Buck & Doe's Mercantile — Local services in San Antonio

I recently purchased an order of 15 firearms and scheduled these firearms to be picked up at Buck and Does, Understandably, the store was quite busy upon my arrival. I spent two hours in the store, accompanied by my two-year-old son, before the gun transfer process was completed. A significant portion of this time, 37 minutes precisely, was dedicated to the background check process.

Upon the conclusion of the background check, I was informed of a charge of $50 per firearm, totaling $750. To my surprise, the representative made a light-hearted comment about the amount, which I initially took as a jest.

Expressing my reservations about this charge, the owner kindly offered to reduce it by half. However, I find it difficult to rationalize over $300 for the registration of firearms that were already purchased and paid for.

In my understanding, the service fee was anticipated to be a flat $50, not a per-gun charge. I believe this discrepancy in communication reflects negatively on the customer service at Buck and Does, along with a lack of consideration for the customer's perspective.

I share this review with the intention of aiding future customers in making informed decisions.

• Where in my above statement was I not transparent with my experience? Would you mind taking a moment to further communicate with me directly where I was not transparent? - I can take my transparency a step further and mention an issue I had with you directly. After being surprised with your pricing, I kindly said I’m not interested, I’ll return the guns and apologized for inconvenience, I take full blame and if I would have known I would have never done this to anyone involved who put energy towards the process. - The response I received was “would you please wait, the owner would like to speak with you for a possible resolution” I further waited for you out of respect. What did you say to me? Do you remember what you told me? You told me nothing. You knew who I was. You knew where I was. You sent someone to speak on your behalf when you were there in the room. Do you believe this was a money issue or do you believe it could have been a respect issue?

You charge $100 an hour for gun services. You’re stating the process took your team 2 hours - why would you attempt to charge me $750? Why was I told you were coming to speak to me, and you not make the effort to communicate the time, energy, and effort it took your team? If I gave you two hours of my life and in this time gave you respect and patience, why was I unable to have two minutes of your time?

You state you’re a small locally owned business, where were you?

I’m a small locally owned business, when and if there’s issue amongst my representatives and the customer - I handle it. If I tell someone I’ll make an effort to reach out to better understand them, I make that effort. So I’m confused where this comment is coming from other than to attract sympathy.

Do you want me efforts towards a sympathy play? I flew across the country to be there at your location to pick these firearms up. I’ve been away from my son for the last 27 days. I have this weekend to be with him before leaving for another uncertain amount of time for an ongoing project that requires my first physical attention. Between a snow storm, and three canceled flights, I made it. I bring my son with me to knock out what I believed would be an in and out task. It turned into what I felt was disrespect, and two grown adults disagreeing with one another publicly rather than two adults handling what could have been handled within two minutes of conversation. Was this all fairly transparent from my end? I made the mistake. I did wrong. I devoted to much of my physical time rather than my indirect time by not calling ahead to further confirm your pricing. All fault is on me. My review isn’t to pass the blame. My review is to help anyone who may find themselves in a similar situation as mine and lower their...

To preface, I've been here many times before to use the range, take my LTC and even bought my last handgun from them. Great experiences, great facility. The last two times were not great. Both happened within a month or so from each other. The 2nd to last time I went in to inquire about selling back the handgun I purchased from them ($650+) and the holosun red dot I added to it (don't need it due to astigmatism $300+), nothing wrong with them, just decided I wanted something different. Only about 300 rounds through it tops. The bald guy behind the counter said he would go check with the manager and run the serial number to get a price. Comes back and says they can only offer $450ish for all of it. I thought that was low and asked even with the sight. He said that, at that time, essentially, it wasn't worth anything extra. Thinking that was odd, I left. Fast forward to today. I came in to get it appraised again because I wanted to trade it in for the other model I wanted instead. The same bald guy assisting me says the same thing. That the holosun wouldn't be worth anything. I said I'd take it off then because the gun price would stay the same. He comes back after running the serial number and says the best he can do is ... $200 but max $250 if you leave the red dot on it. I was not just there a month ago. It couldn't have changed that much. I didn't add one more round down it. If you didn't want it (which is fine, just tell me) don't lowball me. I told him he was the one that quoted me $450ish a month ago. Why the change? Couldn't give me an answer. Denied that he helped me before. At that point, I was over it. I felt disrespected and honestly...

I want to take the time to recognize RON, who works at Bucks and Does. I came there with my family and this gentlemen was flat out amazing. He helped us to zero a couple of A-R's and perform some maintenance on a few handguns. Who does that? I mean I was going to try to figure this out from a YouTube video. Ron's helpfulness, demeanor, knowledge, and patience is what every person needs when they go to a range or gun store. I haven't zeroed a weapon in 30 years and I felt like I was back at basic training learning from a drill instructor who was a friend. I was considering going somewhere else to do my training and to get my LTC. Well that's not happening. I will soon be taking the course online offered by Buc and Does since I'm not available on Saturdays. I will then be booking a session with Ron for the shooting portion of the test. That is what amazing customer service looks like. It will create its own business through satisfied customers. I have always said people don't care how much you know until they KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE! Ron and the rest of the staff are the epitome of what excellence in the workplace is supposed to look like. Give this man a raise and give him some recognition. I encourage anyone that is considering checking out a gun range and all that comes with it to look no further than Buck and Doe's Mercantile. Say hello to Ron and the guys when you are there, you won't be...