Contracts And Parts

Most of us in gunsmithing don’t bother much with written contracts when our customer orders work. Rather, we work from a simple repair ticket, such as sold by Brownells. These are good but aren’t really a contract which authorizes us to do any specific work. There should be a space where the customer can sign in order to authorize you to do the work.

At some time, some smart ass is going to tell you he never authorized you to do what you did, while most of our customers are happy to know that they have left their gun with a good responsible repair man, their gunsmith. They all sign an authority to perform work on their car, roof, or appliance repair shop but not yours. Sooner or later you are going to have a problem. What Brownells should do is have these repair tickets revamped.

Leave more lined space so you can write in what your customer wants and have a simple statement that reads, "I have examined this repair order and do herewith authorize the stated work to be done" along with a signature. We never give copies so you are the only one who has the repair ticket. Now if you are so inclined you might consider using two-copy forms in order to give your customer a signed copy of what he is ordering.

Few small shops do this as it is a substantial outlay to buy several thousand forms which you have to in order to get a price you can live with as these should contain the authorization statement. What is necessary is protection of you from the public. Sooner or later you are going to run into a professional cheater who is going to claim he did not give you permission to do something and wants to "adjust" the price rather than have difficulty and end up in small claims court.

Like all suggestions, this one will likely go unheeded until it happens to you. And it will happen. Let’s take a hypothetical case. Your customer hands you a Winchester 94, serial over 2,000,000 and says, "Get this reblued for me", so you write up a ticket for the job and nothing else. Let’s assume you can’t reblue this monster as you know it has to go back to Winchester. You pack it up and ship it out. It gets done (and Winchester is not cheap) and finally comes back.

You put your service charge on it plus the freight and call your customer. Well, he is outraged that the cost is so high and tells you that he was under the impression that you would do the work in your shop at a lesser figure and is upset that you sent it back to the factory without his permission. Now, where is your authorization to send it anywhere? You haven’t got it. Even if you had told him verbally that you would have to send it back he can deny you said it.

Such a customer, while thankfully rare, is a scoundrel and you are never getting any more work out of him. In order for you to keep peace, for there may be other people in the shop, you adjust the price so that he does shuts up, pays a reduced amount and leaves. You have lost because you had no authorization. Get contract minded. Either use repair tickets a authorization statement on them or go on taking a chance.

It is a sorry thing that honest, hard working people such as you and I have to guard ourselves against the public but this is the real world and these things happen. Forewarned is forearmed hasn’t lost it’s meaning. Bea gun lawyer! There may come the case where you call your customer and advise him you had best send the gun to the factory or to a specialty house. He says OK, but this is not an authorization. If this arises, have him give you signed authority. C. Y. A.

Selling And Pricing Parts You must decide if you area parts seller or a gunsmith. While it’s understandable for someone working on his own gun to want to parts cheap, you don’t have to sell him one. There are plenty of dealers that list parts and prices. Your customer may not know of these people but his buddy does. Of course, he doesn’t want to pay the shipping costs, so he comes to you. If you have apart and you mark it up 100% and still have only a $10.00 item you could make $5.00. Big deal.

I would rather sell him the part at cost if he brings the gun in and I charge my minimum service fee plus the part. If I sell him the part, I sure don’t get rich at $5.00 gross profit and it may be the only one I have so why sell it? You are not doing yourself favors and don’t know this customer will bring in any more business. I don’t compete with parts houses. I can’t for they publish their prices and anyone can buy from them.

When the day comes that I can’t make a profit on parts plus labor I just won’t buy parts. You buy them and I will put them in, and not at a minimum service fee either. I strongly feel that none of these parts houses or junk dealers are doing the gunsmith any favors, they just don’t care who they sell to and it is one price to all. If this presents itself as a battle it is one we as gunsmiths will not win. I just don’t sell parts. If you want it repaired I will do it and put any part in it that it needs.

You have to formulate your own policy but will find you can’t sell enough parts to make it worthwhile. I also believe the gunsmith who sells parts loses his respectability as a gunsmith. True, the guy that buys a few dollars worth of parts has not only used you as a supply house but he will probably sell the gun he is working on for a great deal more profit than you made on the part. The gunsmith shop is open, the parts house is closed! AG