What do you do when customers order wrong stuff?

[acespawnshop]

We've been getting a lot (like 3) this week that customers have ordered and for whatever reason we can't DROS their firearm. They're mostly off roster pistols. We did have 1 who was a trying to straw purchase but we stopped them before they even got here, but that's not what my question is.

What do you do when a customer orders online, ships it to you, you log it in, and then they cant DROS. Do you still charge them for wasting your time. Our issue seems to be coming from people who don't contact us before they are ordering to make sure they can get the particular firearms. What's everyone's policy on these? We've wasted a few hours this week dealing with returns and tracking down return labels for pistols that people cant have.

[71MUSTY]

You could do that, but you will never see that potential future customer again.

Instead of getting your pound of flesh by charging them a fee why not try to cross sell them to something you stock.


Even if they don't bite they will realize you are a good Joe and likely spend money with you in the future.

[Fern]

You could do that, but you will never see that potential future customer again.

Instead of getting your pound of flesh by charging them a fee why not try to cross sell them to something you stock.


Even if they don't bite they will realize you are a good Joe and likely spend money with you in the future.

Good advice right there.

[E Michael]

I doubt someone who flakes on a purchase or knowing or unknowingly orders an off list pistol is going to be great return customer. I think fee should be charged but not in ask instances. Just saw this is on the FFL forum my bad.

[acespawnshop]

I don't want to have to charge. But we're having a growing problem of people who order without asking us first. We're on at least 20 or so online shops who just ship stuff to us. I know they say on their websites to check first but people don't. I love the phone calls we have to make and ask the customer if they're roster exempt and the usual reaponse, for non LEO, is "what's that".

We were talking about having people go to our website and fill out some sort of pre order form that notifies us of what people are buying before it gets here. But I doubt that would work since the ones who order don't contact us prior anyhow.

I dunno. Was just tying to see what everyone thought. The issue about customer service is something we already talked about. But that's not the issue here. It's not our repeat customers who do this. It's first time people who never came to us before and only chose us off the drop down list on the online site they're buying from.

Oh well. Was just getting thoughts on the subject.

[acespawnshop]

You could do that, but you will never see that potential future customer again.
[/B]

The problem is once we call these people and they realize they can't have the gun they have the vendor ship us a return label and we never hear from them again. It's totally a waste of time.

[ambiguous216]

Well on the flip side...you total waste of time will bring back that customer in the future and he or she will refer friends and family to your pawn shop.

Ain't so bad after all. All the joys of being in the business.

The problem is once we call these people and they realize they can't have the gun they have the vendor ship us a return label and we never hear from them again. It's totally a waste of time.

[09hemi]

I charge them my regular transfer fee which is only $25, i figure if i spent the time to unpack, log it in my books and then have to repack it to send it back and log it out of my books $25 is not much to ask if they didn't verify they could dros it. That has only happened twice in the last 5 years however. Its a business and we do this for profit, my fees are cheap cause i like to do this but im not working for free

[johnthomas]

We've been getting a lot (like 3) this week that customers have ordered and for whatever reason we can't DROS their firearm. They're mostly off roster pistols. We did have 1 who was a trying to straw purchase but we stopped them before they even got here, but that's not what my question is.

What do you do when a customer orders online, ships it to you, you log it in, and then they cant DROS. Do you still charge them for wasting your time. Our issue seems to be coming from people who don't contact us before they are ordering to make sure they can get the particular firearms. What's everyone's policy on these? We've wasted a few hours this week dealing with returns and tracking down return labels for pistols that people cant have.

I agree that you should not do this for free. The dealer you send the gun back to isn't paying shipping two ways for free plus his time, he charges a restocking fee. As far as you losing future customers, that happened when you had to tell him he could not pick the gun up. You guys in the shop are there to sell guns and accessories. To that end you educate people on the law as well as safety, tips and training. Many times people come in just for an education and buy nothing. To spend your valuable time to right somebody else's mistake without compensation is unfair to you.

[Desertdoc]

You could do that, but you will never see that potential future customer again.

Instead of getting your pound of flesh by charging them a fee why not try to cross sell them to something you stock.


Even if they don't bite they will realize you are a good Joe and likely spend money with you in the future.

This would earn my business and keep me coming back.

[Tyke8319]

Aces,
Do you have a caveat on your web page that explains the issue and states that a "handling fee of $XXX" will be charged if guns have to be returned to the original shipper due to the customers failure to follow you clear instructions when ordering guns from other vendors.
As a business owner, I would most definitely charge a fee for my time if customers just blindly order something without checking with the eventual dealer who is necessarily involved...i.e.you.
My policy has been that when I get a customer (VERY few) who has been less than considerate when ordering something from another vendor (bread out of my mouth) I will not return the item till the fee is paid and he won't get his $$ back from the initial vendor until the gun is returned.
However, that policy is clearly advertised and available to customers if there intelligent enough to investigate the procedure
And, as said, I doubt you'll lose that customer since they seed more interested in dealing with other vendors in the first place.

[ElvenSoul]

Offer to waive the restock fee if they buy something in stock in the store.

[ugimports]

We don't get too many of the blind off roster orders. We do occasionally, and only charge a handling fee of $25 if the shipping vendor doesn't provide a label. We also let the customer know they have 30 days to take care of it before we start charging storage fees. And if they choose to do nothing for 90 days the firearm becomes ours.

We do ask for Inbound Shipping notification. Anyone that doesn't follow it we may charge an additional $20 fee for the extra work.

Most of the time the Inbound Shipping notification is where we catch off roster guns and the potential buyer is able to fix it before it arrives.

Outside of Sportsman Guide (who took us off their able to ship to list altogether) we've not had too many vendors ship us off roster stuff. I'd say I might see one every 6 months that shows up without an inbound shipping request.

We let the customer know the above and don't charge unless we have to create a label, etc... Our view might change if we were receiving 3-4 blind transactions a month. With those, we may opt to charge our $20 admin fee to recoup our costs.

In addition, we don't charge everyone the $20 admin fee. It depends how difficult the transaction is for us. If it's one of those that's a blind ship and no customer information then we definitely charge the fee.

If it's a regular customer that has previously had no issues following the process and forget once or twice. Not usually an issue.

I'd post up something like an Administrative Fee policy that you can selectively enforce depending how much time you have to waste on a transaction. If it's a regular thing for you (3-4 times per week) then your stance is likely going to be quite different than ours.

[joefrank64k]

Of course you should charge a fee. You're not in this for charity. The customer screwed up, plain and simple. If you never see him again, so what?? Good riddens to bad rubbish.

[readysetgo]

Here's what I want you to do:

1) Hire Tyke8319 as your lawyer, or his lawyer, whatever
2) Hire UGI as your spiritual counselor
3) When those fail, hire joefrank as your enforcer, he's ruthless



non-FFL two cents.

I'd set a slightly punitive policy and make sure it's clearly indicated on the web and other adverts. Enforce as needed.

You can still give great customer service and not work for free. There's a mixture here somewhere, you'll figure out what's right for you.

You lost your golden title I see, so I can not provide any further free advise until that is rectified.