I'm not going to name the dealer because this isn't a review and I know people that have done business with them multiple times with no issues, so I don't feel it necessary to call them out. This is just a comedy of errors.
Back in August 2020 I bought a can from a local dealer. I knew it would not be a speedy review by ATF because of everything going on at the time and NFA Tracker was showing a year or more for approvals so I didn't think anything of it when a year passed and I hadn't been contacted by the dealer.
Around December of 2021 I called the NFA number and gave them my information and was told "Pending". OK... Nearly 18 months and still pending even though NFA Tracker is showing less than one year for approval at this point. Strange and annoying... but whatever. I get really busy with work and generally forget about it for another 8 months.
That brings us to August 2022 when I decide to call the NFA line again because it's now been two years. ATF says that my serial number doesn't match what's in their database. That's a little disconcerting. Call the dealer and they're closed because they have very limited hours. Call back a few days later (several times) and still get VM. Call back a week later and this time I leave a VM with my name, number, and problem. A week later I send an email to their sales address. Two weeks later, still with no one answering the phone, no responses from my VM, and no responses to my email, I decide to go there in person. I tell them the situation and show them the receipt only to find out that they wrote the serial number down wrong. To add insult to injury, they allegedly tried to call me but they number they tried to call was "disconnected"; the number they had in their system wasn't just not mine, it wasn't even close.
I looked at the tax stamp documents and it was approved in 364 days. I've been waiting an extra year because the dealer and the ATF both (and independently) had wildly incorrect information.
If there's a next time, I'll check the information myself because apparently, number and letters are hard.
But at least I now have my can.