On June 28 I stopped by Prairie Arms' shop in Littleton to talk about some pieces to put together my AR-15. I saw online that Olympic Arms lists them as their main/only Colorado dealer. I spoke with one of the guys there and settled on an Oly Arms upper. I placed the deposit and was getting ready to take off when he commented that I should check back within a couple of days to make sure that order had been placed'. This should have been enough of a red flag for me to ask for the deposit back as I also do some sales and would never dream of asking my customers to remind me to place their order, but I like to support local shops and they seemed to have that Mom & Pop' feel, so I decided I was ok with it.
I called the middle of the next week to double check on the order. What order? They forgot to place with the manufacturer and said that they would for sure get it placed right away. Several days later I double checked the status and they reported that the order had been sent. I asked the woman who works there what the approximate wait would be and she reported that she didn't know, but would call me when they get it'. I asked if she could check with the mfg. And let me know an approximate date, and she said she would find out and call me back. No callback. Each time that I would call them for status (if they picked up the phone seems that they do not much of the time) I was told that they didn't know when the part would be in but they would call me. On one occasion I stopped by the shop to check on status in-person and stood in the shop for about 10 minutes before being greeted. The guy behind the counter had a couple of his shooting buddies in and was too busy chatting with them to help me. I decided to call Olympic Arms the mfg. And see what the story was. They told that they did have a couple in stock of that model at the time of my deposit, but then ran out of stock shortly after. I asked how long it would be before the next batch was machined and ready and their rep said that the longest wait time for that part was 4-6 weeks.
Fifteen weeks later I have not received any updates from Prairie and called to request my deposit to be refunded. The guy said that he could not refund it, but he would have the other guy who was able to refund take care of it and contact me again no call. I finally decided that the only action to take was to file a chargeback on my credit card. I did learn that I will never put down a deposit for a significant amount like that in cash. Had I done that I would have been out of luck. Needless to say they will not get any more of my business. Unfortunate as they are in a prime location for the SW Denver area.
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