RFD charges....

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Mattnall
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Re: RFD charges....

#31 Post by Mattnall »

Sim G wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 6:53 pm Firstly, this "service" is what was foisted upon us by the 97 Amendment. My first semi-auto, full rifle came direct to me, through the post, from the private seller. There was not the requirement for one or even two RFDs.

And I made it quite clear that there is not the expectation an RFD conduct this part of the business for free. Far from it. But has been seen by some of the replies to this thread there is a huge disparity in what is being charged around the country. Other RFDs have answered and set their stall out for all to see. And again, that is the point. A fee, fee range or even fee cap, allows that transparency. And this question has come about because of my recent experience. £60 to fill in an FAC and post a rifle...

You might think that fair someone else might think it's not. Again, it's also been pointed out here that the fees, at both ends, are actually a barrier to business and some people do in fact walk away purely because of the charges. As opposed to me "having all that convenience" does the opposite make good business sense...? And this instance, I had no choice to walk away. And this well established business knew I was at his mercy...
There are many things foisted upon us by the powers that be, for both the dealer and the shooter, these are not our decisions to make. There are costs involved in sending a firearm from seller to buyer but unless all the costs (and that includes overheads) are the same, charging a standard fee will not fit every situation. A cost of shipping a very cheap rifle cannot often be absorbed by either RFD when it could be easier to lose some or all of the costs in the sale of a more expensive rifle. But the receiving RFD doesn't get this chance and then it would be down to any repeat custom the dealer might get and too many other things to list.

The repeat custom argument is something that every dealer in any trade should consider and every customer is free to chose whether they spend their money in Shop A or Shop B accordingly. Doesn't matter if it is a necessity (so is petrol/diesel, it seems, but there is no standard charge for that) it's a free market. If a dealer in your view takes the p*** then take your custom elsewhere, they'll soon change their ways if it becomes a problem for them.

I do think some dealers charge too much for the service, but that is their decision to make and not ours as their customer, a little haggling may be possible but in the end if it's not to the customers liking they hold the power to go elsewhere, the dealers are actually at the customers' mercy and unless the customer got the firearm shipped before finding out the costs involved they should walk away if they don't like it.
Arming the Country, one gun at a time.

Good deals with Paul101, Charlotte the flyer, majordisorder, Charlie Muggins, among others. Thanks everybody.
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Les
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Re: RFD charges....

#32 Post by Les »

It cost me £50 to send a rifle to NI via my RFD, which I didn't think was too bad considering what it could have been.
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Dark Skies
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Re: RFD charges....

#33 Post by Dark Skies »

poll007 wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:06 pm
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.
One WOULD hope. I just can't quite bring myself to chance putting all my eggs in one basket. Bad enough for the firearm to go missing but doubling up with the FAC that allows the purchase of ammunition ...
i don't know what sort of security is in place with RM but back in the day, working my way through uni, I worked on the docks of a lot of big name couriers. Security was pretty lax. Stuff went missing.
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phaedra1106
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Re: RFD charges....

#34 Post by phaedra1106 »

I always send FAC's seperately.

There's a reason most RFD's don't ship firearms etc. on a Friday, they don't want them sitting about in some parcel depot over the weekend, that should tell you something about how safe parcels are!.
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Blackstuff
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Re: RFD charges....

#35 Post by Blackstuff »

The last few firearms i've had sent to my local RFD haven't even been sent by overnight/24hr delivery (varying from 48hr to 96hr) so they were lying about somewhere unsecured during that time troutslapping
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Dark Skies
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Re: RFD charges....

#36 Post by Dark Skies »

I've recently felt the sting of RFD charges. Two purchases where my FAC was sent off to be completed prior to the purchase. Then sent on to my nearest RFD. £35 a pop for merely receiving them and putting behind the counter for half a day. No paperwork to fill in at all. No storage.
Sadly we're poorly serviced for gun shops in Oxfordshire. So we're bent over a barrel and reamed.
Adenbourne of Witney closed down several years ago - Bruce didn't charge me anything at all by way of fees. I miss that shop too. Now I have to trudge all the way to Dauntsey for proper shooting supplies.
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Re: RFD charges....

#37 Post by capper »

It’s a shame it’s only Parcelforce that ship firearms other than a few specially licensed couriers, we do pay almost £30 to Parcelforce to ship each parcel plus a monthly account fee. The other price point to consider is insurance, we could argue cheaper guns don’t need it but if a customer doesn’t want to pay the extra for insurance & the item is damaged or nearly destroyed there is a claim to be made, I have to say that this is an involved system within Parcelforce & very difficult to get them to accept liability. The system within Parcelforce for firearms delivery is called Secure AM so anyone not receiving the item by midday the day after posting should be enquiring as to why it’s late. Antiques don’t require Parcelforce posting but when you consider the value of some items & the post office always ask what’s in the parcel, it makes me wonder what does the seller tell the post office at the time of posting as they have a sign saying that no firearms can be sent!!
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Re: RFD charges....

#38 Post by Christel »

Dark Skies, in reference to the fee you had to pay to the RFD, although there is no paperwork and the gun was put behind the counter...there is paperwork as the RFD has to update his RFD register and don't forget the insurance for the premises. Now, we do not charge for such a situation however I can understand why some do...there is also the time spent on the transaction, taking the gun in, dealing with the customer.
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Re: RFD charges....

#39 Post by Ovenpaa »

OK. My view now as an RFD.

We take guns in for customers fairly often, if it is a distant sale great I do not have to do anything, well other than deal with the customer who wants the gun shipping to me, then exchanging copies of RFD with the sending RFD, then receiving the gun and unpacking it and entering into my log book. Then handing over the gun to the customer, taking a copy of his FAC or SGC and writing it out of my RFD register. Oh, we also often end up supplying a blue plastic gun bag as the new owner does not always remember to bring one. That is the best part of an hour with faffing around.

For this, we do not charge.

What we do though is have a huge range of handy cleaning products on the counter which the customer invariably ignores and wanders off, on occasion without even a thank you. I even recently had a distant sale come in that I ended up having to repair whilst the 'customer' waited.

So, if the receiving RFD chooses to charge thirty five quid, fair play to them, in fact it makes me think I should be doing the same...

EDIT - beaten by the foreigner.
/d

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Christel
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Re: RFD charges....

#40 Post by Christel »

capper, please bear in mind that although the PO takes firearms if there is an RFD involved at either end, if the parcel exceeds the dimensions for PF24 then it reverts to PF48 which is not allowed.

It is a bit weird how PF operates, the price paid per parcel is down to when one opened an account. I know of people within the trade paying less than a tenner per parcel...it has nothing to do with volume.
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