what's up with some of these gun shops?

[etep513]

Whenever, I email a gun shop, they practically never respond. Or if they do, they said to stop by the shop or call for pricing. WTF is up with that? Why don't they help out potential customers in emails? What difference does it make if someone calls them by phone or sends an email. This is the 21st century after all. If the shop workers are old men, then they could at least admit that they have no idea how to use a computer. Do you people know if all shop owners are like that?

[BerksCountyDave]

Whenever, I email a gun shop, they practically never respond. Or if they do, they said to stop by the shop or call for pricing. WTF is up with that? Why don't they help out potential customers in emails? What difference does it make if someone calls them by phone or sends an email. This is the 21st century after all. If the shop workers are old men, then they could at least admit that they have no idea how to use a computer. Do you people know if all shop owners are like that?

They might be too busy selling guns and helping customers IN THE STORE. Just a thought.

[Pa. Patriot]

Yep, It's a sellers market right now

[Philbert]

Most gun stores seem to pay little heed to the Internet. I guess it's because their big sales mostly need to be FTF.

[Ozone]

I sent an e-mail a few weeks ago (cause it was 11pm) and I never heard a word from this gun store. Plus, this gun store is like 2 hours away, and I'm glad I didn't waste the gas to go see what he had in stock.

I'm a firm believer in..if this person didn't want to respond to my e-mail, another gun shop will.

[BerksCountyDave]

It's sort of disturbing how reliant people are becoming on e-mail. Whatever happened to actually TALKING to people?

[normanvin]

Maybe the gun shops do not want to put anything related to pricing in writing.

[BerksCountyDave]

And as far as the comment about gun shops being run by "old guys", so what? Some of the nicest gun shop employees I've ever dealt with have been "old guys". If I walk in, they know their shit about guns, and give me good service, I couldn't give a fuck less if they know how to write an e-mail. Big deal.

[Gkgas]

I would think that you would be much better off calling them to ask them a question.

[Dredly]

I think its two fold...

1. Writing a price down can definately bite you in the ass later. Great example would be if I emailed someone 2 weeks ago about a price on an AK and someone quote me a price of 350... now you can't get them for under 400. If you walk in with that piece of paper what happens now?

2. Reading email is often VERY difficult, its based entirely on the writer of the email clearly detailing exactly what they are looking for and the chance for confusion or misunderstanding is signfigant.

For example - a typical email to a gun shop would probably read "I am interested in purchasing a Glock pistol. Do you have any in stock and what is your price"

Now to reply to that email with a response that would satisfy the user without resulting in "back and forth" would be very lengthy as the price varies based on model and feature and even the "do you have any in stock" is difficult to answer as clearly the person has an idea of what they want but didn't give the details.

All of this could be resolved in 30 seconds via the phone. Basically here is that conversation:

Cust: "I'd like to buy a Glock pistol, do you have any in stock and what are you charging"
store: "Great, we need some more detail, what model are you looking for, what caliber"
cust: "I'm looking at something I can carry, preferably 9mm"
Store: "Great we have Glock 19's with or without night sights, with is 550, without is 495"


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