BudsGunShop.com
Reviews and Complaints

And McDonalds has hundreds of complaints and people still like them.

Seriously, who the heck buys a gun without seeing it first?

Buds has had 11 complaints filled with the BBB just in the month of January 2013.
http://www.bbb.org/lexington/business-reviews/guns-and-gunsmiths/buds-gun-shopcom-in-lexington-ky-184205327/complaints

These guys are the "Walmart" of gun shops. There is no customer service - they box and ship - PERIOD. After dealing with them one time, it's evident that they have no mechanism for handling inquiries/complaints. In my opinion, I think the owner is a boorish Jerk which leads the employee's to believe that they can act the same way. Honestly, as long as you do not expect too much from them, there is an 85-90% chance you will be happy.

I have been treated rudely and called an a**hole by a employee because I complained about a used handgun.

The next time your cell phone dies in the middle of your conversation, I hope no one accuses you of dropping the call intentionally. Exactly what was your issue with this purchase? You never said.

I ordered a gun from Bud's last year and they couldn't have been nicer, I got a great price fast service and the gun was exactly as described . I ' d like to shoot anyone that disagrees !

Now I know you are a child. An adult would know that Ruth is a female name and Kevin is male name. Go ask mommy. Show mommy this review. She would know you were trying to purchase a gun then though and tell them your real age. If you are an adult grow up and act your age.

Who are you referring too, Ruth? Regardless my statement, truthinchrist stands true due to my experience of a bait and switch tactic which they have demonstrated by 100s of complaints. Are you that ignorant or just defending this Nick who deserves to be in the unemployment line! No, don't answer for any credibility you may have is futile. Stop the patronizing with the growing up cliche. ### what the heck does that have to do with owning a firearm. Typical liberal hypocrisy! What foolishness!

Hence again behold a Devil!

Are you even old enough to buy a gun? I ask this because no where do you take any responsibility for your ordering the wrong gun. This is the consequences for ordering the wrong product. Grow up and live with it.

Nick Valle, is a liar and a devil! Beware! If the owners allow this arrogant person to run their business then so be it that he runs it into the ground. Watch out Nick Valle! Whatsoever a man sows in the flesh that shall he also reap in the flesh, in this world AND the world to come, per chance God GRANT you repentance from your dark nature! Behold the cowardly man!

Since Bud's deletes bad reviews from their site, avoids the bad Google reviews, and permanently deletes the account of anyone who gives them a bad review, I have joined this site specifically to write this about them. Just look at the extreme lack of professionalism and customer service in their responses to the bad reviews on this site, since they can't delete them like they normally would. Sorry, Bud, but you can't do anything about the private sites like this, the many gun forums, and the word of mouth that are all telling the truth about your bad business practices. You also can't avoid or deny the NUMEROUS BBB reports.

Also, I will not be reading or replying to any of the childish and unprofessional replies that I am sure this post will bring from them.

They will not match ANY prices on ANYTHING from ANYWHERE else. Their "price match guarantee" BS that they proudly plaster all over the site only covers the difference if the price were to drop within their own inventory, NOT any other stores. I've had at least 3 occasions where they would not match the price of an item, sometimes over something as small as $8. I have since purchased a firearm elsewhere for over $50 less than Bud's, where the price WENT UP after I asked if they would match. The staff is rude and will ignore you if you are unfortunate enough to be able to visit the "store", and they completely do not care if any customer is unhappy. From the many complaints I constantly see on gun forums and etc, they will tell people things like, "Cancel your order if you aren't happy. We don't care." So think about that if you are contemplating ordering from them.

If you are reading the many other complaints online, they are centered around their poor customer service and terrible shipping practices. Sure, some people have alright experiences with them, and I myself was even happy with them for a while, but ONE single bad customer service experience FAR outweighs a good one. I am not talking about a simple mistake here or there, I am talking about how they COMPLETELY do not care if they lose a customer, because they know another one will be along right behind him. Hopefully now we can use the internet, which has made them what they are, to put an end to it by spreading the word like this.

I say "store" because this is basically a bad drop ship type of setup. They don't even have 10/22 rifles on the shelf. So, when you order from Bud's, they take your money, wait for the gun to either be shipped to them from their warehouse or drop shipped from who knows where, then it sits in their "shipping" department for sometimes weeks (which means there was a mixup with their shady drop ship setup), then it finally goes out to you. After all of that, they ship things with with improper paperwork, the wrong model, or even a USED gun labeled as new. We are shipping guns here, not T-shirts. You just don't do that and get away with it.

Anyway, Bud's will argue the validity of complaints and point fingers all day long, but the bottom line is that a customer is not happy. A respectable business' reply to an unhappy customer should be "Ok, sir, we will fix that for you right away" whether they believe the complaint is valid or not. NOT "Cancel your order, then. We don't care."

I feel your pain, after buds screwing up my order I demanded a refund, they never sent out any rifles, they claimed they had not yet received my money through my bank (my bank had already confirmed they had) than they told me that even though it was their mistake they were still going to charge me a 10% canc. fee. My bank called them and informed them what they were doing amounted to interstate fraud and buds "suddenly" agreed to refund my money in full, three weeks later and still no money. Luckily my bank is going to refund my account and contact the Attorney General for the state of KY

I just had a similar situation happen as to the original poster. I asked a question about an item and mentioned I was looking to buy. After receiving a satisfactory answer, I go back to the website to purchase and the price went up by about $100! Immediately asked about price increase and they of course give me the run-around about the demand pricing stucture they have. This isn't my first odd observation of buds. I watch their site a lot to feel out the market on certain items.

Purchased a weapon from Bud's Gun Shop and after attempting to fire the weapon it would not work.
I got on line to their website and opened a case and never received a response.
I called and was told that I would have to send the weapon back to the manufacturer.

After several gun a ammo purchases from Bud's, I will never spend a dime there again.

Well, I have to add a follow-up to my previous comment. Two hours after posting it, my LGS called and told me they received my gun. Bud's had it drop shipped by a third party who didn't notify them that it had been shipped. The poor communication was not due to Bud's. Not a great transaction, but not a bad one, either. I'll give them another chance next month.

What I am seeing is a definite deterioration in their service. I ordered
a pistol in December, 2013 and it was received by my local dealer in four
days. I ordered another one in January, 2014 and it, too, was received in four
days. I ordered a rifle in February 2014 and the order status stayed in
"Processing" for 8 days! Due to this delay, it was held up in Memphis
because of bad weather for another week before being delivered. Hoping
this was just a one-time thing, I ordered another pistol in March. It
went from ordered, to "Processing" to "Shipping" in one day. It's now
been in "Shipping" for 6 days. Had I waited three days, I could have
picked one up from a local dealer for the same price and had it a week
sooner. My days of ordering from Bud's are over. I'll shop locally from
now on.

Posted two reviews today. One a very positive review about my first order and the service I received. The second was mostly positive, but questioned a very long delay in product delivery and lack of communication. I also questioned if the poor service was in any way related to their push to get customers to join their VIP program which promises faster service among other things. The website edited out my comments regarding the long processing time for the one purchase, with a message to me explaining that only comments regarding the actual product were left in the review while other comments were edited out as the were not related to the product. Funny thing is, they left the very positive comments regarding the service I received with my previous order. Guess the reviews you read on their site are not to be trusted.

I am a Buds Team Member (won't do that again). I saw a S&W 686 Plus on 8/24/15 and purchased it, received 2 confirmation emails immediately. The the next day received an email to call them about this order, I did and the person on the phone said he had to cancel my order. When I asked I'm why he said they sold more guns than they had and I asked him how this could happen especially when I received an email. He said their computer system can oversell on popular items as a number of people are ordering within a short period of time. He could not address why I received the confirmations then next day... Just kidding, not yours... He seemed more interested in getting me off his line than customer service.

Buds Guns Customer Service Sucks! I have had better customer relationships with strangers from China! After calling them 4 times and talking the the supervisor, I was insulted, lied to and then told that their shipping delay was my fault. I received all my other items from the order 3 days BEFORE they even shipped the rifle. The poor customer service will be detrimental to any decision to by another firearm from this company again. At this point, I never want to shop this site again! For a return they wanted to charge me $140! Just to send a unopened item back. And many of their items are cheaper elsewhere, just check the site : LC Action.

I had the exact same experience. UPS had actually tried to get a correct address from them for my home, because buds had shipped to the wrong one, and i never received an email or phone call from buds about it. i didnt even know that the package had been returned to buds until it was already there. so march 1st i called and told them to return my money to me. i waited and waited until i finally called buds and was actually able to get a person on the phone. he told me the check was mailed on the 1st and when he was telling me this it was the 13th of march. i havent received any aknowledgment of my situation from them. my tickets are still open on their site waiting to be addressed. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM. there are so many good gun dealers that you can buy from. it may not happen the first time you buy from buds, but if you buy from them enough, you will get ripped off.

'buds" sucks

Avoid budsgunshop!
First, their price is higher than many other website.
Second, their so called price match is a junk. I bought a AR-15 from them then the price dropped by $200 before I even received my gun but they would not adjust the price.
Third, I left a low review on their website. They didn't publish my comment then closed my account. So the reason you don't say any bad comments on their website is because they screen people's comments.
Finally, I was called by the customer service guy, who sounded like he would want to fight with me. Horrible!

I purchased one and only one handgun from these rip offs.I ordered a Taurus m#85 polished stainless steel with gold accents and pearl grips.I rec'd am#85 matte finish with rosewood grips.When I called the sales rep said to call back the next day which I did and then I was told by his supervisor read their fine print...it states the firearm you recieve may not be as pictured and that the gun was SOLD! I contacted Taurus for suggestions where I found the gun was suspicious to the point Taurus asked I send them the handgun Fed-X overnight.I tried to make contact with Buds but I must be on their no call list with that I am unable to leave reviews and my account has been closed.During this I also found that you can only give pos. reviews because they have some sort of filter system.So where I thought by checking them out b4 I made purchase, it was useless. Taurus has had this gun for 47 days and maybe as of today they have my issue resolved and they are replacing it with a new one, which thank them very much. Is something fishy with Buds well you will have to decide that fr yourself.But I know if they offered me the gun I ordered today extactly as I ordered it I would pass because I personally will not do business with those shady chacters again.Service means alot.Thank you Taurus for service.I just ask you send it soon.

1) You should know the federal and your local gun laws before making any purchases. Since the firearm laws are varies from state to state, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to check your local laws requirement.
2) Online gun dealers do not ship the firearm directly to your house. An FFL dealer has to handle the gun for you. It's the FFL dealer fault for not advice you of the age requirement, not Budsgunshop fault
3) Except for the case of collector item, once a BRAND NEW car rolled of the dealership parking lot, it already lost its values regardless of teh driven mileage. The same rule apply to firearm.
Just remember, there are a lot of responsibilities attached to a firearm. Don't let the anti-gun fools find reasons to take away our second amendment. You have many things to learn young grasshopper!
That's my $0.02
I'm not affiliated with Budsgunshop.com. I'm just another responsible gun owners.

"If you are dumb enough to buy from them, "
LOL

Good luck on your next purchase. I echoed your sentiments the first time too.

They advertise a rebate and three pages later, after the purchase, it says for military only. Look for yourself https://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/index.php

Bought my second handgun from Buds Guns online store, because my first experience in early 2011 was excellent. My December 2012/Jan 2013, was anything BUT satisfactory, when it came to their customer service, or lack thereof. Now I realize most if not all, businesses that are selling guns and ammo these days, are on fire due to the tragady that took place in Conn, followed by the constant news of possible upcomig gun laws changing. I did my due diligence before going back to Buds, to make sure I was getting the best price, on the particular handgun I wanted to purchase. Made the decisoin to buy from Buds again, which I did on December 26, 2012. Actually called them personally and bought from a live customer service rep. Received an instant email acknowledging my purchase and thanking me for my business, within hours of my buy. That is where their customer servcice stopped, ...period. Their normal 3-7 day shipping times had been increased to 7-10 business days, ..due to high volume sales. After a full week of my "Purchase History", staying at the "Processing" stage, all I wanted was to speak with a customer service rep, whether it be live, email or online chat, to ask for an update. Literally dozens of attempts to contact ANYONE, without success. Telephone, ..outgoing message that due to high volume of calls, please call at another time, ...online live chat, ..OFFLINE, ...email ...NO RESPONSE. In the initial email thanking me for my purchase, it stated I would receive an email letting me know when the gun was shipped. Not only did I not receive an email with a heads up on shipping, ...their "Purchase History", which is their online record of how the processing, etc is going, ...was backdated, to state that the gun was shipped on 1-15-13, ...but that information did not show up until I had already received the gun, on 1-17.-13. Very frustrating, to say the least, when I attempted to simply make contact with someone and found it impossible to reach anyone at all, although their home page would give you the impression that they are available during fixed hours, live chat, telephone, email and so on, ...but I cannot emphasize enough just how poorly this most recent purchase was handled, when it comes to basic customer service. Their prices are the best I've seen and, I have experienced far better service and an overall better experience before but, buds that is not how things are being handled currently.

I had recently ordered a XDM from buds, Their 3-7 policy is already out the window, Its been 3 weeks & I still don't have it, Buds say they shipped it but UPS doesn't have it..
I am really frustrated..They will not respond when I contact them by email, When I call They give me the run around.They closed my account so I couldn't cancel my order.
Very unprofessional company.I have already turned all my friends & family away from them.Do not pay attention to the reviews on their site as I did.They are False.
I WILL NEVER USE THEM AGAIN ! & I will be posting comments other places & contacting a few of my favorite shooting mags with letters & requests.
3-9-2012
Very Disappointed with you guys at Buds or should I say Duds-
Customer service My lilly white @#*

This store is nothing but disappointment. I will never shop here again.

I order a rifle from here, used their "preferred" FFL who I was told to contact to make sure everything was compliant, the FFL informed me yes, but that they would have to confiscate the 30 rd. mag (which is fine), the state police said the same thing (that my FFL is legally authorized and obligated to do so), thereby making the transfer from my FFL to me legal, then I had to cancel the order because of Bud's POLICY and refusal to ship, NOT THE LAW, It seems Bud doesn't trust the FFL dealers he "prefers" us to use. Now they're holding my money hostage for 3 to 5 days which only took them 3 to 5 seconds to take.

Costumer service is terrible!

I highly recommend shopping somewhere else, as Bud seems to be as bad if not worse then the government.

BUD SUCKS!

I agree. Their customer service sucks. I purchased a gun by e-check since they charge 3% to the customer for merchant fees they are supposed to pay as part of the cost of doing business. I paid on Oct 12 and the funds were deducted from my account on Oct. 14th. It is now 7 days later and there is no change in status. They have their page setup to where they don't want to receive emails about orders. The most arrogant policies I have seen in my 50 years.

I also attempted to purchase a gun from them in 2007 that was show as in stock only to find out two weeks later it wasn't. The status still shows it's in the process of being cancelled 4 years later. I can only hope they didn't save my debit card info for this long. I would not recommend these thugs nor will I ever purchase from them again.

I have bought about five guns from Buds and have never gotten a bad deal. The customer service was exellent and I payed by credit card. I plan on buying another gun next week and 1911 45 ACP goverment model. I bought a Taurus TCP 380 and had a problem with it, I call Taurus Fed X picked it up the same day and I recieved it back in one week no charge to me. Thank You Bill Lewis elewis@foothills.net

Got this email yesterday.

This notice is being sent to all customers who recently placed an order with www.budsgunshop.com and may not necessarily apply to your order.

If you are not already aware of what is going on in the firearms industry, there is no doubt you soon will be via the media. Our sales in the month of February were over FIVE TIMES what they were back in February 2009 following the last presidential election...and you may recall those were some pretty crazy times ! We did plan for 2012 to be another challenging election year...but we admittedly did not plan for this level of volume, and definitely not this early in the year !

Although your order may not have experienced a delay, we would like to apologize to anyone who has, or is currently, experiencing a delay in shipping. Our order volume unexpectedly skyrocketed in February, far beyond our capacity to process and ship. We immediately began the process of expanding our facilities, adding additional staff, and working extended hours...but those efforts are just now starting to pay off.

The good news is that we are starting to get back on top of things. We are currently shipping out more orders each day that what we are taking in, so it is now just a matter of clearing the backlog that was created in February. Since Monday we have been able to ship out 300 more guns than what we sold during that same time...so the backlog should be cleared shortly at this rate. We are shipping oldest orders first (first in - first out) so clearing this backlog will cause some newer orders to ship closer to the "7" in our advertised "3 to 7 business days" terms. Many repeat customers were so use to us shipping in 3 days they started to get concerned when their order had not shipped in 5 days...even though we were well within our "3 to 7 business days" terms. Also, "business days" refers to Monday-Friday only, as neither UPS or USPS pick up packages at our warehouse on weekends.

We sincerely apologize if you experienced a delay and assure you we are continuing to do everything we possibly can to prevent future delays. We have also suspended all cancellation fees for any delayed orders. If you order has been delayed, and you prefer to cancel your order at this time...we will be glad to accommodate that request with absolutely no fees...we need more guns anyway !

We appreciate the business and commit to do a better job next time if given the opportunity.

Kind Regards,

Team Buds

Had the same thing happen. First purchase - great product, great service. Second purchase - good product, poor service (processing for 11 days). Left reviews of both experiences on the same day. One glowing, one identifying the issue and questioning about the long delay. Guess which review was edited... Thing is, their explanation of the editing was that the service portion was not considered relevant? Too bad that didn't apply to the review in which I gave them high marks for their service...that was mysteriously left in the review. They will be my absolute last consideration because of what I see as a MAJOR ethical flaw.

Posted two reviews today. One a very positive review about my first order and the service I received. The second was mostly positive, but questioned a very long delay in product delivery and lack of communication. I also questioned if the poor service was in any way related to their push to get customers to join their VIP program which promises faster service among other things. The website edited out my comments regarding the long processing time for the one purchase, with a message to me explaining that only comments regarding the actual product were left in the review while other comments were edited out as the were not related to the product. Funny thing is, they left the very positive comments regarding the service I received with my previous order. Guess the reviews you read on their site are not to be trusted.

I have noticed a big slip in customer service out of Budsgunshop.com Lately also. If you can get someone on the phone or via email(fat chance) they have no idea what you are talking about when you ask firearms questions. I have been told twice regarding messups on my order that they were training new people and that was the issue. Train em all you want if they dont know guns they dont know guns. My FFL told me with a chuckle that they are pretty much incompetent and sometimes plain rude there prices are all that are keeping em in business. I have tried and tried again to find out info on products thyat the description was just plain wrong and the person on the phone knew nothing more than the description said. I tried to trade once and the veiled hostility at my questions and concerns made me think better of it. I bought six guns from Buds three of which went off without a problem. The other three were frustrating and a huge waste of time and effort. They have gotten to big without finding employees with the type of knowledge that keeps people coming back. When my credit card got hit due to Buds, myself and everybody I know took it as the final straw and canceled there cards and went back to paying a little extra money and supporting our hometown gun stores ( who hate Buds with a passion I might add) it is worth it to see the gun and know it isnt beat to hell despite buds claims it has never been opened.(then why is the tape broken and the gun obviously handled not to mentioned scratched) I have heard a lot of people say the guns are rough because they are factory screwups or refurbs and that is why they are so cheap. I dont know if this is true but a couple of the guns they tried to sell me were obviously used or mistreated while being stored. When Buds works right it is a great way to buy guns. Unfortunately they messup way to much for me and I am very patient. Once a great business but they have sacrificed quality for quantity and I always choose quality