I have never used SWFA before, but had always heard great things about them and thier customer service. They have a Burris Veracity and fullfield scope package. Basically, 2 scopes for the price of one. $650. So I ordered on April 27th, and they charged my card. Rings show up in a couple days, but no scopes. I called, and was told that the scope was coming from the distributor direct, and would be shipped in afew days. A week later, I called looking for my scopes. Now, evidently they are on Backorder, and are supposed to be shipped "Friday or Monday". Monday comes, and i still haven't received tracking. I call them back and they apologize that it's taking so long, they really aren't sure when it will ship, but they are trying to get it done. Today, almost a month after my order, I received a tracking number for 4 scopes! I check my credit card, and it has been charged again. Called SWFA again. They don't know how those other two scopes got on there. Now I am told that they will send me a return label for the scopes that I didn't order, and after I return them, they will refund my card for the purchase that I didn't purchase in the first place! After such high expectations, this is a real let down.

I understand the delay with the current COVID crap but the double charge should have been handled immediately with them sending you a shipping label to return them when you get them in. Kinda surprising to me too.

On a side note Midway USA is taking 3 weeks to get me a reloading die. They’re usually 3 days tops. Amazon is listin the same 3-4 week delays.

I've never had a problem with SWFA, but I always used Skylar direct. Midway sometimes are really fast and sometimes seem to drag their feet. As far as Amazon, not sure if its because I'm prime or not, but I've ordered around $1k of wood working tools in the last week and most of it was here yesterday with only a few straggler items coming in Saturday. Same with my son's birthday gifts, I haven't seen any of the delays others have talked about with Amazon.

So they sent a scope I bought to the wrong person and refused to send me my scope because then “they would be out a scope”. They weee fine with me not having my scope though

POS company as far as I am concerned....too many better dealers

The drive would be worth the trip return them directly to their store this shipping and waiting crap wouldn’t work for myself

Troubled times we are in, in the gun business.

I would forgive them. Too many times have they done great work. As much experience as I have with them, I would give them a pass. I know that is no consolation to a new customer, but judging them under the current situation is not a fair assessment of how they truly operate.

I'm with Jason on this one. I have had too many good dealings with SWFA to judge them during the most jacked-up situation I have ever lived through ( I say lived like I'll continue to do so ). Point being, yes Skyler is on to other things, but they have still been rock solid in all of my experiences.

They should have said upfront they weren’t personally shipping this out. They did that to me back before they upgraded their inventory system. I bought an ‘in-stock’ item, only to find out a week later it was not in stock, and not even coming from them. And I had to call to get that information, they were a black hole of communication. I’ve since had two decent transactions with them.

The lack in timeliness of shipping was frustrating, but forgivable considering what we are dealing with. Being told it would ship Friday or Monday, and then waiting almost 2 more weeks was even more frustrating, but again, I was just chalking it up to "everyone has a bad day now and then". Sending me double my order, and charging me double, then making me wait to get my incorrect charge refunded was the last straw. Coincidentally, I ordered some ammo and a trigger from Midway during the same time frame, and recieved my order a day ahead of schedule.

I've had more than one poor experience with them, I'll just leave it at that.
Too many other reputable places to buy optics to try them again, even if they were giving away scopes.

SWFA is the best in the biz, I have used them for years. The current climate is screwing with everyone, I tried to get some stuff from optics planet and they are so backed up they wont even answer the phone. I ordered a scope and burris mount from SWFA a few weeks ago, then called to confirm shipping, they answered, talked through it, etc, and everything arrived when they said. If nothing else, the fact that they will pick up the phone and talk to you is a plus compared to other places.

I also live 10 minutes away, so I can walk in and get what I need more often than not. The recent scope I ordered had to be shipped from Sig direct and SWFA handled it well.

Right now shipping has more to do with the carriers than the place you buy from, but SWFA will continue to get my business.

I don’t care anything about the current climate. If I’m out $650 for a while because of your screw up that’s a problem.

That should have been refunded immediately, and my next call would have been to my bank/card company.

This could be the case of one bad apple ruining the whole bunch.

One bad employee can produce a negative connotation toward an entire company.

I've got no skin in the game with SWFA, just lots of transactions, phone calls, and emails. They've always done a great job, even after Skylar left. I sure hope this isn't a sign of what they are going to turn into.

I won't spend a dime on SWFA. Before they moved to Midlothian,I wasted two trips to Red Oak after they told me on the phone that they had the scopes that I wanted to look at IN STOCK so I could look and compare them side by side. They didn't have any of the scopes that I wanted to see in stock,and I spent a long time on the phone with them to make sure they had the exact model #'s that I wanted.

They stopped getting my business when they stopped offering the discount for thf. That and they went to more of a drop shipping outfit and if they ship from distributors and not from their own stock I may as well look for better pricing elsewhere online.

Current climate is no excuse for double charging a customer, and not refunding it immediately. I understand they are missing product until it gets returned, but taking an extra $650 from a customer could t potentially have serious financial consequences for some people. They don’t know the circumstances. And if a customer doesn’t make much money but has saved for a long while for a scope til they could scrape the extra together, that $650 could mean a late rent payment, car payment, or anything else. It’s inexcusable in my opinion.

Dealt with them once and they were so rude I left

Been there a bunch of times. Always had good experiences. Never heard of them drop-shipping items though, so hopefully this isn't their new MO. But I think judging any company on issues during COVID is tough. They ultimately got it taken care of.

Did they? I didn’t see an update.

I had it delivered to the Ranch, where we've pretty much been living since March. We're heading home tomorrow, so that will be my first chance to get to UPS, so, no. They have not rectified anything really.

Am I wrong that they sent a shipping label and agreed to send a refund if you sent the product back? What else could you expect?

I would expect not to get popped for $650 twice on THEIR MISTAKE and for them to refund the extra charge immediately. As pointed out above, for some people that missing $650 could cause major problems. If you make the mistake, you make it right and don’t burden the customer.

Exactly. I am very blessed in that $650 isn't making much of an impact in my life right now, but there have been times in my life where it would have made a HUGE impact.

Disagree on that one. You shouldn’t force a customer to do a chore for you before you refund them.

This is unacceptable behavior all the way around. My wife and I have a small online battery business so we only run $35K to $45K on credit cards per month. Rules are simple and easy.

1) I never run my customer's card until the product ships. Especially with drop shipments that I am not directly controlling.
2) If I ever double shipped/charged, I would immediately issue the credit with a huge apology! Then ask nicely for the customer to apply the labels and return them.

Marc

Hoping to order from them soon on a scope and hope this doesnt happen. Had good luck with their scopes

Ordered a RMR from them well over a week ago, no confirmation email or shipping email. I Sent emails asking about an update and nothing. I guess I have to call them. What a pain

Best in the biz? I much prefer SWFA over Optics Planet but much prefer Camera Land over SWFA. I’ve only purchased a couple of items from SWFA. As has already been mentioned I found them to be rude other than the time I dealt with Skylar.

Waiting until the product is returned before issuing a refund? Nope. It’s their mistake and the refund should be issued immediately, specifically because a double charge could be catastrophic to some people’s finances. If the customer doesn’t send the scopes back then that’s the price of doing business.

I’ve bought several items from SWFA over the last few years. Products have been good, never had to deal with shipping as they’re within 5 miles. I will agree most times I’m in there I get what I need and leave, they are not pleasant to deal with.

So what if the customer doesn't send the product back? You made a mistake for sure, but it doesn't mean you should risk being out a $650 product.

It's a credit card - if the customer literally couldn't afford it, the charge wouldn't have gone through.

Understand what you're saying, but that doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Ultimately, once the mistake was made, then burdening the customer is the only option.

Absolutely disagree. SWFA made the mistake therefore SWFA absorbs the risk. Shifting the risk to the customer is very wrong.

Customer is at no risk. Company said they would send a refund...

To be clear, Amazon operates just like this. They've sent me the wrong product before. They don't give me a refund til I ship it back. It's not like SWFA is on their own here...

This wasn't 'sending the wrong product', it was charging and sending an item that was never ordered. So what if it went through on the card? Maybe that puts the cardholder near the limit, and unable to clear a charge for elec bill, etc., that is on autopay. Maybe the CC is paid by autopay, and now there's an extra $650 missing from a checking account.



You made a mistake for sure, but it doesn't mean you should risk being out a $650 product. Yeah, actually that's exactly what it means. If you won't pay to put systems in place that prevent this from happening, then when it does happen, YOU take the hickey.

This is not totally true amazon will email you a return shipping label when that label is scanned by the returning shipper ups or whoever you get your refund amazon doesn’t wait until it’s received by them

I think some people are missing the point. They shipped me something AND CHARGED ME for something that I NEVER ORDERED. This extra charge was just on top of all the other issues that they had with the order.

X3

The extra charge that they said they would refund, correct? All you had to do was ship the item back...

I get being upset. I just don't think it's any different than other vendors.

Amazon is more automated in that they have software that checks the shipping label and automatically issues the refund. But like I said, they don't refund til you ship back.

I get what you're saying. It sucks for sure. But it is what it is. Amazon is the same way. If Amazon sends me the wrong product, then I have to re-order the right one, they still don't refund me for the wrong product til they get it back, or at least til I ship it back.

There's no point in arguing. I think we all know where each other stand. My point is that the biggest retailer on the planet has the exact same policy. Dinging SWFA for playing by the same rules as amazon is a little silly to me. But yall are welcome to your opinion. I do feel bad for the OP - I just think the whole thing is being overblown. I've shopped at SWFA for many years. They've screwed stuff up before and always made it right.

I'm on the hook with Dell right now for a laptop I bought in December of last year that the hinge is just falling to pieces on. They're saying it must be damage and denying warranty service, even though there is a thread on the Dell forum with over a dozen users who had the exact same thing happen with the same model. That's bad service. Asking to send back a product that got sent due to a warehouse error - that's not bad customer service - it's just common sense.

Today I went into SWFA to buy a gun. They told me $660 but I'd already found it online elsewhere for $590.
Me: Will you match GrabAGun's price
Guy behind the counter: No
Me: why not?
Guy: policy
Me: what policy
Guy: we don't price match
Me: since when?
Guy: never have
Me: y'all have price matched multiple items for me over the last 15 years
Guy: we've never price matched
Me: y'all price match 110%. How long have you worked here?
Guy: I've been here since December & we've never price matched
Me: can you go get someone else because this is news to me
5 minutes later
Guy: sorry, we don't price match
Me: huh, okay well thanks for checking
I leave & go to the gym. I remember their website & look @ it

Sure enough, 110% price match guarantee. I called them, told the nice lady the deal, she says she'll call me back. Calls me back & says they no longer price match in their retail store but will do this for me. I aaaaaaaaalmost said nah, I'll spend my money elsewhere but went ahead w/it. She told me it drop ships from a different vendor & should ship in 10 days. She got my card info & before we even get off the phone, I've been charged for it. Last time I'll buy from them.

I only buy their proprietary optics.

Evidently the place went to chit when Skylar left.

I guess. Sucks as they're close to me but I'm wiping my hands of them. Does anyone know where Skylar went to work? He always did me right.

Maybe that's why he left?

Dillion was the first to leave. That sucks but I guess it saves me a trip to hachie to buy my next suppressor.

I still haven't got an email with order confirmation even though;
1) she said she'd send it when we got off the phone
2) I was charged for it before we even got off the phone
SMH.

Apparently so. Not following their own pricing policy is pretty bad....

Almost all their SS scopes are on backorder. I bet because of all the global supply issues.

Going on 6 days & haven't got a receipt/order confirmation yet. Looks like I've got to call them tomorrow.

Yeah...pretty much unacceptable by any reasonable standard.

Just spoke with them. They’re going to send me an order confirmation (supposedly) and it hasn’t shipped from a different distributor yet. She said it shows “past due” and that it appears to be running a little bit late. No problem there as they told me it would take up to 10 days to ship (we’re on day 7 now).
#fingerscrossedemoji