/

Dr. Alf,

This month's The Hunting Report (June '04) has the details of an RSA "...attorney who has expressed an interest in helping hunting clients who have problems with local outfitters, taxidemists or other hunting professionals."

The attorney is Jacques Kruger of Breytenbach Van der Merwe & Botha, Inc. (tel 011-27-58-303-5241, email infob@breytlaw.co.za.

I presume he would work with the GS situation as well.

jim

Same situation here, Alf. I've heard nothing more, and I'm now at 2 years 8 months. I was a little confused by Gina's last posts -- my parcel is apparently un-trackable, yet they can confirm that other customers have received duplicate packages.

Cannon

Have you payed for the bullets ?

Cheers,

Andr�

Fellas
GS aint worth the risk involved, I would surmise.

They won't be getting my money nor my support within those I can influence.

as I've said before, if they had a store IN THE WAY from my front porch to my reloading garage, i would walk AROUND it

jeffe

Yes, in October 2001.

I would very much like to get a hold of some of these bullets but so would you
They are very good bullets so I hear
But they need to be there to be good
I feel for you I have some problems of my own that I will post leter on. I just want to give one last chance to the person that has not delivered
I do not remember posting that I was OK to steel my money

Cheers,

Andr�

Alf - A total lack of comms after last month's debacle must surely be infuriating. It seems the very least they would do is keep you informed. Sorry to hear of your continuing problems.

I recently ordered some .416 GS bullets. Tried to pay on-line via their payment provider iKobo and got this message :-

We are experiencing temporary difficulties with this card type. Please try using a VISA card. < !--color-->

I mailed Gina and got this reply from her father :-

Quote:

---

We are in the process of setting up to process funds via another company called XETrade. We should have the details squared away in a day or two and will let you know how to proceed. Thanks for getting back to us.

Regards
Gerard

---

I had a mail from Gina on 2nd June :-

Quote:

---

just heard from iKobo. They said that they will be able to accept Master Cards in a week or two again. They will let me know as soon as that happens and I'll get in touch with you then.

If you need anything else in the meantime, just let me know.
Regards,
Gina

---

That's the last communication I've had, although maybe things will be sorted out soon. I hope so.

How much interest is there in US manufactured Flat-Nosed monometal solids with driving bands at a reasonable price and 48 hour delivery turn around (ie-manufacturer wouldn't take your money unless the bullets were in stock and ready to go out the door)?
JCN

I'm interested.

H. C.

By the way, this from the GS web site:

"We invite interested dealers in Europe (excluding France and Scandinavia) and the Pacific Rim to contact us with a view to stocking our bullets."

I guess North America is on the Pacific rim. Maybe someone here could become a GS dealer, and GS would rip them off for thousands of dollars.

H. C.

Gentlemen

I do not think that Gina knows how many people that this forum influences and how helpfull and loyal some of its members are thowards oneanother

Ezekiel 25-17

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
Blessed is he who, in thename of charity and good will,
shepherds the weak through the valley of the Darkness.
For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance
and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

John,

North Fork and Kodiak make 450 grain monometal FN and 500 gr bonded FMJ-FN.

Why would you go anywhere else???

They are real companies with a product on the shelf.

I spoke with Mike Brady the other day via e mail and he has not received one order for his 450 gr. FN from this forumn.

I think this is an issue we all talk about but dont act on.

Andy

JohnCharlie, HVconcepts in Texas is importing and distributing GScustom bullets. John won't take your money unless he has what you want in stock.

The best way to reach HVconcepts is at hvconceptsinc@yahoo.com. HTH, Dutch.

Andy,

I received 100 of the North Fork 450gr/.458 softs 3 days after I ordered them by a simple phone call to Mike Brady.



I did not see any solids offered on his website, and assumed they were experimental. Mike needs to publicize the availability of any solids he might have, whenever he is ready to supply them in mass. They will sell. I for one will buy them.



I plan to shoot North Fork 450 grainers in my 45 Lapua. I also plan to order some 380 grain .423 cal. North Forks whenever the depleted supply is replinished. I hope Mike will be able to supply an FN solid 380gr/.423 to go with it too.



My 45 Lapua will be following in the footsteps of your 450 Dakota. Thanks.



Alf,

My sympathies. You have been wronged, obviously. I got satisfaction after 16 months, but I cannot understand how others waiting longer than I did have not gotten theirs. Just how do they decide whose order to fill after how long? Sheesh! And that's the way the cookie crumbles???



As for HV Concepts ... I will believe it when I see it, and I ain't seen nothin' from them yet.

Hello Ron,

Nice to hear from you.

You will love the North Forks.

Call Mike re. the FN monometals. They are available.

You can go to my article in the Nickudu files and see what they look like. Just click on the photo link and open the one labeled FMJ's and solids.

They feed better in my rifle then almost any other bullet and do so at almost any overall cartridge length.

You can use same powder load as the soft points or + 2 grains to exactly equal velocity of the soft point. At least you could in my 450 Dakota.

Andy

A very limited selection, but here they are nonetheless. http://www.groovebullets.com/

Gina,

Your replies are appreciated. I think the biggest reason that there has been so much frustration with GSC was the lack of communication while things were particularly bad. I am one of those that likes to know that my business is important and worth the effort to have calls and e-mails returned in a timely fashion.

I think that most of us can appreciate the difficulties you have had with shipping. You are right that it is becoming a standard practice in NA for the retailer to wash their hands of any responsibility for delivery...once the product is confirmed "shipped", the consumer takes over ensuring the product arrives. The fact that you are tracking the packages yourself is great.

FWIW, my experience with GSC has been good. One package sent, one recieved..albiet too late for my trip to RSA, but in plenty of time for my next trip!

On a related note, a friend of mine (Don G) sent me two separate packages of his GSC's from Ohio (to help me out when the ones above were too late for load development). One package arrived 4 weeks later than it should have, and the other never arrived at all. Despite the fact that it was insured, USPS has yet to go good for the lost package (2 years have now past).

Cheers,
Canuck

Ron,

My last chrono session had this to say about the 450 grain North Fork soft points. Load was 100 gr RL-15.

2,565 fps, 2555 fps, 2558 fps, 2543 fps.

Same powder charge with 450 gr Flat Nose solid, 2509, 2508 fps.

Point of impact overlapped with previous gorup, hitting over farthest out bullet hole from group of four. Composite group under 1.5 inches at 100 yd in honest to god 20 mph NW wind.

Increasing powder to 102 gr made 2569 fps. Similar to Barnes solid RN. So both solid bullets have a bit less pressure than the soft point.

You will love the North Fork soft solid combo. They really are a ballistically matched pair. No need to increase powder charge. Am not sure it makes any difference in real world.

Andy

Thanks Will. I am still waiting for a particular response.

Stir it up, stir it up......

Gina

I send you a PM

Cheers,

Andr�

Gina,

Quote:

---

Interestingly, the legal position is that we have in fact delivered. Proof of that can be seen at the link above.

---

Are you sure about that legal posittion? Persons here are buying items from you and you are contracting a third party or parties to deliver those items to that person. I would say that your legal obligation is not met untill the Canadian Postal Service (or who ever) actually deliver the goods and get a signature. Just saying that posting the items means you have met your legal obligation is wrong I think you will find, certainly in most countries which have strong consumer laws. I would imagine if that person piad by credit card, the credit card company would take it up on there behalf depending on the value of the order. Perhaps the law is different in RSA?

With regards American customers you suspect are out to fiddle you, from what I understand commiting a fraud via the US Postal Service is a very serious office (I think its a federal offense?) and I am sure if you contacted the appropriate authorities, they would investigate the matter for you. This would include fraud or theft by Postal Service employees too, if thats where an investigation lead them.

Personally, I don't think you gain credibility bitching about customers like this in public, it smacks very much of finger pointing and sour grapes. If you believe you have been wronged, do something about it otherwise you have to roll with the punches especially as your company is not exactly fault free in this whole issue.

Peter

To elaborate on what Jeff said...

FOB stands for (as I remember it from business) Freight on board, but some may say it has Free on board. Don't know. However, there are two different types. This is the important part.

There is FOB origination and FOB destination. FOB origination means that the seller/shipper bears the responsibility for making sure you get the product, regardless of the problem. FOB destination means that once the seller puts it on the shipment truck, it's between you and the carrier to make sure that you get it.

Regards,
Tom

/

never mind.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to draw your attention to a few facts about international postal services.

In the past 3 years or so, we have been loosing quite a high percentage of parcels we send overseas. These are small parcels, which have CDs or small items.

This happens if we send them by normal, air parcel post. And trying to track them is an exercise in frustration.

So now we don't even bother, and take the word of the of the person at the other end as fact when they tell us they have not gotten it, and send a replacement.

This is not done on a commercial basis, and of course we do not charge for it. Still, at the end of the day we are ending up paying twice for both goods and postal service charges.

If we send anything by Special Delivery, it NEVER gets lost, and tracking it is very simple and only takes a couple of days.

Trouble is, this method is rather expensive.

Mrs. Schultz:

I regret that I have engaged in gossip. I accepted as truth the testimonials of several people on this forum who claim that they have paid for merchandise and have not received it. Irrespective of the veracity of these claims, I need not have offered a comment about what I have perceived. I have not had business dealings with your company, and so I am a disinterested onlooker. I hope your bullets become available enough in North America that I can shoot some of them.

H. C.

Gina, I don't buy your bullets, but your customer service sucks. If you can't field customer complaints, even the unjustified ones, and respond privately, and if necessary publicly, without seeming to rip on the customer, you don't belong in business.

I understand there are lots of professions where "bitching" is not a negative, and I'm sure a motel near you has a need for a cleaning lady.

Grow up and act like a professional. From what I read here, you sure as hell are not one. If you can't find a business model where you can reliably deliver product, or make heroic efforts to do so, you ARE a thief! And anyone who doesn't understand that, doesn't know jack about businesses.

I sent a large amount of money to a guy, who was really ill, (without telling me) yet promised product. The guy couldn't work on my order because of my order, eventually died, and I'm out my money. Okay, this guy was a fucking thief. He's now a dead thief, but in knowingly taking my money, without having a mechanism to deliver product, he was stealing from me, just as if he'd broken into my house and taken the money.

Nothing pisses me off more than having someone selling product, and then whining about customers in public. You have a freaking responsibility to your customers, which you should understand fully and fulfill, or get the hell out of business!!!!~

What a stupid bitch....

I suspect that Saeed is correct..I have ordered many bullets from GS and always received them in a timely mannor but come to think of it, I always had them shipped Special Delivery or Fedex...

At any rate, they are as fine a bullet as there is..I will never again use a conventional or round nose solid..I demand a flat nose solid for DG....GS and Bridger are the best and Bridger is out of the equasion for now..I have a order for .470 FN Solids and hope I get them by July 10th, if not then I will wait until I get them...

I won't get involved as to the problems others have had, that's none of my business, and will leave that up to Gina and her customers to sort out..

/

120mm, You don't buy the bullets, but you know all about the customer service? Do you know this by meditating your belly button?

Your concluding comment is totally inappropriate based on your ignorance of the situation.

GS may be totally or partially to blame in all this, but you and I, having ordered nor lost anything, are in no position to judge that.

Alf,

I had a 2 year bullet saga myself, so I understand where you are on this.

Alf,
I feel for your delima and it should be corrected, no one is doubting that as far as I can tell..I am not making any judgments as its none of my business...all I am saying is how much I like the product and that I personally have not had the problems that others have had...

I am a new poster on AR, but have been visiting this site for well over a year and finally decided to join. This is certainly an interesting forum and I thank Saeed and others for making it available to us.

I have recently had very positive dealings with GS Custom, Gina, Gerard, and John Murray at HV Concepts. Based on a number of extremely favorable articles and comments by AR posters regarding GSFN bullets, I decided to order a few boxes for my .458 WM. I contacted John Murray at HV Concepts via email and he informed me of the availability of the 450 grain FN solids I wanted. They were enroute and he kept me informed of their progress through US Customs until their arrival in his Texas office. He reserved 2 boxes for me, I then sent a Postal Money Order which arrived on Friday 6/4/04, and he shipped on 6/7/04 and I had them on 6/9/04. In the mean time, I contacted Gina and Gerard at GS in RSA and asked for some reloading options not shown on their website. Both Gina and Gerard returned my email within the day with appreciated advice to a novice reloader. Gerard was on vacation at the time but took the time to email me while away from the office. I really appreciated the service from GSC and HV Concepts.

I realize that many of the complaints and concerns are ongoing and seem to stem from deposits and orders placed directly with GS in RSA in the past. My suggestion would be to establish contact with John at HV Concepts, or as Ray Atkinson and Saeed said, to spring for the additional costs of air/DHL/Fed EX type of priority shipping.

Bottom line, not everybody has a horror story and it certainly does nobody good to post personal attacks on the vendor or other posters, especially when they have never done business with GS or HV Concepts. I am looking forward to trying these bullets in preparation for a 2005 buffalo hunt to be determined.

Respectfully,

RCG

500Grains,

Sorry to sound like a dummy, but what does F.O.B stand for?

The Royal Mail where i lives is pretty poor at times and I have lost a parcel or two in transit. The usual procedure is just to ring the company up and say it has not arrived and they ship another out within a few days. I had one company that said they had a "signature" and they did, but it was from somebody at a wrong address. Even in that case they sorted it out with the Post office direct and posted me another item while they were doing so.

Regards,

Pete

I think it means "free on board" it is a delivery term.

The passing of risks occurs when the goods pass the ship's rail at the port of shipment.

Sometimes FAS is used = Free Alongside Ship.

It means, that the seller pays for transportation of the goods to the port of shipment. The buyer pays loading costs, freight, insurance, unloading costs and transportation from the port of destination to his factory. The passing of risk occurs when the goods have been delivered to the quay at the port of shipment.









Cheers,



Andr�