Thanks to everyone who has visited this blog! As of May 16th, this blog has achieved 10,000 page views. That represents thousands of people who, while doing research, have stumbled upon this page and discovered that buying a Lancaster gun might not be in their own best interest. That’s the power of the Internet. In past decades, dirtbags could operate a shady business for a LONG time before anyone knew their business was shady. But nowadays “people talk”, and they do so almost in real-time. This can only be a good thing. Well, good for those who have nothing to hide. As for the Lancasters of the world, maybe it isn’t such a good thing.
Also, thank you for all the kind emails. Clearly, this blog has helped many of you arrive at a smarter buying decision. I’m glad some of you won’t get to experience the legendarily bad customer service that has become Lancaster’s calling card. I’m also thankful that with each passing day, more and more people are discovering this (and other) boards, and are deciding with their wallets that “ethics matter!” It’s unfortunate that Lancaster still hasn’t gotten the memo.
And speaking of them, it appears from various posts on the Internet that Lancaster continues with its old tricks of over-promising and under-delivering. As recently as today, there are still fresh posts on the various firearms forums claiming that “Lancaster told me my gun would be done in 4 weeks, and here we are 8 weeks later and all I get from them are lame excuses and their trademarked run-around.” Yup, good ol’ Chet Durda (who couldn’t tell the truth about anything if he had to) is STILL at it, telling customers whatever he thinks they want to hear. You’d think the ol’ coot would figure out by now that the jig is up, and that his constant lying has become the topic of conversation on firearms forums from Connecticut to California. And yet, he’s still at it! He is either completely unaware (doubtful), or he completely doesn’t care (most likely). But then, you can’t “make” someone care. All you can do is warn others.
Glad I could warn others more than 10,000 times.
Stay tuned. Lots of good stuff in the pipeline...
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To your point about the internet being a good thing, it might be a bit of a mixed blessing. I'm betting back in the day, people relied much more on word of mouth before spending hundreds of dollars on something. Companies probably lived or died by their reputations precisely because they *didn't* have an entire world of anonymous suckers to fleece.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to get back to that. Hold every company you do major business with to the word-of-mouth standard. And remember, it only works if the mouths you listen to are ones you already trust!
In my case, I got the recommendation from my uncle, who had no idea Lancaster had taken a turn for the worse since he bought his. Occasionally, we all get screwed despite our best efforts. I can live with that.
I think I've figured out a loophole, and I think people should use it. Don't use their 800 number. I've noticed they often screen their 800 number, which is likely to be an out-of-town customer. I've never had a problem getting through to staff on the local number though, and I assume it's because they don't want to stop answering the phone at their local shop.
ReplyDeleteIf this is the case (and I think it is) anyone doing biz with Lancaster Arms should do it via their local number. They'll be force to handle the calls and treat their mail-order customers closer to how they treat their walk-ins. After all, we're paying the same.
I also have a suspicion that my gun *was* built during the original few weeks of this ordeal, and then sold locally. Either in the shop or at a gun show. And that's why my initial status updates from them all got closer and closer, finally to the shipping stage, before starting over. This is based on info from others that they always have plenty of guns to sell at shows, and I presume they've been to at *least* one in the last 2 months since my order was placed.