Avoid Palmetto State Armory PSA

[philobeddoe]

I've purchased from Palmetto and was very happy with the transactions.

[ptroxx]

yeah everyone stop buying from them... this way others will have a chance at the products when they are available.. I have purchased many items from them, and just for 2 more things about 20 minutes ago,,,

[myk]

I've dealt with PSA and I'm satisfied so far, but if something were to take as long as the OP's description I wouldn't be too thrilled either...

[sd_shooter]

That's why people pay extra and buy from outfits like BCM. Their stuff is often OOS, but when it is in stock, you know it's going to ship out the next day and be on your doorstep by the end of the week.

And yes, I've been lured in by the low prices of PSA, but it was an exercise in patience

[lamorinda]

Thanks everyone for your positive feedback and understanding.

When I ordered in October, the wait time was only 10 days to process.
Anyway - I am not bashing PSA as much as I am frustrated with their customer service.
Obviously, they should revisit there policy on Customer Service and lost shipments and communication with customers.

I don't know how they package their products but it dissappeared at the
UPS warehouse after arrival scan on first day. So someone at UPS could of targeted it. Regardless, UPS told me for two weeks it was "on schedule" until the day after scheduled deliver they said "it had been lost after arrival scan 2 weeks prior".
Urrrrrrrrggggg all the way around!

[Steve1968LS2]

That's why people pay extra and buy from outfits like BCM. Their stuff is often OOS, but when it is in stock, you know it's going to ship out the next day and be on your doorstep by the end of the week.

And yes, I've been lured in by the low prices of PSA, but it was an exercise in patience

So are you saying that when thier site says "in stock" that it's sometimes a lie?

Well, that would explain the 4-week lead wait to get an upper.. lol

[sd_shooter]

So are you saying that when thier site says "in stock" that it's sometimes a lie?

Well, that would explain the 4-week lead wait to get an upper.. lol

No, BCM doesn't lie, it's really OOS. But once it's in stock, you better buy it because if you don't, someone else will!

[Predaxian]

Seeing as this is an open discussion, here is my $0.02. As someone that witnessed a mail order business grow from the founder's kitchen table to a multi-billion-dollar public company (yeah, wish that had been my idea), AND as a Palmetto customer who has placed multiple orders with them, I feel confident in stating that PSA is making a lot of mistakes. To wit:

1. They rarely answer their phone and have no option to leave voice mail
Most credit card merchant services agreements stipulate that the merchant must be responsive to phone inquiries. But even if that wasn't the case, it's just good business to respond to phone contacts on a timely basis.

2. They charge order cancellation fees
In contrast to most online merchants, PSA charges a 10% order cancellation fee. To their credit, they do publish this information conspicuously on their web site and make it known during the checkout process. PSA justifies this fee with the statement,

This charge represents the costs we incur to reprocess your transaction and to unpack and restock your order items by our sales and warehouse staff.

However, this justification is dubious at best. For example, I ordered an upper from them and within a week, cancelled the order. Although PSA indicated that the upper would not be ready for 4 weeks and their track record indicates that they have difficulties even meeting that delivery time, they still charged me the cancellation fee. Am I to believe they already had my order packed after just a week, but were planning to sit on it for a few more weeks before shipping it? And so needed to charge me $30+ to unpack and restock it?

3. They are likely in violation of the FTC mail order rule
Federal law requires that if a mail order (which includes phone and Internet sales) merchant can't ship an order within the promised time (or within 30 days if no promise was made), the merchant must notify the customer of the delay, provide a revised shipment date and explain the customer's right to cancel and receive a full and prompt refund. Anecdotes on this and other forums suggest that PSA has frequently promised and broken delivery dates, and does not proactively notify customers of said delays. The FTC is pretty lazy about enforcing this law, but companies that routinely violate it aren't usually long for this world, as consumers eventually take their business elsewhere.

4. They charge credit cards well in advance of shipment and are slow to issue refunds
Most merchant services agreements restrict a merchant's ability to charge a credit card before goods are shipped. Typically, these restrictions state that the card can be authorized when the order is placed, but the charge cannot be processed until the order is shipped, or shipment is imminent, i.e. the goods are packed up and ready to leave. A notable exception would be goods that are customized or prepared on a special order basis. Arguably, something like an upper that requires assembly and test-firing would fall into this category. But other off-the-shelf goods would not. Likewise, credit card merchants are supposed to process refund requests on a timely basis. What's timely? Two to three business days is ordinarily considered sufficient. But PSA quotes 7 to 10 business days for refunds.

What's it all mean?
These practices and policies add up to dissatisfied customers, a tarnished business reputation, and negative word of mouth, as witnessed in this forum and several others. Threads and posts like this one become a permanent, indexed artifact that are readily available to potential customers far into the future. PSA seems to have fallen into the trap of relying heavily on aggressive price-based promotions, frequent (some would argue excessive) email marketing of those offers, and then making excuses for poor performance. Unless they take steps to make changes, PSA runs the risk of getting permanently tagged as a company that offers low prices at the expense of quality and reliability, and being added to the long list of gun industry companies that are best avoided.

For my part, I won't place another order with PSA unless they make some reforms.

[ptroxx]

Seeing as this is an open discussion, here is my $0.02. As someone that witnessed a mail order business grow from the founder's kitchen table to a multi-billion-dollar public company (yeah, wish that had been my idea), AND as a Palmetto customer who has placed multiple orders with them, I feel confident in stating that PSA is making a lot of mistakes. To wit:

1. They rarely answer their phone and have no option to leave voice mail
Most credit card merchant services agreements stipulate that the merchant must be responsive to phone inquiries. But even if that wasn't the case, it's just good business to respond to phone contacts on a timely basis.

2. They charge order cancellation fees
In contrast to most online merchants, PSA charges a 10% order cancellation fee. To their credit, they do publish this information conspicuously on their web site and make it known during the checkout process. PSA justifies this fee with the statement,



However, this justification is dubious at best. For example, I ordered an upper from them and within a week, cancelled the order. Although PSA indicated that the upper would not be ready for 4 weeks and their track record indicates that they have difficulties even meeting that delivery time, they still charged me the cancellation fee. Am I to believe they already had my order packed after just a week, but were planning to sit on it for a few more weeks before shipping it? And so needed to charge me $30+ to unpack and restock it?

3. They are likely in violation of the FTC mail order rule
Federal law requires that if a mail order (which includes phone and Internet sales) merchant can't ship an order within the promised time (or within 30 days if no promise was made), the merchant must notify the customer of the delay, provide a revised shipment date and explain the customer's right to cancel and receive a full and prompt refund. Anecdotes on this and other forums suggest that PSA has frequently promised and broken delivery dates, and does not proactively notify customers of said delays. The FTC is pretty lazy about enforcing this law, but companies that routinely violate it aren't usually long for this world, as consumers eventually take their business elsewhere.

4. They charge credit cards well in advance of shipment and are slow to issue refunds
Most merchant services agreements restrict a merchant's ability to charge a credit card before goods are shipped. Typically, these restrictions state that the card can be authorized when the order is placed, but the charge cannot be processed until the order is shipped, or shipment is imminent, i.e. the goods are packed up and ready to leave. A notable exception would be goods that are customized or prepared on a special order basis. Arguably, something like an upper that requires assembly and test-firing would fall into this category. But other off-the-shelf goods would not. Likewise, credit card merchants are supposed to process refund requests on a timely basis. What's timely? Two to three business days is ordinarily considered sufficient. But PSA quotes 7 to 10 business days for refunds.

What's it all mean?
These practices and policies add up to dissatisfied customers, a tarnished business reputation, and negative word of mouth, as witnessed in this forum and several others. Threads and posts like this one become a permanent, indexed artifact that are readily available to potential customers far into the future. PSA seems to have fallen into the trap of relying heavily on aggressive price-based promotions, frequent (some would argue excessive) email marketing of those offers, and then making excuses for poor performance. Unless they take steps to make changes, PSA runs the risk of getting permanently tagged as a company that offers low prices at the expense of quality and reliability, and being added to the long list of gun industry companies that are best avoided.

For my part, I won't place another order with PSA unless they make some reforms.

And they wont miss you .. cause there are 20 other people that are looking for the item you are.. But nice write up..

[Predaxian]

And they wont miss you .. cause there are 20 other people that are looking for the item you are.. But nice write up..

Yup...just like there are 20+ other vendors that sell the same basic stuff.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[lamorinda]

Predaxian: that was a nice writeup! thx

[Laythor]

Sounds like save 10 percent and then pray it get's delivered. I think I'll pass on PSA.

[Synergy]

A coworker is going through the same problem with PSA on his upper. Claim is filed with UPS and it has been a nightmare!

[BruinGuy]

As someone who ordered an upper on Black Friday, I just hope it arrives before Christmas! I have to say that if they don't get their BF orders out before then that will be a huge failure by the company, since BF is associated explicitly with Christmas shopping. However, my orders in the past have all arrived within about 3 weeks of placing the order so I am hopeful, and crossing my fingers that I don't run into any of the shipping issues that others here are reporting.

[bigdawg86]

I ordered a Vortex Strikefire scope on black friday... just got it today. YMMV.