Ranting about Atlantic Firearms

[Rebel Yarr]

I recently had a pretty frustrating experience with Atlantic Firearms - thought I would rant!

Apparently these guys don't want customers - not only are there prices a bit outrageous on many items - when you do decide to order from them, this is what you can expect....

Rarely will they answer the phone on their end - you will most often get a recorded message...
They will charges you 3% for using CC - seems weird for an internet based company to advertise prices then tack on 3%
They will charges your CC as soon as you order on their site - then ship when they damn well feel like it!
If your FFL faxes them their signed FFL - they will throw it away unless it comes with a copy of your receipt.



All around, this was one of my worst online purchasing experience - glad I was able to cancel my order with them - but what piss poor customer experience.

[J in AZ]

I bought from them about 4 years ago. I got a really nice AK-47 at what was a good price at the time but as you say they had many hoops to jump through. If I remember correctly my FFL had to submit paperwork twice to get everything to Atlantic's liking even though I provided my FFL a list of instructions specific to Atlantic.

[Rebel Yarr]

Yeah, I got the feeling that they feel they have enough customers. I had a phone convo with the guy and he was more interested in canceling the order than finding my FFL info on the fax - In this economy I would rather spend the dough with those that value customers - new or existing.

They definitely have some nice items here and there that others aren't listing - but their prices are a bit over the top - especially for the level of service being offered.

[Phoenix]

I find their "policy" on almost every page to be particularly crooked. The item will be listed with an "Add to Cart" button, but, in the "fine print" way down below, it states that if you don't manually check inventory first and it's not in stock, you get raped $30.00 for nothing ("cancellation fee"). WTF?! They need to get a real e-tailing software package that registers inventory in real time, or, remove the Add to Cart button and have people order manually. It appears to me they want people to order, and then Jew them out of the money because they're not professional enough to have a proper e-commerce system.

This policy is a huge red flag, and I would advise people to avoid them because of it.

[Rebel Yarr]

Yeah Phoenix, they say to validate that the item is in inventory - prior to ordering. However- they do not answer the phone much and didn't respond to any of my e-mails.

It was a red flag to me as well - but they were the only option for an item I was looking at ;/

Must be some guy in his garage - with too much business - the site is all borked up in firefox as well - when ordering it looks like a 7th grader put it together.

I am disappointed as they have a lot of nice firearms - I always had assumed that they had their act together - guess not!

[Phoenix]

Yeah Phoenix, they say to validate that the item is in inventory - prior to ordering. However- they do not answer the phone much and didn't respond to any of my e-mails.

It was a red flag to me as well - but they were the only option for an item I was looking at ;/

Must be some guy in his garage - with too much business - the site is all borked up in firefox as well - when ordering it looks like a 7th grader put it together.

I am disappointed as they have a lot of nice firearms - I always had assumed that they had their act together - guess not!


They cater to Californians, and advertise often on CalGuns. Some items are available only from them, at least easily. It is a shame they don't understand "customer service," because they could make a lot more money if they lived it.

[Johnny Ringo]

I also got some stuff from them. Prices were decent, but with all the hoops you had to jump through, it wasn't a pleasant experience to order from them.

I finally stopped dealing with them when I discovered four of my SAIGA mags were actually AK mags. Kind of got the "we don't make mistakes" attitude over the phone, and then he insisted that I send back the mags on my dime (even though I tried to work something out to pay for and keep them since they WERE nice mags.) I have no doubt it was because he didn't believe me and actually wanted to look at them to make sure I wasn't BSing him. At the time I ordered, the steel Saiga mags were available - now they weren't and they sent me four of the poly ones. That's it. Nothing for my troubles or to cover the cost of me shipping the stuff back.

Contrast that with Bud's. They had a software glitch that let me order some mags or something that weren't in stock. I'd already mailed off the check for the order by the time they told me. So I said, okay, can I get 2 extra of the AR mags for the extra money I sent? I was going to come out a little ahead, but they agreed. So they sent me my mags, and then they sent a refund anyway. I told them about it, and they said it was all good.

Needless to say, I don't deal with Atlantic anymore, and Bud's gets a lot of my business.