So, what do I do if an FFL straight up loses my rifle?

[marvin02]

. . . .

I drove the rifle to the FFL the next day and found the owner in the process of locking up. They have apparently switched to extremely short hours. I explained the situation, explained that they needed to contact Century for the return, and stood there while he opened his phone and found my email. He accepted the rifle and said it would ship out the next day as soon as they could find a box.

. . . ..

Am I understanding correctly? You gave the guy a $700 rifle and got no receipt of any kind? I see no mention of a receipt, or any other paperwork, completed at the time when you gave the rifle to FFL for shipping back to Century.

 

[Sigblitz]

Did the guy work there or did he show up after the doors were locked?

 

[M67]

If they received a call tag the tracking number would be right on it, it’s a prepaid label with a tracking number assigned to it


UPS, FedEx, and USPS is doing weird things now. I’ve had a lot of shipments ship and receive as normal but FedEx has really screwed up a lot of tanks for me lately. Had one package arrive and was crushed so bad it looked like an accordion. Have also had a package “on vehicle for delivery” since last Tuesday and still don’t have it. Have wasted hours last week contacting FedEx to figure out which one of their employees stole my package (the label is still being scanned but I’m 98% the box isn’t there anymore).

So long story short is your rifle could have been shipped back to Century but someone swiped it in transit

It sucks too but this pandemic crap has put everyone short staffed. It’s slowing everything down and things aren’t and won’t have the quick turnaround time until some normalcy returns

 

[Joniki]

This was my thoughts as well.

Sorry in advance for the lack of authoritative input, but in addition to the shipping tracking number, isn't the FFL required to sign the serial number in and out of their FFL "log book" when they took the gun in? And back out when they shipped it?

There's a lot of unknowns here and it's beyond anything I've experienced, but I would be strongly considering reporting the gun missing. It has been unaccounted-for quite some time now, and according to the 4473s you have filled out, this gun is currently owned by you. I am not an expert but that would make me nervous. I don't think that gun went in a trash compactor. Sooner or later it's going to turn up, somewhere, and you want to put yourself on the right side of that.

 

[Ark]

Did the guy work there or did he show up after the doors were locked?

Ha, good theory, but I've used them for a while and knew the guy.

I had no reason to believe that I needed a receipt from an FFL I frequently do business with, when all he had to do was write an email and print a shipping label.

 

[WebSnyper]

You don't need an FFL to send or receive your rifle for warranty work. But, your FFL will have a tracking number if they shipped it properly.
Incompetence, incompetence. Maybe ATF can find it and lose it in the system.

True, but Century may require it for their policies, and they may be doing so, just to put another impediment in the return process.

I'd call the FFL, and let them know your next step is to call the ATF if he doesn't produce tracking number, etc. I'd think, but don't know that reporting an FFL as potentially losing a firearm would be a fairly serious thing, though it also seems it may be your word against his at this point that he ever even took the rifle back in (if he didn't record it on his books, etc).

I think I would have asked for some paper trail when it went back to the FFL, and me being me would have also asked to be put on the email as a CC or I would have initiated the email and cc'd the FFL to provide his input. Now seeing what you are going through, I know I will definitely request paperwork for anything I would ever have going back to an FFL like this in the future, just to save myself some pain.

I hope this gets resolved for you, and please keep us posted.

 

[Ark]

I think I would have asked for some paper trail when it went back to the FFL, and me being me would have also asked to be put on the email as a CC or I would have initiated the email and cc'd the FFL to provide his input. Now seeing what you are going through, I know I will definitely request paperwork for anything I would ever have going back to an FFL like this in the future, just to save myself some pain.

Yeah I fubar'd that one. Total lapse in judgement, should have known that shoving a rifle at someone while they're closing up on a Friday was bad juju. I was honestly just furious with Century and their ****ty build quality and convoluted return requirements and just wanted to get it on the way. Never stopped to think I needed to get documentation. Expensive lesson.

I am preparing an email requesting a tracking number, ship address, and logbook check, and including a date at which I will be reporting the rifle missing or stolen if I do not receive that information.

 

[WebSnyper]

Yeah I fubar'd that one. Total lapse in judgement, should have known that shoving a rifle at someone while they're closing up on a Friday was bad juju. I was honestly just furious with Century and their ****ty build quality and convoluted return requirements and just wanted to get it on the way. Never stopped to think I needed to get documentation. Expensive lesson.

I am preparing an email requesting a tracking number, ship address, and logbook check, and including a date at which I will be reporting the rifle missing or stolen if I do not receive that information.

Oh I can understand. I can definitely get on a mission myself when I'm trying to get something rectified like that. Hope it works out for you in the end.

 

[Trigger Time]

Yeah I fubar'd that one. Total lapse in judgement, should have known that shoving a rifle at someone while they're closing up on a Friday was bad juju. I was honestly just furious with Century and their ****ty build quality and convoluted return requirements and just wanted to get it on the way. Never stopped to think I needed to get documentation. Expensive lesson.

I am preparing an email requesting a tracking number, ship address, and logbook check, and including a date at which I will be reporting the rifle missing or stolen if I do not receive that information.

This is the best thing you can do now.
Start a digital paper trail to the shop requesting this.
I'd try to work it out with the owner directly before going the fed or police route. They wont do crap anyways. Your word against his if it came to it. Because you didnt get a receipt. Not trying to kick you while your down, I only mentioned it because someone will read this and hopefully learn from it.
NEVER leave a gun with a store without getting a receipt for it. Its business. Nothing personal. A good shop knows this and there will never even be any issue getting a receipt.
And yes, it's his responsibility to sign that gun into his book when he took possession from you and out to century when it ships to century.

If he somehow starts denying he has the gun, report it stolen to your local police. They will notify the atf.
Then file a small claims case if you wish but honestly you dont have any evidence that he "stole" your gun even if you find out he resold it.
Biggest thing you could hope for is that he signed it in and didnt attribute it to you and you could shield that you had just received it on transfer so soon before and then it was sold. Still not proof but fishy.
If the gun went the a friend of his or something with no paper trail then your out and no luck
But still you do not have access to his books and absent a warrant neither do the local police. Only the ATF have that ability to come in and inspect a FFL's books for an audit or they can call for a skip trace.

If a shop is doing shady stuff like that though once, you can bet they are doing it many times. My recommendation IF what you are saying is true (no offense, but I dont know you and this is the internet, home of trolls), is to never do business with that shop again

 

[Ark]

Oh I can understand. I can definitely get on a mission myself when I'm trying to get something rectified like that. Hope it works out for you in the end.

Me earlier this month: "I could fix it myself, but I'M NOT GOING TO, because if nobody sends things back, THEY'LL NEVER LEARN!!!"

Me now: "I wish I'd just smacked that b**** with a hammer for five minutes until it lined up."

If a shop is doing shady stuff like that though once, you can bet they are doing it many times. My recommendation IF what you are saying is true (no offense, but I dont know you and this is the internet, home of trolls), is to never do business with that shop again

That's already a given. Disregarding my instructions alone is cause to not ever do business again.

As I said, I will have no problem naming the FFL once some more facts are nailed down.

 

[jagee]

Pass some over here...

 

[shootersix]

I was honestly just furious with Century and their ****ty build quality .

that's like saying "i'm upset that taco bell gave me the squirts!" or "I think eating that gas station sushi was bad idea!"

I have a good friend who did an internship there, he was in the quality control department and said that 50% if the ak's he inspected had issues, and had to be sent back for correction

he said that century had a "second line" that made guns for the us government (I assume for training) and they were assembled by the employees "that know what they were doing" (according to my friend) and had zero quality issues!

as for contacting the atf. good luck! we contacted them after we had 2 guns stolen from the shop I worked at, and they said that "2 guns weren't a high enough priority" for them to get involved

I hope you get your gun back, and if it were me, i'd report it stolen, but before that i'd contact the shop who shipped it back, and tell them that unless they can track the package (which they can) your next call will be to the police to report it stolen, and that you'll be telling the police the whole story.

just fyi, my place of employment ships ups every day (and we used fed ex till last year) and if your dealer shipped it thru his ups or fed ex account, it self generated a tracking number and can be tracked by anybody, if century emailed a pre paid label to your dealer, then century has the tracking number because it self generates when they create the call tag, the only way there isn't a tracking number is if it wasn't shipped at all!

good luck!

 

[printcraft]

Tag - for exciting updates.

 

[1nderbeard]

I'm guessing the guy shipped without a tracking number and whatever company he used to ship (usps, fedex, ups) "lost" the package. It will probably turn up in a few weeks. But, not a very good business person to misplace (or allow shipping people) to misplace a rifle .

 

[schmart]

A contrasting possibility is that the FFL did exactly as requested but the Century receiving/processing department is so far backed up that it doesn't yet show in their system. I had just that sort of thing happen earlier this year when I had to send a Taurus revolver in for repair. I went to my LGS that I've done lots of business with, and they were nice enough to ship it back using their account as coming from me. I got a receipt for the shipping cost but didn't think to get the tracking number. I then had some business travel so wasn't able to get right on it, but it took almost 2 1/2 weeks for the Taurus on-line status report to show up as received. Needless to say, I also was getting hot and bothered by the situation, and was starting to blame the store, but hadn't yet made it in to complain before it magically showed up in Taurus system.

Given that you've used him for some time, knew them, and apparently have liked them in the past enough to continue doing business with them, you may want to calmly explain your discomfort and see if they can help you out. Going in yelling at them likely won't result in positive results for you.

--Rick

 

[churchmouse]

And yes. I would have fixed it myself as I always have save for 1 time and had a serious Cluster **** with Springfield.

Warranty's...….

I have had good CS from Ruger, Mossberg and S&W just needing parts which they sent free of charge.

 

[Bfish]

Good luck. Hopefully the owner of the shop takes some responsibility here and gets things figured out!

 

[Tombs]

Yeah I fubar'd that one. Total lapse in judgement, should have known that shoving a rifle at someone while they're closing up on a Friday was bad juju. I was honestly just furious with Century and their ****ty build quality and convoluted return requirements and just wanted to get it on the way. Never stopped to think I needed to get documentation. Expensive lesson.

I am preparing an email requesting a tracking number, ship address, and logbook check, and including a date at which I will be reporting the rifle missing or stolen if I do not receive that information.

It doesn't take long searching the internet to find that century is a pretty bad idea.

Though many folks are more than happy to attempt to convince you to give them your money.
Before someone says, "Buuuut the wasr!" just know that century is putting parts kits together, and if they think the above is suitable to sell to a customer, that should tell you all you need to know about them.

 

[1775usmarine]

Tagged for future updates.

 

[Expat]