Horrible Gun stores in Socal

[ireload]

El Cajon Gun Exchange gets my vote for the worst. I was accused by an older gent of voting for Gray Davis when our conversation touched politics. Needless to say I have never been back to that store for 10 years now.

[davedog01]

Martin B. Retting has good selection but lately I have got some heat when I've ppt'd. Relax, we're on the same team.

[hawk81]

A big +1 for Annies Get Your Gun in Corona. I am surprised this store is not mentioned more. Friendly, easy to deal with and they will work with you. Jerry and Annie are good folks. I have been done shopping at Turners. They are like a bunch of clowns in a circus.

[toby]

A big +1 for Annies Get Your Gun in Corona. I am surprised this store is not mentioned more. Friendly, easy to deal with and they will work with you. Jerry and Annie are good folks. I have been done shopping at Turners. They are like a bunch of clowns in a circus.

If your in the market for a used hand gun or rifle this place has some good deals!

[orangeusa]

I don't know if its because im just some young lookin guy, but damn... Everyone gun store in Socal, besides the one in La Mesa that moved, and the one in Santee is absolutely horrible... Bad customer service, basically told me and my friend to "get the fuk out"

Apparently, our money and politeness aren't worth anything?

I am going to stick to Big5 and The Santee Indoor range, BEST service there, just outstanding

Okay - I can only comment on Orange and surrounding communities.
BUT - Good grief - I was thrown out of Big5 (across from Orange mall) for asking the manager if I could give them a pile of CGF/CG flyers to place on their display case in front of ammo. And I was NICE to that guy.

You need to move up north a little bit and visit the shops around Orange County. There are some great shops here: Riflegear in Costa Mesa, T&A Armory in Santa Ana, OC Armory in Laguna Hills, Field Time Sports & Guns in Westminster, and Straightline Tactical in Anaheim are some great gun shops to visit if you value great customer service. I'm sure others will chime in on some other great shops, but the ones I listed are the ones I've actually had the pleasure of visiting.

I'll only comment on the ones I've dealt with, but T&A, Ades, Field Time (YOU HAVE TO CHECK THEM OUT - like a Cabelas with better prices, and clean and NEW), Turners in Orange have all treated me very well. I can't figure out the hate for Turners - yes - sometimes they are more expensive, but not during sales... and the guys treated me like a human on my first pistola purchase...

We used to have some real duds here in OC, until all the OLL stores started to pop up. The stores that have been great are all pretty new: OC Armory, T&A Armory, Riflegear and Ade's (even better now that Pat is gone).

The duds of Orange County are/were: The Stockade, Fowlers Gunroom, J&J Armory (I think all of Calguns have forgotten about them since I never hear anyone mention them anymore), Grant Boys (more neg than positive, at least the owner finally allows CCW after years of convincing), and anyone remember Flag Guns in La Habra

Yup, agreed. I posted about Fowlers and having to go out of there gritting my teeth 90% of the time... Grant Boys is a joke IMHO.

But yes, there are a LOT of great LGS in OC...
.

[beemaze]

Jeff's Sporting Goods in San Gabriel and EuroArms in Alhambra

Jeff's Sporting Goods is right next door to Bain & Davis (highly recommend B&D). Imagine that - two places right next door to one another that sell guns!

Anyways, a fellow Calgunner and I met up at B&D to do a PPT, but B&D was closed for the holiday weekend when we arrived. We ended up going next door to Jeff's and inquired about doing a PPT. They said sure! But they asked for a $200 cash deposit prior to the PPT! They said that for every day after the 10 day waiting period that you did not pick up your gun, they would deduct $20 from your "deposit" until it was exhausted. And if your pickup day was on a Sunday (the day they are normally closed), you would automatically lose $20! WTF!?! I'm sorry, but that has got to be totally illegal!!

I also called over to EuroArms in Alhambra. They Asian guy that answered the phone kept increasing his PPT price. 1st it was $35, then $40, then $50. I hung up before it could go up some more. Yet another place to avoid....

Needless to say, we went up to Turner's in Pasadena for the PPT and were helped immediately and quickly.

[89 Vision]

I didn't go through all the posts, so not sure if they've been already listed; but I can't stand the people at The Stockade. It's too bad too because they have a lot of guns. Oh and Grant Boys isn't my favorite either. For whatever reason, I get a lot of attitude there. These shops should take a lesson from Riflegear and others that are around me (hell, even F.V. Turners). There's a lot of competition out there nowadays, and of course, they will catch more flies with honey.

[stewiegriffin]

El Cajon Gun Exchange gets my vote for the worst. I was accused by an older gent of voting for Gray Davis when our conversation touched politics. Needless to say I have never been back to that store for 10 years now.

+1

That place actually kind of frightens me. Seem like a bunch of dicks. I know mileage may vary, but it is definitely a "good 'ol boy shop."

[ireload]

+1

That place actually kind of frightens me. Seem like a bunch of dicks. I know mileage may vary, but it is definitely a "good 'ol boy shop."

Though it never felt like a "good ol' boys for me and prices are a bit up, I was ready to spend some bucks but thanks to that guy's attitude they lost a customer.

[pictureman]

A couple of the great gun stores back in the days were National Guns in Northridge California, and Pony express.
Then there was Sherwood Guns but they were hard asses, but alright. As someone said, "It's how you present yourself and what you wear."
Too bad they're not around anymore and closed down back in the late 80's

[cmichini]

Go back to the poor service guys, give it a try (you'll probably getsnubbed again), THEN stand to the side, whip out your cell phone, call your voicemail and pretend you're on the phone to a buddy:

"Yeah, I'm in x again. Yeah, same bullsnot, AGAIN. I don't know why I even bother. Jesus, just because I don't dress like I'm rich doesn't mean I don't have a $10K per year gun budget.

Will that other shop you mentioned (keep it non-specific) still order up the (select your favorite nice EXPENSIVE fouling piece) for me at that great price? Cool.

Are they friendly and helpful, too? Even if I'm not a long term known customer? AWESOME, I'm there.

How about we meet Sat AM, we'll shop, I'll plunk down my cash for that sweet rifle setup and I'll treat you to lunch, your choice.

No problem! It's the least I could do for you pointing me in the right direction.
OK, I'll call you. Later.

Have a nice day guys. BYE"

It may not get them to change (A-holes normally won't). But it can make you feel like you TRIED to make your point. Maybe you'll get a good chuckle as you leave.

[darqhelmet]

Riflegear is my first stop always. I have gotten 5 lowers 2 uppers and a sig 522 from them in the past 9 months. EVERYONE in that store is great. My entire group buys from pretty much just them. Turners in FV is good for sales and safes. Jim is great every time I go in there and Micheal is always sweet when ringing me up. Big 5 at 5 points is another store I check but I haven't purchased anything from them in a few years.

Grants sucks I was ignored for about 20 min and then was treated rudely.
The Stockade is a hell hole. Prices are crap sales people just dont seem to care.
Fowlers staff wouldn't talk to me so I left and have never gone back. They seem to have higher prices on everything I looked at.
FieldTime I have not purchased a firearm from but reloading stuff is always in stock and they have good prices. I dont know who you dealt with at Fieldtime but I would talk to Steve. I met him at The Firing Line and he has always been great to me and my friends.

[fed20]

Best customer service in the busniss. Not a great selection on guns/rifles, but if they dont have it they will bend over backward to get it for you cheaper than anyone else in So. Cal. Very progressive and up to date on all the "cool new toys". Worth the drive! = Bright Spot Pawn in Riverside!

I agree.

[aaronraby1]

cant be as bad as the ammo brothers in cerritos... i heard one of the guys talking to a customer who was asking about a rifle say "i dont know. i just got my first rifle the other day and its an ar15." oookkkkkkkk... why do they hire these people???

[DaveFJ80]

I've done quite a few PPT's and bought a few new guns from Turner's West Covina. Never any problems and everything went smoothly.

The only 2 things where things didn't go as smooth were.....

1) They couldn't find my paperwork when I came to pick up a new gun after the 10 days (one of the employees filed it in the wrong place). So I had to fill out everything again so they could have the paperwork before releasing the gun to me. The cool thing was, since I was going to buy a cleaning kit and some extra cleaning supplies, they just said "that's on us" for their mix up. So I also got to walk away with about $50 of cleaning supplies and a kit. Good service there IMO.

2) I've bought 2 brand new shotguns from there in the past year. Each time, they've asked for my HSC card for the purchase. While I knew it wasn't needed, I wasn't going to fight them on it as it could just have been store policy. It's not like I had to go out of my way for it or anything, and it didn't bother me at all, but just bringing that up since a couple of others said the same thing at other stores.

I bought a rifle there once and they asked me for my HSC.