Newbie buying pistol, unpleasant experience

[bsg]

looks ok to me from the pictures.

btw... don't exchange or dispose of your factory box; the numbers on box and gun are matching.

welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new Sig.

[sigpistol]

You didn't inspect it before you picked it up? I don't see an issue with them selling you a gun made in Feb '10, if they had it in stock what is the problem? Your other complaints seem valid though... be sure to inspect if before you accept it next time.

Frankly speaking, I didn't really know what should be inspected, so all I did was just pulling the slide and take a quick look. As for safety demo, it was nothing but chamber one round and unload it. I certainly need to learn more

[sigpistol]

1) You need to inspect thing before you accept them. This goes for everything, not just guns.

2) You say they did a safety demo, which would have required you to take the gun out of the case. Did they do the safety demo? If so, how did you miss the gun's condition?

3) The magazines that come with the gun are the mags that come with the gun. A better store would have replaced or blocked them for you free of charge but you need to negotiate this with them when you buy the gun. I would have been pissed, but I would have paid the $5.

4) The date of manufacture shouldn't be an issue. Guns don't go bad in a year. I would have demanded a new box, but again this goes back to you inspecting your purchase beforehand. That includes the box.

5) I'd be pissed about the cleaning kit and wouldn't have left the store without it. If all they gave you was a verbal assurance that you would get one, you are basically at their mercy.

The advice I'd give you going forward is to make sure that you've conveyed your displeasure to the shop's owner band see what they do about it. A lot of this falls under "buyer beware" but if you didn't say anything to them, they may not even know you left the store dissatisfied.

If you can't work it out with them, go ahead and put the shop's name out there and vote with your feet.

In addition, I would make the following recommendation: Don't let your issues with the shop get in the way of your enjoyment of your new possession. If you have a working firearm, try not to sweat the small stuff, especially for your 1st gun. I bought my 1st gun (a 1911) off gunbroker and it showed up with a scratch on the barrel. Small but noticeable. I obsessed over it until I actually got out and shot the gun. After that I realized that if you bought the gun for shooting, who cares what it looks like. It's more important that it works.

Thank you very much for your detailed opinions.

I did open the case and performed the safety demo. But it was a rush and I didn't really pay a close attention, it did make me a little bit suspicious with the price tag still attached, but I was distracted and realized this after I returned home.

The thing here is that I did tell the guy I don't want *this* gun and he told me I will get a 'new' gun, for a customer without solid knowledge and he misled him with term 'new', this is something I cannot accept.

As for the mag, I did offer $5 to block, but for some unknown reason, they still let me go without blocking it, I guess they thought $5 wasn't really worth the time because they have customers waiting.

As for the dissatisfaction, after calming down, I admit it might be a communication issue. They ask me to go to another store to buy a cleaning kit after I called back to check the availability might not mean it. So I did go to buy a cheap Winchester universal cleaning it this afternoon and give those guys time to fulfill their promise.

"Don't let your issues with the shop get in the way of your enjoyment of your new possession" you mad a good point, I assure you guys that I will enjoy my new possession

Thank you again!

[GlennG31]

Frankly speaking, I didn't really know what should be inspected, so all I did was just pulling the slide and take a quick look. As for safety demo, it was nothing but chamber one round and unload it. I certainly need to learn more

OP, don't worry too much about it. Just lube the gun well, grease the rails, and shoot the heck out of it.

Regarding gun ownership, we were all newbies once, so there's a bit of a learning curve once you get that first one. There's no harm in asking questions here on the forum, although most would tell you to use the Search function first. I've been on the forum almost every day since I've joined, and I've learned a wealth of knowledge regarding guns since I've been here. Everything from proper transportation of a gun, gun cleaning, what to watch out for regarding certain guns, single shot exemptions, etc. I actually bought my first gun from another Calgunner here on the forum. I'm amazed at how much I've picked up here in a couple of years considering I was a complete newbie when I first signed up.

Good luck with your first one! Trust me, this is just the beginning, and you won't be stopping with just one. Welcome to the forum!

[sigpistol]

Just because you see that it has an older manufacture date doesn't mean it isn't brand new... Guns don't expire when they sit on a shelf. My brand new CZ P-01 I had was made in 2009, and I purchased it at the end of 2010. Sure the gun might have been handled and racked a few times, but it isn't broken, or reduced in capability.

A little bit of wear on the slide rail is normal, though it shouldn't be excessive. The gun IS test fired at Sig's factory, so the guns do technically come "used", but there's now way around that. Most gun stores that aren't big, corporate companies will almost always sell you their display model as new; it seems they rarely ever have back stock,as they usually don't have enough space and can't afford to stock up on multiples of a single model.

I think you had a pretty normal gun shop experience. Their attitude could have been a little bit more forgiving judging from your story, but then again, I don't really know enough about the situation to say for sure.

If this is a normal for small gun stores of selling floor guns to people, then I won't complain. What if at the day of purchase, you clearly told the guy that you don't want this floor model and he still forcibly sold it to you by filling out the gun serial number on the DROS? As long as the guy explained this upfront, I absolutely have no problem. By the way, the purchasing is no way can be called rush because it was the holiday of memo day and only two or three customers at that time, so the guy had pretty enough time to explain in patience like you

By the way, your comments and personal experience about manufacture date of your CZ P-01 does provide relief, thank you!

[FourLoko]

you're not even sure it's the same gun so you can't really argue

when you know little about guns maybe try taking someone with you, take more time or buy one that's not so damn expensive just for the name

[sigpistol]

you're not even sure it's the same gun so you can't really argue

when you know little about guns maybe try taking someone with you, take more time or buy one that's not so damn expensive just for the name

Lesson learned.

[sigpistol]

looks ok to me from the pictures.

btw... don't exchange or dispose of your factory box; the numbers on box and gun are matching.

welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new Sig.

Thank you. You guys are so nice!

[sigpistol]

I have a feeling OP isn't coming back :|

You are wrong, I did come back

[sigpistol]

The weapon looks just fine. Enjoy it.

1. Those normal mags that came disassembled are worth money. $

2. Drop on by and get the cleaning kit; pick one off the shelf and when he tells you the kit hasn't arrived yet, hold up the kit and say "How about this one"?

Be safe
Bob

Thank you for your advice.

I have no plan of re-assembling it and re-selling it, just don't want the trouble and test the law limit.

I am not seeing any kit over there and I already purchased one this afternoon, give them a little more time to handle the 'back order' issue

Be safe all you guys.

[sigpistol]

There seems to be no pleasing gun owners these days.

We have to face the fact that we live in CA

Shouldn't gun store(s) make our gun owner life a little bit easier (I am not talking about money)? Otherwise, who they are going to do business with?

[sigpistol]

I'll take it off your hands for $300

Wishful thinking You are really not a nice guy like others, are you?

....


I am just kidding

...

Make sure you make the same offer 5 years later to me

[sigpistol]

Lesson learned:

-make sure you verify the serial number of the DROS is not the display model.

-make sure you inspect the gun when you pick it up

-don't get pushed around.

Seems like they carefully picked the word "new" to you after you explicitly request(and they agreed to) not not get the display gun. They didn't technically lie but it was underhanded.

Talk to a store manager and ask what they can do for you and explain in detail what you said here.

If they realize the situation and can do something for you, that's good. If not, let us know which store this was so we will be more careful next time and keep this in the back of our minds when we shop for a 4-figure item. I too don't like to get the floor model that has been dry-fired, fondled, (improperly) disassembled (can you tell I have a few 1911s? ) and otherwise used by multitudes of strangers. I have more than once walked out of a store when they tried hard to push the display piece on me. My money, my rules.

Lesson learned and will be more careful next time.

Yes, the word 'new' is carefully selected. I still remember the talk:

Me : 'Am I going to get a new gun? I don't want this one.'
Employee: 'Oh of course, you are going to get a new gun, we don't sell used guns.'

After the conversation, the employee filled out the seller part of DROS and he certainly copied something from the model I explicitly expressed opinion, at that time I thought he was registering the gun model information, but now I knew he was actually putting the gun serial number on DROS. He is not that honest.

I will call the store and ask to talk to the manager tomorrow and let you guys know if any progress can be made.

Thank you again for your advice.

-Bob

[stand125]

Welcome to the boards. I have got to hand it to you, 10 post in 40 minutes in the same thread will get you to Senior moderator in no time at all I don't think that I will ever buy a gun from a store again. There is always a good deal on Calguns if you wait for it and you save on tax.

[Eljay]

After the conversation, the employee filled out the seller part of DROS and he certainly copied something from the model I explicitly expressed opinion, at that time I thought he was registering the gun model information, but now I knew he was actually putting the gun serial number on DROS. He is not that honest.

And just for future reference - for handguns they need the serial # for the DROS, so if they were going to order you another one, they'd have to go that, and you would come back once they have it, inspect it, and THEN they would start the DROS and the 10 day clock. Sometimes you can DROS a long gun (rifle etc.) without having the serial number on hand, depends on dealer policy, but not a handgun.