Anyone who's ever read their terms should never do business with them.

It says that in stock items ship within three to five business days. But that's a lie. Or more specifically they lie about whether or not something is actually in stock or not.

Then when they lie about the in stock status of the item and or the shipping schedule they charge you a bunch of penalties for noticing or caring.

Absolute scum.

Nothing good to say about them, very dishonest and unethical.

For some reason they have a sorta-inside track with Steyr but I’d rather go without than deal with their terms.  I’ve heard enough.

Wish Steyr would build that relation with Pete Athens instead.

Kinda stupid they don't, since he's been around a while and still has a hard time stocking parts V1 seems to have available.

Management at steyr Alabama changed a couple years back. Around that same time, relationships changed and Pete took a back seat while V1 popped up out of nowhere as a steyr dealer.

Brilliant - give short shrift to the guy who's been around for decades to give a newer company with a shady rep favoritism.

Maybe because V1 has an actually ecommerce web store.  Pete's a bit behind the times Internet wise.

Steyr USA isn't much better than V1 either ... I've given up on them ... literally, the worst customer service and most disorganized operation I had to deal with ...

I truly hated that Pete got left in the dark.
With that being said, I do agree. His website is severely lacking.
It certainly is not user-friendly. It is not buyer friendly.
Pete certainly is one of the most knowledgeable of the business.
It’s very sad to see him get passed by and left out in the cold with out inventory

Steyr seems like a ton of wasted potential.

Pete is THE AUG guy.  Website could use an update but pretty epic mistake to cut him out.

Pete is the guy, he has put a ton of time and work into Steyr augs. Extremely friendly. However his website means he will never be taken seriously. He is a one man shop of old. Great guy, cares a lot, but hard to order from. A big reason for this is everything that happened with microtech. That disaster really set everyone back as a project that took a lot of time, care, and attention.

Steyr usa is an issue but it’s more because Steyr Austria does not care much about the American market and refuses to let Steyr usa do anything of substance. The Steyr usa guys are hamstrung by a very small company in Austria. People think they are the Steyr of old, but they are not. They are a smaller operation than most, who are trying to maintain control and chase government contracts.

V1 is a small mom and pop shop. I mean that’s all who work there, or did when I shopped there. They are nice people to talk to and were active in competitive shooting. The policies on orders around Covid are not good and he let his anger take over in that argument, but they built a very good website that is years beyond many industry sites. As for why the policies are there, v1 is smaller than most think. They have to pay up front and a few orders that go unpaid severely damaged their ability to get more products in until they sell that inventory. They are not on the level of SGC USA in size, much closer to between a small shop and a drop ship home FFL.

Why V1 became a major player is pretty clear, a good website that is ahead of the competition. Why Pete got pushed aside is clear, a website you can’t order from and looks like you’re back in the 90s, maybe earlier. Why Steyr usa fails to innovate, is easily understood, a smaller European company trying to run a usa company like a small European one doesn’t work. It’s all pretty clear cut and unlikely to change. Every time Steyr usa gets new heads in, the comment is we are going to focus on more independent operations, however that does not ever happen.

I would expect Pete to be the go to for people who care to work with a giant in the Steyr Aug industry, I expect V1 to stay active with newer people who have never heard of Pete or are just shopping through google, and I expect Steyr usa to try, but fail at developing the brand state side due to Steyr Austria.

100% ... 100% ... now with the cracking polymer stocks ... it isn't going to help the cause either ...

Any Steyr wizards reading this that cen help me figure out model numbers?  Hs50 m1 models “appear” to have changed or are changing.   Called the US operation, they had no idea what I was talking about, couldn’t ID their part numbers etc.

I don’t know much about the hs50 but can always try, otherwise I would check in with TnSteyr, he general knows what’s going on.

Thank you!!

You won't ... the US Steyr operation is an absolute joke ...

Semi related, I ordered a new trigger housing for my Aug M1 by giving them the part number that's molded into the housing, but it's the wrong part number

I've had an extremely uncommon part on order with them since 2017...

Edit - “them”, meaning steyr Alabama

I'm lucky then, as they just give me the run around when I ask them question and no answers when I ask the person they recommend.  Figured that must be part of the Teutonic charm.

So, if I buy a Steyr Rifle, I should expect less than good support?

That has been my experience ... Steyr USA sucks at customer service ...

I never had a issue, the problem from what I have heard is getting ahold of them, once you get a person k the phone it’s fine but waiting on a email is going to be a long wait.

I used to order from V1 quite a bit but Thoroughbred and Titan are now my go-to for LMT.

John just rubs me the wrong way in how he will write you on FB complaining that you liked a competitors post and ask you to go and like V1's post.

aren't they mainly a drop shipper?

No, not in my experience.

Ditto on now using Titan Defense over V1 Tactical.  I never liked their allocation system.

For many things 100% yes. They stock very few things. Special orders and setups. Like the Aug barrels 14.5

No! They do NOT actually have the 14.5" barrels in stock! They are lying about that! Look at the expected delivery time vs. what they say is the standard for in stock items. That's part of why I am pissed off with them.

tsh77769

I agree but they act more as a drop shipper, they don’t really stock much. V1 is closer to a table top FFL than a gun shop. Unless something changes in the last few years, there is no brick shop, it’s done out of a house with little room to stock much beyond special orders. That is the main reason their refund or return policy is so rough, they do not want something on hand that isn’t being picked up or bought immediately. Otherwise it takes room in a house, not on a wall in a shop. They have just done a lot of work and spent their money on the virtual store front so they appear like a gun shop.

I have over 45 orders from V1 over the last 3 - 4 years and not a single one was drop shipped.

Disclaimer:  I have no relationship with V1 Tactical other than being a customer over the years for a few boutique seldom seen items.  I've also never had any sort of customer service trouble with them.  

I think some users here don't understand V1's retail business model, and as a side note what Pete at PJS actually did to support Steyr AUG components since the 1990s.  

V1 to me is not a drop shipper, but instead a reliable manager of group buys.  Most outfits like LMT and Steyr and Knights Armament typically  don't fulfill small capacity orders from individual commercial buyers.  They're going to require an authorized dealer to meet terms of purchasing say 200+ units with terms paid NET 90 days, which means all cash up front and they'll send the bulk products when their run and QC is complete.  That means V1 sets a pre-order allowing you to pay up front 100% of the cash for an item and when it arrives they ship it to you.  If you back out, they'll charge you a restocking fee and then put up the AUG barrel or M203 receiver on an auction site because they're already on the hook for paying for it.  Any customer demanding instant gratification for exotic items like Steyr parts and LMT M203 receivers probably needs to get out of this space and stick to more mundane Sig-USA, Ruger, Brownells, and Anderson offerings that commonly appear at retail sale.

I’m assuming you picked them up at their non existent store? Or did you have it shipped to your FFL? Because while they did have excuses why they didn’t have a store front or when it would be up, they 100% operated out of their home and did not have anything in stock. The in stock was what they could get, it wasn’t in their garage, it was ordered to them and sent out. I have ordered from them as well and been to their home for pick up when the guns that were “in stock” actually came in, because there isn’t a store. Very few items were ever in their possession before that order came in.

I have used them exclusively for LMT gear and all regulated items have shipped to my FFL while unregulated is shipped to me. Each item has come directly from V1.

I have not bought from them since January. Their pre-sales service was always great but I found that whenever there was an issue with the items I received, John was unresponsive and I generally would have to work with his wife who, to be fair, was always great. As I mentioned above, John just rubs me the wrong way in how he gets upset if someone likes a competitors post on FB and does not like his. Never liked or continued to deal with people like that and John is no exception.

I've ordered from V1 a few times, all LMT stuff.  Everything arrived directly from LMT.  Had an issue (received wrong item) on my last order and was handed off to their LMT rep.  I have not ordered from them since and would be slow to do so again.

I’ve done business with them 3-4 times for LMT stuff. I’ve had zero issues with any order.

Five different orders with them and zero issues

I have placed quite a few order through them for LMT stuff. Their prices were pretty good on most of the items and were better than titan defense at the time. The allocation system really sucked sometimes but I never had to pay the difference if the item went up in price before it shipped. John seemed pretty responsive to my emails too.

I bought from them once.  It went fine.   Guess they had what I wanted in stock.

I agree.  And Pete is a solid dude.  That said, he really needs to update his website.  Basically you have to call him to order anything l, or find out if he has anything.  - and he might or might not answer the phone, even during business hours.  It's a cottage-industry web site, for something that's really at least one step above cottage industry.  

Sorry his Steyr relationship diminished.  Also sorry Steyr connected with someone who historically has a bad reputation.  Though as noted, my 1 purchase went fine.

Ordered from V1, order came in.

Ordered from Pete, they came in.

No issues for multiple orders.

Seems like a great synopsis
I waited a long time for a m203
But it was a good price

I think my M203 wait was 10 months.  LMT only makes occasional runs of these.  V1 shipped it to my FFL in three days after they received it and they sent an email telling to to expect it about a week before they received their bulk shipment from LMT.

People's options are to pay the whole price up front at V1 and wait until their receiver comes in, or they can go to one of the other authorized LMT vendors where the page reads "Out Of Stock" and hope they'll get notified many months later by email to click a "Buy It Now" button before they sell out in an afternoon at +$200 over MSRP.  Lastly, they could go to Gunbroker and enter a bidding war ending at +70% of MSRP price tacked on, including auction fees.

Suddenly, V1's managed group buy method looks like a blessing.