How long does it normally take for your FFL to inform you that your firearm has arrived?

[drewga11]

I have worked in shipping and receiving for a high volume store. There are a lot of factors involved in how soon it gets logged and the customer notified. Most of which were already covered by cmshoot .

The store I worked at, which I won't name here, typically scheduled less people to work than what we really needed. I was the only one in shipping/receiving, which meant I had to handle all of our normal weekly orders, plus all transfers and anything getting sent back for repairs. On top of this, I was also responsible for all range maintenance and inventory stocking. So as you can imagine I was quite busy most days. We usually only had 2-3 people working the gun counter at any one time and another person working the register that was solely for the range. If it got too busy, then I got called to help out at the gun counter. And I got called away from what I was doing anytime one of the lanes on the range needed to be fixed.

In our case, there were times where I couldn't get to all the transfers the same day. And of course there were some people who are calling or showing up before their transfer was even delivered because the tracking said it would be delivered that day.

In theory, if business was slow and/or properly staffed, it shouldn't take that long to log and notify the customer of a transfer. However, that is not always the case. Let's just say assuming FFL and customer info are all there and correct, it takes average of 12 minutes to log a transfer. That's an hour to do 5. So if we received 15-20 transfers in a day, that would be 3-4 hours of the 8 I'm scheduled to work, just processing transfers.

Now I know this isnt the case for all stores, ours was poorly managed and understaffed usually. And no one else wanted to know how to log transfers cause no one felt like their pay was good enough to voluntarily take on more responsibility. I only worked Mon-Fri and usually 9-5 so if FedEx or UPS or DHL or whoever showed up with a transfer after 5pm or on a Saturday, sorry but you're not getting notified or picking it up that day.

I say all of that just to illustrate that while the task is relatively simple and doesn't take much time per transfer, there are plenty of other things that factor into how soon it can be done in a busy store.

 

[ga_trucklvr]

The explanations in this thread from you gentlemen (?) who do transfers should be pinned somewhere here on ODT. Then, the next clown that comes in complaining because no one does free transfers anymore, you can tell them to come here and read this info.

I had two guns I purchased transferred thru TruPrep. They shipped the same time, in one box, I did the paperwork online when I made the purchase, and they called me the same day the shipment arrived. When I arrived, a lady greeted me from behind the counter and asked what she could help me with. I told her I was there to pick up a transfer. She asked my name and, when I told her, she pointed me to the gun counter (my first visit ever there), and my transfer was on the counter waiting for me to verify it by the time I got to the counter (I use a cane and I am slow). I completed the 4473, produced my GWCL, and was done. After reading here what the processes behind the scenes are, I am glad I insisted he charge me two transfer fees (two guns) instead of the one single he tried to charge me. Good service is worth paying for. That was my first time ever setting foot in their location but it will not be my last. I know nothing is free. Overhead and labor are always involved. And, when I have used the free transfer folks in the past, I usually spend more than the transfer fees would have cost me by the time I leave the shop.

 

[Bypass]

Guns arrived the tenth. Still waiting on a phone call to SCHEDULE (Which is usually a couple days later) an appointment to pick up. I don't think people understand my lack of patience especially for 2500 dollars worth of firearms. Trying to follow the rules and not call or email them but dang.

 

[Danno]

I think we all know there COULD be all kinds of problems and issues that would prohibit a timely transfer. I could tell a dozen stories of times when the simplest of chores turned into a major undertaking for me.
However, of all the transfers I’ve ever had, NONE of the issues that have been posted have ever happened to me. The only issues I’ve experienced are walking into a nearly empty store with 3-5 employees on the clock, one talking with a customer, one on his cell phone, one putting labels on ammo, two more talking to each other. I inform them that my gun arrived 3 1/2 hours earlier and they ask me if someone called me to let me know it was ready. No, but I’m here, it’s here, you’re not doing anything…
Quite literally a 15 minute process start to finish. Including me filling out the stupid form.
There is a total lack of customer service any more.
If I had asked to look at a gun or a scope, they would have taken the time to help me. If I needed a $20 mag they would have gotten it for me.
Ask for a box containing my property? We’re way too busy! Pesky customers!

 

[Cadcom]

At TruPrep, we receive 12-30 transfers PER DAY, probably because we charge $20 per transferred item.

We will get multiple shipments from various shipping companies per day.

Our policy is to log them in and notify the customer ASAP, which we always do. Of course, “as soon as possible” can vary greatly from day-to-day, depending on the number of employees working, number of customers in the shop, what those customers want, etc.

If I’m covered up at the gun counter, helping customer after customer, I’m not going to walk away from them to check and see what’s in receiving.

The computers that we use to acquire firearms into our bound book are the same computers that we use as cash registers, and to complete 4473’s. We can only use each one for one thing at a time. If I’m using my computer to write up a work order for Armorer or gunsmithing work, or to complete a 4473 to sell a customer a firearm, I can’t acquire guns into the system. One thing at a time.

What works at one FFL does not work at another FFL. At my brother’s shop in SE Ohio, he gets 1/10 the customers walking in that we do, and not 10% of the transfers. I would expect anything that shows up at his shop gets logged in, and the customer notified, in less than 30 minutes from the time it was delivered.

We have a lot of issues with transfers, when we’re receiving that many. Shippers that don’t supply the proper information for us to acquire the item; a copy of their FFL or driver’s license. Now we have to hunt them down so we can acquire the item. Customers that don’t complete our online FFL transfer form, so we don’t know who the firearm is going to/who to contact.

Most of the time, when a customer has complained about a lengthy FFL transfer process, the most common issue is that we can’t get in contact with them. Their phone number and/or email address is incorrect, or the email goes straight to their spam folder. Had a guy complain that we never contacted him. When I checked our records, I found that when we tried to contact him, his phone number was wrong, and the email we sent went to his spam folder. Instead of contacting me (the manager) about the issue, he posted here on ODT. I happened to see the post, and took care of it, but that wasn’t the way to handle the issue. It would have been quicker for him if he had contacted me directly.

The last few I've had there I was notified before I knew they were delivered. Never a problem!

Now that ornery attack dog roaming freely in there, that's another story.

 

[spencer60]

After reading through all this I'm still trying to figure out how this is any harder than buying a gun from a distributor and selling it to a walk-in customer.

The process, both in and out is the same. The potential for damaged/missing/mislabeled goods is the same. The only thing I see that's different is that you don't have to spend as much time with the customer (unless you want to) and you get a flat rate for doing it. Plus you don't have money tied up in inventory.

Seems like a win-win to me...

 

[Fatal_Bert]

Guns arrived the tenth. Still waiting on a phone call to SCHEDULE (Which is usually a couple days later) an appointment to pick up. I don't think people understand my lack of patience especially for 2500 dollars worth of firearms. Trying to follow the rules and not call or email them but dang.

They're definitely test firing them for fun. Probably won't even clean them when they're done, and tell you it came like that.

 

[Spas-12 Owner]

They're definitely test firing them for fun. Probably won't even clean them when they're done, and tell you it came like that.

Love doing that to customers.

 

[cmshoot]

The last few I've had there I was notified before I knew they were delivered. Never a problem!

Now that ornery attack dog roaming freely in there, that's another story.

Rooster’ll get ya

 

[cmshoot]

After reading through all this I'm still trying to figure out how this is any harder than buying a gun from a distributor and selling it to a walk-in customer.

The process, both in and out is the same. The potential for damaged/missing/mislabeled goods is the same. The only thing I see that's different is that you don't have to spend as much time with the customer (unless you want to) and you get a flat rate for doing it. Plus you don't have money tied up in inventory.

Seems like a win-win to me...

You wanna know what the difference is? At TruPrep, the difference is that we do $20 transfers. Other than some of the cheap, stripped lowers (Anderson’s and the like), we make more than $20 when we sell a gun.

So, even if it takes the same amount of time to process, we made less money in that same amount of time. That ain’t no way to run a successful business.

Customer transfers a $40 PSA lower? We make $20.

Customer transfers a $16,000 Italian O/U? We make $20.

No, it ain’t even close to being a win-win.