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Posted: 12/31/2011 2:23:58 PM EDT
Anyone had any prior experience with smartgunner? 
I've emailed them about a week ago, still haven't heard back. I would assume they're either backlogged or closed for the holidays. Should I be worried about placing an order? It's a high-dollar order, it would be nice to receive an email back. 
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Place your order somewhere else. Very very slow shipping and horrible communication from what i've heard. Good prices if you can wait months. ditto. horrible communication and super slow shipping. would buy from someone else who wont hold my money for 2 months and make me wait. |
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Place your order somewhere else. Very very slow shipping and horrible communication from what i've heard. Good prices if you can wait months. "From what I've heard" - personal experience? My experience with Tommy buying a DD upper was very positive - he was easy to work with and shipped promptly. Great prices, too. I'd use him again. |
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Place your order somewhere else. Very very slow shipping and horrible communication from what i've heard. Good prices if you can wait months. "From what I've heard" - personal experience? My experience with Tommy buying a DD upper was very positive - he was easy to work with and shipped promptly. Great prices, too. I'd use him again. I'm assuming he had the upper in-stock? This upper is a custom order. 
I don't mind waiting, as long as I''m given a reasonable time frame when it will be delivered. Some sort of response communication would be nice. I guess I can wait and hope he responds to my emails after the New Year. I really haven't find anywhere else to order a full DD upper. |
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My understanding is that you are at the mercy of what parts Smartgunner/Daniel Defense have in stock. If you order an upper with all parts in stock then you should receive it in a timely manner. If something is out of stock then you have to wait on DD's production schedule which may take months. Your best bet is to call them with what you want to see if it's something that's readily available.
If you're looking for an alternative to Smartgunner I do believe Daniel Defense will also build a custom upper. I've at least seen posts of them offering the service in the past. |
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My understanding is that you are at the mercy of what parts Smartgunner/Daniel Defense have in stock. If you order an upper with all parts in stock then you should receive it in a timely manner. If something is out of stock then you have to wait on DD's production schedule which may take months. Your best bet is to call them with what you want to see if it's something that's readily available. If you're looking for an alternative to Smartgunner I do believe Daniel Defense will also build a custom upper. I've at least seen posts of them offering the service in the past. I've contacted Daniel Defense. I'm assuming they're also out for the Holidays.
I don't mind waiting, as long as I'm given an honest time frame when I can expect it. My best bet would be to purchase it directly from DD as they're the ones assembling it from the sounds of it. Yet I have a strong feeling they're to be asking quite a bit over smart gunner's price.
I was surprised how fair his prices were compared to other places. Even BCM's price can't come close, not that they ever have their upper in-stock. 
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Place your order somewhere else. Very very slow shipping and horrible communication from what i've heard. Good prices if you can wait months. "From what I've heard" - personal experience? My experience with Tommy buying a DD upper was very positive - he was easy to work with and shipped promptly. Great prices, too. I'd use him again. I'm assuming he had the upper in-stock? This upper is a custom order.
I don't mind waiting, as long as I''m given a reasonable time frame when it will be delivered. Some sort of response communication would be nice. I guess I can wait and hope he responds to my emails after the New Year. I really haven't find anywhere else to order a full DD upper. Nope - a custom built one, but very basic. A lot of orders were delayed due to DD being out of stock of certain rails and other components. |
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Place your order somewhere else. Very very slow shipping and horrible communication from what i've heard. Good prices if you can wait months. "From what I've heard" - personal experience? My experience with Tommy buying a DD upper was very positive - he was easy to work with and shipped promptly. Great prices, too. I'd use him again. I'm assuming he had the upper in-stock? This upper is a custom order.
I don't mind waiting, as long as I''m given a reasonable time frame when it will be delivered. Some sort of response communication would be nice. I guess I can wait and hope he responds to my emails after the New Year. I really haven't find anywhere else to order a full DD upper. Nope - a custom built one, but very basic. A lot of orders were delayed due to DD being out of stock of certain rails and other components. The multiple threads of people waiting sometimes over 6 months kept me from ordering from them. I called multiple times and left messages only to never hear back. Sounds like all the components for your upper were in stock so it shipped quick, but that wasn't the case for most. |
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Place your order somewhere else. Very very slow shipping and horrible communication from what i've heard. Good prices if you can wait months. "From what I've heard" - personal experience? My experience with Tommy buying a DD upper was very positive - he was easy to work with and shipped promptly. Great prices, too. I'd use him again. There have been several threads made about them. I've read a few that are not favorable. |
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No way man....do a google search on "AR15.com + smartgunner" and read up. When you read enough, check with Rainier Arms. They're a DD dealer too, and their service is impeccable.
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Place your order somewhere else. Very very slow shipping and horrible communication from what i've heard. Good prices if you can wait months. "From what I've heard" - personal experience? And suppose I told you copperheads were venomous? Would I need first hand experience being bitten for that to be an accurate statement, or would the stories of past bite victims be sufficient? 
I haven't even been on here but six months and I can't tell you how many stories I've read about "smartgunner". Earlier this week a guy was posting about him screwing up on a custom ordered DD upper (wrong rail). That guy waited months to get it, and now "smartgunner" won't return his calls or emails. Heck, there was even a warning about him somewhere on here posted by AR15.com staff. Every business will get most orders right or they go out of business in a hurry...it's how they handle the occasional SNAFU that separates the good from the bad. Just because he got your order right doesn't make how he's treated all those other customers OK. I really can't believe people will still spend money with that guy. 
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I have ordered a upper from smartgunner. I knew there would be a long wait involved and I was willing to wait for it at that price point. I got my upper around 2 1/2 months later and was completely satisfied. If you are unwilling to wait go with another vendor, but be willing to pay more. |
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I've ordered a few thousand worth of parts from them, each time they shipped same day and arrived same week
I do believe their site keeps an active inventory, the only delays people have had were for custom dd uppers and waiting on dd's production schedule I ordered a standard upper on a friday and got it the next tuesday, hard to beat that |
| I've ordered from smartgunner one time. It was an Aimpoint T-1 between 2-3 years ago. Smartgunner had the best price and at the time there was some big deal through ebay (they have an ebay store). So I got the best deal through them, the shipping was fast and I had no issues. |
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I've ordered a few thousand worth of parts from them, each time they shipped same day and arrived same week I do believe their site keeps an active inventory, the only delays people have had were for custom dd uppers and waiting on dd's production schedule I ordered a standard upper on a friday and got it the next tuesday, hard to beat that This has been my experience as well. They are not staffed like rainier. Completely different business model. Smartgunner is at the mercy of dd on the production of uppers. Smartgunner does not build the uppers. Can't beat the prices. I've done a ton of business with Tommy. My thinking is this: I can't get a better deal anywhere else, so I'm happy to wait. Awhile back he was offering dd uppers for 549 with lite rails, crazy good deal. The response from the AR community was epic, and I believe it surpassed the expectations of both dd and smartgunner. Some orders that took a long time were ones that the customer changed part way through, thus putting them in the back of the line. It was a long long long line. Those that got uppers the first and second go round got a screaming deal. Also, take note. If you want to build an upper or buy dd parts... Look at what dd says they have in stock on their website. They are in extremely high demand, and the inventory reflects that. Same goes for bcm. |
| I bought an upper and lower from him. Lower was recieved in a few days. Upper took a couple of months. The custom uppers are drop shipped from DD, so your really at their mercy. They are a popular manufacturer, barrels in particular. They are understandably put there own production run at the head of the line. Be prepared for a two month wait. With my order I had good communication. My hold up was the rial I wanted. He offered to adjust the order to an item they had in stock but I chose to wait for what I wanted. He has uppers in stock, if one of those fit your bill you'll get it quickly. For a custom job be prepared to wait. |
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I ordered a Mesa Tactical stock adapter from them, it wasn't in stock but drop-shipped direct from Mesa Tactical. I received a mangled empty envelope with a note from USPS saying that sometimes packages get damaged in the automated sorting process.
I called and raised all kind of hell with Tommy on his voicemail and realized later that it wasn't his fault. He worked with me to get another one sent out. I then received another mangled envelope but luckily some competent USPS employee gathered up all the parts and retaped the package. This was all Mesa Tacticals fault for being too cheap or lazy to put a $100 piece of machined aluminum in a freaking cardboard box. Tommy handled it nicely even after an unfair ass chewing. I just wish I would have known it wasn't in stock, I ordered from there because I live within an hour of their shop and was hoping for fast shipping. |
| I emailed Tommy (Smartgunner) about an Aimpoint H1 RDS had questions about about a suitable mount. He replied to my email later that same day and called me back on the phone number I provided him. I ended up getting the H1 and a Larue mount cheaper than anywhere else. I ordered on a Tuesday and ended up getting the sight that Friday. |
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My persoanl experience:
I ordered from Smartgunner last year about this time. I knew going in it would take a minimum of 2 months to get my order, but did anyways. My cc was billed, and 9 weeks later my upper showed up out of the blue. I didn't receive a tracking number or email, I just came home one day and it was sitting on my front porch. I ordered a stripped 14.5" middy upper & bcg. Pics showed everything minus a bcg and handguards; I received an upper(with f/a and ejection door), bcg, barrel w/ fsb(was drilled w/ taper pins). Needless to say the job got done; but not to my satisfaction. I had no communication with Tommy/Smartgunner during the whole experience. I used his Industry Forum as a guide to when mine was going to be ready, but since he has cancelled his Industry Partner subscription so I say good luck with communication with him. Not worth it IMO. If you order a upper with rail and bcg(aim surplus has a better deal on dd bcgs) then its not a bad deal; otherwise you save very little.I ordered a $1k upper and bcg from BCM a few hours ago and didn't even consider Smartgunner due to my past experiences with them even tho it would have saved me about $180. Now don't get me wrong, my DD upper shoots better than I do, but I think that a BCM BFH upper would have shot just as good and arrived in half the time. |
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