Interesting Experience at Wholesale Sports yesterday

[Modeler]

It would be helpful when referencing stores with multiple locations if the specific store was listed; which location were you at?

 

[Mark W.]

Well pretty soon your going to run into someone bad day at every gun shop you go into and then you can sit in your parents basement all smug in the knowledge you showed them what for.

I just think all this calling someone out on the internet is waste of time.

I got no connection to Wholesale Sports save them being a place I wander into and spend money once and a while. I've received good service. I gotten into little disagreements with a guy or two behind the counter (I have a feeling they are like a few people around here OPINIONATED) but I go on with life.

 

[oknow]

WOW gun buyers are sure easily offended. Is the Saleman not allowed to have an opinion?

Had you gone in the store to buy a revolver and the saleman said he prefered a semi auto Would you have gotten offended?

It just seams to me like some people love to jump on every little thing.

I shop in the same store that the OP was in (I assume since we live in the same town and only one Wholesale Sports is close.


And I know the clerks at the gun counter to range from a man who does our gunsmithing work during the clubs sight in service whos been a Marine and an active shooter for over 50 years. To maybe a couple younger guys with less experiance but still knowledgable.

the jackwagon is there to sell guns no matter what his feeling are. if he can't do his job then replace him with someone who can
business is business

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

Well pretty soon your going to run into someone bad day at every gun shop you go into and then you can sit in your parents basement all smug in the knowledge you showed them what for.

I just think all this calling someone out on the internet is waste of time.

I got no connection to Wholesale Sports save them being a place I wander into and spend money once and a while. I've received good service. I gotten into little disagreements with a guy or two behind the counter (I have a feeling they are like a few people around here OPINIONATED) but I go on with life.

So you feel he did the wrong thing by calling a retailer on their anti-gun opinions publicly? The people that shop there should not know what happened?

 

[RVTECH]

Is the Saleman not allowed to have an opinion?

Yes, he is allowed to have an opinion but he should know when to keep it to himself lest he drive away potential customers. This would be like me telling people they should never consider consider a luxury motorhome because of the footprint they have on the environment but should consider a smaller, more eco friendly model or perhaps a teardrop that can be pulled with an economy vehicle. I don't think my employers would care for me expressing that opinion. Leave the opinions to the customers and let them make their own decisions, but be there to offer advice based on experience if they ask.
For the record my example is NOT a representation of my belief but offered as a comparison to the original post to make a point!

 

[locobob]

Yep, opinions are all fine and dandy but when you work for somebody else you don't get to bad mouth the products you are supposed to be selling for them.

 

[RVTECH]

but when you work for somebody else you don't get to bad mouth the products you are supposed to be selling for them.

Constructive opinions are ok - but you need to be judicious when giving them. I'll use an example previously mentioned. If a prospective handgun buyer were to ask me what was better, an auto or revolver I would be wrong by giving the opinion, "Revolvers are an outdated, old-school design with technology from another time and have no place in today's world of modern, high tech weapons" A better opinion would be based on my attempting to determine the customers want or need and then offer my EXPERIENCED opinion based on such. I might find the prospective owner is intimidated by all the hype about 1911s, Glocks and autos in general and might be relatively inexperienced but is open to the idea of learning on something relatively 'tame' as a .38 revolver. This WOULD be the time to offer my personal opinion on what might be the better revolver to go with based on the pros and cons of the different brands and my experience of owning many different styles.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

i wonder if the fella that owns the gunroom on foster in pdx is the regional guncounter sales/person trainer and orconsultant lol

Can't be! He and his crew know EVERYTHING!!!

 

[Mark W.]

So you feel he did the wrong thing by calling a retailer on their anti-gun opinions publicly? The people that shop there should not know what happened?

The Clerk at a Gun Counter has an anti-gun opinion cause he doesn't like the reputation AK-47 clones have? Maybe he's actually worried about the business's non gun customers seeing someone in the back of the store waving around the gun they see on every news report about a shooting. And dosen't want them to never come back in the store because they sell those evil AK-47's. And maybe he has lost friends in the big sand box.

Afterall YOUR life experiances dictate how you feel about things and some times you speak out. LIKE THIS THREAD.

I been going into gun shops since at least 1966. And I can't remember having the trouble some people here have. I guess I just have a thick skin.

I do find it interesting that because someone doesn't tend to you (used in a generic way) the way you like, or to express an opinion you don't agree. That someone come on a firearms forum and attempt to blackball the clerk and the business. Even if said business does support firearms. Stocks and sells them and the ammo and reloading supplies and accessories. AND without them the supply for these things becomes less available locally. YOU do know there are a lot of people that won't buy via the internet. I work with two guys who won't go near a on line cart for anything.


Would it make you happy to watch the store manager fire the offending employee and throw them out of the store? How about if that resulted in the clerks child not having a place to live cause daddy got fired.

I just don't get the hate.

 

[Misterbill]

I have gotten no less than 3 phone calls in the last month from nw shooters who were about to purchase SAIGA 12's as their HD Shotguns.

In every case, I advised against it, because ALL THREE of the SAIGAS I've personally fired had feed problems. I've also said, quite clearly, that maybe because that was 3 years ago things have changed, or maybe I just got unlucky. But if it's MT life on the line, TYVM I'm going with a pump-action shotgun that has seen WAR service since 1917 and is STILL used by every police dept. in the country.

THAT is a constructive opinion.

"The SAIGA 12 is a man-killing device with only one purpose, to kill as many people as possible." is NOT a constructive or useful opinion, it is a POLITICAL opinion.

If I was at a gun shop looking at say a 10-round semi-auto and the salesman told me "Only gun hating Obama voters like those because they only have ten rounds," I would complain rather vociferously to the manager, because that is a half-assed political opinion injected into a discussion about the relative merits of a firearm for a specific use.

I fail to see how ANYONE can justify a statement that (You need to keep it low because those can't be used for hunting/I've lost a lot of friends to those) is in ANY way an objective opinion on the relative merits of a gun. It's a strictly POLITICAL opinion.

It doesn't matter WHAT your opinions are. I was a Ron Paul Die hard. If you told someone one product or another wasn't a real RP type of gun, I'd fire your ***. You're there to giv the customer what he wants. If you have a valid reason for sterring him towards one type or another, that's great. That's why I want experienced people at my counter. When you tell them that their choice is (to paraphrase) an "Evil Killy Machine of Death." You've crossed FAR beyond any rational helpfulness.

And THAT IS MY BUSINESS. I pay the bills, I am the employer. If you undercut my sales with your half-assed political opinions, you're going to get FIRED.

How hard is this to understand? It even happens in government and the military.

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

The Clerk at a Gun Counter has an anti-gun opinion cause he doesn't like the reputation AK-47 clones have? Maybe he's actually worried about the business's non gun customers seeing someone in the back of the store waving around the gun they see on every news report about a shooting. And dosen't want them to never come back in the store because they sell those evil AK-47's. And maybe he has lost friends in the big sand box.

Afterall YOUR life experiances dictate how you feel about things and some times you speak out. LIKE THIS THREAD.

I been going into gun shops since at least 1966. And I can't remember having the trouble some people here have. I guess I just have a thick skin.

I do find it interesting that because someone doesn't tend to you (used in a generic way) the way you like, or to express an opinion you don't agree. That someone come on a firearms forum and attempt to blackball the clerk and the business. Even if said business does support firearms. Stocks and sells them and the ammo and reloading supplies and accessories. AND without them the supply for these things becomes less available locally. YOU do know there are a lot of people that won't buy via the internet. I work with two guys who won't go near a on line cart for anything.


Would it make you happy to watch the store manager fire the offending employee and throw them out of the store? How about if that resulted in the clerks child not having a place to live cause daddy got fired.

I just don't get the hate.

Why are you retelling your version of it over the person who originally told the story and experienced it? he made it clear the guy had a bias against the gun.

 

[mjbskwim]

Yes, he is allowed to have an opinion but he should know when to keep it to himself lest he drive away potential customers. This would be like me telling people they should never consider consider a luxury motorhome because of the footprint they have on the environment but should consider a smaller, more eco friendly model or perhaps a teardrop that can be pulled with an economy vehicle. I don't think my employers would care for me expressing that opinion. Leave the opinions to the customers and let them make their own decisions, but be there to offer advice based on experience if they ask.
For the record my example is NOT a representation of my belief but offered as a comparison to the original post to make a point!

Hey when I go to a gun store that I frequent,I don't even have a bad opinion on a certain gun,unless I know the person. If the shop takes care of me,I take care of them by not bad mouthing anything in the store. I would expect employees to do the same

 

[osterr1999]

So I went back today to talk with the manager. I had emailed him about the issue and he asked that I come in and chat with him. He was out at lunch, but had instructed one of the other employees to take care of me. He gave me a gift card and noted that the employee was talked to and told that it was not appropriate for him to share his personal opinion on the firearm. That's really all I could ask for. They made things right by me, so I will be back in the future.

For those who asked, my experience was at the Portland location.

 

[davemata]

So I went back today to talk with the manager. I had emailed him about the issue and he asked that I come in and chat with him. He was out at lunch, but had instructed one of the other employees to take care of me. He gave me a gift card and noted that the employee was talked to and told that it was not appropriate for him to share his personal opinion on the firearm. That's really all I could ask for. They made things right by me, so I will be back in the future.

For those who asked, my experience was at the Portland location.

That's a good resolution.

Glad you didn't stamp your feet and demand people get fired.

 

[Tbucket]

It is amazing what happens if you handle things calm and with intelligence.

 

[osterr1999]

Demanding that someone get fired is ridiculous unless he had punched me in the face for asking to look at an AK or something. Like I said, I am pleased with the outcome and I think that Wholesale Sports handled it the way I would have had I been in their position.