Any one have the same experience ? I wonder if someone has a warranty problem and you'll  be stuck with a company that doesnt have a way of expediting your prioblem. Even pickng up the phone , they have no one to respond. Its all voicemail .
I  emailed them instead regarding status of my order and i hope they will respond.  Its been two weeks already and no word yet.

Didnt someone here had a bad deal with them before and he went further as to involve the AZ Attorney General? That seems to be a redflag  on this company.

From what I have heard, they build some excellent rifles but their customer service not the best.

This.

Lancaster is a fucking joke to deal with direct.  Both Chet and Mike are conveniently "out of the office" unless you are calling to place an order.  

Lancasters business practices are about as crooked as it gets, they'll never get a dime from me.  Too bad considering its a local company to me.


D.

They likely just don't encourage direct sales.  They'd rather sell 50 to a dealer than 1 to Joe Arfcommer.



I've heard similar stories about other places.

Aside from the whole "my dog ate your AK" stories on why it would be delayed, actually talking to either Chet or Mike was very easy.  They are probably on vacation or something for the holidays.  I personally preferred missed deadlines than getting a bad rifle.  As I have posted before, it is worth the wait and they will send you an email or call you when it has been built and about to ship.  Not the best business practices in the world, but they are a legit company and will make you wait a long time but not send you a bad rifle.  If you have read this site enough, you should know already that this is how Lancaster works.  I am not terribly happy about the 100% downpayment before the rifle is shipped policy, but once again I would rather wait a month or 3 and listen to whatever excuses than take my chances with century or worse.  At least I know I am going to get a good rifle that will last a lifetime.

I bought mine direct with Lancaster and that was two weeks ago.  I  hope it will come soon.
I used their email address regarding order status and up to now no reply.  I called by phone, too ,  and left a message to call me back and still no call back.  Maybe they are closed  today.




If i have to buy another AK, it wont be from them. It will be from AIMs or ATlantic. Lesson learned .

Don't send them an email as that will rarely get a response.  Calling works better, especially if they pick up.  If they don't answer, they are probably busy, so try again later.  I had a warranty issue that involved sending a weapon back for repair.  They ended up giving me an entirely new rifle.  Since they do a lot of large contracts, individuals aren't their first priority, as volume sales are where they really bring home the bacon.  If you want a really nice AK though, they build them at Lancaster.  Just be prepared to be patient.

I think this is the third thread I've read about how crappy Lancaster is to deal with directly. I was wondering why people are ordering from them directly? What is the advantage of ordering direct? I've read good things about Atlantic and AIM. I just ordered from Atlantic on 12/7 and it should arrive at my FFL tomorrow.

There is none, and I honestly don't know why people do it. Last year just before one of the big local gun shows here in Phoenix, people were on one of several Lancaster Arms threads that have been started on this board. All of them were bitching and moaning about how Lancaster is 3 months behind on their order, they won't return phone calls, they promise this, but deliver that, and on and on. Has it turned out Lancaster Arms had one of the biggest displays at the show, and had dozens of rifles for sale! Russian Red, Blond, Synthetic, and Underfolding furniture. Anything you wanted, cash and carry. Beautiful rifles all.

I know and understand this doesn't help the guy who wants one and lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, but it more or less proves Lancaster prefers to sell a slew of rifles at once, as opposed to individual sales. Be it at a large gun show, or through a large stocking dealer like Atlantic. Live and learn, as it appears nothing has changed from their perspective. Including the fact "Hussein fever" has died down, and the economy is as horseshit as their "personalized service".  Bill T.  

For what it's worth this is my Lancaster I picked up just one week before Hussein's coronation last year. I bought it from a local gun shop here in town. The whole deal took 15 minutes tops, and I was on my way with my new rifle. Lancaster Arms is about 8 miles from me in Goodyear, Arizona, a western suburb of Phoenix. If I ordered from them, I'd still be waiting. These guns are not that hard to find through stocking dealers.  Bill T.

The retail sales are an afterthought with Lancaster and they keep doing it as kind of a sideline
because they make much bigger profit margins but their first priority are to wholesale dealers
and the military.  When you have to fill orders for hundreds of these rifles, a single order is just
not going to be as high on the priority list unfortunately.  They have a very competitive price and
an above average quality product, but you might as well make up your mind in the beginning that
you will have to wait.  You are not necessarily getting a better price from them directly so unless
you want a stainless barrel you would be much better off purchasing a rifle from Atlantic or AIM.
Just my opinion on the matter

AIM said if I had a problem, all warranty dealings would be through Lancaster, not AIM.

Bushmaster operates similarly - but at least they answer the phone and tell you your item is still backordered - while they ship to dealers.

If I were to buy another Lancaster Gun, it would be from Atlantic Firearms for the reason just stated in the above post.  Bill T.

So there is no warranty issue, you are waiting for a rifle to ship right? Any update?

I just called Lancaster to inquire about the Tantal they're building for me.  I had ordered it on November 2, and was told it would ship in 15 business days.  (It's now been what...34 business days?)

Anyhow, Heather answered the phone, and told me Chet was unavailable to check on my order status.  I explained to her that I had called once before and never received a return call, and she promised she would call back.

An hour later, she did call back, and told me the order would ship this Friday.  She said they have recently been deluged with military orders, and are quite backed up.  So, it's supposed to be here next week.  I'll definitely be blowing up their phone if I don't see it next week.

My problem with Lancaster is not that it takes them a long time.  In and of itself, that's fine.  My problem with Lancaster, is that they do not properly manage customer expectations in this regard.  If it's gonna take 2 months, then fine...just tell me it will take 2 months.  Don't tell me it will be here in 15 business days, when you know damn well it won't.  Setting unrealistic expectations like that, just needlessly pisses customers off.

Oh well.  I just gotta keep reminding myself that it'll be worth the wait.

Lancaster is a bunch of crooks.  Im still waiting for them to refund my money on an order i told them to cancle over two weeks ago.  I was told my order would ship 11/30  Two weeks went by and didnt hear anything from anyone.  I started calling them one a day.  Finally got ahold of some girl.  She was snotty right off the bat.  She said it hadnt shipped yet.  I said why, it was suppose to ship 2 weeks ago.  She said it just didnt, OK?!  That really pissed me off, so i politely told her to cancel the order.  She said fine, and hung up.  Well, another 4 business days went by and still no refund on my card.  So i started calling every day again.  Finally i got some one to return my call.  She said i have a tracking number for you.  What?! a tracking number?  I told her i cancled my order about a week prior and im trying to find out why my card hasnt been refunded, im not looking for a stupid tracking number. She was kinda speachless, and transferred me over to the owner.  Man, you want to talk about some one who is a real dick, its him!  He didnt even want to listen to what i had to say.  He just kept saying how patetic i am for cancling an order.  Are you kidding me?!  How are you going to say that about some one you are trying to do business with.  Anyway, he said he was going to refund my card and told me to never call there again and hung up. That has been almost a week ago, and my card STILL hasnt been refunded.  So i turned it over to my credit card company.  Its under investigation now.  Shouldnt be too hard to prove since they cant prove a ffl recieved it.  So anyway, i also filled out a complaint with the better business Bureau.  Which by the way, they have a F rating with them.  I dont expect anything to happen with them. But,  Did write a letter to the Arizona Attorney General and my local ATF office.  :)

What scum.  I work in manufacturing (different industry) and every order is important whether its for one piece or 10,000.  How easy it would be for them to say "we're sorry that it's taking this long, we have a backlog of work and to make it up for you here's a discount on shipping or here's something for free and we'll expedite your order"  It doesn't take much to keep a customer happy.

We've really screwed up with some customers but we took full responsibility and made it right and they're still our customers.  No games, no tricks, just honesty.

http://www.bbb.org/central-northern-western-arizona/business-reviews/guns-and-gunsmiths/lancaster-arms-in-goodyear-az-1000002667/

I just confirmed the F rating with the BBB, I was looking at the AK-74 they made, I wont be buying that one.  Thanks for the heads up.

Dealing with Chet is like dealing with a Dirty Used Car Salesman

That story reflects my experience pretty well......  I never bothered to post details of my experience but if this is common practice for them then I feel the need to warn other potential buyers.

To make a long story short, my order was about a month past when it was supposed to be done.  I called and left a total of 7 messages with Heather (the female that you speak of) over a two week period and 2 emails, one to Chet (main owner) and one to Mike (the co-owner).   I never receiver a call back from any of the messages I left.   I finally called one morning and was given the usual response "Thanks you for calling Lancaster..... sorry Chet's out of the office today..... no sorry Mike is out sick today, can I take a message....."  (I swear this is how EVERY SINGLE phone call went down).   After leaving yet another message I had my father call back about 2 minutes later acting as if he wanted to place an order and SURE ENOUGH...... he was put right through to Chet.

At that point I hopped on the phone and identified myself to Chet and was instantly put and hold and transferred back to Heather.  My suspicion had been confirmed and as soon as she got on the phone I straight up asked her what kind of games they are playing over there.  The conversation actually got comical at that point with her accusing me of yelling at her (which I was most certainly not) so I went ahead and dropped my voice into a soft whisper while giving her the credit card info to process the refund.  As soon as I finished reading off the card info I hear the distinct click of being hung up on.

It was by far the worst experience I have ever had with a company.  Not something you would expect from the gun community and most certainly not from a local company.

BEWARE to anyone looking to buy a Lancaster product!!!


D.

Stuff like this gets around, and you could have a great product but sales will drop off just because buyers perceived you as being a dick.



First, direct sales dry up - then right down the distribution channel.



Is this a division of JAC?

Just Another Con?

Received the same treatment. Still waiting for my refund.



 
 
 
 
 
 

If you are still waiting on a refund, then do like i did and  contact the attorney general of arizona and file with the better business bureau.  If the attorney general gets enough complaints he WILL have to do something.  I just dont understand how those people are still in business if this is how they treat people.  So did you turn this over to your credit card company??

JAC=Seen-Her

They're still in business, because retail sales to the general public constitute only a small slice of their business.  Their big business is military sales, followed by dealer sales.  Direct retail sales to the public are just an after-thought, as is painfully obvious given their inability to deal with the public.  

I know that earlier this year, they had a note on their website that said they were going to cease taking orders directly from the public.  I believe their cut-off date was February.  Obviously, they changed their mind for some reason, because here it is 10 months later and they're still selling to the public.  But seeing as how they clearly don't have the staff, organization or resources to deal with public orders/inquiries, they probably should get out of the retail sales business.  They should focus on what they're good at (building rifles), and leave the sales to other companies that depend on good customer service to keep the doors open.

I still like Lancaster's rifles, and would buy those rifles again.  But I will also never buy direct from them again, as I don't appreciate getting my order weeks and weeks after I was told I'd get it.  To say nothing of the interest-free loan they get from me when they charge my card, but don't ship until much later.

Eeeeeeasy, Car dealers are better than this!

I believe it has been approximately 14 months now since I first ordered a rifle from Lancaster.  After several errors over the course of many months, the first of which MAY have been the FFL's fault, I called a couple of weeks ago to get a refund.  This all began when everything was backed up during the election period, and I knew getting into it that I was going to have to wait a couple months or more to get the rifle.  I never dreamed that over a year later, I'd still be dealing with these folks.  

I would certainly never deal with them again and I would advise anyone against Lancaster, but I MIGHT understand dealing with Atlantic or another vendor depending on whether or not one would be required to deal with Lancaster if there was ever a problem again on the rifle.  

I honestly don't want to get into the details.  However, I have multiple typed emails to a couple folks at the company and their responses to those emails, and if they fail to get my money back to me within the next 30 days I will be posting them all here along with the whole story, and all over the internet including sites like ripoffreport.com, and I'll be contacting the proper authorities.  

I've never seen anything like this; this is EXPONENTIALLY worse than any customer service experience I've had in my life.  It's beyond negligent; it is disrespectful.  I just can't even think of a point of comparison that is even close.

I completely agree.  I have never been treated this bad by a company before.  I mean they have done everything but say F you we have your money and there isnt anything you can do about it.  Like i said, these people truly are scum.  But if you have problems with them, send an email to the az attorney general.

So essentially what you're saying is the best way to get them to ship - is to cancel the order?

I'll post my email from chet along with yours.



I'd trust obama before I'd trust lancaster.





 

I called them today and had a nice convo. with a couple real nice gentlemen. seems like a top notch place,

Yeah they're real nice as long as your calling to place an order!!


D.

Exactly!  They returned my call with in 5 minutes when i said i wanted to place an order.  When i called for tracking my order or questions about it, it would be a day or two.

Its been three weeks since I made the order . But when i called the lady said they will ship  this week before Christmas, I ll give them time. She said they have a hard time making those RR 74s bec the big dealers are swamping them with orders. And reading from some who ordered from AIMs in the first week  who now are still waiting, it s obvious they have a high demand of this particular model.

Yes, I also called Lancaster a couple weeks ago, and they said my rifle (the one I ordered on November 2) was finally shipping on December 18th.  Apparently it didn't, though.  

I'm debating calling on Monday to cancel the order.  It's the second time they've given me a completely bogus shipping date, and at this point I'm kinda tired of playing that game.

Thanks, Blaine.

Unfortunately, I ordered a fixed-stock Tantal, which is not one of their more popular/common AK's.  In fact, I think they're sold out at the moment.  Or at least, when I ordered it on November 2, Lancaster claimed that they only had 3 original Tantal kits left.

I paid $799 for it, which is the going rate for a well-built, excellent condition Tantal build with original, all-matching Polish parts.  Complete, matching-number Tantal kits like this WITH the original barrel are becoming hard, if not impossible, to find these days.  And that's where I have a little hesitation in cancelling...it's not like I can just turn around and buy this somewhere else.

But, I've also read a few horror stories here of people STILL not receiving their Lancaster rifles six months later.  And I also fear that the longer it takes, the greater the chances that I won't get what I actually ordered...a matching-number gun with original barrel.  So, I'm very tempted to just write this one off and cancel anyway.  I have a big problem with Lancaster sitting on $800 of my money for two months, when they originally told me my order would ship in 15 business days.  

If you DO somehow have any access to this gun from Lancaster, I will cancel from them in a heartbeat and send my money to Atlantic.  In fact, if I had known this would be such a hassle, I would have just called you guys to begin with to see if I could place the order through you.  I would have happily paid the 10% (or whatever you charge) special ordering fee to have been able to avoid this delay.  

Thanks again, Blaine.  I appreciate your concern and willingness to help.  Lancaster makes great rifles. It's just a shame that "customer service" is seemingly a foreign concept to them.

Yes this Company is real bad. They never replied to the BBB. The BBB has send them 3 letters and not once they took the time to answer to them. Ok they do not have to but this shows how much they care and how so very poor there Business Practice is. Customer Service I do not think they know what it is. I was the one that got the AG involved some time ago. This is situation is not resolved and still waiting for a resolution. The next step I took a few weeks ago was to write a Complained to the FTC. I think the next step will be to take them to Court to get my money back (how ever the small Claims Court in AZ has a cap of $2500 and since I spend way more I can not go this direction. The funny thing is when you write an e-mail to them asking to make a Purchase they answer very quickly and are eager to do what ever it takes to make the sale. I have done this a few time to see if they even check e-mails and they do. As I stated before I would not purchase anything from them nor would I support a Company that sells there Products this also includes Atlantic and all the other Companies. Any Company who does Business with them should be a shamed. In the end if there are problems with you weapon (if you ever get one) you will have to get the Warranty work done by Lancaster. The other thing that I like to point out is that the Company actually is called Lancaster Consulting but there Web page is called Lancaster Arms. I told the BBB that this was very confusing to someone that wanted to do research on this company. They have now combined these 2 Companies into one online profile. Just have a look on the BBB Page and you will see how poor of a Rating / Reputation they have. ( http://www.bbb.org/central-northern-western-arizona/business-reviews/guns-and-gunsmiths/lancaster-arms-in-goodyear-az-1000002667/ ) Again I can only tell you from my personal experience that you should not conduct business with this Company. But everybody has to make this decision for them self. This is not a Story I can back this up with the letter from the AG and all the other letters & e-mails I send. I also have the Phone Bills to back up that I made 12 calls. I also have e-mails where they state that lead times are 5 to 25 days. The reason why I bought from them Directly is because they gave me a great Discount. I will be more than happy to also post all my e-mails and all the Screen shoots I have may be this way we can achieve something.

I only hope i get a call from my FFL dealer this week.  Lancaster has promised me to send the tracking no but no email from them so far. So im at a lost whether  its on the way or not.  COntacting Lancaster again and again is futile. We know its the same promise time and time again. Thats the  worst part. But they promised to give me a good rifle from what the lady said. So  I will wait and hope they do their part. I was hoping to have a christmas present  but it didnt happen. Hope it willbe a New Year's present this week . If not, then next week... LOL

I called Lancaster today, and told them that I'd like to cancel my order.  As usual, I got the "We'll call you back".  To my surprise, Chet did actually call me back 30 minutes later.  This time, I was told that my rifle was done two weeks ago, but that some machine broke and they couldn't make the custom wood until...today.  What a coincidence that I called today, huh?  

I was promised by Chet that a tracking number would be emailed to me on Wednesday.  If I don't get that tracking number on Wednesday, that'll be the THIRD time they missed a promised shipping date, and I will thereafter adopt a "three strikes, you're out" attitude and will cancel for certain.  

QFT



Yes, I quoted myself.





 

+1

If the cap on small claims lawsuits is $2500, perhaps some of us could join together and file as a group?  I see 8 complaints on the better business bureau site, and numerous folks have been ripped off here.  What do you folks think?

I'm not sure "ripped off" is the correct choice of words, unless there are some people here who have cancelled an order and not gotten their money back after some reasonable period of time.  And unless someone has actually, truly been "ripped off", I'm not sure there is any claim here.  As for filing as a group, there are only two ways to do that...a class-action, and a so-called "mass action".  Generally, the expense involved means that these are filed for bigger issues than what we're talking about here.

The best way to deal with Lancaster is this: if not happy with their service, call and ask for a refund of any monies paid.  If they don't promptly refund the money, do a chargeback on the credit card.  If you're especially pissed, don't deal with the Better Business Bureau.  They are generally useless.  Instead, write a well-written, detailed complaint to the State AG's office.  (And I emphasize well-written, because one of the longer complaints I saw on here about Lancaster, looked like it was written by a 3rd grade drop-out.  It's hard to take people seriously when they can't communicate in clear, written English.)

BTW, I called Lancaster this morning to cancel my order.  They were supposed to have sent me a tracking number last Wednesday, per Chet's promise to do so.  As I should have guessed would happen, I never received a tracking number nor a rifle.  This latest (third) promise to ship was just one more blatant, unapologetic lie from Lancaster.  It's just sooooooo frickin' disrespectful.   One has to wonder what in the hell they're thinking, when they promise a ship date and then don't ship.  Do they not understand that people talk about such things on the Internet?  Do they simply not care?    

Regardless, when I called this morning, I was told, "You need to talk to the owner."  

I told them, "No, I don't.  I just need you to tell the owner my name, and that I cancelled my order.  There's really nothing more to discuss.  And besides, if I talked to the owner, I wouldn't believe anything he told me, anyway.  Oh, and if my money is not returned IN FULL to my credit card by noon on Thursday, I'm just going to do a chargeback, and I'm not going to give you the courtesy of a phone call before I do it."

She said she would pass my message along.  And that was that.

I really wanted this rifle, but not at the continuing cost of doing business with Lancaster.  I'll somehow find a way to live without it.

Those are good suggestions.  I DID in fact cancel my order over 4 weeks ago and have not received a credit.  I called today and Chet was out; I was assured he would call back when he got in and, not surprisingly, I received no such call.  I'm trying one more time tomorrow and then going to dispute the charge.  If that doesn't work out, I'll get a letter to the Attorney General.  I also worked for a US Congressman for years, and if it comes to it,  I'll be calling my caseworker friends at his office to see what sort of suggestions they have or what assistance they can offer.

I don't know exactly what you said to Lancaster when you cancelled your order, but whatever it was, it caused them to think they didn't need to take you seriously.  'Cause I hate to break it to you, but if you haven't gotten your money back within 4 weeks of cancelling your order, you ain't gettin' it back without a fight.

BTW, Chet was most certainly in the office today.  And yes, I know this for a fact.  You are being played for a fool by Lancaster.

What you need to do is call your credit card company RIGHT NOW, and do the charge back.  Lancaster is going to keep dicking you around, and will promise you whatever they think you want to hear.  I'm shocked that four weeks after cancelling your order, you still haven't called your credit card company.  At this point, what are you waiting for?  If they haven't given you your money back after four weeks, they have no intention of giving it back to you at all.  

Call your credit card company and do a chargeback, or resign yourself to the likelihood that you won't see this money again.  Your choice.

This just turns my stomach...I hate to hear crooked business going bad, thats just a damn shame!