Anyone Have Dealings with this Person?
 

I just had a very bad and costly experience with the person that lists guns as GATOMANN. Was wondering if anyone else has had problems with him? He lists a lot of guns especially Parker Reproductions on some other sites. Just wondering if I'm the only person that has had trouble with him.

I know he asks about twice what his guns are worth, but that's all. What did he do? You must tell us; my curiosity is getting to me :shock:!
Joe

He advertised a gun as a Winchester Model 21 "Baby Frame 28GA" new and unfired. Called him and went over the gun with him and he said it was 100% perfect condition and on the baby frame. When it arrived I opened it up to find the stock had a bunch of scratches so I got my camera, took pictures and called him. All of this was within 5 minutes of receiving the gun. Gun was well packaged in a Winchester hard case, nothing that could have scratched the gun. I called him and he said it wasn't like that when shipped but he would have it repaired. I reluctantly agreed to that and then I put the gun together and it felt heavy. Put it next to my 20Ga 21 and it was exactly the same size. Weighed it and it was 1 ounce lighter than my 20GA. Called my friend that owns a 21 baby frame and he measured and weighed it for me and his was 1 pound 15 ounces lighter than my gun. His barrels were shorter but that wouldn't account for 2 pounds. Called Galazan and they looked it up and low and behold it was a standard frame 28GA, not a Baby frame. By the way, the baby frame from Connecticut Shotgun is an $8000 option so you can see that makes a tremendous difference in the cost of the gun and the resale value. I called Gatomann back and told him I would be returning the gun because it wasn't what he had advertised. He again said it was a baby frame and I told him to call Galazan which he did. He found out it was a standard frame and then agreed to take the gun back. He had me ship it to his stock man for repairs to the stock which I did. I ask him when I would get my money back and he said I'm hunting it will be sometime after Christmas. When I told him that wasn't good enough I shouldn't have to wait he finally agreed to send it after the gun arrived at the stock man. I told him I expected the shipping to be paid by him since the gun wasn't at all what he advertised and he didn't say anything. I received the check yesterday and it was for the amount of the gun, minus the $220 shipping. So I was out several days time and $220. To my way of thinking he made the mistake, I should not have to pay for his mistake. Here is a picture of some of the scratches on the 100% perfect stock.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q...s/3bf63950.jpg

Here is a copy of his listing:
GI#: 100215519
SKU#: 1234
Title: WINCHESTER MODEL 21 BABY FRAME 28 GA.
Description: WINCHESTER 21 SMALL FRAME 28 GA. EJECTORS, SINGLE TRIG., 30"BARRELS, F/M , CIRCASSIAN WOOD , WINCHESTER LEATHER CASE W/COVER , NEWUNFIRED,

Price: $15,000.00

I agree that if a gun is delivered other than it was advertised the sell should pay shipping both directions. That goes even if the seller did not realize the gun had a flaw.

I agree. The gun was consignment (at least he told me it was) and I think the owner told him it was a baby frame and he took him at his word. Fact remains, he advertised it as one thing and it turned out to be something completely different and worth much less money. If roles were reversed I would definitely have paid the shipping, but what really burned me was he never once said I'm sorry about the mistake. Actually was indignant that I still didn't buy the gun.

You are 100% correct Gerry, and totally justified in your opinions of the situation.

Greedy and unprofessional. However, this is a money game played by finders and collectors. Could have been worse. For $220 we, on this site, have learned a valuable lesson about the 'Cat Man'. I say we take Gerry's $220, divide by the number of participants on this forum, and each send him our 'share'. Gerry took one for the team.

I'm in for $5.

No, I can afford the $220, I just want people to know this is not a person you want to deal with. To be honest, if he had even said, Gerry I'm sorry, the owner told me it was a baby frame gun and I just didn't check it out I would have understood. He actually got upset that I was returning it.

He's a check writing dealer, buys high end guns at auction, doubles or triples the price and waits for a sucker. He's the guy who bought Petersen's BHE 0000 frame .410 Repro for $12,000 and put it in his ad for three times that. He has now changed the description of the B Grade .410 to "A-1 Special three barrel set" at Price on Request. The pictures are still of the BHE .410. If someone sent him a check for a 3 barrel A-1 Special, he would be in the same boat Gerry is in, but worse. I saw the "Baby Frame" 28 some time back, knew it was described incorrectly, but what do you do? Many dealers have no idea what they have or they choose to lie about it. He is just one of many. Who is that guy anyway? The California Side by Side Society is a pretty important group. I'm sure he is one of them. What's his real name?

I dealt with Billie Bryant.