Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Last straw with Midway USA for me

I've been following this thread and it's been interesting reading the posts.. I also have done business with Midway for some years now, but I have to admit I only order from them now maybe once a year; mainly because of some truly special deal OR it's the only place that has the item..

I do agree that their shipping costs have gotten kinda high, which is one of the reasons I've slowed down ordering from them.. Brownell's gets a lot of my business mainly because they have the items in stock 99.9/100 times, they ship quickly, their customer service is difficult to beat and if you can order several items at a time the shipping costs becomes quite reasonable. Also, their online ordering checkout screens are easily/quickly gone through and I can be online and off again in a scant minute or two with a completed order..

I have tried to order from them, but it seems like 2 out of 3 items I want are out of stock and back ordered. So now I use Brownell or Sinclair.

for years i have been hearing about midway/potterfield. i did not realize that the problems were that extensive. i read an article somewhere questioning potterfields integrity. i am now beginning to see that there may have been something to that. i will never complain about brownell's again!

The one and only time I met Larry Potterfield face to face the man was nothing but gracious.

I think I may have gotten Midways attention because just this morning I have gotten two emails from their customer relations people. I also sent an email to Larry yesterday telling him to cancel my account.

I replied with the same info I have posted on here and they replied that they were sorry I had a problem with their policy and that my emails had been forwarded to "management."

I guess Larry doesn't count since he's just the owner.

I've always had good experiences with Midway, although their shipping costs have gotten a bit high lately. Two boxes of .257 bullets I ordered today ($50) cost over $8 to ship. Seems just a bit steep. Who has a good combo of decent product pricing and fair shipping costs when placing smaller orders of $200 or less?

Now the same company too. Hopefully the service from both remains as good as it's always been.

RICKb,

Just curious, but do you get any type of discount for being a dealer or gunsmith from Midway?? If so, their policy might be in place so that it prevents unscupulous FFls from dropshipping to friends and family on their discount---Just a thought and a theory to the f*&^ked up policy.
I look at shipping costs as the lesser of two evils of having to drive the 34 miles back and forth to the local gunshop- that's 2 gallons of gas $6.60 and then the local shop is out of Bullseye which was by primary reason for going......
It's nice to have the Brownell's option though.

I don't order from them much anymore (usually out of what I want)

Had a problem last year with the runaround on an order--and found out something interesting >>>> they record all calls.

I finally got through to a manager, first thing she asked was "what dates did you call?" Next thing she said: "Let me go listen to the calls and I'll call you back"

She did call back, said "Yep!, you were right!" and got it fixed. Otherwise, it would have been my word against the operator's.

hmm......

Yes, dealers do get discounts on certain items...but how is buying something at my dealer cost and shipping it to someone else being "unscrupulous?" And what would prevent me from buying something from Midway, receiving it at my FFL address, and then turning around and sending it to someone else???

Bear basin is where I like to buy optics from, good people. They have the Leica range finders,I bought the crf before the first of year price increase.

one problem I have with midway is there out of stock, on many items I'm interested in.

numerious times I've received my order of bullets, and the factory containers broke open, and a mess with the packing peanuts, ect. , you'd think they could do a better job of packing ones order.

Don, here's an example that might help explain the problem I have with Midway's shipping policy.

Last year I was doing a trigger job on a 1911 for a cop friend who lives in Northern California. As a cop he gets dealer prices from Brownells and he bought some parts for his pistol from them and had them shipped directly to me to have them installed.

Had he ordered the parts from Midway he couldn't have done this. He would either have to have me order the parts for him or order them himself and then ship them to me after he received them...in effect paying two shipping costs.

This isn't a HUGE thing...but as I stated from the get-go, it's just really stupid (business wise) and a pain in the rear for their customers.

If there is a truly valid reason for their policy I would like to hear what it is and why that "valid reason" only applies to Midway and none of the other companies out there who do not have it.

It's not just Midway increasing shipping prices. Year over year, UPS shipping and insurance costs have doubled. Now, when I ship a barreled action in a hard case overnight, I'm looking at $180 with the fuel surcharge thrown in.

But Midway is the worst, and has become my least favorite supplier, because of their shipping. My last order included some Talley bases and rings and a new catalog. Midway didn't bother to tape closed the Talley boxes, so they came open, some of the rings got scratched, and I had to search through the peanuts for the parts. The catalog was "free", but Midway charged me a shipping fee on it.

These are small problems, not worth complaining about, but they add up, and I won't buy from Midway if I can avoid it.

Success breeds greed.... Midway had put itself in a position to compete with Brownells. Didn't take them long to piss that opportunity away.

I feel the same about the minimum order and shipping thing. The sale discounts are laughable too.

GeoW

Prices (including shipping/insurance) are a cost of doing business that everyone has to deal with one way or another.

However, adopting policies that make it more difficult for your customers to place/receive orders and give you their money is just down right stupid...IMO.

I can choose whom I do business with, and ease of transactions is one of the deciding factors for me. The more obstacles the company places in the path of me getting what I order the less likely I am to continue doing business with them.

That, and that alone, is why I have chosen to cancel my account with Midway.

I once ordered numerous single boxes of high end match .22LR to try in a 40X. About half the boxes came through open with the cartridges mixed in with the peanuts. When I called and complained, they replaced them because you couldn't sort them. A couple of the replacements also came broken. The customer service rep acted like I was trying to pull something. I gave up and ordered from Sportsmans Guide. They taped them shut prior to shipping.

FWIW, I only order if it's on sale. And if it's bullets, I only order calibers that are easily sorted because there's a good chance they will be mixed in with the peanuts.

I have had good luck with midwayusa I just think they need to do better about having things in stock,I don't do backorder...

I have had zero problems with Midway and routinely have stuff shipped to a different address than my billing one. Just did it last week. The shipping charges are quite transparent when ordering on-line as is the ability to ship to a different address. Of course I am not an FFL holder. Brownell's is always good by damn expensive for us non-dealers/FFL's.

As I stated numerous times, their shipping/mailing policy does not affect you unless you have a dealer/FFL account with them.

Midway went downhill when they changed their shipping policy. Not because it was no longer included in the price but because of their attitudes. As Rick said, their customer service went out the window. I've been a customer since 1987 but have gotten to the point that I no longer order from them.

I truly hope that Larry reads my email and also that he views the comments on here. He is a really nice guy and he obviously knows how to turn a garage business into a multi-million dollar corporation.

When I first raised the question about their shipping policy for dealer/FFL's with him I got the distinct impression that he did not know anything about it. I guess that can happen when a business grows too fast and the owner becomes more and more detached from the day to day operations.

Those of us who rely on companies like Brownells and Midway to supply the tools and parts that we need to service our customers will all be better off if these companies stay afloat and prosper...and in order to do that they have to keep their customers happy.

I'm just small potatoes in the big scheme of things but I spend many thousands of my dollars and my customers dollars every year with these places and I refuse to have to jump through hoops and go over unreasonable obstacles in order to get my orders filled.