Nother Duck hill thread

[monschman]

I just got off the phone with a buddy Dave who spent the last hour or so going off the deep end as regards sales practice at gander mountain. so I asked if he minded if Post the general gist of what happens and get something of a consensus on the occurings.
First things first he is a long time gun owner and purchaser and has bought several firearms from this store. Also he is a resident alien here and does need to provide proof of continuous residence for the past 90 days.So here we go.

He and his wife accompanied me last night on a spree to GM lakeville. I ended up purchasing a nice gun and he found a nice little shotgun for a fair price so he got permission from SWMBO to go ahead and purchase it (nother story there, but not here) He dealt with the same clerk i did who is familiar with us both who assisted the transaction but upon getting his documentation ready discovered he didnt have the required proof of residency. Mike (sales clerk) said, "eff it, Ill submit it anyway, just bring in your documentation tomorrow or when you get your proceed and we will be good to go.
We went back this morning and a proceed had been issued on his sale and he had his utility statements dating back to the beginning of july but "Dan" (guy that his rather timid wife wants to do painful things slowly to) took over the transaction. First things first, Mr. Dan declares that he doesnt have the required 90 days proof of residency, funny the three of us all counted 112 days but oh well there was some holidays or something in there i suppose and I guess weekends or state fair doesnt count either. His reply was that the initiation date on the bill was for the beginning of september (actually i saw the thing myself it was clearly marked october, the next bill woulndt have been issued for another week or so)and he could only count from there back through the termination date of the first bill????Really Mr. Dan?????really. So what I understand here Mr. Dan is if Dave here doesnt provide you with a piece of paper on the day that it is dated and no other you look at it as the last 47 days dont exist, tell me when has anyone received anythiong on the day it was printed through the mail. Anyway another trip back to my buds house and another trip back to lakeville. Back to Mr. Dan, schpeel on federal law and another on how Dave should appreciate that he was dealing with Mr. Dan as another employee wouldnt know how to deal with it. Anyway, paperwork sorted, now to the transaction and let me quote as well as I can "Well is this the tag that was on the gun originally because this price is all wrong, its waay under priced. After Dave pointing out to Mr. Dan that the tag along with all its serials and such matched and the price was just fine Mr. Dan decides to call store manager to get approval for sale. Manager arrives and I clearly hear Mr. Dan saying something along the lines of add a few hundred dollars, wetback wouldnt know anyway, dont see why he needs a gun anyway, why the hell are we selling guns to illegal immigrants that are taking our effing jobs. Now thankfully Dave didnt hear this as he was trying to convice his bride that gander mountain is indeed horrendous but the deal on the firearm was worth putting up with some extra hassle as they were hard to come by. I told him quitely that maybe he should just walk as this was way out of control and Mr. Dan was fixing to get hauled over the counter and get educated in manners and business ethics. He didnt. Mr Dan comes back and says with a roll of the eyes that yes indeed the gun is priced incorrectly (it wasnt) and that it should be $370 more that he convinced the manager to sell it at ticketed price. Anyway here is the best bit, they go to the till and start the payment and Jill gets the checkbook and hands it to Dave at which point Mr. Dan starts yelling about how the person listed onthe 4473 is obligated by federal law to be the same person that pays. Well Dave and Jill have a joint checking account as i am sure many of you do but this was not acceptable and he would not accept payment unless it was cash.
At which point I told Jill to take her husband outside and that I would follow on her heels. We left the store with Mr. Dan shouting after us about us trying to make a straw purchase and how we would go to jail. After convincing Dave not to go back inside and "educate" Mr.Dan and watch him smoke about thirty cigarettes whilst stomping about in the parking lot we decided to give a run to the frontiersman. Long story short there, found a similar gun, similar price, filled form, gave the original supporting documents we had before dealing with Mr. Dan, Jill even wrote the check, listened to a dirty joke from Marv and went home with new gun.

Night and day experiences there, i have always had issues with duck hill but have been willing to put up with some of the crap as sometimes it is more convenient and even has been know to have a fair deal every great now and again, but after seeing what two dear freinds of mine had to go through today i will not be gracing them with my presence again. Marv and his boys have always treated me well and I will see them many times in the future. I found the customer service of Mr.Dan worse than appaling, I really felt like dealing with the consequences of my actions whilst in his presence from the way he treated my friends, and I am sure had Dave (big, REALLLLLLY BIG effen canuck) decided to educate Mr. Dan i wouldnt have intervened (i want all my teeth, I dont want to accidently take a swipe of that fist)
Dave did ask what I thought would be a decent approach strategy to dealing with the whole situation I said probably the best thing he could do would be simply just dont go back and let your experience be known. Hopefully prevent anyone else from falling into same situation. I also suggested that if he wanted an exercise in futility that may make him feel better he may want to write and bitch to corporate in St. Paul.

Why do we still go to this place, i for one am one hundred percent done with duck hill BS.

[Snowgun]

Damn

I wonder if the gander in EP has issues or if this is a personnel thing...

[mrShinola]

I have also spent my last trip to Duck Hill. I went there last week to pick up some Blazer Brass .38 and .357 which was on sale per their ad. At three different Duck Hills the clerks tried to pass off Blazer as Blazer Brass. I corrected each by pointing out in the ad that the product was advertised as Blazer Brass. All three clerks told me its all the same thing.

[tacticalninja32]

EP is not as bad, the one in mankato and lakeville was the worst i've been to, but I did see a used glock 23 at maplegrove for 789 plus tax, they are all pricks tho

[Stradawhovious]

I'm really kind of amazed that anyone is suprised at poor treatment at goose hill anymore. That place is as bad.......... no........... worse than J&S. the service is just as bad, but at least the folks at J&S know what they are talking about.

Personally I wouldn't go back if someone gave me a free shopping spree.

Well, maybe then..... But not for any other reason.

[Carl_Spackler]

your friend should file a complaint with the store manager or the Better Business Bureau, otherwise, he's letting this smuck get away with his unacceptable behavior. I won't spend a dime at Gander Mtn, and if I do go to their store it's only to look. I was there last week checking out rifle scopes and didn't expect anyone to help me. of course, no one did help me so I didn't feel bad about it. I don't know why this type of BS is tolerated at big box stores. your friend did the right thing by going to the Frontiersman and making his purchase there.

[timwarner]

Ibut at least the folks at J&S know what they are talking about.

Do they?

[45Badger]

your friend should file a complaint with the store manager or the Better Business Bureau, otherwise, he's letting this smuck get away with his unacceptable behavior.

Agree. Your buddy needs to write a letter to CEO of Gander, with copy to BBB and the Start Tribune. The illegal/wetback comments are unacceptable, and should get that store pretty well toasted.

Other than that, they were being nit-picky about paperwork. They were imperfect in their understanding and dealing with dealing with a relatively rare incident. I have had one or two annoying experiences with Gander Mountain gun clerks on paper work (spell out "District of Columbia" for place of birth). That's driven by paranoid corporate legal policy and under-trained store managers clerks.

[rugersol]

Why do we still go to this place,

I don't know why you still go there?

Most everyone knew not to go to Gouger Mtn back when Sportsman's Whorehouse was still open. Since they've closed, it's like someone, very high up, has sought to "punish" us for ever having known better.

If it's only one employee, the manager fixes it. If it's only one store, it's a bad manager. What does multiple bad stores tell ya?

I'm ok paying a few dollars more at Wolf's Den and Bullseye. That's what those few extra dollars buy ya ... SERVICE ... hell, on a good day, they'll even smile when I walk in the door.

[JoeH]

I long for the days of Holiday Sports or even Burger Brothers.

[1911fan]

Write a letter to the store. and to the corp. Send one each to Dave Pratt and Mike Owens.

The biggest problem with the Goose is that all the senior management are beer people, not sports and fishing people, and all they know how to do is run a company that never dealt with retail operations. Of the top 7 people in the company, 5 came from Budweiser, and beer is all they know.