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We appreciate what you're doing Nick! Brightwater is always my first choice and I try to support you guys whenever I can.

Thanks for the good work on my Mossberg bead last week.
 
If you ask the OP, the answer is because I am stupid. Honestly, I signed a contract to buy the business on 9/3/10... He had a hard time letting go and I tried to be a nice guy and not take the deal to court. So it took until 4/15/11 for me to gain financial control. In that time he ran up quite a debt. One day I came in and all his stuff was gone and the business account which had a ton of money in it was closed and all that was left in the store was a $10,000 cashiers check made out to me... Not much of a help when the IRS wanted $36,000 and the store was over $70,000 in debt to distributors... Because of this I almost closed the doors twice in 2011. The debt and the stress was way too much at times, but I pray for a better 2012. I learned a lot about bad choices because of this. For once I was the nice guy and I seriously got hurt. It was a bad business decision, but I love the industry and I love all of my customers. It is truly a very fun thing to do.

As I type this I continue to ask myself why I am telling you all this, but I have nothing to hide from. I have been to the point of closing and have come back. It is my small success story and I am trying to make the story even better.

Nick Pratka
Owner
Brightwater Ventures
Nick:
Thanks for the answer!! That REALLY makes me angry that Mike would do that to you!!!!!!!!!! I thought he was a nice guy but I guess, when it comes to money, he's not!

I was in there earlier today looking, almost bought the used .357 LRC and looked hard at the .223 boxes on the floor!!

I'm glad you decided to stick it out. Sometimes the IRS will go after the problem "person" when something like this happens rather than the innocent buyer. But, by now I'm sure you checked into it though.

I REALLY appreciate the info, now I understand your position and I WILL BE BACK!!

Deen
 
Everybody has good and bad experiences everywhere you go. If we all stopped going to places that treated us "bad" on an occasion, you'd never leave your house. I stop by Brightwater every time I'm on that side of town. I've been in there a few times and was made to feel like c_ap. I shrugged it off as being the person at the counter just wasn't a very good "people person".

One person "screams" and here we are three pages later. As Nick mentioned, don't go back if that one time you were there PO'd you. If that is your requirement for your continued business, you must not go too many places. I don't think there is a place that I've gone that I swore I'd never go back (Costco with 7-10 people waiting in all 4 register lanes that were open, Safeway with 2 registers open and people backed up waiting, restaraunts where I had to wait 30 minutes with open tables in plain sight and not very friendly or attentive wait-staff, etc, etc, etc......) It was one item that you happened to know more about than they did. Whoopie snoopie!

I, for one, will continue to stop by when in that neck of the woods.
 
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Everybody has good and bad experiences everywhere you go. If we all stopped going to places that treated us "bad" on an occasion, you'd never leave your house. I stop by Brightwater every time on that side of town. I've been in there a few times and was made to feel like c_ap. I shrugged it off as being the person at the counter just wasn't a very good "people person".

One person "screams" and here we are three pages later. As Nick mentioned, don't go back if that one time you were there PO'd you. If that is your requirement for your continued business, you must not go too many places. I don't think there is a place that I've gone that I swore I'd never go back (Costco with 7-10 people waiting in all 4 register lanes that were open, Safeway with 2 registers open and people backed up waiting, restaraunts where I had to wait 30 minutes with open tables in plain sight and not very friendly or attentive wait-staff, etc, etc, etc......) It was one item that you happened to know more about than they did. Whoopie snoopie!

I, for one, will continue to stop by when in that neck of the woods.

Well said!
 
The selection of gun is really good. I know they spent a ton of money at Shot on guns so things will only get better going forward.

Obviously it's your money and you can spend it wherever you want, but at the same time they are still the largest gun store in Clark County.
Wild bills in molalla has a huge inventory.ARS.full auto.silemcers. hand gins. Over a million in inventory.and they love there cistomers..check it oit
 
Welp another good word for these guys... I took the pair of 'mystery' rifles we have into the shop looking to find out what they are.... After only a couple minutes looking through a giant book one of the guys was able to find out it was a .256 Newton. The other gun is just soooo close to several sizes and would need a chamber cast done was the recomendation. Super! Still havent done it, but they were a great group of guys and they were more than happy to help with our puzzle.

Since we were in, we looked around a bit. My wife is looking to get a pocket pistol here soon and one of the guys was going over the difference between semi auto and revolver when it comes to pocket guns. Never once did he push one over the other, but just put out the info on both styles. Never once did he treat her like some girl that didnt know what end the bullet came out of. And for those of you that might think it was because I was with her, I was far enough away that she was on her own, but I could hear what they were talking about.
So after that bit of education, I remembered that I needed some scope rings for my Marlin 22. Figured what the heck, I will ask if they have any since I didnt see any on the shelf.... Nick went into the back looking around pokin' here and there, then he asks, silver or black? I told him didnt really matter silver gun (stainless), but a black scope, but I would like the silver if he has them... He comes out with a pretty nice looking set of silvers. The only downside was they were marked $37... I told him to keep 'em close I would be in on pay day to pick 'em up. Nick told me not to worry about it, they were old stock, left over from the other owner.
I kept wanting to give him some money for them, but he wouldnt take a dime.

So cliff notes of my story... Great looking shop, nice guys to shoot the breeze with and will treat people well. I spent proly close to an hour in the shop, didnt spend a dime, but the wife got schooled on pocket guns and I got some scope rings, and we figured out what one of the two mystery rifles were.

Nick, we will be in to get Linda a gun soon. It is just taking a bit longer to get tax returns back, and we have another band we are playing with and have like one free day a week now.
 
Have to share this experience I had today..
went in looking for a picatinny rail that magpul makes that bolts on to their MOE handguard. All they had was the magpul illumination mounting kit that has a couple of mounts i didnt want or need. ok, fine. I went on to describe how i have seen the magpul ones sold seperatly. The guy at the counter(good dude from my encounters with him) asks the owner if he knows about it. The owner states so matter of factly(and doesnt look or aknowledge me) that magpul doesnt make them and that another company does.....
ANYWAYS..i went over to wholesale sports and bought what i wanted .. a small 5 slot picatinny style bolt on for the MOE. exactly as I described.
Not my first sub par experience at that shop lately
it hasnt been the same over there since the old man left/sold the shop.

This crazy thread was caused by a disgruntled guy looking for a MagPul P-rail, unbelievable! It is extremely unprofessional to trash a small business owner over such a trivial event.
Nick runs a great little gun shop that is a refreshing break from big box sporting goods stores. He has worked hard to keep his business afloat during these tough times while building a solid customer base. Brightwater Ventures is my 1st choice when I'm looking for a new addition to my firearms family.

FYI: A forum Moderator should move this thread out of General Firearms Discussion to Firearms-Related Business Discussion & Reviews.
 
I have always stated that if I lived in Washington I would purchase from Brightwater all the time. I will still go there for ammo, mags or whatever, but my firearm purchases will remain in Oregon for obvious reasons. This thread started with an unhappy customer stating his problem. If this were about The Gun Room, everyone would chime in on what jerks they are and no one would mention how unprofessional it is to "trash a small business owner". If bad or good experiences are not relayed to the customers and the business in question, how can improvement or communication exist? I very much agree that this got out of hand and that no one should have to defend themselves to the point of basically printing their financial records publically, but forums like this exist to share our experiences with vendors, big and small. I also agree that Brightwater is a fine store ran by people that care. I do not subscribe to the idea that only chain stores can be called for their perceived "errors" and that small business owners are somehow exempt. Keep up the good work, Brightwater. Your hard work is not lost on us. Kip
 
As I type this I continue to ask myself why I am telling you all this, but I have nothing to hide from. I have been to the point of closing and have come back. It is my small success story and I am trying to make the story even better.

I'm proud of you, Nick. I knew there was a problem but I had no idea what it was. Sorry I haven't been in for quite a while, but I think about you and talk your business up every chance I get.

I bet Krispy Kreme misses me,huh?:cool:
 
The guys at Brightwater have always treated me right. Nick has a ton of knowlegde and when he doesn't have the answer he does his research (instead of just opening his mouth) and get's back to you with an answer. Good prices, service and is local, why go anywhere else. Just needs to start carrying Slip2000 so I don't have to order it online and wait.

Larry
 
The owner i dont care for, mainly because he never admits fault at anything, then after treating customers like crap pulls the poor lil shop owner, then "airs his dirty laundry".
 
It's funny how people go out of their way to try and ruin others source of income.

Most of us get a little defensive when accused of things, twice as bad when it's on line where we can all be 6'10" 300lbs of bad axx-ness.;)
 
Nick. I am very, very disappointed with Brightwater Ventures. I bought three guns in three months from your store and not once did I win the monthly handgun lottery for Brightwater firearms purchasers. What sort of shameful business practice is that? I am NOT a satisfied customer. How can I be when now I have to come in and buy another gun three months in a row to see if this thing really is as rigged against me as it seems to be?

That was a joke. Sometimes people here don't seem to read things in context. Honestly, I have NEVER had a bad experience there. I've seen your employees (and you) spend a lot of time working with first time handgun purchasers, including women, educating them and trying to find out what they NEED, not what you want to sell them. Same goes with me. I'm not a revolver guy, but I went in trying to find a S&W J-frame or similar revolver for my wife. Even though there were some other people in the store waiting, I got a lot of great information that helped me narrow things down to two selections, one of which will probably qualify me for the June raffle if I can get my wife in there to look at them.

I also heard you're moving across Fourth Plain over by Bimart. If that's true it should give you a lot more walk-in business (not to mention better parking and neighbors who won't threaten to tow your customers' cars).

Jeff R.
 
Three was my magic number. That is how many I bought the month I won. I am still not happy thought. I demand more of something for nothing. I have done nothing to earn it, but I'll be damned if I do not feel entitled to it. Whatever it is.

Nick. I am very, very disappointed with Brightwater Ventures. I bought three guns in three months from your store and not once did I win the monthly handgun lottery for Brightwater firearms purchasers. What sort of shameful business practice is that? I am NOT a satisfied customer. How can I be when now I have to come in and buy another gun three months in a row to see if this thing really is as rigged against me as it seems to be?

That was a joke. Sometimes people here don't seem to read things in context. Honestly, I have NEVER had a bad experience there. I've seen your employees (and you) spend a lot of time working with first time handgun purchasers, including women, educating them and trying to find out what they NEED, not what you want to sell them. Same goes with me. I'm not a revolver guy, but I went in trying to find a S&W J-frame or similar revolver for my wife. Even though there were some other people in the store waiting, I got a lot of great information that helped me narrow things down to two selections, one of which will probably qualify me for the June raffle if I can get my wife in there to look at them.

I also heard you're moving across Fourth Plain over by Bimart. If that's true it should give you a lot more walk-in business (not to mention better parking and neighbors who won't threaten to tow your customers' cars).

Jeff R.
 

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