Buds gun shop is bad business

[9mm-jackson]

So here is what happened. I ordered a couple of things from Buds gun shop. It was when they were doing the give away for the 500k customer. Not thinking anything of it I went ahead and tried to win. A week and a half later I see some fraudulent charges on my bank account. I call the bank, it will be 24hrs to credit the money and in the meantime we need to cancel your card as this is where the charges are coming from. This was on a friday, no bank open on saturday and rent was due that day, so no access to any of my money and now I have a late payment charge due for rent being late. Then I get this email :

The following Fraud Alert notification email was originally sent Friday evening to a list of our customers facing the possibility of fraud. Upon receiving several customer responses to the email today, we realized that not everyone on the list received a notification. In an effort to be sure everyone on the list is notified, we are sending the same email again tonight.

You may have noticed the alert on our website indicating that credit card payments have been shut down for the weekend. This is due to our staff receiving multiple reports from customers who have experienced unauthorized charges on credit cards that were used previously on our website. Many of these customers also have made purchases at other locations and websites, so we cannot be sure of the source of the problem at this time. Please be assured that we are communicating with our third party credit card processor and are gathering all the information we can to evaluate the nature and scope of the problem. In the best interest of all our customers, credit card processing has been completely turned off for the weekend. We expect to have the additional details on Monday and will then respond accordingly.

If you have concerns about one or more of your credit cards please proceed to check your credit cards on-line website or call your credit card issuing bank to check for any recent unauthorized charges. Keep in mind that should you discover any unauthorized charges you will NOT be responsible for them in accordance with your card member agreement.

We apologize for any inconvenience and do not wish to alarm you, however we feel a responsibility to quickly inform customers that placed an order using their credit card in the event that fraud has occurred.

Well, I tried to contact them to see if there was anything they would do about this as the email basically to me said our 3rd party biller and your bank will handle all of it and buds is just gonna give you this email. I explained to them everything that happened.....Nothing, no response at all. I will never do business there again. I will stick to buying from RGGUNSNY.COM Online Store RG Guns NY Online Gun Store. At least he doesn't ignore you if there is a problem!

 

[aj's 40 cal]

hmmmm intresting. i order from buds and have always had a great time dealing with them, never an issue at all...

just my opinon but maybe there is more going on.....


hopefully it gets taken care of.

 

[trailboss]

I too have never had a problem with buds.

Yes they should respond.
But you can't blame them for a problem with the third party vender.
Hope it gets worked out.

 

[okie]

One of my buddy's went through the same deal were he had fraudulent charges after buying a gun from Buds and it was a hassel canceling his card etc... . I've never had any problems so just guess I was lucky but some of there prices you can't beat so this last gun I just sent a money order and it took just a little longer but it wasn't a big deal. My buddy did the same thing instead of using his card. I did hear Buds has been a mess with alot of people with fraudulent charges on there cards.

 

[Booga]

But you can't blame them for a problem with the third party vender.

That pretty much sums it up.
Just about everyone selling online uses a payment processing company and shopping cart system made by someone else. Very few companies are banks or web developers.
If the shopping cart system or the payment processor get compromised, there's very little the sellers can do except apologize. Perhaps they could change system/processor, but that doesn't help anyone already affected.

They probably have thousands of people contacting them for the same issue. Perhaps a call would be more productive. It would also help to have an idea of what it would take to make things right for you. Perhaps a 10% off the next order, or some free product(s) that you need that would equal what you had to pay in late fees.

Don't give up in a rant, keep communication open and see if they'll come to the table to sort it out.

 

[9mm-jackson]

Just don't know how to get them to the table. And if nothing else an email back would have made me feel like I was as important of a customer as the one who dropped 5k there that week.

 

[CDWilliams05]

Just like others have said, it's not directly Buds fault. They may apparently want to switch to another card processing service. I haven't directly dealt with Buds, I window show there all the time though, So I can't directly comment to service, but I hear great things.

I did get hit like this on another site, I had a similar situation, and through email, I explained to them that about the fees incurred, and they came back and said we apologize for your inconvience I got a free 20% off of total one purchase. It's not their fault, but it puts their reliability and security on the line, and they will do what they can to keep business, after something like that.

 

[Unfettered Might]

I agree with everyone here, you can't really fault Bud's for a failure of a system they have no control over, other than switching the provider of the service if this is a persistent problem.

For a company with such a good track record, let em slide. Sometimes stuff just happens.

 

[stingray2100]

ok I understand your frustration, but I have been dealing with Buds for a very long time. I have never had any issues, But also to be said I use a separate account and card for this same reason. This account I only put the exact ammount for my purchase and then it is zero balance. I only use it for online purchases.

Be safe on the internet and I'm sorry for your problem, but do not judge company because a hacker kicked there security group.

 

[Unfettered Might]

ok I understand your frustration, but I have been dealing with Buds for a very long time. I have never had any issues, But also to be said I use a separate account and card for this same reason. This account I only put the exact ammount for my purchase and then it is zero balance. I only use it for online purchases.

Be safe on the internet and I'm sorry for your problem, but do not judge company because a hacker kicked there security group.

Yep, I do the exact same thing. Cheap insurance.

 

[SC Tiger]

For online purchases I use a CC not directly tied to my bank account. That way, if there is a problem I can just cancel the card. Any automatic rebills (such as my satellite TV) are done the same way, so if I have to I can cancel the card.

 

[uspshooter]

I've also never had a problem, but will keep an eye out for anything funny. I recently purchased a firearm on a Friday morning and picked it up from my FFL on Monday. I've always been surprised at how quick they fill my orders. Sorry you had issues, hope everything is resolved quickly.

 

[FloridaBlue]

Excerpt from FaceBook:

BudsGunShop I appreciate the kind words but we still feel bad. In the week we were hacked we also received email notices that Kroger, Best Buy, Scott Trade and Brookstone were all hacked also...which does not make it ok, but obviously those very large companies have more security resources than we do and even they could not stop these cowardly internet thieves.
[END]

You were the victim of a crime but Buds wasn't the offender although the frustration is understandable it's pointed in the wrong direction. I've never done business with them but all I have heard is good things about them.

 

[BlueMR2]

I've only dealt with Buds once, and I have to say I was quite pleased. I put in a request for a hard to find gun, after a few weeks they found one, alerted me, I told them to go ahead, I was charged, and it was shipped it to my FFL, etc. One of the more complicated scenarios and they were great about it.

From what I've read about this episode, I believe they're doing all that they can do (speaking as a computer person that has done time in the system administration, programming, and network/security realms). The reason credit card stuff is outsourced is because it's so hard to get right. Even the experts in it make mistakes that will let them get hacked sometimes. There really is nothing that Buds can do other than notify people.

 

[cabrera]

I've never had an issue with Buds, but I never use a debit card. As a retired banked I can tell you this, you have certain rights using a credit card vs using a debit card. The credit card is the banks money, the debit card is you bank account money. The bank will recover your funds but it has to come back vs a credit card which funds drawn from that belong to the bank. In any case to avoid major issues & to localize my gun purchases, I opened a GE money (Buds Credit Line) only approved purchases from Buds can be charged. Of course the interest rate is ridiculous so I pay in full.

 

[deeHKman]

All in all its still Buds responsibility period. I've bought many guns from them also but their Customer Service lately is lousy. I ordered 2 guns went to my FFL to get them one was not even close to what i ordered. I called and called no call backs plus came to my FFL not weighed right so he had to pay UPS money or the guns were being sent back. MY FFL switched me for something else and i left. Three days later i got a goofy e-mail.

Plus i had some odd charges on my debit card. They did not even show any care much less concern. Too big makes the fall sometimes a long hard fall. If Buds continues Business like this a fall in inevitable. Lately i've been buying else where and actually better deals with Great CS. Plus Glock and Buds had a problem with its mapping prices not long ago. Too Big is not always best.

Good idea on using one card just for internet buys wise thinking..

 

[stogemiester]

Buds is bad business. Order something that says its in stock, then 5 min later get an email it's out of stock but your card has been charged. I emailed them to cancel the order and the charge but no cancellation just a reply an hour later that the cancellation will be 3-5 days. Guess what, my money is now tied up and I cannot use it because Buds has it sitting in his account. He has no right to my money, buds is quick to take it but not to return it. It's been 4 days already but no refund. This is bad business, won't order another thing from there and I won't even get started on the 2 week shipping on firearms.

 

[Cumberland]

The only problems I've had was the price going up on a gun after it was in my shopping cart once and another time a gun sat in there shipping dept for four days. Other times have been ok. I think they've had a lot of growing pains. They've remodeled and expanded there showroom twice in the last cpl years. I think they do around 10 mil @ year in online sales too

 

[Rhino]

Why are we resurrecting a thread that's more than three years old?

 

[ShootSig]

I ordered a pistol from Buds 4 or 5 years ago. While it was a great price and it is still to this day my favorite (Sig P226) i was also a victim of identity theft after ordering from Buds Gun Shop. I went to use my debit card a week or so later and my card was declined. After checking my bank statements there were several charges totaling almost $8,000. It took a few weeks and several visits to my bank to get my money back, somewhere in that time I also got an email from Buds similar to the one you received. I order stuff from the internet pretty frequently and the only time this has ever happened to me was when ordering from Buds. My experience and yours being nearly 5 years apart tells me that Buds does not care enough about its customers to take steps to insure our information is secure.