Quote History Quoted:
Do you have an FFL?
I'm curious, a dealer can't sit on an rifle in inventory and not in the books while waiting for sooner or later. I have seen people wait weeks to pickup a firearm.
View Quote
I have previously held an FFL and run a fairly large shop.
What are you talking about ? The firearm gets logged in with whatever information was provided. If the person that shipped it did not send the complete information you need there is nothing you can do except make contact and do your best to get it from them. You already accepted the pkg. it is in your hand and needs to get logged in.
The package came from somewhere ? With no other info you use what you have.
Example: Handgun shows up. No info in the box for whatever reason and the label got wet and the persons name is not clear or only a partial address. Other..?
You log it in with whatever info there is. Keep the screwed up label with your notes. If you are missing info you place a note on the box stating the firearm is not be transferred until the missing information is provided. You place another note on it detailing: call made. Email sent, etc. There is nothing else you can be expected to do.
You have shown good faith to obtain the information and reminded other employees not to transfer the firearm until information is updated. If the person that shipped it does not get back to you with the info. The only thing left is to wait until someone comes to pick it up. You then explain to them you are not transferring the firearm until you get what you need. It is that simple. 99.9% of the time the problem fixes it self when someone comes to pick it up.
If by some bizarre circumstances you ended up with a firearm and zero viable information then obviously a quick call to ATF and ask what they would like you to do.
I would just log it in as unknown or missing info and make sure you do not transfer it until it gets resolved.
As long as you are showing good faith to comply with the rules and resolve the problem as best you can the ATF is not looking to come after you. They also like to be informed when weird shit happens. We always called the local field office. It helps in 2 ways. They know you are working on a resolution and if compliance happens to show up while you are having an issue they can let them know you already informed ATF about it.
ATF compliance and field agents in many cases never interact with each other. Compliance is nearly a separate entity that runs around on their own.