Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Frustrated ...... What would you do?

Flinch, if you mailed it to him contact the Postmaster General and file a claim against the guy for using the mail to defraud. That will put the Feds on him. You could contact your state Attorney General or office of consumber protection in Texas for help. They usually do a good job in cases such as yours. Best regards, Mickey

He's big into tactical rifles....I'd post your problems on www.snipersparadise.com and other tactical sites.

BW, it is Celt's company that I am dealing with. He doesn't dare post anywhere, especially here. Everyone at snipershide and other websites are well aware of his poor business practices. It is too bad, because he is talented.

Mickey, thanks for the heads up. Had I known you a year earlier, you would of had the project along with the .22-250 tight twist on the Sako. It just might be worth a plane ticket to Texas to get my stuff. This is sure getting old in a big hurry. Flinch

Flinch,
I had my credit card company go after them, and I now have a "temporary credit" for the cost of the rifle I bought from them. I'm not out for the components, though. My sympathies, and best of luck,
Don

Doc and others, be aware that can affect your credit rating negatively... may not apply to you, but if others have marginal credit and are looking to buy a house, etc., such a claim could spoil their chances... food for thought.

CAS, hope it works out for ya bud.

Flinch, I'd do what Mickey suggests... that seems like good advice. A plane trip might be in order too. From the sounds of his work I'd sooner have the componants back than a completed rifle...

I got it worked out. It looks like the bolt did get shipped, but USPS just took forever to get it here.

When they did finally get it here, the substitute mail carrier (my regular is on vacation) failed to leave a notice that they had tried to deliver.

I need to give a HUGE thanks to StumpJumper, who used a connection to get it tracked down for me. I had tried to get it tracked myself, to no avail. StumpJumper came through in grand fashion though.

The bolt is now in my grubby little mits, ready to be put to use.

Brad,
How so? I was not aware that filing a claim could negatively affect credit.

I wonder what the reasoning for the negative effect was?

I learn something new every day.

I shipped a scope I sold to a guy in MO from CO once via USPS Priority. He kept saying he did not get it. The post office could not track it. I forgot to put delivery confirmation on the package too. Three weeks went by and the guy wanted his money back. I went to the post office and they told me they would open a case on the package to track it down somehow. i told the guy that it was in the works with the post office investigations, and he quickly responded that he coincidentally got it that day! Liar, should have drove to MO, got out of my truck, punched him in the face and drove back to CO for all the hassle he put me through.

I am in a simular position in that i put my bear into a taxidermist in Sept 04 and still have not received it, he never returns my e-mails etc and when i ring him he tells me it is in the post and it takes "ages to get to england" any way i rang him on the 27 dec and told him that if i dont get a tracking # from him by 6th Jan i will contact the police with an alligation of fraud and that i would contact every gun store in the city and ruin him, at this stage of the conversation he got a might pissed, i pointed out to him that he was ripping me off and not vice versa, i emailed him to confirm our conversation and have got everything ready to send to the cops in Sudbury ONT.
good luck

CAS it's not supposed to, shouldn't and "usually" won't but it "might" ding you a few points... if someone's credit is on the bubble and are preparing for a house purchase I'd hold out just to be prudent! I would absolutely, however, dispute a charge if necessary... I had to dispute those bastards at Cambridge Camera in NYC over Leica's that were never shipped... one more reason to buy from Doug at Cameraland!

Clear as mud I know...

PS, congrat's on the bolt!

CAS,

Glad it worked out, how was the workmanship? I may use 'em on my upcoming project.

Flinch,

I sure feel for ya, that project should'va been completed along time ago. Since Celt had to eat the first barrel I guess he figures he better just recoup his losses by keeping your rifle. I helped the guy out when he first started out, sent him pics of a homemade oven I built for baking GunKote. He modified it for commercial use and then ridiculed me for as if he came up with the design (I'm not into commercial recoating). Thats what I get for helping the fella out..................ungrateful bastard!

MtnHtr

That's good to know. Thanks Brad.

MH,
He did a fantastic job on the bolt.

I'll post pictures tonight.

Next time send it to Chris Mathews at Long Shot Rifles. I had a bolt spiral fluted and the bolt nob slotted for my 7mm ultra and it came out great. prices was resonable and it was done when he said it would be.

Chris sure does do good work. I didn't know he did spiral fluting, good to know.

I'm going to give this guy another chance. It turns out that he followed through on his end, and did a really nice job. I'm just going to insist that he use my FedEx shipping label to return the next bolt to me.

Glad to know you got the package. For some reason I just knew it was the USPS that gave your bolt the roundabout route..

I use USPS nearly exclusively and I ALWAYS use the 'delivery confirmation' option.

FWIW I used a guy in CO. Springs for a bolt fluting (can't recall the name offhand) and it was delivered within the time frame promised and the job was first class. It was used in an all-black custom M70 /A-3 McMillan/Leupold-topped rifle I built for a car dealer this last year. The fluting made quite a difference in the esthetics of the rifle when completed.

Best of luck in your project.

No one ever ridiculed anyone about an over, in fact, I never used any oven plans anyone gave me. We built an oven from sheet steel that uses an industrial oven heating coil.

I am not sure why you would say that!

As for the customer service thing and HDR being my business..
Well it isnt my business anymore and any decisions made on rifles and such are not mine to make.
Sure Clay and myself screwed things up along with a worthless acountant that said we had what we didnt.

I just work on guns here now and have no say about crap really.

I certainly never ridiculed anyone about an oven design.

I have only used two ovens in my years doing this. One was made with heat lamps and could do one ata time. It worked well and that was 5 years ago. The other is the one I described above.

I vaguely remember someone sending me an oven plan at one time, and if it was you,,. Thank you.

Celt

Celt.......any comment on the gun that has been there for two years.......the least you could do is box up the parts and send them back to the owner.....

Like I said. It is not my call anymore.
The rifle in question now shoots about 5/8" with factory ammo. It does not make the 1/2" mark yet.

That is with some work doen on the Rock barrel.
If Flinch will take it like that, please email HD Rifles so I can get word to the managment so we can get it out.

I would like to apologize to anyone that was affected by what has happened when Clay, the accountant and myself screwed the business end of HDR up. Though many would like to lay all the blame on me, it just isnt that simple. I loose sleep every night over this stuff, along side of gaining some health problems due to stress like high blood pressure.
Hey, a portion of it was my fault! You will never get any arguments here about that. My problem was growing too fast, trying to do it all, being horrible at business managment and just not being able to to it all. That coupled with having some very bad employees virtually killed us.
I guess just because you can build a rifle as well as anyone on the planet, doesnt mean you can have a succsessfull business at it.

HDR is plugging along and hopefully the new managment will get things worked out. We are catching up with me in the shop and out of the office however.
The road will be long and hard and hopefully we can make it down that road.

Once again. I am very sorry for any affected by what has happened.

Happy new year

Celt