[spittinfire]

I would call him and explain to him that I have been waiting for the weapon and that it's paid in full. I would also let him know that you will be calling on a regular basis to check on the status of the transfer(at which point I would call every other day, or daily if needed). If that doesn't get anything started I would get all my ducks in a row for legal action and make one last phone call to the guy explaining that.

[1919A4]

Finally!

This has to be a new record for a Form THREE transfer. Paid the money in September and just received the complete firearm YESTERDAY.

Looking at the sum total of events, the problem wasn't ATF--it was this guy just not doing what he was supposed to when he was supposed to.

The seller, after much dithering and many calls/e-mails from me, finally sent me the receiver group to the gun in December, but it came without the barrel assembly, which he said he was shipping separately to "save on shipping".

Days turned into weeks, and he stopped returning my e-mails or taking my calls. But I'd done my homework and knew where he worked, so I started calling there. After a week of daily calls to his office, he had his secretary promise me that the barrel assembly would be shipped immediately, and four days later, it showed up...and it was dark and pitted and the gas piston was frozen in place from carbon and corrosion. Total piece of crap.

I suspect that he took whatever good barrel assembly that was on the gun and either kept it for one of his other guns or sold it, and when I kept making a fuss, he tossed me this boat anchor.

But at least I now have my complete gun (pending the Form 4 transfer to me) and I'm done dealing with this guy.

Moral of the story: check your sellers out. Get references if possible and make sure that you know where they work or live, not just their FFL business address. I was actually planning a trip next month to see him because my job was going to have me in that area for a couple of weeks, and you can believe that it wouldn't have been a pleasant discussion when I dropped in on him.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice. be careful out there with your big-dollar purchases.

[dog2000tj]

No pics? Tease!

[willfully armed]

Was your payment sent on the terms that you were buying a functional gun? NOT something that was wore out and siezed up?

With 20k and an nfa on the line, that would be something for the ATF to get a call about. A fraudulent interstate weapons transaction is SERIOUS time.

I hope you aren't content to lay down and accept it for what it is


(I happen to be in regular contact with an ATF agent who specializes in cases such as this, if interested)

[1919A4]

A pic.



And the barrel assembly was salvageable and is functional. It's just on the bottom tier and he either didn't take care to clean it after the last few firings or he just sent the worst barrel that he had. But after I took the gas assembly apart and gave it a detailed cleaning, I have no doubt that it will still work. The rest of the gun is in better shape, to be fair. Overall, I'm still not terribly unhappy based on the sale price, and the gun's going to be heading out to Desert Ordnance for the E4 upgrade and that's going to put a new barrel on it anyway.

Still, it should not have taken nearly four months to complete this Form three transfer, especially that last month of waiting on the barrel that could have been sent with the gun and then being ducked by the guy until I tracked him down and brought his full-time non-gun-related workplace into it.

Based on something I heard from someone else who knows him slightly, it's sounding more and more like he had a case of seller's remorse and was dithering on the shipping hoping I'd demand my money back and move on. When that didn't work. it looks like he was trying to save a few hundred bucks by skimming the barrel and hoping that I'd just call it a day.

Persistence pays off, though, as does knowing who you are dealing with. Before I even agreed to the purchase, I'd checked him out and knew who he was, what he did, and where he worked and lived. I knew that I could reach out and touch him if I needed to, even though at the time I never anticipated any trouble. In this case, the guy has a professional license for his main source of income, and once I started calling around that office, he couldn't duck me just by not answering my e-mails or phone calls.

And if that failed, I still had a Plan C in the form of a couple of friends down his way who were willing to stop by in person and ask for my stuff.