Rude, Inobservant Staff at Bellevue Wade's Gunstore

[disillusionedpatriot]

I went up to a local gunstore yesterday with my wife and bought a few items. They have a pop machine in their entry, so we decided to get a soda, my favorite flavor cherry red. Wait that's a Stone's song.

So my wife get's hers and opens it and it just starts foaming and foaming like nothing I've seen before. 2' puddle on the floor, about 1/3 of the contents left in the can. The can is still foaming.

They're nice enough to hand me some paper towels and we spent at least 5 minutes wiping things up. Turns out the machine was set wrong and the contents were so cold the pop was supercooled. I've seen this in glass bottles with beer, where it freezes in the neck when you open it. Well this was the worst I've ever seen and like I said, it caused almost all the contents to spew out.

Ok so great, how about my money back?

1st guy--"I don't have control over the pop machine."

Me--"Ok get someone who does."

2nd guy--"I'm the manager."

Me--"I just spent 5 minutes cleaning your floor and lost all the pop in the can. I'd like my buck back." (Actually two bucks I'd bought one too thinking initially it was just dropped hard in the machine.)

2nd guy--"I spent 15 years in the military, let me tell you my philosphy..."

Me--(WTF?) "I want my two bucks back."

2nd guy--gets two bucks out the cash drawer and says something smartass.

Me--"I don't care if this is a firearms store, your machine caused the problem, I just spent time cleaning your floor, didn't get the pop, got pop on my wife's shoes that's BS."

Guy says some more totally off-the-wall arogant prick baloney. Anyway, one more crappy experience at Wade's, seems like that's all I ever get there. Oh and yeah the gun counter guys were telling some of the classic stupid lines to prospective buyers that day. "This is the mountain model (revolver), you see this (tiny insignificant) machined area, that's so if you carry it in the mountains it doesn't weigh as much." I think it was a Judge he was showing.

[Jim N]

DP,

You ain't seen nothing till you go to The Gun Room in Portland.

There is something about working in a gun store that brings out the worst in some folks.

[ryanusmc]

I've run customers of the dock with my rusty bait fork before.

I'm not saying you were out of line, just that it could have been worse.

[elmbow]

I've run customers of the dock with my rusty bait fork before.

I'm not saying you were out of line, just that it could have been worse.

Sure it could have been worse, but as far as DP is concerned, he'd just as soon never step foot in that store again. Pretty soon that store is out of business. I have a good friend who runs the largest (volume) gun store in SLC. A Hollywood screenwriter couldn't make up characters as thick headed and stupid as some of the guys I've seen working his counters in the past. Talk about driving paying customers away! Times past, i would observe his "help" interacting with customers. Unbelievable! The silver lining is that their antics have given us countless hours of laughs over drinks.

[Jim N]

Elmbow,

Is that Gallisons?

Several years back I went into the Gun Room in Portland with the intention of buying a trap gun. The owner is said to know trap, and that may be true, but within a minute talking with this guy I learned I was a complete idiot for even considering a BT99. A couple more minutes and several other gratituous insults later, the guy had me (accompanied by a couple of thousand dollars in my pocket) walking out the door. With a little tact and sales skill the guy could have 1) educated me and 2) made a sale on a high margin product. Very odd approach to customer relations.

[David in OR]

Ah, yes, The Gun Room. I lived in that very neighborhood for a couple years recently. Always good for entertainment. I confess that I purchased a shotgun from him a long time ago--because he does know shotgun fitting--but I was prepared to pay the necessary premium.

The place has been in business for quite a while, and that is a deep mystery to me. Apparently, there are enough masochistic gun buyers in the world, people for whom abuse, condescension, bullying, and aggressive ignorance are value-adds. Or maybe the guy's gun business is a front, and he's really selling abuse, condescension, bullying, and aggressive ignorance.

[Jim N]

David,

That explains the leather and little whip the guy was carrying.

[David in OR]

^ I will have my revenge for that visual.

[HFlier]

Before I took a promotion in my current company with alot of bucks associated with it, I had a firearms business, I treated people with repsect and bent over backwards to make sure people were happy. That was rewarded with $250K in first year sales in my little tiny part-time store. People want good customer service! I have never been able to understand why so many people in gun stores are @#@$ holes. Its like they think they are doing you a favor by servicing you. I am thinking of again entering the business. I know if I do I will kick the $%&& out of other guys, because I understand that a customer is king.

[Smokepole]

Aren't pop machines almost always owned/operated by vending companies not associated with the owner/operator of the premises where they're located?