Shadow61
4th February 2008, 10:40
Well after fighting to get an older EAA conversion kit to work om my 1911s with very limited success, I throw it back into the box and left it there for about 2 years. The price of 5.56mm rekindled my desire to once again try a .22cal conversion. So, I bought a Ciener....not from him directly of course. I had better success, but only after quite abit of "fudging". It permitted a significant increase in trigger time with my AR15, even without being 100% reliable that I began to wonder if I should try another kit for my 1911s.
After doing my homework and reading every thread on here, I decided to purchase a Kimber conversion kit. I knew I could buy it directly from Kimber and other vendors online, but I prefer to seeing what I'm buying in person, whenever possible. The gunshop I usually shop first didn't have any of the kits in stock, but could order it for me for $309.00. Or, I could buy it at one of the Gander Mountain Stores for $319.99, and they had several in stock.
New here is where the gouging comes into play. I was quoted the $319.99 price on Friday Feb 1st. I had decided on the Black Anodized unit and was assured that they had both colors in stock. It was too late in the day for me to drive the 120 mile round trip on Friday.
On Satruday, Feb 2nd, I anxiously drove the 65 miles to the Gander Mountain store on the west side of Columbus, Ohio. I went to the Firearms counter and when the sales associate waited on me, I told him what I wanted. He went to ring it up and told me that it would be $379.99 plus tax. I told him he needed to recheck that price, and that the day before one of his associate quoted me the price of $319.99. He called for another sales associate and explained the situation. Well that associate looked around for a few minutes and low and behold found a new silver unit in the display case for $319.99. He went to the storeroom and brought back several kits and scanned them. They all rang up at $379.99. He offered to let me have the ONE from the display case for the $319.99. I bought it even though it wasn't the color I wanted, figured the mfg had a major price increase. When I returned home, I called another Gander Mountain across town at Reynoldsburg, Ohio. They also quoted me $379.99 for a Kimber conversion kit. So it wasn't just the store on the west side.
Once I got home and examined my new purchase and read the literature, I found the kit was missing the bushing wrench that the instruction manual clearly state is included. I called Kimber Customer Service this morning, Monday Feb. 4th, and was told the wrench should indeed be there and they would be shipping me one at no charge. I also asked if their prices had taked a drastic increase on the conversion kits. He assured me he wasn't aware of any increase yet and verified the MSRP $314.00 price listed on their website. I proceeded to explain my experience on Saturday at Gander Mountain. The Kimber Customer Service associate seemed stunned at the $65.99 difference between their MSRP and what Gander Mountain is charging. He also assured me that I could have purchased it for $314.00 from them directly. He again asked for the location of the Gandder Mountain Store I purchased this unit from.
Well I didn't mean to write a novel so I apologize for the lengthy post. But thought other potential buyers needed to know that Gander Mountain's price of the KImbber .22 cal conversion kit is unnecessarily high.
Now if the weather would only cooperate and let me get a little trigger time to see how this thing shoots.
After doing my homework and reading every thread on here, I decided to purchase a Kimber conversion kit. I knew I could buy it directly from Kimber and other vendors online, but I prefer to seeing what I'm buying in person, whenever possible. The gunshop I usually shop first didn't have any of the kits in stock, but could order it for me for $309.00. Or, I could buy it at one of the Gander Mountain Stores for $319.99, and they had several in stock.
New here is where the gouging comes into play. I was quoted the $319.99 price on Friday Feb 1st. I had decided on the Black Anodized unit and was assured that they had both colors in stock. It was too late in the day for me to drive the 120 mile round trip on Friday.
On Satruday, Feb 2nd, I anxiously drove the 65 miles to the Gander Mountain store on the west side of Columbus, Ohio. I went to the Firearms counter and when the sales associate waited on me, I told him what I wanted. He went to ring it up and told me that it would be $379.99 plus tax. I told him he needed to recheck that price, and that the day before one of his associate quoted me the price of $319.99. He called for another sales associate and explained the situation. Well that associate looked around for a few minutes and low and behold found a new silver unit in the display case for $319.99. He went to the storeroom and brought back several kits and scanned them. They all rang up at $379.99. He offered to let me have the ONE from the display case for the $319.99. I bought it even though it wasn't the color I wanted, figured the mfg had a major price increase. When I returned home, I called another Gander Mountain across town at Reynoldsburg, Ohio. They also quoted me $379.99 for a Kimber conversion kit. So it wasn't just the store on the west side.
Once I got home and examined my new purchase and read the literature, I found the kit was missing the bushing wrench that the instruction manual clearly state is included. I called Kimber Customer Service this morning, Monday Feb. 4th, and was told the wrench should indeed be there and they would be shipping me one at no charge. I also asked if their prices had taked a drastic increase on the conversion kits. He assured me he wasn't aware of any increase yet and verified the MSRP $314.00 price listed on their website. I proceeded to explain my experience on Saturday at Gander Mountain. The Kimber Customer Service associate seemed stunned at the $65.99 difference between their MSRP and what Gander Mountain is charging. He also assured me that I could have purchased it for $314.00 from them directly. He again asked for the location of the Gandder Mountain Store I purchased this unit from.
Well I didn't mean to write a novel so I apologize for the lengthy post. But thought other potential buyers needed to know that Gander Mountain's price of the KImbber .22 cal conversion kit is unnecessarily high.
Now if the weather would only cooperate and let me get a little trigger time to see how this thing shoots.