So I bought a can from silencershop, well, I bought 4 cans actually.  3 of them are now sitting at my local dealer, but one of them still has not been approved.  I have contacted Silencershop several times to figure out what is going on with this and they haven't provided me with anything yet.  They went from the standard line of "it could take up to 6 weeks" to the "we're checking on it" line.  That was a week and a half ago

anyone have any guesses as to what could be going on?

EDIT
This was originally posted when I was at 71 days

NOW IT IS AT 104 DAYS, Last heard from SS over two weeks ago despite numerous emails

My guess: They're still awaiting ATF approval.

71 days leads me to believe that something is wrong, no?

Have a customer who bought 2 cans and one is still showing in stock via eFile and one does not. Both were mailed in before eFile came online, if that is 'online' is what you would call the site.

It's a random crap shoot for the most part.

The one I'm waiting on is at day 41 and counting.

Found this little gem of information.

Silencer Shop crashing e-forms

When the ATF announced that they were launching a digital system for submitting the paperwork required to own and sell National Firearms Act regulated devices (gear like silencers and machine guns), there was much rejoicing. The old paper system was causing massive bottlenecks and the time and energy the ATF puts into digitizing those records before they are approved could be much better used stamping documents and mailing them back out. It promised to slice processing times down to a bare minimum. And for the first couple months people were getting their approved Form 4's back in 60 days or less. But somewhere along the way . . .

The system started becoming unstable and nearly impossible to use at times, and some dealers reverted back to using paper as it just wasn’t worth their time to try and use a system that was so unreliable. According to my sources, some FFLs and even the ATF are starting to complain that the cause of glitches and delays is a single shop deep in the heart of Texas.

The following email was sent from a South Carolina gun store and pretty much sums up the situation:

"We have received some information recently regarding one of the main problems with eForms.

Remember that email we sent Monday regarding that one silencer seller in Texas? Well, they are apparently contacting SOT’s, and offering to do ALL of the paperwork on the SOT’s behalf. Form 3 from them to the SOT, then the Form 4 to the customer. All they need is for you to make them a submitter under your eForm account so they can complete the Form 4, they will do the rest and be in contact with the customer.

We cannot emphasize ENOUGH that we think this is a TERRIBLE idea. It would be akin to letting a third party handle all of your banking because you don’t want the extra hassle. Just give them your account and routing number along with your card information, and they’ll take care of you, suuuuuuure.

Once they have access to your account, they have the ability to do WHATEVER they want.

They can withdraw submissions, submit Forms without you knowing if you aren’t paying attention, etc. This is the ATF, people. Do you really want a third party who is essentially EVERYONE’s competition having access to your most important work?

Also, a big reason eForms is not working is because said dealer has figured out how to ‘batch’ Forms and submit them all at once, which locks down the system, and gives them pretty much exclusive access. So your frustration at the ATF can now be directed towards them. NFA branch is working on a fix for this, hoping to roll it out next week."

The gun store in question is The Silencer Shop in Austin. We talked to the owner and confirmed that they are using a batch processing system to upload all of their NFA paperwork each day in an extremely short period of time, and are running a pilot program offering to do the same for other shops. They say that the reason they’re offering to add other people’s paperwork to their batch process is to keep as much load off the E-Forms website during the day as possible, but speculation is that they might be trying to position themselves as the “Buds Gun Shop” of silencers — an online presence where customers can purchase silencers and then pick them up at their local FFL/SOT. Part of that is making it as attractive as possible for the local gun store to use their services, and what’s more convenient than having someone else submit all the paperwork for you?

Our sources at the ATF’s E-Forms division have parroted the same claims, that the extremely large uploads of applications by this one shop is the primary cause of the instability and slowness in the E-Forms website. Well, that and the shoddy design. They say that the end result of The Silencer Shop using their batch uploading process is that they more or less are able to hog the E-Forms system all to themselves, since the website’s stability is so unpredictable that no one else wants to use it.

The owner of the Silencer Shop is calling shenanigans on that claim. According to him, forms are only being batch uploaded between the hours of 4 and 5 AM, at the rate of about four every minute. According to him, concentrating their submission of forms between those hours improves the system for everyone else because it’s one less big player in the NFA world using the system during the day. In his opinion it’s the crappy design of the website that’s the cause of the issue for everyone else, and the ATF officials we talked to are simply trying to point the blame for the failure of a website on someone else. He says that they’ve heard the same claim from other people throughout the day and they’re working to rectify that perception.

What exactly is going on is still somewhat murky. We’ve known for months that the ATF’s E-Forms website is a complete and total failure on health.gov levels of technical head-up-assitude, and it makes sense that other shops trying to use the same system would want to find a specific target for their frustration. But it’s also possible that the batch uploading process could have an unknown negative impact on the E-Forms website, given the bubble gum and bailing wire nature of the design. We’ll keep an eye on the situation.

If that article were true, you're telling me that SS is selling thousands of cans per day?

Let's say 250 cans a day.

If 250 form 3s crashes your site, it's junk.

It's reeeeally bad. It takes days at times to even get in and then you have to hope it doesn't crash half way through submitting it. And some wonder why FFLs are considering eFile fees to cover the hours it can take to eFile...

I don't get why people don't understand there isn't a set standard they operate on.

The ATF has said they can take 3-5 months. It hasn't even been 3 yet.

Not uncommon.  My form 2s (which are just a notification, not even a transfer!) have been taking 60+ days and my last form 3 was over 90.

Just received shipping notification today for my SBR, form 3 filed Feb 6th and my suppressor from silencershop.com, form 3 filed Feb 13th. Should see them both at my dealer on wed!

Nope.  I have had Form 3's take over 100 days recently.

85 days now.  SS said they called ATF and it turns out the "file was corrupt".  Apparently ATF told them they would rush it and it would be one to two weeks from then (March 20th)

It's been 14 days since then

I purchased my can from a shop "deep in the heart of Texas" and they forgot to check their fax machine when my local dealer faxed their info to them for the form 3.......that added several weeks.

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/03/foghorn/atf-issue-cease-desist-batch-nfa-paperwork-uploading/

Maybe this will help knock batch processing down....

I'm at 120 days on a form 3 from RSR to my dealer for a SF 762 Mini

I'm sitting at 104 days, there is still no information coming my way from SS

At this point they about up there with Larue on their customer service <------ that is bound to piss some ML fanboys off hahahaha

I'm not sure what you're expecting here. Do you really think SS has the time to check on everyone's transfer status? That would eat up a full time person at the ATF alone!

I read or watched somewhere that SS was approaching $1M in sales per month.  Using an average of $1K/suppressor that would be around 33 per day.

Based on my limited personal experience, as I realize things are extremely variable lately with factors like paper vs eform, govt shutdown, NFA contractor/staffing levels in constant flux, disorganization/errors in NFRTR, increased form submissions, etc... I'd think 100+ days is extreme for a form 3. I recently had a form 3 approved (submitted Feb 12, approved march 26). And I certainly would also expect SS to follow up on it considering it seems to be quite the outlier at this point. I mean, given their advertising/claims of ease/and what seems to me to be an understanding of the importance of customer service which so many others in this industry completely lack I'm surprised this guy is having such trouble with getting them to look into it and provide info.

Let's face it, SS has more access/contact/relationships with ATF/NFA Branch than most due to a variety of reasons.

Can anyone call and check on their Form 3 or does SS have to do it?

Did you buy all four at once?  If so you might want to take a look at the form 3 that the other three came to your dealer on And see if the 4th can is on there as well.   Let's just say I am in a very similar situation.

The sad thing is I had a paperform 3 submitted in mid march 14? and it was approved paperwork in hand april 14th. Had a efile form 3 submitted march 4th and still waitingn on that. Just garbage.

Wow!  My Form 3 was efiled on 2/28. Waiting....

This is how I feel.  I don't expect SS to make daily calls on my stuff, but I haven't heard from them in 2 months despite several emails.

If you check SS forum you'll hear about a guy in your same situation, and he finally called the ATF with his info and he found out that it had been approved 40 days previous. I'd call the ATF once you have your number and all that.

My Form 3 Debacle: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_486/248695_What_Happened_.html

61 days for the Form 3 transfer to complete.



Form 4 submitted 04/22/14 by the SOT.





 

Ordered from SilencerShop? E-filed Form 3?

ETA: just got the email from SS that my Form 3 was approved today. It was e-filed on 3/8. now the long wait begins.

So can anyone give me the phone number for the ATF?

Try their Web site?

Silencershop paper formed my Form 3 on 4/11 and it came back yesterday and will be at my dealer 5/2.  So around 20 days for me.  Maybe this means they are getting shit done faster like they said they would?

(304)616-4500


Like I said previously, SS caused my forms to be delayed several weeks because they didn't check their fax machine for my paperwork......or so they said.

Paper Form 3 - 20 days?

Efile Form 3 - 59 days?

Nice!

I have two Form 3's out that are taking forever.

FFL/SOT info provided:
16 Jan 14 to GPI in Florida for building an SBR
31 Jan 14 to Spiwak for subgun

This seems overly long based on quicker turnaround I'm seeing reported for others.

Should I be worried yet?

I originally bought it 3/27 and the said they would e-file it. Two weeks later e-file goes down and I ask if it went through and they said it didn't and I could wait for e-file to come back or paper form it now and wait 90 days.  I said paper form it and somehow it got back in 20 days.  I'm going to paper file the form 4 as well.  This e-form bullshit is clogging up the system I think and they probably have way less paper forms to deal with so they are burning through those quicker methinks.

That goes in line with what was posted in another thread today:




I asked SS.com if the F3 data on their ATF Wait Times page included paper forms (since it's labeled as Electronic) and Roy said:



So...we should see that info soon, as you've indicated the approvals have started.

My late March 3/26 approved eF3.

I guess I'll submit paper F4.

I'm truly at a loss on how the hell they're processing these things. I had a form 3, paper, from SS a week before Ed and it hasn't gone through yet. I've also seen people claim to having filed form 1's & 4's  a full month after me and go pending multiple weeks in front of me. I dunno what kind of monkey operation those assholes at Needy Rd are running but it's messed up. They're totally fucking with me. I simply can't envision administering a system that doesn't operate FIFO, or at least FIFO with a variance of <5 business days... But shit, 30+ days?! Might as well be a fucking lottery . nope, I'm not a bit ticked off with how slow they're dealing with my forms relative to the vast majority. Faaaaacçckkk! Don't rub it in fellas, I thought I was a pretty salty NFA guy but my 2013 forms are fucking testing my limits!

Nope.  I ordered from Armament Services International.  I don't know how they filed.
 

I feel your pain. The difference in examiners is tremendous.

Form 1, 11/9/13 Pending date, assigned to Whittington, approved 4/22/14 (the ones he approved before and after mine are all mid-Sep Pending dates)
Form 1, 11/4/19 Pending date, assigned to Cook, latest approval from him this week is on 9/13/13 Pending dates...who knows, maybe he got a stack of the first half of Sep? And then his next stack is the first half of Nov? Doubt it...

FIFO...not by my definition.

Finally figured out what happened

So I fell into a different black hole than some of the other guys.  My form 3 was originally submitted in January.  I called them every week after the 3rd week to follow up and kept getting told to hang tight.  It wasn't until March that they actually called the ATF on my behalf and determined that my trust doc file was corrupted.  They resubmitted in the middle of March and it was approved a few days ago.  If they would have actually followed up with the ATF when I called them and asked to do so it wouldn't have sat there for that long, it would have been approved earlier and my F4 would be in the EForm system.  

I feel that identifying the corrupt file is something that could have been done off the bat, maybe not by ATF directly but at the request of SS most certainly

I know they can't call the ATF on everyone's behalf, especially after 3 weeks, but I feel one quick call or email at the 4 and especially the 6 week mark for form 3's is not too much to ask.

I guess I have to file this one paper

Ummm, im really confused by what youre saying. They don't submit your trust docs with a form 3. Form 3 is for a tax-exempt transfer between SOTs. You/your trust are not in any way an involved party on a form 3. Further, the NFA branch shouldn't and in my experience doesn't allow you to check the status of a form you are not a party to. Only the SOTs involved with the transfer can receive information regarding the status of a form 3... Unless of course you claimed to be one of them when you called.

You're right.  I typed that in a hurry and wasn't paying attention.  My trust isn't what was corrupt, the form 3 file was corrupt.  Sorry about the confusion.  

I put this together from numerous phone calls to SS, I never spoke with the ATF

This isn't a he said she said thing.  SS told me on the phone that it was a corrupt file, but this is after 2 1/2 months or so, before that they just told me to keep waiting and never called the ATF but if they had it would have been clear that the file was corrupt and needed to be resubmitted

That's nothing I've been waiting since November 13 from SS as well.

ATF should sub the e-file to Amazon. 24 hours later you'd have a stamp.

NFA Prime ?



Normal $200 to ATF for tax stamp and an extra $50 to Amazon for "NFA Prime".  Amazon would make millions!

This is my idea! patented by edcurtis!  thank you!