Oh. Tom's post said he received the barrels with an invoice.

I didn't have to pay a thing. There was going to be a hell of a phone call if an invoice was sent with the gun.

My brother and I have been into the shop a few times in the last few years as it is local to where I grew up. I found the staff to be friendly and helpful, although my brother ran into similar problems as described above. He had the top lever spring in his L.C. Smith break and brought it in to Bachelder's for repair around March and was quoted about 2 months turn around time. Well, August rolled around and the gun was still not done. He called several times over the next few months and was told "a few more weeks" several times. He was finally able to pick it up in November, but obviously the experience left a sour taste in his mouth. Hopefully things pick up going forward.

I did pay the invoice. Stupid or not, I wanted the whole ordeal over with and was happy to get my gun back.

Sometimes peace of mind is worth something.

This is very sad. Brad would turn over in his grave knowing how degraded services at his shop have become

There's nothing like the feeling in your gut when you know you're getting screwed. Rest assured that passing the word around is going to cost them much more than $400 in lost business. What's really unfortunate is that simple honesty is all they need to continue to be successful. If they do good work at a reasonable price people may be willing to wait. Being blatantly dishonest is going to take them nowhere fast.

The one thing you can feel good about is that you're going to save a few guys some frustration and hard feelings.

This is why I really hesitate to recommend anyone. Great craftsmen often crash and burn when overwhelmed with success.

Good comment, Mark. An overwhelming number of guns on the rack in a repair shop is a sign that things are going south in a hurry. I have seen it happen here in Maryland more than once.

Yet some of them continue to accept new work knowing full well that they won't be able to keep to their commitment of when the job will be done.
If they would learn that it will NOT tarnish their reputation to simply refuse work so they can stay ahead of the workload while continuing to produce the fine work they had been known for... The smiths who haven't learned this fact will need to quickly change their business model if they are to survive.





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