My opinion on Purchasing from EPPS

I used to pass judgement on them too.
There are 4-10 guys working that area.
So your treatment will vary person to person.
After dealing with each of them for 5 years all of them are people you can work with. Some seem eager some are tired . Could be a long day up and down the stairs geting rifles for people to have a peek at. Some of them I avoided in the past are great to talk to now because over time and small talk have determined we actually have the same rifles .

The short of it is I like them as a store.
The whole gun industry can learn something from the salesmanship of the automotive industry .
If they opened a store right beside LeBaron in Mississauga my visa would catch on fire.
Come on epps move south .. Closer .. Little closer ... ;)
 
I have been to Epps only once. I did have to wait a while as there were quite a few people in the store. Yes there was one older guy that took up about a half hour just yakking away with the salesperson. Wanted to say something but I just let it go. However once I did get to the counter the experience was fine.
I also work at a retail store selling guns. I totally agree with the comment from the Epps person on this thread about doing your homework ,if at all possible, before going to the store and asking an open ended question that takes up a lot of time. We have the internet available to us . Google has most every answer you want. Please avail yourselves of it.
Then there are the guys who know everything and belittle the salestaff when they can't answer a question. We are not all ballistic engineers nor experts. Many times I have just listened to know it alls and just gritted my teeth and persisted in not commenting on their BS.
However I do treat all customers equally. My thought is ... treat the customer as you would want to be treated. It works. I give a new shooter just as much time and courtesy as possible. A smile and a positive attitude goes a long way. Getting a good feeling at the store means the customer tells his friends. Win win situation.
Just my 2 cents.
 
Been there twice...bought powder and bullets and saw what they had, spoke with a gun room sales guy about possibly buying a bolt action, he let me handle a whole bunch made recommendations and a week later i came back, bought a gun, scope, rings, accessories and walked away smiling. Yes it was busy when i came the second time, and yes i had to wait for 20 min, but they werent ignoring me...

def will be shopping there again.
 
Gillen1 said:
I'm looking forward to going to their store. I'm driving up to Algonquin next week for a camping trip and I will be making a special detour to go see their shop! Glad to hear they really care for their customers.
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Have fun buddy wish I was coming, to epps that's is lol
 
I personaly will never do business with them ever again. Rude and unappologetic after they screwed up. Drove a long way. As far as I'm concered they are dead to me.
 
cantom said:
That is because of US export permits, not anything wrong Epps did.
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Noooo, not in my case, they blamed the 6 months + delays on middle people/suppliers, backorders on part etc... Just got brushed off until I contacted the Manufacturer myself and the exchange was done between Ruger and I within a couple weeks. It wasn't the gun, it was fine, the gun came with 2 different magazines, one ok, one for a different model. Epps said they have a contract with middle people and could not contact the Co. directly?
Great service until I needed to exchange, would I buy again, No.
 
bush24 said:
Noooo, not in my case, they blamed the 6 months + delays on middle people/suppliers, backorders on part etc... Just got brushed off until I contacted the Manufacturer myself and the exchange was done between Ruger and I within a couple weeks. It wasn't the gun, it was fine, the gun came with 2 different magazines, one ok, one for a different model. Epps said they have a contract with middle people and could not contact the Co. directly?
Great service until I needed to exchange, would I buy again, No.
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Our firearms are purchased through Canadian distributors who hold licenses with manufacturers for distribution of guns and accessories. Those licensing agreements require that when a problem arises, parts and servicing must be ordered through the distributor from whom the firearm was acquired. It is the distributor who contacts the manufacturer for the required parts, as the manufacturers will not deal with retailers directly.

This is standard procedure for most companies, including Beretta, Ruger, Glock, Smith & Wesson, Colt, CZ, Taurus, and most others. Larger companies such as Remington and Browning have Canadian warehouses that are the distribution points for their goods, and therefore we can access the manufacturer's inventory directly without the need to place or orders through middle-men such as our distributors.

The problem arises in that the companies will deal with customers directly when an issue is brought to their attention, but they will not consider such requests from retailers themselves. Most other businesses will confirm this set of conditions, as they, too, generally operate under these guidelines.

We currently have back orders in place for parts for several different makes of firearms (Baikal being among the worst) that are as far overdue as nearly a full year, with no expected delivery schedule in place as of this date. If we cannot order parts directly from the manufacturer, and all alternate suppliers such as Numrich Gun Parts or Western Gun Parts do not have these items available, where else would you suggest that we turn to seek the parts that these repairs require?

It is a sad state of affairs, we agree, but this is how the firearms industry is run. Not the most convenient situation for anyone involved. Unfortunately, as is the case here, the onus of fault always seems to fall upon the retailer, regardless of any defence we might offer to our customers.
 
I was in Epps twice on the 2012 Canada Day long weekend, initially to buy a Rem. 700 or a Savage 111. Ended up having a great experience and after sleeping on the decision went back and bought a M14/M305 on the holiday Monday.

Great customer service, knowledgeable people, and a willingness to say "what would be better for you?" got me pointed in the right direction. This is exactly what I wanted and more than I expected.

To Epps, Kudos guys! I'll be making the drive many more times, for more firearms and plenty of accessories, add ons, and upgrades.
 
I just got my Tokarev tt-33 from EPPs a couple of days ago. Just a straight purchase. No problem. Like Awnie says, "I'll be back".
 
DirtFoot said:
I was in Epps twice on the 2012 Canada Day long weekend, initially to buy a Rem. 700 or a Savage 111. Ended up having a great experience and after sleeping on the decision went back and bought a M14/M305 on the holiday Monday.

Great customer service, knowledgeable people, and a willingness to say "what would be better for you?" got me pointed in the right direction. This is exactly what I wanted and more than I expected.

To Epps, Kudos guys! I'll be making the drive many more times, for more firearms and plenty of accessories, add ons, and upgrades.
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Great news, DirtFoot! Don't forget, we do have an electronic order form on our website as well, so you can order many of those add-ons and accessories and upgrades from the comfort of your own home! Not that we don't want to see you in the store, but we are trying to make the purchase experience as convenient as possible.

Hope to see you soon!
 
tbrwlf said:
They seem to be hit or miss.

I have had great visits to their store and phone calls with the staff. Getting lots of advice and good deals on items.

But I have also left the store in total disgust at the lousy service being offered.

There are some staff that are great to deal with but some of the others I won't waste my time with anymore.

I guess this can be said for most stores. Unfortunately most of my recent dealings with them have left me wondering why I drive 2.5 hours each way.
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I've only been up there twice and I would say my experience matches this. First time up I went to purchase my first firearm. Came back with not one but two! A 12ga Benelli Nova and a CZ452. The gun room was rather empty. I had nothing short of FANTASTIC service from a gentleman named Paul. Very knowledgable. Set me up just right. Picked up all kinds of other needs - targets, cleaning stuff etc.

Second time I went up was to try to trade in the scope I got on the CZ - one week later, and purchase another scope with higher magnification to allow me to do 220 yards. I talked to them over the phone and the guy I spoke to was excellent. A few emails - also excellent.

Finally got there after a 1.5 hr drive - busy gun room got a young guy who did not know much of ANYTHING. Didn't even look at my scope and offerred me 50% of what I paid even though it was practically brand new and I was looking at spending 3x as much on a new scope.

I asked him to show me some scopes - at least I could purchase the new one while I was there. Really didn't know much about scopes. I asked for some specific ones - he found them. Asked for advice on how one compared to the other - no clue. He pulled out a fixed power 10x 40mm scope and claimed it was a variable power 10x-40x scope. I asked if I could talk to someone else who might know a bit more about these scopes. He said, everyone was busy (they were but I could have waited).

I decided to not make my purchase from him and went to Lebaron in Markham instead. Got great service from a guy down there.

I'd shop from Epps again. Their inventory is awesome. The first gentleman Paul I dealt with was nothing short of great.

My recommendation is get their early in the morning in the middle of the week. Take a day off work if you can. The second experience was on the Friday before the start of the long weekend - in the afternoon.
 
I have currently been working in Customer Service for the last ten years, the last five in a world class environment.

All talk aside, I am happy to put all biases aside and come in randomly (probably a two hour drive for me as well) and find out what the experience is like, lets see how this all pans out when the rubber hits the road, as we all know, talk is cheap. I'll report back here at a later date.

Harrier .45 said:
Jan, I, too, have been in customer service for more than 27 years. I have trained sales agents in several different fields for many years, and pride not only myself, but our staff here at Epps as well on our product knowledge and our willingness to assist ANY customer that passes through our doors. No, our customer service is not perfect. Yes, we do sometimes make mistakes. And yes sometimes personalities may be somewhat counter-active to other individuals. But contrary to several claims here on this string, the staff at Epps does not go out of its way to ignore or otherwise discriminate against new customers. On the contrary, we welcome new shooters and new customers as well as experienced or familiar ones.

Customer service is a two-way street. Too often on these message boards it seems that customer forget this. We on the business side of the counter are here to HELP you, not to make decisions for you. We can recommend or suggest products and alternatives, but in the end it is the responsibility of the customer to make an informed decision when they choose to finalize any purchase.
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