Has "Arms Unlimited" always sucked, or is it just me?

[KCJones]

Placed a small order with Arms Unlimited (under $100) on 12/10. Got a "shipped" notice claiming they shipped on 12/12. Tracking number (still) says the USPS is waiting, a tracking number was created but nothing physical happened.

I sent an inquiry on 12/21, they blamed their warehouse move: "Unfortunately, we were experiencing a delay in shipping due to our Warehouse being in the middle of a move. The label was created for the Warehouse to pack your order but it has not been picked up by USPS. The order should be going out either today or tomorrow, and you will see movement on the tracking. Please let us know if you need anything else."

Not sure what kind of dumpster fire organization needs to create a 3rd-party USPS shipping label to get a box packed in their own warehouse, but whatever. And sending me an email on 12/12 claiming it shipped, is just a lie.

Unsurprisingly, they did NOT finally ship on 12/21, or the next. As of 5 minutes ago (12/23), zero change in the tracking data, still not at the USPS.

I sent them another email this AM, telling them that I'm cancelling for non-performance. Their response: "The order has been shipped out already and the tracking should be getting updated soon. If you do not want the order, you can ship it back to us once you receive it."

I've got a project waiting for this stuff. I ordered some parts from Numrich on the 10th, received it, liked it, placed a second order, got that, too. Two orders placed and received, in the time that Arms Unlimited is sitting on mine.

I'm not outraged, just annoyed about being lied to, so I'm sharing my experience with this seller on a site with 80,000 gun-owning members and several times that in lurkers.

Usually, you see these tricks claiming to have "shipped" when all they did was "create a shipping number", from small eBay sellers working out of their garages. Sometimes it translates into them not ordering wholesale stock until they make the retail sale. Sometimes they just are inept and disorganized. Either way, if I cancel an order that they forgot to ship after 13 days, they need to respect that cancellation. I'm not paying a restocking fee, or for shipping back to them, if they didn't ship until after I cancelled the order. Plus, I can't order from someone reputable while I'm waiting to see if this parcel ever shows.

Your thoughts?

As a small eBay seller working out of my "garage" myself (it's actually a 2,000 sq. ft. building and I'm not so small...) an item 'marked as shipped' with no tracking info is usually BS. My POV is "tracking number or it didn't happen" and within a day or two of that "tracking number shows progress per the shipper or it didn't ship".

Bottom line is if there's no tracking OR there's tracking but it doesn't show 'delivered', then by the promised delivery date you can file 'item not received' and eBay will 100% get you a refund.

Every eBay seller must put in a 'processing/shipping' time for each listing. If that handling time is over 2 days, eBay will display a 'notice' to you the buyer of 'extended handling time'. eBay will also give you an estimated delivery date (based on the seller's handling time and delivery method) reflecting that time-to-ship. If the seller does not ship by the handling time and/or the item isn't delivered by the end of the delivery window, that seller will be sanctioned for it and will face higher fees and lower presentation of their items in searches. If they do it more-than-occasionally, they'll be banned. It's not painless or consequence-free.

So... it is POSSIBLE that a seller who hasn't shipped in 13 days is legit. In such case you should have seen a pretty-blatant "notification" from eBay of extended handling time AND a commensurate arrival date (e.g. well past the 13 days they took to ship). IMHO it's perfectly fine if a seller is going to take 2-3 weeks to ship SO LONG AS YOU ARE CLEARLY NOTIFIED of the extended time and delivery date. Heck, I sell some big/bulky stuff with a 4-day handling time. That stuff then ships by freight carrier who may not 'show progress' on the shipping for another day or two. So the buyer may see no 'updates' for near a week on an order that would typically have ~10-16 day total delivery window depending on your location.

Good news is this: if your item isn't there by the 'delivery date' eBay showed you, you can file an 'item not received' case and you will ALWAYS win/get a full refund unless the seller can show tracking info that it was delivered to you in time (which obviously, they can't since you being an honest sort would never have filed the case if you knew the thing would take 3 weeks to show up and agreed to that from the get-go).

[Daycrawler]

Also never used them. But I dont have any guns or gun related stuff

Hmmm...

Boating accident, most likely.

Naaaa just one of the 80K guys in lurker status

[esh21167]

I've ordered from them a couple times in the past and had no issues, but not in the last year.

Yeah, their excuses are weak, but I've had about 5% positive customer service experience over the last year from about every place I've visited or bought from. To even stay alive, businesses are paying way too much for poor employees. But they have little choice: fold up, or tread water with lousy service.

[ViperHummel]

I wrote this place off after one terrible transaction in 2014. I had ordered two NiB 308 BCGs and some Mosin Arch Angel mags. They shorted me on the mags and after inquiring about the short, they said they didn*t have enough to fill the order and forgot to tell me. Then, the BCGs I got didn*t even match the picture, plus they looked like hack jobs. The gas rings caused the bolts to be seized in the carrier too. Best they could do was a a refund minus shipping and a 10% restocking fee.

Never again after that. Even if they have had some screaming deals over the years.

[JSPA]

Well I had my 1st bad experience with them.
It's my 2nd order through AU so that puts them at a 50% failure rate.

I ordered a few Colt Ambi AR safeties and it turns out they are not Colt but a regular ambi that was chopped down to mimic a Colt.
I called them and they don't have an answering line, just a voice message. I sent an email and was auto-advised of a 24-48 hr reply time.
So, if I don't hear from them by tomorrow afternoon, I guess I'll have to file a dispute with my card.

I guess we will see what happens!

[Walleye Hunter]

Why is false advertising or misrepresentation of product not a crime with severe punitive damages?

[esh21167]

Why is false advertising or misrepresentation of product not a crime with severe punitive damages?

They usually have some very fine print saying something about 'stock photo may not represent actual product, blah, blah, blah. Check manufacturer PN or SKU, blah, blah, blah.'

[JSPA]

None the less, it has the SKU and part numbers listed - if you look those up, it's a Colt Ambi safety like I should have got.
That's not what they sent though.
Looking into it I found this wasn't the 1st time it happened, and AU as pulled some shit like this in the past.

It's coming up on 48 hrs since my email with no reply from AU so it will be time to file a dispute soon.

[JSPA]

I forgot to update what happened with my AU order situation.

Well the issue has been resolved but it was NOT resolved by AU.

After I received an email from AU basically calling me out to say that's just Colt and if you don't believe we sell Colt parts, call them.

So that's what I did. I eventually was routed to the head of distribution for Colt dealers who happens to work with AU quite a bit.

After some discussion it was determined that AU is wrong and they are NOT Colt parts.

The Colt rep said to send him the ones I received from AU and in the meantime, he will send me true Colt Ambi Safties - which he did and I did receive.

He said that the Colt parts have NOT changed and he will be checking in to what AU is doing over there - he said he can't have a dealer lying to customers and making Colt look bad.

So in the end, I really have to hand it to Colt for stepping in to fix the situation and hopefully lay a smack down on AU.

Let it be a warning to anyone looking to buy from Arms Unlimited in the future and a lesson to stay the course if you know you're right when you have been wronged by a company

[Miles42]

Seems to be a place to avoid at all cost.