built me was getting long in the tooth and needed a tune up. I also had parts for a new one. I wanted to go to the World Shoot. I called this guy and said "Look, I need an honest answer, and we're still friends if the answer is no, I want six months with the gun before the World Shoot, I have all the parts can you build this gun in three months?" Sure no prob. I came home on leave in Feb and sent the older gun to him for a quick turn around tune up. Neither gun made it to me in the month I was home, when they were promised. I went back down South and FINALLY got in touch with him by phone a month later, in late March. I got a story about how the gun was completely finished and in the white, but things had gotten really tight and right now he just didn't have the money to front for plating and shipping. He gave me a number and I sent him CASHIER'S checks to pay for both jobs IN FULL. That was the last time I ever spoke with him. I missed the world shoot for lack of gun and eyes, and decided to change jobs. I came home, I called this guys shop, his house and his wife's cell for EIGHT MONTHS. Finally I started a count down of about six weeks with his daughter and wife, the only ones who would answer the phone. "I'm coming out to pick up my guns". Now bear in mind I live in Florida and this guy is in BFE Missouri. I tried to keep things non confrontational, about how I would be out for a match, and wanted to stop by. I wanted to give him a chance to get things ready. I had SEVEN guns out there and had orders from friends to pick up four or five more. So I fly into Chicago and a buddy and I drive 450 MILES to BFE. He won't even meet us. He dropped a box of my parts at his wife's work and never even told her. The older high cap was untouched and in the same shape it was when it went back for a tune up. So I am thinking, whatever else he didn't do, that new limited blaster is in the white and I am ready to get back into things. I open the box, and after more than a year since delivery THE PARTS ARE UN-F#$%$KING TOUCHED!!!! I flew to Chicago, stayed in a hotel, drove over 850 miles in one day, wasted two days of my life, for....nothing? As Ron White would say I am "Spun off into a dimension of pissed off I didn't know existed". It's like a friggin' Greek Tragedy. Among the parts were a brand new AR and shotgun for three gun, I can't have them back becasue he let his FFL expire but they are UNTOUCHED, a Springer I won for my dad and sent for quick pretty-up almost three years ago UNTOUCHED, two light weight carry guns UNTOUCHED, and parts for a gun AMERICAN HANDGUNNER was going to feature three years ago....you guessed it UNTOUCHED. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 This is recent??? In Texas, it used to be legal to kill someone because "he needed killin'". That law needs to come back, as it definitely applies in this case.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehli Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 OK, this is where you get authorities involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry White Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 All I can do about the past is shake my head and tell you I feel for you. But I have a suggestion for the future and his name is Benny Hill.-----Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougCarden Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Day- ahmmmmm! Dude, you got me beat by a Texas mile! All I can bitch about is delivery times.......Hope we find out who that smith is so no one else gets bit.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralChang Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 (edited) Did I miss what happened to the money yo paid him? Edited December 16, 2005 by GeneralChang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajarrel Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 If I had the buck$ I'd probably take out a half dozen or so full page ads in several popular gun rags and tell the same story complete with names. Maybe no one else would get swindled. FWIW dj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuildSF4 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Dude, you've got my worst beat by a mile... Definitely ridiculous... We bitched about butchered guns we had to repair... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 You need to get Medieval on his sorry a$$ in some manner. This just ain't right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Something serious must have happened to this guy..? Most of the time someone who is really good at their job are that good because they love what they do. For something like this to happen - WTF? Crackhead? The time lost is as bad or worse than the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eerw Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Damn...you got me beat.. my worst story is waiting for an open gun...and after two years I went to go get it and he put parts in from other guns into my guns...I wasn't happy..but I took it and ran... Are you going to be able to get all your stuff back?? money??? man..I am just sitting here stunned... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay1 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Attorney time. Good luck to you, that's some serious BS. Ever hear of a book called "Screwed"? I don't own it and I have never read it. But it is about how to get back at people. If this happened to me, I might become a poster child for the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 WOW brings back really unfond memories. Denver Colorado in the mid 90s, Had an A-bolt that needed stock work. Gave it to a guy ( Gunsmith) to bed and refinish after a bad bout on a 4 wheeler. 7 month later no rifle although I kept calling. Friend of mine who works in a pawn shop in the same area gives me a call and says they just got a rifle in that is just like mine and since my other one wasn't ready I might want this one as a spare, as it was cheap for an A-bolt with a Leopold scope on it......alarm bells were starting to sound! I went down to the pawn shop and armed with My serial number I found My A-bolt. Enter the cops for stolen gun...end of gunsmith ( he was pawning customer guns to make quick cash for R.C. racing) as Jail time negates the FFL thing. Took one more year to get A-bolt back from evidence. I think I would post this guys name. so others won't get bit! Think of it as a public service! KURTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 I don';t know what I would do, but that is a real horror story...Sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 I think I would post this guys name. so others won't get bit! The rant is fine. Naming of names on the open forum is against the policy: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8097 If any names aregiven, they need to be done in PM's. [Administrator hat off] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ima45dv8 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Holy shit! And here I was pissing down my leg about having to work this weekend. ...Mark (I think I'm going to go call my gunsmith right now and thank him for not being an ass-hat like this!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 That is nuts. Are you going to try and get some of your money back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Sounds almost like what Jeff Maass went through almost 10 years ago with a then big-name smith. Bad news all around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSeevers Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 I have seen a lot of these I remember a local shop ruined a 1911 "checkering" it. and substituted another frame. No kidding. No FFL-NICS check or anything. The owner was a State Trooper and freaked out when we pointed out that his "new" frame was not his old one. He didn't notice it was not the same frame. Never heard what happened. Or how about the time I drove 350 miles 5 times trying to get a "Big Name" pistolsmith's gun that he made me, working. It never did, until my current smith fixed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdragon Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Ivan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtypool40 Posted December 16, 2005 Author Share Posted December 16, 2005 well to keep things humming along here's a nice little number: $3500+ Airfare, Hotel, Gas, my time, and wasted shipping. That's what I am out. I got MOST of my parts back, but there was one job where this guy LOST my small parts and had to call to admit it and ask what I wanted in the gun. I feel the worst about the 10-15 guys I have referred to him. He pissed off EVERY SINGLE ONE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genghis Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 A couple weeks ago I heard a story from a lawyer who turned his gun over to a smith and didn't hear anything for an excruciating period of time. After he'd pretty much forgotten about it he ran into the gun at a gun show. He got a officer to go with him, and told the guy he had two options: 1) Take the lawyer to get his gun right now, or 2) Get a public *ss whipping and then probably get arrested immediately thereafter. Fortunately the guy didn't have the lawyer's gun on the table. Reminds you of the story about the guy who found a claim tag for laundry from 20 or 30 years ago, called on the off chance it might still be there, and was told, "It'll be ready next Tuesday." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfinney Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Wow. I feel much better about my current gunsmith or 2, now....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dunn Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 I'm fortunate to live in the same town as Dave Lauck at D&L Sports. He's made deliveries to my door, fixed a broken extractor within the same day I took it in, did a trigger job the day before a big match when my hammer started following (not even a gun he built for me). Top Notch. Benny's done work on my Benelli, quick, good, excellent value. Londrigan....I've got open and limited guns by Bob that are waiting for their first hiccup. Sorry man, that sucks like an Elecrolux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Murphy Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 I thought I was the poster child for getting screwed by gunsmiths, but I pass on the crown to you and bow. Sorry to hear about all that. Ted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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