Cheaper Than Dirt & the ol Bait And Switch??

[Cedar Park Dad]

I'd take action ASAP, call up CTD again and demand a full refund and inform them you will be contesting the charge if they don't follow through immediately. This is one reason why I like having an AMEX card because they pretty aggressively defend their cardholders against merchant shenanigans.

I called VISA, "we'd like the cardholder to work it out w/ the merchant first". which puts me back waiting on CTD to get their behinds in gear.

Cancel the VISA.

[Rex B]

I'd take action ASAP, call up CTD again and demand a full refund and inform them you will be contesting the charge if they don't follow through immediately. This is one reason why I like having an AMEX card because they pretty aggressively defend their cardholders against merchant shenanigans.

I called VISA, "we'd like the cardholder to work it out w/ the merchant first". which puts me back waiting on CTD to get their behinds in gear.

Cancel the VISA.

Use AMEX for anything you think you might possibly have an issue with, including any online purchases. Amex knows their customer is YOU, where the other cards make most of their money from the merchant.

I bought several firearms from them over the years, but I quit going there during the ammo "shortage" when they started gouging. I was not even aware the Ft Worth store had closed until last week. Good riddance

[RX8er]

I wonder if the loss of business is why they closed the Ft Worth store front.

Theowner of the Fort Worth store front broke it off from "Cheaper Than Dirt" a few years ago, from what I'm told. The store was officially "Outdoors Adventures" and the corporate CTD merely employed the people that worked in the warehouse (and fronted a small warehouse counter that you might have not known was in the store unless you looked hard). Being co-located, it was hard to tell which entity was which.

When their contractual relationship was over, they (the owners of the FW store) boogied to the East side and now have a store at 1200 Eastchase Parkway, and are going by the name of Fort Worth Gun.

I don't know (and truth be told, don't really care) if CTD still occupies the warehouse portion of the building.

Yes, this is about right, at least what I have been told too. The store, or what used to be, was right down the street from me off of 820 & 35. I'll have to swing by and see if the warehouse still exist but being that I sell guns too, never had any reason to go there. I have had a few customers that come to us after them because of their lack of service and their high prices. Most of them were just buying the hard to find ammo that CTD jacked up the pricing on.

[bryan1980]

This and their funky separate warehouse pricing strikes me as odd and sometimes disingenuous.

Yeah, that whole setup just seems like a shell game to me. What exactly are these "warehouses", and why is the same item in a different warehouse priced differently?

Way too many other, more transparent vendors to frequent than to do business with these jokers.

[grim-bob]

The whole "warehouses" issue is just the amazon model. They are just a storefront for those other warehouses to offer more product. They do have their own warehouses of course. Warehouse 1 and I think 1 or 2 others. Not defending their customer service at all as I have heard a number of stories. I haven't ever ordered anything online from them so have no direct experience. This model is going to become more common though.

I think the whole issue of warehouses is more of a problem in how they present the information on their website. It would be much clearer if they put the item in 1 place but then made it clear what the best price available was. Unfortunately, they sort of do that but it isn't fully obvious.

[Cedar Park Dad]

The whole "warehouses" issue is just the amazon model. They are just a storefront for those other warehouses to offer more product. They do have their own warehouses of course. Warehouse 1 and I think 1 or 2 others. Not defending their customer service at all as I have heard a number of stories. I haven't ever ordered anything online from them so have no direct experience. This model is going to become more common though.

I think the whole issue of warehouses is more of a problem in how they present the information on their website. It would be much clearer if they put the item in 1 place but then made it clear what the best price available was. Unfortunately, they sort of do that but it isn't fully obvious.

(Not intending to be criticial to you!)

I find this argument they are making just this of fraudulent. You are not making a contract with a warehouse. You are making a solemn contract with CTD. Its their responsibility, as counterparty to that contract, to supply the good at the agreed upon consideration.

[them]

I have never been a huge CTD fan and $90 bricks of bulk .22 only cemented my view of them as being an "adversarial retailer" (where getting a fair deal is a struggle), but....

1) Crediting back cards typically takes a few days. Go buy something from Cabelas, Fry's, or wherever, and return it. If you charged the purchase the reversal will take several days.

2) Their online store makes it fairly clear you are buying a specific gun since every warehouse shows a different item number for the same product. Since your contract was to buy that specific gun, if the specific gun was sold (and their terms say guns are subject to prior sale) they aren't obligated to substitute a different product. Bud's pulls this same trick without the multiple warehouses angle. I dislike the whole multiple "warehouse" thing but I suspect the warehouses are just gun dealers that want to offer their guns for sale through CTD.

3) It is sometimes possible to get a good deal from CTD, but it sure isn't worth the work most of the time and all it takes is one mistake to erase all the savings. That said, I have recently found several guns for less than Bud's even factoring sales tax collection. Not much but you might save $10-$20 on a $500 purchase depending on your ffl's transfer fees. More if paying by CC.

[FuziDave]

So in summary:

i got it at Bud's Gun Shop, for about the same as the marked up price at CTD. which means, i was willing to pay that BUT no give my hard earned cash to CTD.

easy transfer thanks to Tom Hart.

credit has shown up on my credit card.

as a bonus, left a 1 star review on Yelp! for CTD.

so all in all, a learning experience. now need to hit the range to try it out. thanks for the comments.