Turners - a dissenting view

[smle-man]

There has been a lot of Turner's bashing on this forum recently. I can only talk from my own experience but that experience has been pleasant. I recently did a PPT at the Riverside store. They treated both the seller and buyer (me) with respect and moved the process along as fast as they could. When I picked up the handguns yesterday they again were pleasant, took their time to chat me up a bit and made me feel welcome despite the fact that PPTs are a money loser for a store. While I was there several guys were window shopping with no intent or ability to buy anything yet those people were also treated as if they had a roll of $100 bills in their pocket and were going to spend them. I haven't been mistreated in any Turners that I've visited. Sure their prices are high but guess what, so are all the other stores I visit. There is a distinct lack of competition in the gun biz in the general L.A. area and the overhead is simply crushing. The prices are high because that is what the business climate has caused them to be. Shop where you want and feel wanted, but Turner's has been ok for me.

[thedrickel]

People bash the heck out of 'em (and for good reason a lot of times) but I still wish they would open up some norcal stores. All we got is Big5, and that ain't much.

[Stanze]

I've yet to have a bad experience at Turner's. Folks at the San Diego Clairemont Mesa location have been helpful and friendly. I don't expect them to know the in's and out's of OLL, so I stick to what's on display.

[Moonclip]

How often and how much $ do you guys spend at Turners? Curious because I've been going there for years and I have seen first hand both the good and bad of the place.

PPTs don't have to be a "money loser" for them. Turners chooses to add extra paperwork to PPTs. Also PPTs can generate extra business, I for one will almost always if I do a PPT buy some ammo or whatever also to be nice. If I get poor service I will take my PPT and $ elsewhere including gun purchases.

As an example of this I recently sold a gun PPT at Ammo Bros. One of the owners was being kind of surly for some reason but I overlooked it and still bought some ammo and my buyer ended up buying another gun from them. When I sell guns on calguns, I state that I refuse to do transfer at Turners usually. Their fear and negative attitude of doing PPTs causes them to lose this business.

In business, one of the harder things to do is get someone to walk in the door in the first place. With a PPT, 2x people interested in guns and actively in to buying/selling them are forced to enter store 1x for seller and 2x for buyer.

[VeryCoolCat]

I've also never had a problem at a turners... except the sometimes long period it takes when they get a little crowded.

I usally buy ammo then if I'm ever there for any other reason.

[Moonclip]

Part of the reasons why I have had problems may be because of the law of averages. I have bought 20-25 firearms there in the last 10 years or so and have been going there since I was a child in the 1980's. I have been to every location except the SD area ones. I generally check out Turners 1x every 1-2 weeks.

Turners is by no means the only shop I've had negative experiences in. Strangely I have NEVER had a problem in Ades.

[ibanezfoo]

Same here. For the most part Turners has been good to me. Every once in awhile theres someone in there that has a put out or "coolguy" attitude, but its not too often honestly. Their prices aren't great, but they aren't that horrible either... at least not for what I buy. Their sales on ammo are decent sometimes. I don't seek Turners out, I just go to whatever I am closest to at the moment... but if the customer service is bad I will just leave. So far nobody has been able to touch Fowlers customer service, in my opinion.

I have to say though that sometimes I go into shops and theres some macho coolguy trying to impress anyone in earshot, and you will see the shop employees being kind of rude... which is deserved in my opinion.

-Bryan