PistolPay

Reacher120 · Jan 14, 2016

Anyone used PistolPay.com? Need to find a FFL dealer in Portland that I can use this with.

xtratoy · Jan 15, 2016

Why do you need to use PistolPay? Did you accept payment for something you sold from them?

jbett98 · Jan 15, 2016

It sounds like he is buying a firearm from out of state and needs an FFL in Portland that will receive and hold the item for him until he can examine it before his payment via (Pistol Pay) is released to the seller.
Otherwise, he would have to send his payment to the seller and hope that the seller is honest in their description and actually send the firearm to his FFL.

Reacher120 · Jan 15, 2016

jbett98 said:
It sounds like he is buying a firearm from out of state and needs an FFL in Portland that will receive and hold the item for him until he can examine it before his payment via (Pistol Pay) is released to the seller.
Otherwise, he would have to send his payment to the seller and hope that the seller is honest in their description and actually send the firearm to his FFL.

206thsense · Jan 15, 2016

It's pretty like PayPal, but for guns. I've used it before and haven't had any problems.

Reacher120 · Jan 15, 2016

That is exactly the situation. Prefer to buy local, but Armslist had an item I have been looking for, listing "Portland" under location. Seller was a private party,but actually out of state,wanted to receive payment prior to shipping. Looking online I found links and reviews for "PistolPay". Charges for their service is 2.7% from both buyer and seller, not much different total costs than Western Union, etc. All Financial info is through them (3rd party). Sounds good, BUT.. nothing online about them last 6 months or so, their listed phone number is always "busy", and only listing I can find through BBB is "F", looks like due to Questionable complaint with no response from Co.
Website is still running, I set up a profile ( no finance info yet) but am hoping to get some feedback from someone who has actually used them. A great service if it is legit.

Reacher120 · Jan 15, 2016

Reacher120 said:
That is exactly the situation. Prefer to buy local, but Armslist had an item I have been looking for, listing "Portland" under location. Seller was a private party,but actually out of state,wanted to receive payment prior to shipping. Looking online I found links and reviews for "PistolPay". Charges for their service is 2.7% from both buyer and seller, not much different total costs than Western Union, etc. All Financial info is through them (3rd party). Sounds good, BUT.. nothing online about them last 6 months or so, their listed phone number is always "busy", and only listing I can find through BBB is "F", looks like due to Questionable complaint with no response from Co.
Website is still running, I set up a profile ( no finance info yet) but am hoping to get some feedback from someone who has actually used them. A great service if it is legit.

Reacher120 · Jan 15, 2016

Keiths, JB's, Tigard pawn, and a couple other FFl's I contacted had not heard of them, can't reach anyone at PistolPay for their list of recommended local FFL's. any Portland FFL's out there that have experience with them?

xtratoy · Jan 15, 2016

Do a search of item you are wanting to buy using cut an paste of words in armslist ad to see if it is copied from another selling site. This happens on occasion more so with ads on armslist.

jbett98 · Jan 15, 2016

I've given up on out of state Armslist deals.
Every good deal turns out to be a scam and the only way I would buy from a private seller, is for the seller to drop off the firearm at a reputable FFL near their location, and then I would have that FFL describe what it really looks like and have the out of state FFL ship to my FFL after I send the payment to the out of state FFL.
The first thing I do when I see something for sale that's listed in Portland, but it's really in some other state is to copy and paste the ad on the web and search for other listings that show the same item.
Sure enough, there are usually a bunch of scam warnings saying to avoid the seller because he's a rip off.
Try running that past the seller and see if he backs out of the deal.

darkminstrel · Jan 16, 2016

"Armslist had an item I have been looking for, listing "Portland" under location. Seller was a private party,but actually out of state,wanted to receive payment prior to shipping."

SCAM

etrain16 · Jan 16, 2016

jbett98 said:
I've given up on out of state Armslist deals.
Every good deal turns out to be a scam and the only way I would buy from a private seller, is for the seller to drop off the firearm at a reputable FFL near their location, and then I would have that FFL describe what it really looks like and have the out of state FFL ship to my FFL after I send the payment to the out of state FFL.
The first thing I do when I see something for sale that's listed in Portland, but it's really in some other state is to copy and paste the ad on the web and search for other listings that show the same item.
Sure enough, there are usually a bunch of scam warnings saying to avoid the seller because he's a rip off.
Try running that past the seller and see if he backs out of the deal.

I had a guy from Wisconsin buy a rifle I had listed here in Oregon. I was kind of surprised as he was willing to rely on my photos/description and send full payment, including the additional shipping costs, before I would ship it. Really, all of the liability was on him, and I just kept wondering when he would back out of the deal since there was no way I was going to ship it without full payment in hand. But, like I do with any sale, I gave good communication, and I updated him with each step in the process as I got it shipped.

In the end, he got the rifle and emailed me back that it was better than I had described and was really happy. I can't imagine being a buyer in such a situation myself unless they agreed to do what you describe above and have a reputable FFL look it over and let me know what they see.

Flopsweat · Jan 20, 2016

That not answering the phone thing is a major red flag. You may want to take some time to read the fiasco surrounding GPal (GunPal) back in 2010. Here's one of many pages about it:

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2010/12/robert-farago/feds-finger-gunpal-as-possibleponzi-scheme/

I remember watching it go down on CalGuns. What a mess. I don't know if the guy eventually went to jail, but he ruffled a lot of feathers, to say the least.

Doc In UPlace · Jan 20, 2016

Reacher120 said:
their listed phone number is always "busy", and only listing I can find through BBB is "F", looks like due to Questionable complaint with no response from Co.

Though BBB has historically given low ratings to anybody who won't join in their extortion racket, the not answering the phone thing should be ignored at your own peril. That's a deal breaker for me, absolutely.