Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Claude Gatewood

When told up front, "we are in demand, backlogged, am willing to accept your work, but will contact you when the need arises, (as I've been told) you have a choice to make.


In demand custom work goes that way.

I don't know if that's the scenario here, but understand that it could be.

Well a simple phone call would have put this mess to rest. It smacks of arrogance to just ignore inquiries.

I ordered a Tyler-T-grip about four months ago, I understand that they are in high demand, and their output is small. After three months I gave them a call just to make sure I hadn't slipped through the cracks, they were very polite and reassuring that they still had the order...this is on a $40 part. If one wants to make a living or a side job working with the public, they ought to respect their customers.

I don't have a dog in this particular fight, but something seems to have changed in much of the business world, including gunsmithing. Seems that communication with customers is seen as a bother, or optional.

The reason I am posting this now, is that the other day I was going through some correspondence files, and came upon a few letters from gunsmiths, that were hand typed, single spaced, sometimes running more than a single page. These from the '70s and '80s.

I know that time is money, but something has changed over the years. In this day of electronic communications, it's hard to understand why a brief e-mail or quick phone call wouldn't go a long way toward avoiding misunderstandings and ill will, which few businesses can afford.

Just my $.02

Paul

Many also don't realize that this is the era of consumer friendly. Those who refuse to change will be replaced in the market with those who do.

I do photo restorations on the side, I have a policy that if you are not satisfied, don't pay. I'll do my best to restore your picture, but if it isn't to your liking I don't want you to pay for something not to your liking. I have not been paid for jobs I have spent three or four hours on, jobs I don't think anyone could do better, but I would rather they sut-up and go away, than bitch and moan to others that they had to pay for what they thought was sub-par work.

I always email a proof if possible and ask if they are happy with the finished product, if not, what they would like to see different. I always return emails or calls.

from the reply:

"Ok, should I send the fitted stock as well?"


"My apologies.
I ran one stock and there was a crack that showed up thru the wrist, I have photos of that, and I think I already sent photos of the cracked blank, I can resend ... "


"I will quit immediately and ship all if that is your request. Or I'll finish and ship..."


"I thought there might be doubt, so I've taken pictures of the discards.
I guess please advise, I will gladly box whats left and ship all tomorrow if that is your desire."




At any rate, it's been informative.

Well that is fine, that is not the issue, the issue is months of no replies, and that is not consumer friendly.

I haven't decided if I'd send 'im work or not. I guess I'd want some positive feedback (and examples of work), 'cause in all honesty, all I've seen here is negative - and I don't think they are lying.

It takes 2 minutes to reply to a customer's inquiry.

If you can't do that, you'll never see my business.

I had him do some work on a stock and never again. Communication was non exhistant from Clausde, He was almost a year past his promised delivery date, and the ebony grip cap he did was beyond terrible.

OK today I got about five emails from Claude. Now I ask you all why could he not have taken the time to send a few of those emails some time ago? Was it my threat to inform the local DA?

I know custom work takes awhile and if kept informed I am willing to wait. I was in no particular hurry for the stock. It's not like I'm leaving for Africa next week. If he can send a number of emails within hours today he surely could have done so before. I'm not sure about his claim to be swamped with work.

I would be getting my stuff back and finding somebody else to do the work.

Did yours fall off?

I ordered a Brockman's front sight on July 3rd of this year, just received the sight today.

guess they had a bad shipment that had to be returned and then the orders replaced.

guess that's the way it goes sometimes.

also have a knife paid for in full to Roy/Wildswalker for a year now, but that's different imo, I told him up front I wished him the best in his new endeavor and if he needed to back burner someone if he got overwhelmed he was free to do so with me.

I don't lose a lot of sleep wondering if Roy is gonna nick me for $250.

I'm willing to wait, or state otherwise upfront.

hope all works out for the OP

I hesitate to post in this thread since the topic (Claude Gatewood) brings up many adverse feelings. Contact me off-line if you would like to hear about my experience. I don't post much on this board so out of respect for the admins I will leave it alone. All I will say is get as much of your stuff back NOW but don't count on ever seeing your deposit again.

-- Brian/ale

I don't care who you are or your reputation, mishandling good faith on the part of a customer is unacceptable. I have had 4 custom rifles built by Dennis Olson in Plains, MT and I never waited more than a few months for the entire project to be completed. I would send him an action and he would build the rest. Dennis doesn't charge outrageous fees either. His work is as good as any in the business...

Those are nice!

Claude must have studied under Jack Belk.

Brian.

shrapnel; Those are beautiful. Are they the ones that are a photo of wood on top of a synthetic stock? Just kidding! I love good wood like that and sometimes wish I had a nice blank to contemplate.

The most significant thing about that wood is that it is all American Walnut. It isn't easy to find blanks with that much figure...

Update.

He did, finally, send back my barreled action, but despite numerous emails has not yet sent back my wood or any part of my $375.00 deposit.

I selected him because he seemed to have a good reputation on this forum. I guess he fooled more than just me. Has anyone had a positive experience with him? Has anyone heard from him recently?