Business ProfileforLee Shaver Gunsmithing

My situation started in February 2021. Fast forward to now and you will get the picture. I sent a letter to him outlining the timeline of my business with him and provided the dates and discussions had on those dates. Included in the letter to the smith were his assurances to me that the rifle would be "out the door" by the end of the next week (that was July and again in August 2021). Today I received a certified letter telling me that his battle with COVID caused a near-death experience (November or December 2021). OK, sorry to hear that but not a reason to lie about the rifle back in July & August........Next, he had employee issues and that led to the delay, again, no reason to lie about the rifle.......and lastly, equipment breakdowns, hmmmm, still not a reason to lie about the timeline to complete the work. Just tell your customers the truth!!!!!!! As he continued in his letter to me, he accused me of being a nuisance and trying to force him and his employees to do things on my schedule and further, put my needs ahead of his employees, business and "all my customers as a whole". I NEVER asked him to conform to my schedule and all I EVER wanted was an honest timeline on the work of which he lied on multiple occasions. Sorry for the book here but the bottom line is that I paid for the rifle and in theory it will be shipped to me next week. He stated that if I didn't pay within 30 days he would keep the rifle and do what he pleased with it. And finally, I actually got to speak with someone at the shop today and asked if I could speak to the smith and was told "no". I wanted to chat with him and let him know that I have appreciated the work he has done for me in the past and that said work was done well and quickly. For future reference, I will not be using or recommending this gunsmith for custom work or restoration of single shot rifles. p.s. I did contact the Attorney General and so at least they are aware of the situation.

The last year has been the worst year I have had in business, thanks in part to the pandemic, but certainly other problems as well. I did send this customer a letter of apology along with his invoice letting him know that I apologized for how my bad year had affected him and the scheduling of the work for him. He went from wanting me to pay him $950 for the delays on his project, to offering to pay half of the invoiced ****. (the invoice was exactly what I estimated it to be for him before the project was started). That is when I told him that if he did not choose to pay the **** as invoiced within a reasonable period of time that state law allowed me to consider it abandoned, and I could do with it as I pleased. That is when he paid the **** in full and the project was sent to him immediately. I appreciate the fact that this customer does not choose to do business with me in the future. The feeling is mutual. Maybe I am just getting too old to deal with problems, or maybe it's just been a hard year.

I made 2 suggestions: 1) pay me for the rifle, i.e. $950 and do what you want with the rifle or 2) I agreed to pay $350 for the rifle on the date of my letter implying that is for the work that was done to date. Post receiving your letter, I decided I wanted the rifle back and agreed to pay in full. Lastly, the letter you sent was in no way an apology. It was excuses for why the work was not done and further, accusing me of being a nuisance to you, your employees and your customer base as a whole. You never addressed the reason for my poor review, providing false information (lying) about the status of the rifle. That was all I was after from you. As stated previously, not providing customers with an honest assessment of a date of completion is just poor customer service and business practices.