Scene: Local gun shop
Him: Hey, we’re getting a buncha used guns in later
Me: Awesome. Lemme know when they arrive.
:::Hour later:::
I show up an start sifting through the stack. He says theres a Ruger 556 in there. I find an AR-pattern rifle, but its the Ruger 762. Ok, he mixed up the Ruger 556 for the 762, I can see that.
Me: Hmmm…..What’ll you take for the PTR-91 and the Ruger 556?
Him: :::mentions price::::
Me: Hmmm…I’ll give you $1500 for the pair.
Him: Sold!
And I trundle off with my loot. An hour or two later, I’m thinking “Man, those SR-762’s are kinda pricey. Lemme look up the price on those.” So I did. And, apparently, a new one goes for around $1500 :::sigh::: I know what happened. I drive back.
Me: Hey, that list of guns that came in. It had prices with it right?
Him: Yup.
Me: Read me the serial number off the list for that Ruger you sold me.
Him: :::reads wrong serial number:::
Me: And the model number?
Him: ::: reads off wrong model number :::
Me: And the caliber?
Him: :::reads of wrong caliber:::
Me: I think you sold me the wrong gun. Let me see your bound book.
Sure enough. There was a Hawkeye in .223 on the list and and somehow the SR-762 got mixed up as that gun.*
Me: Dude, I really hate saying this, but you sold me this gun way too cheap.
And we figured it out. It was a bit of a headache to clean up, paperwork-wise… The Hawkeye, that never left the building, had been entered as sold to me. So, rather than correct it we just logged it back in as received from me. Easy enough. But…man, a $1500 rifle for half the price woulda been nice.
But….I like the people there and I’d never be able to show my face in there again if they called me and said “We made a mistake” and I said “Too bad.” So…yeah. Mensch.
* = Here’s what happened. I asked if he had any Rugers. He said “I have a 556” which I took to mean he had a Ruger 556. So I grabbed the first AR-15’ish gun I saw with a Ruger logo and it was the SR-762. I figured “He’s not really a gun guy. He thought it was the 556 model because it looks like an AR, he doesnt know the difference between the 556 and the 762 models”. But what actually happened was that he MEANT “I have a 5.56 caliber rifle in the Hawkeye.” A very interesting miscommunication.
You did the right thing. Even if you don’t believe in karma (not sure if you do or not) you can hang your head high knowing you live an honorable life. People fall into the 10-80-10* groups all the time. Being the good “10” will never fail you. Integrity is everything in this world. If your word/actions have no value, you have no value.
10-80-10 breakdown. 10% of people will do the wrong thing no matter what, 80% will do the wrong thing if they think there won’t be any ramifications and the last 10% won’t do the wrong no matter what. (i’m aware its different definitions for a business).
It’s always good to stockpile some good karma. Treat people right and it’ll come back sometime.
Yeah, I like to think that “What goes around comes around” applies to the good as well as the bad.
Integrity is a gift that you give to yourself.
But the guy is a putz to have let you walk out with the wrong gun, let alone at half-price.
Someone needs some retraining on basic common sense.
Somebody needs better business practices. I’ve worked in a gun store and done 4473s. We didn’t just get the serial number off the bound book. It’s stamped into the receiver for a reason.
He’s lucky the Commander figured out the booboo before the ATF caught it.
Good on ya.
I do the same thing when they don’t charge me enough for a soda pop.
What goes around comes around.
Good man. You did the right thing.
Especially since you are a part of that industry/ world it probably makes sense to do the right thing from a practical perspective as well as a moral one.
Sort of like the Vikings realized over time you can only pillage/ rape/ burn a place once without a nasty response waiting on your return but you can trade with someone all the time.