I recently purchased a brand new Rock Island Armory M5 pump shotgun from CYA Guns & Ammo in Forney Texas. The next day when I attempted to load it up with shells I discovered it was defective (very difficult to fill magazine to capacity/won't feed shells at all). I did thoroughly inspect the gun in store before purchase however this issue only rares its ugly head when fully loaded. I contacted CYA about the issue and spoke with the manager Valerie. She refused to issue a refund or exchange the shotgun citing their "all sales are final" policy. This is a pretty standard policy in the firearms industry and I do understand the need for the policy to be in place. Valerie informed me that it's not their responsibility if they sell a defective firearm and that I would have to contact the manufacturer directly and work with them on the issue. I calmly protested and stated that I understood their policy; however policy is bendable. This is a unfired brand new firearm that I just purchased from them so surely an exception could be made in order to accommodate a customer...it's not like the gun broke 2 months and several hundred rounds later. Valerie still refused. I then asked if they could contact the manufacturer on my behalf to get everything setup to be shipped off for repair...she also refused to do that. So I had to contact the manufacturer to get a RMA and FedEx shipping label. I brought everything up to CYA and spoke with a salesman named Paul as well as the manager Valerie. I explained that I was disappointed that they wouldn’t make an exception in order to take care of a customer. In addition, I was disappointed because the manager Valerie had me do all of the leg work with the manufacturer when they should have handled all of that for me their customer. Paul seemed to really care and kindly explained the reasoning behind the policy (which the manager Valerie never did). Once the policy was explained to me I better understood their position and so we moved forward from there. After our discussion I left the firearm, RMA info, and FedEx label with Paul and Valerie. I acknowledged Paul and shook his hand…however Valerie had a very rude, indifferent, and annoyed demeanor about her. After shaking Paul’s hand I also acknowledged her and she just stood there with her arms crossed and didn’t extend her hand to me like her salesmen Paul did...horrible customer service from her in my opinion. I understand they don't have to bend their policy if they don't want to. I prefer to do my business with folks that will gladly go out of the way to take care of the customer regardless of their store policy...whether that's a refund, exchange, or simply offering to handle the return/repair process for the customer. My main issue is with how poorly I was treated by management.
After this all went down I reached out to a friend of mine that works there at CYA. I told him what happened and he informed me that he recently quit his job with CYA over this type of behavior from Valerie. When the owner Caleb hired Valerie, my friend trained her. My friend said Valerie is all about making the sell and pushing the customers out the door as soon as possible...if there are any issues after the fact she wants no part of it...since she's the manager she pushes that philosophy on the rest of the staff. Sure wish i had known that before I gave them my business.
After this all went down I reached out to a friend of mine that works there at CYA. I told him what happened and he informed me that he recently quit his job with CYA over this type of behavior from Valerie. When the owner Caleb hired Valerie, my friend trained her. My friend said Valerie is all about making the sell and pushing the customers out the door as soon as possible...if there are any issues after the fact she wants no part of it...since she's the manager she pushes that philosophy on the rest of the staff. Sure wish i had known that before I gave them my business.
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