RFD charges....

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Sim G
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RFD charges....

#1 Post by Sim G »

This is going to be a contentious one!

I buy and sell a lot of guns. I'm not a dealer, I'm an enthusiast. Something might catch my eye, yep want to give that a go! Could be calibre, could be make or model, whatever, doesn't matter, it will take my fancy, so have it. Use it, enjoy it, pass it on. Hence, I end up speaking with a fair few dealers and their costs. I've found somewhere around the 25 to 35 quid will see a dealer send a gun to my dealer. The lowest was 15 quid to send to me! Obviously, there's my dealers costs as well. But given the custom I give him, they are very favourable, so not the issue.

Dealers as well are now going back to what they should have been doing all along. See a gun, send your ticket to the dealer, they fill in, comes back to you under separate cover, gun goes to your RFD. Usually part and parcel of the "service" of sending.

But all along these fees have to be considered when buying a gun. A little bargain is sometimes not that good a bargain.

So today I speak to a dealer to send me a rifle he currently has custody of. 36 quid he says, no problem at the top end, but fair enough. And you must send me your FAC, yes, of course, not a problem. Pay the fees by BACS. £36 to ship, £25 to fill in FAC, £5 special delivery getting your FAC back to you!

So I make the quip, "No surprise the gun trade is dying, you're killing it!" (I do apologise later) but he goes apoplectic!!! Some tit for tat, then he says, "Well there's no standard"....

Is that not the issue? Should the GTA have a handle on this? Now I'm not saying dealers should be doing this for free, but surely, with some charging 15 quid to fill your ticket in and send it, and others wanting £66 and of course , if you have someone on the other end wanting 60 quid as well...

This isn't a bash RFDs, we'll save that for another "Half-witted, dangerous dealers strike" thread, but, a little bit consistency. And £25 for filling in the ticket that you have to send to him... I don't even think solicitors pull your pants down that far!
In 1978 I was told by my grand dad that the secret to rifle accuracy is, a quality bullet, fired down a quality barrel..... How has that changed?

Guns dont kill people. Dads with pretty Daughters do...!
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GeeRam
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Re: RFD charges....

#2 Post by GeeRam »

£25 to fill in the FAC means their hourly rate charge must be getting on for £150/hr.

He wasn't a BMW dealer in a previous life was he?
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Sim G
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Re: RFD charges....

#3 Post by Sim G »

That’s it in essence. Where do these charges come from? Honestly believes his filling in a certificate is akin to other professionals such as a doctor? Or is it what people can get away with? There’s always the choice of walking away and using someone else, but if they have the gun you want, you pay your money.

It’s the disparity that’s the point. And would standardisation work?
In 1978 I was told by my grand dad that the secret to rifle accuracy is, a quality bullet, fired down a quality barrel..... How has that changed?

Guns dont kill people. Dads with pretty Daughters do...!
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Ovenpaa
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Re: RFD charges....

#4 Post by Ovenpaa »

No charge to accept and/or notify the relevant Firearms team. We would like to think people will come back for consumables or service work etc.

I did hear of an RFD north of the border who charges GBP50.00 to receive.
/d

Du lytter aldrig til de ord jeg siger. Du ser mig kun for det tøj jeg har paa ...

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Alpha1
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Re: RFD charges....

#5 Post by Alpha1 »

I was charged £40 for him to receive a rifle.
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Blackstuff
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Re: RFD charges....

#6 Post by Blackstuff »

I use two RFDs which are <700metres apart (as the crow flies), one charges £10 to receive a gun, the other £35 (last time I checked which was over 3 years ago).

Now the more expensive one is a proper gun shop with multiple staff members and the other is a one-man-band in an industrial unit so they obviously have differing costs to cover, but come on. The paperwork is barely more taxing that than what the certificate holder has to send to the police.

£15-20 is the max i'll pay, even if i had to drive further (which fortunately I don't) and incurr similar overall cost, i'd do it out of principle.
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Christel
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Re: RFD charges....

#7 Post by Christel »

Just to explain what is involved...

Customer contacts us to ask if we can take a gun in. Either phone call or email.
We then contact the seller of the gun or the seller contacts us.
We then exchange copies of RFD certs and agree a day it is coming in.
When it arrives, we check serial and put it into the registry. It then goes into the armoury.
Customer arrives on a pre arranged day and time to collect.
After pick up we update the registry.

As Ovenpaa posted we do not charge for this.
We operate in this way because we know somewhere along the line work will come in more or less associated with this transaction.
If people ask if they can pay us we normally say give to your chosen charity. Ours is Household Cavalry which we also tell them :)
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Mattnall
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Re: RFD charges....

#8 Post by Mattnall »

PF have increased their charges just recently so £35ish is not a bad price for receiving, wrapping and sending. I don't charge to receive a firearm or for checking the FAC of the old and (possibly) new owner, dealing with the receiving RFD, of course the FAC will all be filled in by the seller and be in order wtf .

The £5 for sending your FAC back as well as filling it in? Well if it cost him that to send it OK if pre agreed (and I hope he was the one selling the rifle to you) but filling in the FAC and then notifying your plod - yes, it takes a bit of time but I put that down as usual day-to-day paperwork and absorb the cost and hope for repeat custom.
I have heard some put the FAC in the parcel with the firearm, not something I do but then not against the rules, I believe.
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Re: RFD charges....

#9 Post by Christel »

Mattnall wrote:PF have increased their charges just recently so £35ish is not a bad price for receiving, wrapping and sending. I don't charge to receive a firearm or for checking the FAC of the old and (possibly) new owner, dealing with the receiving RFD, of course the FAC will all be filled in by the seller and be in order wtf .

The £5 for sending your FAC back as well as filling it in? Well if it cost him that to send it OK if pre agreed (and I hope he was the one selling the rifle to you) but filling in the FAC and then notifying your plod - yes, it takes a bit of time but I put that down as usual day-to-day paperwork and absorb the cost and hope for repeat custom.
I have heard some put the FAC in the parcel with the firearm, not something I do but then not against the rules, I believe.
Yeah, we charge £30 to ship, which is actually less than it costs us as not only do we pay PF the rate we have (which can't be changed regardless of volume) we also pay "account maintenance" which is a fiver.

Yes, of course the FAC is filled in by the seller :o
The amount of times we have had to ask the buyer to send it off... :squirrel:

FAC in the parcel...not against the rules however I would think best thing to do is to send it back recorded to the buyer separately.
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Re: RFD charges....

#10 Post by poll007 »

Christel wrote:
FAC in the parcel...not against the rules however I would think best thing to do is to send it back recorded to the buyer separately.
Is there a reason some seem to think it is better to send the FAC back separately? one would hope that sending a gun is very secure so would be the best way to get the FAC back to someone.
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