Gunbroker Buyer Protection Story

I've purchased in the neighborhood of 20 firearms on Gunbroker over the years. I make sure the seller is established with excellent feedback or I pass. A year ago a seller shipped a pistol to my FFL and they received a lot of stuff that day and didn't look at it carefully. Turns out the box was damaged and the pistol was missing. The seller had USPS investigate. A few weeks later it turned up in a USPS distribution center a thousand miles away. Eventually USPS sent it back to the seller. It was badly scratched and I declined his offer to ship it again with a partial refund. The seller opened a claim with USPS and I waited for the refund. After 60 days since the date of purchase had passed without the refund, I opened a claim with Gunbroker (I had purchased with a money order).

For a time, the seller responded to my emails asking for an update on the USPS claim. . I told him I would cancel the GB claim after he issued the refund. In the meantime, I exchanged many emails with Gunbroker as part of the claims process, each one taking a few weeks to get a reply, each one obviously handled by a different worker saying conflicting things or asking questions I had previously answered. Eventually, the seller ghosted me without the refund and I lost hope that I would ever recoup my money.

After months on the email thread with GB, they finally sent me the form I had to fill out, except they forgot to attach it and I had to wait another two weeks for them to send it. The form was a simple Word doc, one page, that didn't even apply to my situation because the firearm wasn't stolen or lost, but I sent it in and another two weeks later I received a check, minus the $100 deductible. The entire process took just short of a year.

Anyway, thought I'd share in case anyone wonders how GB handles claims.

I should add that 3 times during the GB claim process they stopped responding altogether and I had to prompt them each time to respond.

This is not impressive at all.............Sorry for your situation.I call what your experienced "Smoke and mirrors"..............

Ashbow's experience is about what I would have expected from Brokegunner. The only surprise is that he eventually got his money refunded. Well, most of it.

gunbroken.com

they got too big for their britches and mirrored ebays selling format.

the smell of money made them dizzy.

you lost a gun? ha! when they upgraded their website, they lost my seller ACCOUNT! gave me a new one minus my 12 years of feedback.

i left them in 2011 and never went back.

I had a situation where a seller sent a longslide 10mm WITH a rail where the listing showed one WITHOUT a rail and no mention that "whatever is in stock will be shipped"

I refused the shipment and it cost me shipping both ways, GB did nothing.

I've done business via Gunbroker as a seller and buyer for almost 30 years. Fortunately, I've not had any difficulties. Lately, it seems GB has been invaded by the the same shysters as every other internet sales platform.

I've had good luck on there in the past...But, If I can possibly find what I'm looking for elsewhere, I'll happily avoid Gunbroker at this point. Besides, by the time you're done paying all the additional fees, and often ridiculous shipping charges that get tacked on anymore, it's NOT at all hard to find the item at a better price though other sources.

Ashbow said:

I've purchased in the neighborhood of 20 firearms on Gunbroker over the years. I make sure the seller is established with excellent feedback or I pass. A year ago a seller shipped a pistol to my FFL and they received a lot of stuff that day and didn't look at it carefully. Turns out the box was damaged and the pistol was missing. The seller had USPS investigate. A few weeks later it turned up in a USPS distribution center a thousand miles away. Eventually USPS sent it back to the seller. It was badly scratched and I declined his offer to ship it again with a partial refund. The seller opened a claim with USPS and I waited for the refund. After 60 days since the date of purchase had passed without the refund, I opened a claim with Gunbroker (I had purchased with a money order).

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IMO this was never a gunbroker problem nor are they obligated to cover anything over their stated policy.

There are horror stories with any on-line auction or business, well, everywhere for that matter. We can all attest to that I'm sure! I love GB and have had over 100 transactions buying and selling…. many high end pieces. Most smooth, some not so much.
But where else can you find the variety, choice and rarity with the click of your mouse! Prices maybe higher for some guns but at least you can usually find what you're looking for. No other place in the world can you find week to week a Colt BOA, Colt Snake Eye sets regularly, Hawkeyes, 10 inch flattops….. etc.,etc.! It is usually there or will be next week. I guess it just depends on how bad you want that particular piece in your puzzle.

Coming from a seller's standpoint: there is no reason why the seller should not have refunded your money immediately when he received the gun back from USPS.
Ridiculous.

From the brief explanation, it does seem that the seller should have done more and been more communicative.

Ashbow, what was the value of the gun? You said Gunbroker returned your money minus the $100 deductible. Did you know about the deductible up front?

I've never used Gunbroker. Nothing against the platform, I just haven't used it.

It is the shipper/seller responsibility to properly package items. At the prices being demanded for shipping, this should not be an issue but it seems many sellers are trying to 'pad' the price by adding an extravagant shipping amount.

I am shocked Gunbroker did anything. All the fault lies with the USPS and the seller. What was the Sellers username so the rest of us know? I hope you left them negative feedback. That is an unfortunate situation, I am glad you got what you did. A year is a long time to battle.

" I am glad you got what you did. A year is a long time to battle."

No doubt the seller and Gunbroker were both hoping he would give up and go away. Dirtbags, incompetent, or both.

Kevin said:

Ashbow, what was the value of the gun? You said Gunbroker returned your money minus the $100 deductible. Did you know about the deductible up front?

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It was around $500. I learned about the $100 deductible when I researched how to file a GB claim but it was stated clearly enough in GB's description of the buyer protection.

peachhead said:

Coming from a seller's standpoint: there is no reason why the seller should not have refunded your money immediately when he received the gun back from USPS.

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That's what GB kept telling me! And I kept saying, "well, it's now been 6 months and the buyer hasn't refunded and has stopped communicating with me, are you going to do something about it?"

GB and FleeBay must use the same support/help group. None of them seem to understand the English language. The support groups must be located in a foreign country. If you do reach someone you can talk to, you cannot understand them. Years ago, I had a seller that refused to send the gun I had won and sent a Postal MO to. After 3 weeks I contacted GB and explained the problem to them. They replied that I needed to contact the seller. It took several emails to get them to understand the problem. I did finally get the gun, after GB threatened to cancel his account.

artey said:

What was the Sellers username so the rest of us know? I hope you left them negative feedback.

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The seller's name is PlatinumTactical. I wasn't able to leave negative feedback, unfortunately. I think purchases/ended auctions are only accessible for 90 days on GB and at that point it was only 30 days into the GB claim and the seller was still communicating with me in good faith.

arfmel said:

No doubt the seller and Gunbroker were both hoping he would give up and go away. Dirtbags, incompetent, or both.

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It was the inefficiency and primitive aspects of the GB claim process that surprised me. They've obviously put a lot of resources into the front end to make it look and function like eBay but this claims process is nothing like eBay's.