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Post by Quick Draw McGraw on Feb 19, 2016 14:03:02 GMT -5
Okay, so I had placed an order for some .475 bullets to reload .480 Ruger on 12/6/15. After a week and ni shipping label, I called and spoke w/Mike Rintoul, the owner. He said that there had been a weather issue, sorry for delay. Promised they'd be out soon. Another week, nothing called back, another weather issue an another promise. One week later, nothing, and this time Mike had been sick and yet another promise is made. Fast forward to 1/5/16, now I'm ticked and leave a voicemail about needing a tracking number of a refund becauseany promises have been made including being told the prior week that the order had shipped. Mike calls back and say they hadn't shipped, he was wrong, but that they will ship on two days. He's very specific about the time-frame this time. On 1/7/16, no tracking # and I call and leave a voicemail (people answering the phone is about a 1 in 4 chance from my experience) that my order should be cancelled as I've filed a dispute w/my credit card company because it's been 32 days, several promises have been made and not kept, and no one is answering the phone. I even filed with BBB I was so fed-up. They email the next morning saying they've pulled my order and giving me grief that the they will be charged $25 for my dispute. Cry me a river.
What was upsetting was the empty promises. If if been told crap had hit the fan, it was the holidays, whatever, and that my order wouldn't ship until mid-january, ID have been okay with that.
Anyways I do use their bullets I just don't buy direct. Anyone else have a similar issue, or was it my bad-luck?
Interesting fact - I weigh all the bullets I reload and Cast Performance have had the most variance usually averaging bullets that are 5 grains lighter than advertised. By comparison, Sierra and Hornady have a variation of .1 grains on the heavy side. Disappointed.
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Post by sixshot on Feb 19, 2016 14:20:37 GMT -5
Hate to hear that about any bullet maker. I know when Kelly Broast had it in Riverton, Wyoming they were superb. He gave me a bunch of them to try in Africa, a lot more than I needed, great gesture on his part. Three different calibers, 475, 44 & 45 & all of them were spot on, shot great & were a Warthogs greatest nightmare... Oink!
Dick
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Post by Quick Draw McGraw on Feb 19, 2016 15:04:07 GMT -5
To be completely fair, the bullets have been easy to work with and Accurate. I am not currently a hunter, so I can't comment on that. Buy I am very happy with the product and would buy them again...
...just not from the source. I'll get 'em from MidwayUSA.
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Post by singleaction on Feb 19, 2016 16:25:40 GMT -5
Hate to hear that about any bullet maker. I know when Kelly Broast had it in Riverton, Wyoming they were superb. He gave me a bunch of them to try in Africa, a lot more than I needed, great gesture on his part. Three different calibers, 475, 44 & 45 & all of them were spot on, shot great & were a Warthogs greatest nightmare... Oink! Dick Since the oil field is going no where, I wish he would just start up another bullet company. |
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Post by foxtrapper on Feb 21, 2016 14:48:43 GMT -5
X2 on Kelly getting back in the bullet business !
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Post by 500fksjr on Feb 21, 2016 17:28:43 GMT -5
I have known Mike for a good number of years...and bought thousands of bullets...I believe there was a lot of truth in weather issues contributing to your delay...Mike lives up a dirt road 6+ miles off the hwy fwiw...sorry for your delays and seemingly poor results...Wondering what the other side of this coin looks like on UR part?  ? |
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Post by Quick Draw McGraw on Feb 21, 2016 22:55:49 GMT -5
I have known Mike for a good number of years...and bought thousands of bullets...I believe there was a lot of truth in weather issues contributing to your delay...Mike lives up a dirt road 6+ miles off the hwy fwiw...sorry for your delays and seemingly poor results...Wondering what the other side of this coin looks like on UR part? ? I want to state that when Mike said he had weather issues, I feel very confident he was telling me the truth. I don't believe he lied to me about any of the reasons for the delays. I know Oregon had same terrible weather in December and that at one point he genuinely sounded like he was recovering from some kind of cold/flu. I don't want to make my experience sound like I feel he lied to me. I never got that impression, and he genuinely was nice over the phone. Where my beef was with the whole thing laid in a few key issues. I understand delays, but I kept getting told, "it will be out within the week," which never came to pass. Maybe he just had a bad run of luck? It can happen and maybe that's the case. But after getting told that numerous times, I confessedly lost my patience. That may be a case of "mea culpa" but it is what it is. The second issue was the fact that I had ordered 375 grain bullets that on the website appeared to be in stock. On my second-week conversation with Mike, as well as my fourth-week conversation, he referenced that they had yet to be cast. Shouldn't the website have said, "Out-of-Stock" instead? I would have ordered a different product and that may have helped it go out the door quicker. Thirdly, the phone is answered less then half of the time and the only time I received a response to an email was the day after I left a voicemail stating I had contacted my credit card company to file a dispute. Then they contacted me PDQ, with bells on. And that leads to my final gripe. The statement in that email that I was costing them $25 for a charge-back. I had filed the dispute because I was told on Tuesday that week the bullets would ship in two days. When Thursday afternoon came around with no tracking number like I was told I would get, I called Cast Performance. Voicemail, no answer. Here's where confessedly I lost my cool and maybe was a little hasty and could be seen as a jerk. I was calling to ask for a refund as I was tired of waiting and being told when my order would ship only to have that date pass with nothing happening. So when I called to ask for a refund and got the answering machine, I decided I was done. I called my credit card company, explained my situation, and asked for help getting my money back. I then called Cast Performance back and left a message about explaining that I had filed a dispute. To be honest, I was done with the situation and wanted my money back. I was tired of having difficulty contacting anyone there and just wanted to move on. So when i got the email the next morning, I though it in poor-taste and rather unprofessional that the $25 fee was laid at me feet. My first experience with their company resulted in waiting 32 days with them having my money and no product shipped, despite several promises that it would. To boot, I had so much trouble getting in touch with them, I felt filing a dispute with my credit card was the only way to get this whole order cancelled and refunded. And then they decided to admonish me for the dispute fee. To me that was inappropriate and unprofessional. I want to make it clear though, I am not digging on Mike himself or his product. Just my negative experience in ordering direct form the website. And my goal in posting this isn't to cast him or his company in a bad light. I just want to know if others have had this experience or if I'm just the unlucky guy who happened to place his order at a bad time. Like I said before, I'll still buy his stuff, but from online retailers like MidwayUsa.com and others. One final thought, though. I did find evidence I am not alone. Here's a post where some folks had a similar issue: 10mm-firearms.com/factory-10mm-ammo/experience-buying-ammo-from-grizzly-cartridge-company/ |
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Post by Encore64 on Feb 22, 2016 0:08:51 GMT -5
This is an issue where everyone creates their own history.
If I have repeated, successful orders
from any vendor, then a bad order, I can figure someone has had some bad luck.
But, when every order is screwed up, I don't have problems learning a lesson.
I am with QDM here. Don't tell me it's going to ship tomorrow for weeks and months. Too many good vendors to tolerate that b.s.
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Post by magnumwheelman on Feb 24, 2016 6:55:11 GMT -5
I use their bullets, but admitedly I usually buy them from Midway... but as a business manager, I would only tolorate being put off once or twice any more than that, & I would move on...
also as a business manager... if I were selling & in that position, I think I'd probably still send you complementary bullets, with a heart felt apology ( not just an excuse ) just to eliminate these kinds of results...
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Post by CraigC on Feb 24, 2016 16:14:36 GMT -5
Whatever you do, don't ever order from Beartooth. My first order took a year to arrive. Now I just order the bullets and they get here when they get here.
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Post by sixshot on Feb 24, 2016 16:50:41 GMT -5
Many years ago I needed a heavy 45 slug that I didn't make. It was the one & only time I'd ever bought a cast bullet, so I ordered it from Bear Tooth Bullets. The deal went bad, never again, ever.
Dick
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Post by CraigC on Feb 24, 2016 17:00:47 GMT -5
The first time I ordered from them, I had no idea their backlog was several months to a year. After a while and no bullets, I did a web search and found out about it. I got the bullets and they are excellent but don't order `em if you're in a hurry!
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Post by darthchicken on Feb 25, 2016 0:49:20 GMT -5
I had a similar experience with Cast Performance - ordered on 11/26, multiple phone calls, multiple promises of delivery "next week". Zero response to emails, it always took a phone call. Ended up getting the bullets about 8 weeks after I ordered.
I'm from Oregon, about 30 miles from them actually, and December was a bad month for weather, no doubt about it. But, I don't like smoke blown up my ass either - if you're under water because of flooding, just let me know. I get it, stuff happens...
If I had ordered, and they didn't charge me until they shipped, that's one thing... having your card charged immediately and getting told stories multiple times is something else.
I'd like to support the local guys in my backyard, but I won't be ordering from them again.
Next time I'll try Rimrock or Montana Bullet works - life is too short to turn this hobby into something frustrating.
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