Pine Marten
Well-Known Member
Those of you who live in London will know that there are precious few gunshops left around the place, and almost all of the ones near the centre are place like Purdey’s or Holland’s, which are really geared up to serve the needs of the global 1%, and arguably they were never really gunshops for the Masses anyway. Fair enough, but where does a London shooter with pockets of average depth turn for his or her sporadic needs? I have now decided once and for all that the answer is William Evans. Over the past few months, the staff there have done the following for me:
1. Handled the import of my drilling from Germany and the uncommunicative dealer over there, thanks in great part to a fluent German speaker on their staff. This took two months and they made from it the princely sum of £30.
2. Researched which factory 7x57R ammunition they could obtain for me and quoted me completely sensible prices for it (take note Beretta Gallery across the street…)
3. Gave me a discount on a jacket for no particular reason after I had to call them back because my card had been declined following an attempt to clone it. So once again, what happened is that I paid with a duff card, so they knocked off 10%...
4. They are currently handling the drilling on its’ way back and forth from Alan Rhone’s, having first told me that they would have sent it to him for repairs anyway. They didn’t try and cream off some of the cost, or attempt to botch it up themselves. They also waved away my offer to pay upfront saying that we’d sort that all out later (they quoted the price though, so it’s not like I’ve written them a blank cheque).
At every opportunity they have been courteous, friendly and interested, asking me about my season and so on, despite the fact that I must be far down the bottom of their list for valuable customers. They extend the same courtesy and level of service as if I had walked in to order a fifty grand shotgun. These are small things, but having been variously fleeced or treated like something stuck to the sole of a shoe, or indeed just turned away by a variety of London gunshops at both end of the scale, I thought it worth mentioning on here. They deserve our business, that level of service is rare these days. They don’t have to provide it.
1. Handled the import of my drilling from Germany and the uncommunicative dealer over there, thanks in great part to a fluent German speaker on their staff. This took two months and they made from it the princely sum of £30.
2. Researched which factory 7x57R ammunition they could obtain for me and quoted me completely sensible prices for it (take note Beretta Gallery across the street…)
3. Gave me a discount on a jacket for no particular reason after I had to call them back because my card had been declined following an attempt to clone it. So once again, what happened is that I paid with a duff card, so they knocked off 10%...
4. They are currently handling the drilling on its’ way back and forth from Alan Rhone’s, having first told me that they would have sent it to him for repairs anyway. They didn’t try and cream off some of the cost, or attempt to botch it up themselves. They also waved away my offer to pay upfront saying that we’d sort that all out later (they quoted the price though, so it’s not like I’ve written them a blank cheque).
At every opportunity they have been courteous, friendly and interested, asking me about my season and so on, despite the fact that I must be far down the bottom of their list for valuable customers. They extend the same courtesy and level of service as if I had walked in to order a fifty grand shotgun. These are small things, but having been variously fleeced or treated like something stuck to the sole of a shoe, or indeed just turned away by a variety of London gunshops at both end of the scale, I thought it worth mentioning on here. They deserve our business, that level of service is rare these days. They don’t have to provide it.
