A note to the moderators: The forums alluded to below does not include CGN.
I did however, consider that the message should be made available to the airgun enthusiasts who may frequent this forum, so that they could be made aware of what has been happening within the Canadian airgun community for some time now, in hopes that it will assist them in making better informed decisions before shelling out their hard earned cash.
If this post violates any CGN rules, I apologize, and will understand if it is removed.
Yes indeed, it is a sad state of affairs within our Canadian airgun community when opportunistic profiteers seem to be running the show, and those with actual airgun knowledge and experience, accrued over several decades, are browbeaten, insulted, or have had ficticious allegations made against them on public forums, in an attempt to tarnish their character and ethics. I can think of several very knowledgeable individuals in just the past few years that had simply given up in frustration with trying to contribute anything worthwhile to the various forums. As a result, many people new to the hobby are often receiving bad information, which ultimately results in financial loss to them, which can be very discouraging to say the least.
The worst part of the whole situation, is that many of these opportunistic profiteers seem to be able to get away with some utterly despicable business ethics, by threatening those whom they have cheated with being banned from a forum, or forums, which the victim frequents, through either real, or implied influence with the foum(s) owners or administrators. Sadly, despite my repeated attempts to convince many individuals into “outing” these disreputable profiteers, no-one yet has been willing to stand up to this unjust intimidation. All have chosen to simply accept their own financial loss, and “let others learn for themselves”. Apparently most people are content with this skewed “status quo”.
I’m sure that a few of my detractors will happily point out that when many of the guns that are damaged as a result of bad advice, or improperly executed repairs by some of these opportunists are brought to me for rectification, that I am also making some money through my services. I don’t deny that I charge for my services, but quite Frankly, I would just as soon that I did not have to clean up someone else’s mess, at further expense to the owner. A couple of these “opportunists” have even gone as far as to suggest that I should correct their improprieties for free, while they continue to charge outrageous sums to basically bugger up people’s guns. Brilliant.
The following are just a couple recent examples of the disgraceful business ethics alluded to above. The descriptions of the guns are purposely vague to protect the owners.
A very nice, virtually brand new, German made spring gun was sent to me, which could no longer be cocked or fired. While I was trying to establish how the failure occurred, the owner admitted to me that his gun had been “lube tuned” by someone that was recommended to him as being a “reputable” tuner. What I found upon opening the gun up, was that in my opinion, the gun had never been apart, so I had to assume that the “tune” was in fact, a “spray-in lube tune”. Further questioning the owner confirmed this – he was told to “let the gun sit for a few days for the lube carrier to evaporate”, before trying to shoot it. When he finally did shoot the gun, it was detonating badly. He contacted the tuner, whose advice was, “just keep shooting it until you burn off the excess lube”. The owner followed the tuner’s instructions, but after about “30 or 40” shots, still detonating loudly, the gun could no longer be cocked. The owner again contacted the tuner, who at this point, told the owner very impolitely, that he was just being problematic, and that no further communication could be expected.
The owner eventually found his way to me. Upon opening up the gun, it was painfully obvious that this was not going to be an inexpensive repair. The severe detonation had resulted in the mainspring being shattered into several pieces, and also had several fractures that had not quite broken all the way through. The spring guide was also broken into a number of pieces. The piston seal, as expected, was badly burned, and in need of replacement. Some debris from the badly broken mainspring had gotten trapped between the piston and the compression chamber and caused some nasty scoring. The repair parts alone total almost $100.00. Needless to say, the owner was very upset, and felt that the tuner should pay for at least a portion of the repair cost, but his attempt at contacting the tuner was met with threats and intimidation. Thus, the owner of the gun absorbed both the cost of the “tune”, as well as the cost to repair the damage resulting from that “tune”.
Next up, we have a CO2 gun, which was in need of a re-seal. The owner was directed to a “reputable” repair person who proceeded to “fix” the gun. However, it would appear that the repair person only replaced the easy to get at seals, and left the difficult to change seals in place. The gun held, and the repair was paid for. As one would expect, it did not take long for one of the seals that was not replaced to fail, and when the gun was returned to the original repair person, the owner was turned away – the repair person didn’t have the time to determine why the “resealed” gun was leaking once more.
Once again, the owner eventually found his way to me. Upon disassembling the gun, I found that the previous repair person didn’t even take the time to clean the various parts – he just put the new seals onto dirty parts and shoved it all back together. Of course, as I began to remove the difficult to remove seals, was when I realized what had happened. I made the owner aware of what I had found, and encouraged him to post his experience, and I would even supply him with the pics of the proof of what had been done. The owner contacted the original repair person, whose only response to being confronted about his unethical behaviour, was to threaten and intimidate the owner, who immediately backed down, and simply absorbed the cost of the original “repair”, as well as the added cost of having the “repair” fixed properly. The owner ended up paying over twice what I would normally charge for a re-seal of this gun.
These are not just a couple of isolated incidences, they are becoming all too commonplace.
People selling guns or accessories with known (to them) defects as being “in perfect working order”, modder or repair wannabes charging people for doing more damage than good to their guns, “airgun expert” posers offering bad advice to new people in the hobby. And what is truly disappointing in my opinion, is that these individuals will continue to do so with no fear of repercussion, because their many victims are intimidated into compliance of not making their bad experiences public.
Given just the number of such improprieties that I know of, and I highly suspect that there are a great many more that we are not aware of, I find it incomprehensible that the Canadian airgun community, and especially the many who have been victimized as noted above, continue to accept the current “status quo”.
I did however, consider that the message should be made available to the airgun enthusiasts who may frequent this forum, so that they could be made aware of what has been happening within the Canadian airgun community for some time now, in hopes that it will assist them in making better informed decisions before shelling out their hard earned cash.
If this post violates any CGN rules, I apologize, and will understand if it is removed.
Yes indeed, it is a sad state of affairs within our Canadian airgun community when opportunistic profiteers seem to be running the show, and those with actual airgun knowledge and experience, accrued over several decades, are browbeaten, insulted, or have had ficticious allegations made against them on public forums, in an attempt to tarnish their character and ethics. I can think of several very knowledgeable individuals in just the past few years that had simply given up in frustration with trying to contribute anything worthwhile to the various forums. As a result, many people new to the hobby are often receiving bad information, which ultimately results in financial loss to them, which can be very discouraging to say the least.
The worst part of the whole situation, is that many of these opportunistic profiteers seem to be able to get away with some utterly despicable business ethics, by threatening those whom they have cheated with being banned from a forum, or forums, which the victim frequents, through either real, or implied influence with the foum(s) owners or administrators. Sadly, despite my repeated attempts to convince many individuals into “outing” these disreputable profiteers, no-one yet has been willing to stand up to this unjust intimidation. All have chosen to simply accept their own financial loss, and “let others learn for themselves”. Apparently most people are content with this skewed “status quo”.
I’m sure that a few of my detractors will happily point out that when many of the guns that are damaged as a result of bad advice, or improperly executed repairs by some of these opportunists are brought to me for rectification, that I am also making some money through my services. I don’t deny that I charge for my services, but quite Frankly, I would just as soon that I did not have to clean up someone else’s mess, at further expense to the owner. A couple of these “opportunists” have even gone as far as to suggest that I should correct their improprieties for free, while they continue to charge outrageous sums to basically bugger up people’s guns. Brilliant.
The following are just a couple recent examples of the disgraceful business ethics alluded to above. The descriptions of the guns are purposely vague to protect the owners.
A very nice, virtually brand new, German made spring gun was sent to me, which could no longer be cocked or fired. While I was trying to establish how the failure occurred, the owner admitted to me that his gun had been “lube tuned” by someone that was recommended to him as being a “reputable” tuner. What I found upon opening the gun up, was that in my opinion, the gun had never been apart, so I had to assume that the “tune” was in fact, a “spray-in lube tune”. Further questioning the owner confirmed this – he was told to “let the gun sit for a few days for the lube carrier to evaporate”, before trying to shoot it. When he finally did shoot the gun, it was detonating badly. He contacted the tuner, whose advice was, “just keep shooting it until you burn off the excess lube”. The owner followed the tuner’s instructions, but after about “30 or 40” shots, still detonating loudly, the gun could no longer be cocked. The owner again contacted the tuner, who at this point, told the owner very impolitely, that he was just being problematic, and that no further communication could be expected.
The owner eventually found his way to me. Upon opening up the gun, it was painfully obvious that this was not going to be an inexpensive repair. The severe detonation had resulted in the mainspring being shattered into several pieces, and also had several fractures that had not quite broken all the way through. The spring guide was also broken into a number of pieces. The piston seal, as expected, was badly burned, and in need of replacement. Some debris from the badly broken mainspring had gotten trapped between the piston and the compression chamber and caused some nasty scoring. The repair parts alone total almost $100.00. Needless to say, the owner was very upset, and felt that the tuner should pay for at least a portion of the repair cost, but his attempt at contacting the tuner was met with threats and intimidation. Thus, the owner of the gun absorbed both the cost of the “tune”, as well as the cost to repair the damage resulting from that “tune”.
Next up, we have a CO2 gun, which was in need of a re-seal. The owner was directed to a “reputable” repair person who proceeded to “fix” the gun. However, it would appear that the repair person only replaced the easy to get at seals, and left the difficult to change seals in place. The gun held, and the repair was paid for. As one would expect, it did not take long for one of the seals that was not replaced to fail, and when the gun was returned to the original repair person, the owner was turned away – the repair person didn’t have the time to determine why the “resealed” gun was leaking once more.
Once again, the owner eventually found his way to me. Upon disassembling the gun, I found that the previous repair person didn’t even take the time to clean the various parts – he just put the new seals onto dirty parts and shoved it all back together. Of course, as I began to remove the difficult to remove seals, was when I realized what had happened. I made the owner aware of what I had found, and encouraged him to post his experience, and I would even supply him with the pics of the proof of what had been done. The owner contacted the original repair person, whose only response to being confronted about his unethical behaviour, was to threaten and intimidate the owner, who immediately backed down, and simply absorbed the cost of the original “repair”, as well as the added cost of having the “repair” fixed properly. The owner ended up paying over twice what I would normally charge for a re-seal of this gun.
These are not just a couple of isolated incidences, they are becoming all too commonplace.
People selling guns or accessories with known (to them) defects as being “in perfect working order”, modder or repair wannabes charging people for doing more damage than good to their guns, “airgun expert” posers offering bad advice to new people in the hobby. And what is truly disappointing in my opinion, is that these individuals will continue to do so with no fear of repercussion, because their many victims are intimidated into compliance of not making their bad experiences public.
Given just the number of such improprieties that I know of, and I highly suspect that there are a great many more that we are not aware of, I find it incomprehensible that the Canadian airgun community, and especially the many who have been victimized as noted above, continue to accept the current “status quo”.
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