Ditto.Wholesale Sports has been a major supplier of gear for me for years and I've never had a problem so I'm suprised to hear about problems with them.I'd highly suspect UPS as being the real problem behind this fiasco.
Dave

My major problem with Wholesale Sports is that they are often out of the items I need. I recently ordered two Redding bushings for my "S" die. They advertise them but don't stock them. It too 6 weeks to get them since they had to order them from New York, then send them along to me.
They deliver in Quebec through a company called DHL which leaves a lot to be desired. I ordered 4 pounds of rifle powder from Wholesale. It took 8 days and a lot of argung and phone calls before I finally had to go down to the DHL terminal, get the manager and have him personally look for it. It took all of 2 minutes to find it, but was a pain. I'm not paying for the dubious honor of visiting shipping terminals and going through hassles to get my shipments. Another hassle with Wholesale Sports is talking to a machine when placing orders. It provides me with no way to confirm they got the order correctly, or who took the order.
For years I ordered from Sinclair and Midway in the U.S. and was quite satisfied with the service. That's a thing of the past now since the U.S. State Dept. stuck its nose into it, requiring us to get import/export permits to order reloading supplies. Unless you live within easy driving distance to your supplier you're going to face heartache one way or another. I used to take a day and drive into Vermont to get my reloading supplies, and bring them back with me. No hassle with Canadian customs on that, but now the U.S. Customs can check you on the way out of the U.S. on their side of the border. No export permit and you're sunk. They won't allow the goods out of the country. Simply put, the entire process is a royal pain in the ass. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Wholesale sports came into being about the time they moved to their new location in Calgary. Prior to that they were either Frenchy's or Barrottos depending on who you talked to.
Now, I can't honestly remember whether the Butlers(the owners of Wholesale sports) bought Frenchy's or Barrottos first but Wholesale Sports is the
offspring of the union between the two.
For those who might be interested, Frenchy's was a sporting goods shop owned by (who else?) Frenchy. Barottos was another started up by two partners Barry and Otto (and I can't remember the last names). I believe Butlers purchased Frenchy's first then purchased Barrottos from the people who were running it after the untimely deaths of the original partners. These included guys who would later own part of Russells, Guncraft, Plainsman in Lethbridge, and even the owner of Blackfoot cycle. It used to be a really small world!
Anyway, Butlers owned Barrottos and Frenchy's. They closed one of the stores and continued on in the Frenchy's location as Barrottos. A fire in the late '80's enabled them to refurbish the old building and sell it for enough to build the store at the new location. They had been floating the Wholesale sports name out there for a while and became wholesale sports entirely after the move.
The owners of Wholesale have always been quite aggressive in dealing with the competition and have been trying for 30 years to establish a monopoly in Alberta. They have come remarkably close to doing just that with the establishment of outlets in Edmonton and Lethbridge.
Monopolies are seldom a good deal for the consumer and this has been no exception. The larger company becomes somewhat cumbersome to run and is less responsive to consumer requirements.
From the shooter/hunters viewpoint there have been other changes which have hurt. Primary among these is the broadening of the merchandise base to appeal more to the non-shooter/hunter. In fairness, it has to be said that this was driven by the lack of profitability in the firearms field as time went on.
Frenchy's, Barrottos, Russells (in it's early years) and Guncraft, were gun stores and hunting stores. They were owned by and catered to hunters, shooters and outdoorsmen as such were described at the time. The stores today have grown away from their roots. It used to be the stores were staffed entirely with hunting and shooting enthusiasts. This is plainly no longer the case.
Customer service used to be the responsibility of all employees and they were expected to establish a rapport with the customer and to follow through on orders etc. With the growth of the companies and the elimination of competition this isn't always the case.
Nonetheless, there are still some good, knowledgable people working for both Wholesale and Russells and I know they try. Their jobs are just more difficult due in part to the systems under which they work.
Shipping of all sorts of goods has become more and more difficult over the years. The carriers have all changed in ways similar to the changes experienced by the retailers. It seems like things usually work very well but when they screw up, they really screw up!
I no longer have much of anything to do with any of the retail operations. This because they are no longer the comfortable, homey, real outdoors stores they used to be. Instead they seem like sporting goods Wal-Marts. Kind of exciting for a minute but impersonal and soulless after a while.
A lot of this might just be from the jaundiced viewpoint of a guy who is no longer all that young. It just seems like the magic one used to find in those old stores is no longer there. Regards, Bill.

Wholesale's prices can usually be beat. I bought a Savage 7mm ultra mag, left hand from Bashaw Sports-They were $80 cheaper than Wholesales advertised "sale" price.

I'm so lucky I'm in Winnipeg, the staff at SIR is great to deal with and they don't seem to have any major shipping problems, pretty smoothly-run for what Winnipeggers consider to be the "Walmart of outdoors shops". Farmers' Supply is another good one, albeit not as large, nor do they do mail-order.

In the last 3 years I have purchased from Wholesale Sports 3 handguns and 5 rifles as well as all of the components to make these guns go bang. If there was any kind of a problem it was minor. When I recieved my Marlin 1895GS 45-70 I sent it back because it had a couple of scratches on it. No hassel they just sent me another one.

I only talk to and order from "Geo" in the Calgary store @ 1-800-696-0253.
Geo has spent an extra amount of time working with me on all of my purchases. I was always happy with Wholesale Sports prices as well. I paid $819.00 for a Ruger Super Redhawk and $620.00 each for 2 s/s Ruger Bisley Vaquero's. Here in B.C. it would have cost at least $200.00 more for the SRH and $150.00 more for each of the Bisley's.
All guns where sent collect UPS and everything else I order I have it shipped collect on Greyhound Bus.
I have dealt with Russels before but prefer dealing with Geo @ Wholesale.
Next time phone Geo and tell him that Cam told you to call and he'll drop everything and fix you up.
Cam

I refuse to use UPS anymore as they are are anti gun and anti hunting as far as I am concerned. They will no longer ship firearms to nonlicensed dealers. Example I am going on a hunt and want to ship a gun to the outfitter , so I don't have to go with the bullshit at the airport. Fed Ex or United States Post Office, no problem make sure gun is unloaded and bolt is out of chamber. I wanted to ship some taxidermy to B.C. UPS states they won't ship taxidermy. Fed ex or USP. No problem. extra charges for sending powder or primers. What a crock of crap. They don't come to my house in an armored truck to deliver these explosive materials. Look's like the same truck they always come in. As far as Wholesalesports I would write the president of the company telling him he will never get any more of you business and that all your hunting friends will no longer use them. Try Cabella's and save yourself some anger.

TW

UPS is the absolute shits in shipping to Newfoundland. At our university, I don't know anyone that willingly allows anything to be shipped UPS if any other choice is available.

Re. wholesalesports.com... Have done 1 order of bullets and reloading accessory tools and it came quickly and completely correctly. No complaints.