Complaint Review: GS GUNSMITH

This dispute has been resolved.

CAUTION! POSSIBLE DANGEROUS PERSON IN YOUR AREA

Allan Henry Torres

(((REDACTED ADDRESS)))

DOB 4/15/1952

Allan Torres is known to have had Hi-Power semi- automatic assault weapons in his possession. He may also have a number of other similar weapons. These weapons may still be in his possession.  He has previously been arrested in New Mexico for multiple serious crimes. He has also been incarcerated against his will for mental health reasons. It is possible he may exhibit signs and or symptoms of paranoid behavior. He has had business dealings in the past and present that point to unethical behavior and that shows a lack of integrity.

 I fully apologize to GS Gunsmith and Scott Nystrom for doubting that his shop didn’t finish the subject weapon with an H-Series Cerakoted finish.

I wish to retract all of my negative comments related to GS Gunsmith’s Cerakoted finish that were in question?  I am 100% satisfied that GS Gunsmith did in fact send the weapon to a Cerakoted approved and talented applicator once it was actually known where the work was done.  GS Gunsmith did offer to have the weapon tested at their cost via a number of testing labs, which I commend them on.  However, the weapon was unavailable as it was sent to another gunsmith almost immediately as I had other items that I needed to have Cerakoted and wanted to have the original product double-checked and test fired as many other gunsmiths and applicators offer to do in their process of Cerakoting weapons and include test firing in the price of their coating services.

I had another brick and mortar gunsmith and approved Cerakote applicator; confirm that this weapon was Cerakoted with an H-Series finish.  Had the owner of GS Gunsmith’s never shown me a C-Series Cerakote bottle and told me that this is what is going to be applied to the weapon; upon my last visit to his shop, I would have never had any doubts.  I attribute the whole matter of questionable finishes to poor communication between the owner/gunsmith Scott Nystrom and myself a paying customer, actually one that had paid for work done at GS Gunsmith before.

The Cerakoted finish is 100% H-Series and there is no question there.  As to issues related to communications and turnaround time, I can’t recant.  Nothing in my comments have changed and to this day after I sent Scott Nystrom and his wife Paula two e-mails requesting the stock hand guards be returned to me, as agreed upon when this overly lengthy process commenced and this has not happened; a small matter, but one that exemplifies ones commitment to follow agreements and meet a customer’s expectations, to live up to one’s word.   I am pleased to have finally have received the small MagPul parts that were lost in the dismantling of the weapon and held up the final assembly.  The other missing small parts were inconsequential.

The second gunsmith that I collaborated with (took my work) accepted my calls and called me when there was a question and responded via e-mail. He turned around the original work and further work that I sent him within three-weeks as promised, test fired and cleaned the weapon and was on-time and on the money as quoted, all agreements met and even provided me with some Cerakote touch-up as a plus.  My new gunsmith produced flawless work, has a great attitude and outstanding customer service.

 My new Gunsmith said it best, “I may have over 500 customers, but, when I do a job, your job, I only have one customer, you”. 

Life is too short and I have no desires to give this GS Gunsmith matter anymore attention.  I can afford to buy my own AR-15 replacement hand guards.  I hope that anyone else dealing with GS Gunsmith may have a better experience than did I.

Mr. Torres has rejected our offer to have his firearm tested. In a recent email received from Mr. Torres, he now is trying to say that he is okay with the coating and that it is what he asked for because it was not done by our company. This is an absurd statement and shows he was knowingly making a false statement to begin with. We will post this email within a couple of days for your review. In the original complaint he stated the work was not done correctly and with poor craftsmanship. So now he thinks it's okay? We have not lost parts for our customers in thousands of guns we worked on as he alluded to in previouss comments. Mr. Torres is mistaken. He has complained it took to long. We have emails from him that have stated no rush. He also was making changes to his order 2 months after he dropped it off for work. He was only charged $175.00 for the coating. The additional costs were incurred because he chose to make additions.

If Mr. Torres will return the gun to NIC Industries we will pay the cost of shipping both ways. NIC Industries is the manufacturer of Cerakote. This is this finish Mr. Torres requested. They will test it in their lab for confirmation it is the thermal cured Cerakote. When the report comes back I will post it here. If it is in fact as I have stated that it is the thermal cured finish I want someething in return for our time. All costs incurred with transportation. An apology written to our company and $3000.00 for slander. If Mr. Torres is so convinced in his mind that we did not apply the thermal cure Cerakote this is a good way for him to set the record straight. I will concede that the project ran longer than expected. Mr. Torres thinks he should be called weekly for updates. We would get nothing done if we called people weekly. We have customers that email and call daily and think that a response to numerous questions regarding various topics is in order. We appreciate our customers! It is also a two way street. We have thousands of customers we have done gun work for and many guns in various stages of work. We are not hobbyists with 5 guns we are working on. Many times it goes over 75 guns or more at a time we are working on. You are not the only one that has questions. As we get to your project we will call and dicuss questions with you at that time if need be. When the project is complete we will call you. Mr. Torres interrupted us our business and consumed extreme amounts of our time via emails and phone calls.  No gunsmith business that is busy can accomadate that. If you think they can call them and find out.

I encourage Mr. Torres to take my challenge! If not then he needs to redact his slanderous statements. Show us the gun and the documentation. Of course we will follow up on the documentation. Post pictures of the gun. Our certified applicator does work for many gun manufacturs. Do you think the work was not done to a very high standard. He is blaming the owner as if he did the work personally. As I explained to him we have gunsmiths that work for us. Again we have Certified applicators who do the finest in work. We can supply referances.

We had previously worked on another gun for Mr. Torres. In his complaint he mentions nothing about a problem with it. Do you believe that we then did not do a good job on the next gun he broughjt to us. If he thinks we do not do good work why did he return a second time?

If Mr. Torres chooses not to respond to the challege as requested and or remove the slanderous statements we may take legal action.

We have found out that Mr. Torres is a person who files lawsuits for various amounts with companies for whatever reason. He currently has a lawsuit pending against a shoe store company in Maple Grove, MN. He appears to be unhappy with many people and has the time to file these suits for extremely small amounts, in his current case less than about $300.00. I cannot imagine his time is not more valuble. Miss work for $300.00! Many people make that in a day or less. How do you recoup your loss of income to appear in court. Mr. Torres should not be believed.

Mr. Torres claims to be able to tell you that his gun was not finished with a baked-on coating.  Mr. Torres gun was done with a baked-on finish.  If he can prove it otherwise, I will gladly give him his money back completely.  That won't happen because the finish is baked-on.  I encourage further testing of the product.  If he will provide documetation to the contrary, I will give him his money back and pay the cost of an accredited lab for the testing.  Send or post documentation that proves that he did not get the baked-on finish.  If Mr. Torres fails to prove that his gun did not get the baked-on finish, then I want $335.00 more for slandering our company.  If he wants he can file in small claims court, if he wants to take on NIC Industries, the manufacturer, and the Certified Applicator that NIC trained.  Mr. Torres has made a number of false statements in his complaint.  If he is not ready to back up his statements with the challenge I have offered, then he should not be believed.  We do not allow our integrity to be wrongfully portrayed.  Please share your documentation and your pictures with us so we can see.  What did the applicator do for $140.00?  Mr. Torres has not likely found a Certified Cerakote Applicator to do a baked-on finish for the price he stated.  Search the internet yourself and see what the cost of a Cerakote finish is.  $140.00?  I doubt it.  Mr. Torres' gun was absolutely perfect when he got it back.  To think that he would try and say he is going to have it done again is unbelievable.  More than one person saw the gun before it was returned to him.  If Mr. Torres fails to provide the documentation to back up his claim that the gun was not done with a baked-on finish; a picture to show that the work was not done properly; and that he is having another applicatior do the work; then all of his statements are suspect and he should not be believed.  Without a doubt, Mr. Torres has made numerous false statements.  That is reprehensible behavior that is without merit that needs to be stopped. 

Please see the attached invoice.  At the bottom Mr. Torres' signature indicates that he agreed to the amount and that the work was done to his satisfaction.  The cost of the firearm Cerakote is listed as $175.00. The additional charges are for labor and parts for add-ons over and above the cost of the Cerakote. 

We used a baked on Cerakote finish as requested by the customer. The work was completed by a Certified Cerakote applicator by NIC Industries who manufactures the Cerakote. It was not baked in the wife's oven as Mr. Torres has stated. We do have the applicator as a witness to the work that was done. How Mr. Torres believes he can tell the differance between baked or non baked is beyond me. Did he have it analyzed by a lab? If he did he needs to bring us the lab report. We know better than that. We told Mr. Torres repeatadly that the finish was baked on. He received his gun back in perfect condition. We also have photos taken by the applicator. The delay was caused when Mr. Torres repeatadly sent changes and called. We told him we are a busy shop and have multiple customers who need work done also. We strive to get work out to people as promised. Mr. Torres brought his gun in with numerous additional parts that had nothing to do with the gun itself. He also brought in parts he wanted changed out on his gun that needed additional work not based on the original quote for doing just his gun. The quote did not include  add-ons or the additionl part/parts he purchased from us. The price that was charged was based on the additions Mr. Torres made after the quote. We also have the paperwork for this. He failed to mention he wanted the bayonet lug removed from the front sight block. This was also more work that he was charged for. He also had us change out parts on his gun from the original configuration. He was charged additional for the extra items not related to the gun. All the parts the the customer brought in were returned.Mr. Torres arrived at our shop before we had called him to pickup his gun. He wanted to pick it up. I told him we are waitng on one small part to add the single point sling that he wanted added on. All that was left was to install the stock. He chose to take the gun and stated he could install the stock. Mr. Torres may believe he had all the parts but he did not.  I do not believe for a minute Mr. Torres would have the gun refinished by anyone else. The gun was perfect when it left. Mr. Torres knows the truth but refuses to accept it. Mr. Torres had parts ship from other suppliers to  us and asked us not to open the box. He wanted us to hold onto it and give it to him when he came in. The box was addressed to us. I explained we could not accept packages under these terms for him. We do not know what we are accepting into our store. It could have been a gun. That would make us a party to an illegal tranaction. As I explained to Mr. Torres we have hundreds of customers per month. We strive to get things done as fast as possible.  We work on many guns per month with many happy customers. Mr. Torres is not one we were able to satisfy. If you want referances as to our work we have them. Ask for them. If you want to know about our Cerakote application and want referances we can supply many of them. In addition we do work for other brick and mortor sporting goods stores as well as work nationwide through the mail.