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Posted: 8/25/2006 8:02:31 PM EDT
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I shoot a substantial amount of Black Hills ammunition for practice and recently placed an order from Fulton Armory only to have an interesting experience when I received my package. I usually place small "test" orders from online vendors to see what kind of quality/service I get. Basically, I ordered two blue boxes of 9mm, a blue box of 38 Special, and a red box of 223 77gr Sierra Matchking. Their site seemed a little in need of improvement but I have seen their name mentioned on this forum a few times and decided I would check them out. To start things off, within a day or two of me placing my order, I got a call from them asking me to give my CC # again. I believe the man on the phone whose name escapes my memory at the moment said something to the effect "Its not that we dont trust our employees but I just want to verify your card" or some such jib jab. He also wanted to inform me that he did not have the 77grain in blue box but did have it in red box so I gave in and replaced that portion of my order for the new ammo, no big deal. It struck me as extremely weird but I figured what the hell maybe that is just how they do business. Until I got my package... It arrived in a respectable amount of time and the UPS package was in perfect condition on the outside. It also required an adult signature, somewhat dissapointing since I almost was not home in time to pick it up. Well, once I picked it up, it sounded like the ammunition was packed loose on the inside, but that couldnt be. Sure enough, when I opened the box up, there was virtually no packing material in it and much of the ammo had come out of the boxes as a result. I took out my digital camera and snapped a few photos of the package. I want to emphasize that this is the exact condition everything was in when I opened the box. In the last picture, I moved one of the boxes to show more of the ammo that had fallen out and was tumbling around inside the package. I wondered why the hell whoever packed it even put any of the "peanuts" inside there, since it would have been just as well to only put in the ammo boxes and nothing else. There was also a "Motel 6" peice of plastic on the inside and one or two other pieces of garbage. The ammunition boxes are worn around all of their edges and seem like they are old. Fortunately, the ammo on the inside seems to be in ok condition and I did not see any major dings in it. I have emailed and brought this issue up with them but I have not heard as much as a peep in return. I figured I would share my recent experience with you guys as I would like to hear your thoughts on this... i83.photobucket.com/albums/j315/p229sas/FultonArmorysmall3.jpg i83.photobucket.com/albums/j315/p229sas/FultonArmorysmall2.jpg i83.photobucket.com/albums/j315/p229sas/FultonArmorysmall.jpg |
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The person you want to speak with at Fulton Armory is Clint McKee (owner). Call the service # and ask for him personally. I just had them build me a custom Predator in 5.56mm with a Douglas 18" SPR, Vortex FS. The rifle is of excellent quality reflective of top notch craftsmanship. During the build process they were extremely helpful. In fact, I worked directly with Clint during the build consultation. Semper FI |
First paragraph you say you ordered red box (new manufacture) .223 77 gr SMK. Second paragraph you say they did not have the blue box and you gave in and got the red.
eta: from your pictures, only the 9MM box is open and the .223 red box looked closed, and those look to be loose .223 intermingled with the packing foam. Did you get some extra 77 gr or did they come loose from the box? Is there a hole in the red box? |
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My first and last experience with them was about a month or so ago. Their website was indicating they had black hills 75 and 77 grain in the blue box. I ordered maybe 5-7 boxes of each to try in my new RR. They sent me an e mail thanking me for my ordere etc. I thought everything was fine. About a week after that they called me and told me they didn't have either in stock and blah blah it would be about a month on one and 3 or 4 months on the other. I said CANCEL the order since I saw midway had the 75 grain. About a month after that they called me about the order I had with them again. I said that was supposed to be CANCELED so cancel it. Not like to mess with them again. JRandyH |
the red box looks wide open to me, left side of the red box .223 has the flaps open on it....what are you seeing that im not? |
4 posts and your knocking a well known and respected rifle builder. hmmmmm...smells a bit to me. and test orders. you post pics when they get it right......right.  |
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F2: I said that I had ordered the red box since that is what the order got changed to by the time everything was finalized and shipped. I later state that my original order was indeed the blue box but of course they did not have any on hand, informed me of that and I had no problem with upgrading to the new manufacture. I said in my original post that the boxes were well worn as if they were old as you can see in the photos. They did not have holes in them. Also, you can clearly see the red box as opened in the photos. The photos show the EXACT condition the contents arrived in. I did not remove any ammunition from the boxes nor did I remove any packing material. All told, about half of the 223 and about a third of the 9mm in one of the boxes had fallen out. This was all due to the obvious lack of packing material and also a result of the worn out boxes of ammo which opened easily when tumbling around in there during shipment. There are some minor dings on my 223 but nothing major enough to make me ship it back. I apologize if I was not more clear in my original post as I expected the pictures to do most of the talking for me. BRONZ: If you tell me that this must have been a fluke since many have had good experiences with Fulton Armory, then I will take your word for it and even place another order in the future since two bad shipments cant happen in a row, right? I am sorry if I am coming across as disrespectful but I fail to see how my lack of posts on this forum takes away from my right to inform you guys about a bad experience I had with this company. I completely understand that this is possibly a "fluke" and that their business is not normally like this, but at the same time this does not justify the obvious lack of care I have been given after paying money for a product. I understand that some of you are loyal customers and I can respect that, but please dont try to justify bad service just because you have not had any problems. My main intention here is to bring this issue to light so that you are all aware of it. |
whatever... Let anybody bad mouth any of the forum's favorite's at 4 posts and see all the so called bitching 
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Laughable packing job, but it really isn't that huge of a deal. So some boxes fell open and some rounds fell out while it was being tossed around by FedEx. At least nothing was broken or it wasn't like 10,000 rounds all mixed together or something. It isn't good, but it isn't exactly a major doomsday prophesy. Someone there really needs to learn that it's actually necessary to put in more than three packing peanuts.... |
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My experiance with Fulton has been hit or miss.....I've never bought ammo from them only M14 parts.....I've received new mint condition parts to complete crap. Parts you wouldn't even give away ! and with thier outragous prices you would expect high quality....in any case the parts in question were returned for refund with no problems...considering those experiances and what they charge now for parts I'll look elsewhere. Longhunter |
All the BH I've ever gotten through them has had tape/sticker sealing the end. I don't want to be a dick, but I'd just laugh if I opened a box in that state and go shooting. That's just me, I'm not the type to send food back when it is cooked wrong or if it's the wrong thing I ordered. |
So post count is a right of passage to be able to tell your story with a vendor for a bad experience? Puhleeze.
Respected? Not by me. Clint has always come off as a holier than thou prick to me.... their stuff is overpriced, and I dont see them participating in the community. No thanks.
While I agree some people might sign up to knock someone.... this guy has a valid beef... let him air his complaint. He did try to contact them as he said. |
| P229AS: Please contact Fulton Armory and get their story and update this thread. Personally, I wouldn't have started a post before I had done that. Sure, you should expect to receive ammo properly packaged, but like I said - it's not fair to continue to gripe until you've determined if FA will make it right. Everyone can have a bad day - it's how they handle customer complaints that should determine the final verdict. |
+1 It's how a business responds to adversity that really tells you something about them! It is time for Clint to stand and deliver-call him and give him the chance! Harp 
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i believe he did contact them, and no responce as of yet, let the man vent, i would not be happy either if i got a box like that. maybe someone from FA reads the thread, it might improve his situation. FA is in the spotlight right now. |
| I am not defending Fulton Armory in this incident, all I am saying that I have ordered items from Fulton Armory in the past without any problems. Also, Fulton Armory recently rebuilt a M1 Garand of mine and did and excellent job with very good customer relations. |
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well I doubt the owner packed that up....so they have a crappy packer. Contact the owner so this does not happen again to some other person.... Most of the time that I order ammo from any online place they over pack it quite a bit....packing is cheap...pissed off customers cost quite a bit in the long run |
| Do something right- only five people hear about it, do something wrong and everyone knows about it. Let's see how Fulton plays out this one. I would have posted pics as well had I recieved something like that. Now he does owe us at least a follow up to see what Fulton did to help the situation. Otherwise I think a -1 on the review board is in order. C |
Have you confirmed that with UPS yet? Or is that just what the operator at FA told you? UPS doesnt "tamper" with packages then notify the shipper that they did. they steal packages. they lose packages. but they dont call you and say "hey, we tampered with that ammo order so your customer might be a little pissed, have a nice day." |
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