It's one thing to let a customer know that a special order (one that is going to cost a lot in parts) might require a down payment (to make sure one does don't wind up with another expensive and unpaid for firearm). But to take payment in full first seems to be really off the wall.
Frequently customers try to pay in advance, it really is a bother unless the job will be finished quickly.
I do know that War Dog Outfitters does not get barrels from Satern anymore. They have not had a barrel sent to them in over a year.
I made the mistake of giving Mike a $300 deposit for a custom spec'd Satern barrel in spring of 2010 after a great sales pitch with lots of Steve Satern and Bill Alexander name dropping. He delivered a barrel in the quoted 6 weeks, but it was one of his stock barrels. The only thing right about it was Satern and 6.5 Grendel. It wasn't and could not be made fit for my purpose so I sent the barrel back and was told the Shipping Department (a.k.a. one of his kids) mixed up the order. He promised my barrel would be on it's way, just as soon as the one I had shipped back arrived. That was the last thing I ever heard from him. I called Satern to get some help with their dealer and they denied any relationship with War Dog other than that of a customer who sometimes bought barrels from them. Deb Satern wanted to help, but there didn't seem like much she could really do. Shortly after that, I noticed the Wardog website stopped carrying Satern. It makes me smile a little to think I might have helped break the Satern connection for Wardog, but Mike really owns the credit for this and still has the $300 he stole from me so I think Id rather have my $300 back.
I posted this story in greater detail on the old forum. As expected, the only reply posts were from Wardog fanboys singing praises and questioning my limited number of posts on the site. Hopefully, this addition will serve as fair warning to anyone considering doing business with Mike at Wardog. Before you pull your credit card out for Wardog, take 10 minutes and do 3 things: 1) Read all the disclaimers, excuses and warnings on their website to get a feel for Wardog customer service. Then go to LaRue Tactical to read and compare their "You Ain't Happy, We Ain't Happy" service policy to get a great service benchmark for comparison. 2) Find any personal information you can about "Mike" like his family name, home address, what his face looks like, or his home phone number so that you can track him down when he stops answering your emails. 3) Ask yourself what Wardog Outfitters can provide that can't be bought for the same price with less risk from a reputable company?
There was a guy on Sniper's Hide who took a lot of folks' money for his promised copy of the Cheytac bipod for extreme long-range shooters, many of whom are SOTIC-trained SF and other SOCOM dudes with a lot of trigger time under their belts, in addition to all the dedicated precision long-range competitors and hobbyists.
The thing that gets me is the sheer stupidity in these crooks' target market, no pun intended. Picture this:
[COLOR="purple"]"Gee Joker, who should we screw out of their money this week? How about some dumb chicks that order fake Gucci handbags...?"
[/COLOR]
"Or maybe some dipstick who collects baseball cards in his mommy's basement...?"
[COLOR="magenta"]"How about some kids buying pirated video games for their XBox...?"
[/COLOR]
[COLOR="red"]"No wait! I've got it! This is the best scam ever! (Chuckle...chuckle) We'll target highly-trained snipers and uber-commandos who like to pass their rest & relaxation time in between deployments after years of military service practicing their long-range marksmanship skills! Yeah! They'll never track us down or anything. They wouldn't even begin to know where to start looking, we're so slick!"
"So where do we register the credit card machine to?"[/COLOR]
Am I the only one who thinks this is a doomed business model? The only worse target market I can think of would be Mafia hitmen...
I made the mistake of giving Mike a $300 deposit for a custom spec'd Satern barrel in spring of 2010 after a great sales pitch with lots of Steve Satern and Bill Alexander name dropping. He delivered a barrel in the quoted 6 weeks, but it was one of his stock barrels. The only thing right about it was Satern and 6.5 Grendel. It wasn't and could not be made fit for my purpose so I sent the barrel back and was told the Shipping Department (a.k.a. one of his kids) mixed up the order. He promised my barrel would be on it's way, just as soon as the one I had shipped back arrived. That was the last thing I ever heard from him. I called Satern to get some help with their dealer and they denied any relationship with War Dog other than that of a customer who sometimes bought barrels from them. Deb Satern wanted to help, but there didn't seem like much she could really do. Shortly after that, I noticed the Wardog website stopped carrying Satern. It makes me smile a little to think I might have helped break the Satern connection for Wardog, but Mike really owns the credit for this and still has the $300 he stole from me so I think Id rather have my $300 back.
I posted this story in greater detail on the old forum. As expected, the only reply posts were from Wardog fanboys singing praises and questioning my limited number of posts on the site. Hopefully, this addition will serve as fair warning to anyone considering doing business with Mike at Wardog. Before you pull your credit card out for Wardog, take 10 minutes and do 3 things: 1) Read all the disclaimers, excuses and warnings on their website to get a feel for Wardog customer service. Then go to LaRue Tactical to read and compare their "You Ain't Happy, We Ain't Happy" service policy to get a great service benchmark for comparison. 2) Find any personal information you can about "Mike" like his family name, home address, what his face looks like, or his home phone number so that you can track him down when he stops answering your emails. 3) Ask yourself what Wardog Outfitters can provide that can't be bought for the same price with less risk from a reputable company?
When I built my Grendel, I ordered parts from War Dog Outfitters and he did me right. But, however. Since then, I have heard nothing but bad things about him. He started promissing "it's going out today" and stuff like that. A month or two later and still nothing in the mail. Then when you try to call him he's never there.
I help my good friend build a grendel and figured I'd have him try War Dog Outfitters and see if they had cleaned up thier act or not. They gave him a really good price on parts. He ordered using his credit card (thank god) and after six months he still had no parts and kept getting the run around. He worked with his credit card company to get his money back. And, I told him to order through Alexander Arms. He had his rifle finish within 3 weeks. Alexander Arms accually sent him his parts and barrel even before his credit card company could get his money back.
I'll never use War Dog Outfitters again and will never refer anyone to them.
