As the title says, has anyone used Gunbloke before, and if so how were your dealings with him?
I’ve got a couple of little odds & ends ordered that are well overdue and considering he’s only down on the Gold coast something isn’t adding up, especially when he is unresponsive to calls or emails.
His online reviews were pretty shitty, so to be safer I used his ebay store and paypal so I’m not worried about getting my dollars back, but I really just want the bloody parts that i can find anywhere else.
Tried once last year, item never sent/delivered and zero response.
I paid with credit card and ended up doing a chargeback.
I don’t know what the deal is but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Thanks mate, I wasn’t overly confident after reading all his reviews but figured it was worth the punt as paypal will sort it out. I’ll give him until Monday to respond then lodge the dispute.
Yeah his reviews are shocking and apparently spot on lol. I didn’t want to deal with him but nobody else had the adaptors I need. I’ll just get some made up and be done with it.
Ok so a little update, on Tuesday (two days after I filed a dispute and was almost instantly given a refund notice from ebay) I got a call from Gunbloke (Russel) who said he was away and was sorry for the muck around & the bullshit etc etc including the not quite so true “items sent” notification. When I mentioned his many shit reviews he also had an excuse for all of them too lol.
Anyway long story short he got the adaptors done plus an extra one I ordered during our ph call and express posted them & they’ve just arrived here now.
I have to say the quality of them is really good, much better than the Chinezium ones I’ve seen about.
Bottom line, would I deal with him again? Yeah possibly, but only if i got him on the phone & sorted things out first prior to handing over any money.
Sounds like you were one of the very lucky ones. I think I did get some stuff from him years ago without any issues but since then I have seen nothing but bad reviews, but people can be very impatient these days and expect constant updates until the item is in their hands.
Yep, i think so too. I’m not so sure i would’ve got the call if I just paid via credit card on his website, I think going through ebay & paypal helped. I’ve had a few refunds with ebay over the many years, and none were ever as quick as this one.
I think they might’ve had this guy flagged already because they didn’t even wait for the deadline for him to contact me they just said “nope you’re right here’s your money back” they didn’t even give him 24hrs
I think I got him to modify a trigger for a 7600 pumpy about 10 years ago. Did a fine job. Was very, very specific about the order of things and what to do and what not to do.
Seems like a nice bloke to live close by to, shiddy business operator/not customer oriented. Like a few gunsmiths Ive known.
Funny you should say that I know of two top tier gunsmiths who are just miserable to first get to know especially when you first contact them on the phone. Once you meet them still gruff but they warm up and are really nice and helpful after a year or so.
All the photos of his work look pretty good, and his few good reviews the people seemed really happy too. Now that I’ve got his address down on the Goldie (and can go and bash on his door lol) I’d feel safer using him.
He did seem like a decent bloke, and to be fair he did offer to do the extra part I ordered for free (which I thanked him for but said I’d rather pay him).
I think he’s just got shit communication skills and it seems he only answers or replies to people when he wants to which creates frustration, also it seems (from all the reviews) that for the more complicated work he doesn’t explain timeframes to his customers up front.
If you’re told something will be a week & then it takes 2 months while being ghosted by the shop you’re going to gets the shits, but if you know it’s 2 months then hey all good.
My stuff was pretty simple, just some non common adaptors so just i bit of lathe work & was sorted in a flash once a fire was lit under him.
@sungazer It does seem like a job that grumpy bastards with excellent skills take up lol. The couple of smiths I know here in Brissy are definitely not “people persons” at first.
I reckon they just get sick of talking to people who compared to their knowledge are just a pack of idiots asking stupid questions lol
Don’t use him. I ordered a bunch of cerakoted brakes from him… 3 months later nothing. Poor communication through email. I had to get a refund through my credit card before the 3 month cut-off.
I don’t think necessarily it’s a scam, but the wait times are nothing like he quotes on his page.
I suspect he waits for a lot of orders to come in to batch order from his supplier in China, etc.
I’ve heard people finally getting what they ordered long after they forgot about it and gave up. I’m talking close to a year on.
