No spiffs? Ruger 4R was my personal favorite, in total I have 7 guns I got from that spiff. I was good at it because I sincerely love the company and their products. Browning had a good one too, got an A-bolt from that one and also got a safe for half of MSRP. There were some other ones that my coworkers did too, can't remember them all now though.
Bad Info From the Gun Shop Guy?
- Thread starter BigMikey76
- Start date
It's been a while since I worked in a gun shop, but I think that one of the most irritating things I hear today is "I researched it on the net and ..."
This is almost always followed by some absolute nonsense (not from this site, I hope) that only a complete idjit would believe. Those who thought the Internet would lead to better education were wrong.
Jim
This is almost always followed by some absolute nonsense (not from this site, I hope) that only a complete idjit would believe. Those who thought the Internet would lead to better education were wrong.
Jim
Smith & Wesson has a similar program.
In and of themselves, they're not bad things so long as employees are instructed not to push customers into things they don't need just to score points. That said, most Ruger and Smith products pretty much sell themselves.
A Hi-Point promotion? That may be a different matter.
buck460XVR
New member
From my experience, these "dumb guy behind the counter" rants are the number one thread on most gun forums. I often wonder just how much folks expect from minimum wage, entry level employees in the service industry and the need to exclaim their superiority of knowledge over such employees on the internet. While that young part-time store clerk may not be as knowledgeable on a subject as the customer who has made that subject their passion for life, it does not necessarily make them dumb or inappropriate. Could be they are a college student working part-time while going to school. They aren't dumb, just uninformed or misinformed. At some point after college, they may be a doctor saving your life, or a CPA saving you money on your taxes. The point is they are working at a job. They show up when scheduled for their boss. This is something you don't always find with minimum wage employees. They may also have been instructed to push a certain brand or product because of incentives or profit margins. This is why the High School kid asks you if you want fries with your burger.....even when you have already said no. I've found that whenever I find an employee behind the gun counter that is uninformed or mistaken(or the kid working at Home Depot), instead of putting a chip on my shoulder and directing smart-azz kool-aid comments towards them, I try and inform them without being condescending and belittling. I find in the long run, it makes the experience much more pleasant for the both of us.
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You see the same thing in almost any other forum, whether it is cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, electronics or even home related. I don't expect the front line employees and any retail establishment to really know their product. Most are entry level and new to the job. The folks that know the product have been promoted or have moved to a higher paying job elsewhere and the front line people are the least experienced. I worked for over 30 years for a large insurance company and I complained that when people had an accident, the first contact the customer had was with our newest people.
I have noticed that most gun shop salesmen will not usually try to sway you away from your gun of interest, unless they see that you just plainly don't know what you need or want.
What aggravates me is when they act dumb about a particular gun's known weaknesses, or problems. I have brought up certain common issues with a particular model and the common reply is "Really? I have never heard of that before" The general consensus among many of them is that they know of no one that has had any trouble with any given gun or scope that they have for sale on their shelf. Their Tasco scopes never fail and non of their brands or models of semi-autos have every jammed that they know of.
What aggravates me is when they act dumb about a particular gun's known weaknesses, or problems. I have brought up certain common issues with a particular model and the common reply is "Really? I have never heard of that before" The general consensus among many of them is that they know of no one that has had any trouble with any given gun or scope that they have for sale on their shelf. Their Tasco scopes never fail and non of their brands or models of semi-autos have every jammed that they know of.
That's all good and well as far as it goes, but not all gun store clerks are young, part-time, or minimum-wage employees -- certainly not at my LGS. They're almost all middle-aged men who have been working there for many years. I can't even remember the last time I saw a new face behind the counter. Several of them are from owner's immediate and extended family, and it's not a stretch to think that a number of the shop's employees -- judging by their apparent work ethic, efforts (or lack thereof) to inform themselves, and manner of interacting with customers -- would be lucky to hold down a job anywhere else.
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Theohazard
New member
You expect every gun shop employee to be aware of every potential problem with every product? Seriously? I can't tell you how often I see people post on gun forums that they wish a shop employee would just admit it when they don't know an answer instead of making one up. But you're aggravated even when they say they don't know about something?Blue Duck said:
A smart gun shop hires people who are good salespeople first; gun knowledge should be secondary. One of our best employees is still learning about guns, even though customers love him and his sales are pretty good. Chances are, he wouldn't have heard of a specific problem if you brought it up. That doesn't mean he's being disingenuous, he's just being honest.
I get asked this question all the time. Often I honestly haven't heard of that particular problem. Admitting that you haven't heard a specific Internet failure report isn't the same as saying that product never fails.
Theohazard
New member
All I'll say is that I've never seen a clerk point a loaded gun at a customer, though I've seen the opposite take place more than once...skywag said:
I'm sure there are, seeing as there are many, many times the number of people who buy guns than the number who work in gun stores (and with many of the latter group also contributing to the former). That's not exactly going out on a limb. But as a customer, one isn't compelled to deal with the other customers.
I think these "dumb guy behind the counter rants" are meant more for entertainment value than put downs or to show how superior someone's knowledge is. As long as names aren't mentioned the comments aren't really directed at any one. At least that's the way I take it and I don't care what side of the counter the dumb guy is on. Lighten up its just a gun forum.
Lets see, a gun store has thousands of products on the shelf, and the clerk is an idiot because he doesn't know about the one item you happen to know about. I'd like to see people compare their knowledge across the stores entire inventory before they call a clerk an idiot. Then, we've all seen the clerk who is knowledgeable and speaking to a customer, when Joe-know-it-all standing behind has to butt in so everybody knows how brilliant he is because he read a bunch of stuff on an internet forum. The clerk can't win, because if he says something wrong, he is an idiot. If he says he doesn't know, and asks another clerk, he is an idiot. If he says something right, but somebody disagrees, he is an idiot. It is certainly not limited to the young. Really, how many of the most seasoned "expert" shooters could answer all the technical questions, or known deficiencies of every gun behind the counter? Questions can be phased respectfully, so that a clerk does not have to feel like an idiot if he doesn't happen to know, such as "have you heard anything about...?" or "would you happen to know...? or "have you ever fired one of these? Sure some could learn to better handle questions they don't know, but if they are going to be humiliated, they won't likely admit it. Often they will just say what they think you want to hear so as not to be thought of as an idiot.
Guns are one of the hardest things to deal with potential customers, because 95% of the people on the other side of the counter asking the questions already know everything.
Guns are one of the hardest things to deal with potential customers, because 95% of the people on the other side of the counter asking the questions already know everything.
Funny you should say that, about two months ago at the LGS that I frequent, a guy was trying to show off his gun, it "accidentally" went off when he pulled the trigger... shot through 2 walls, bullet never found, no one was hurt thank god, but guns were drawn on him, 5 IIRC. Haven't seen him since.
I might be mistaken, but I don't think this comes close to describing the range of gripes from folks in this thread. And I think that most have seen that certain customers can be the very worst of the gun store blowhards. But, from observing their interactions with other customers, I can tell you there are several long-time employees at my LGS that give no impression of caring one whit whether they come off as rude, stupid, or uninformed. The complaint isn't about people who evince a general interest in learning about the products they're selling and an interest in helping customers, but who don't know every detail of every product.