Pandemic Pricing Issues?

[Muddyboots]

Anyone seeing any questionable pricing on reloading components or even firearms as result of the Covid-19? I just ran into a situation where a bullet that was recently purchased by myself that is now $15/box of 50 more at this time. In fact it is $13 more than the MSRP and $13 more than the cost on the manufacturers website. I am hoping this is a pricing error and not something else but giving the site a few days to respond to my inquiry. If it is what they choose then I will not be doing business with them ever again. I prefer not identifying them just yet until I give them time for response. My feeling this is certainly price gouging in light of a situation none of us ever anticipated. I know the old saying just don't buy it but if a site is willing to take advantage of the people that support them, I don't need them anymore. We are all in this together and buying on-line is what we all are doing to comply with social distancing etc. and keep businesses going.

Am I over reacting? I have thick teflon skin so no worries on my end if you think I am off base with my assessment.

 

[Deleted member 103481]

Absolutely.

Im making a list and when this is over I will be checking it twice before I make purchases.

I have no issue with less sales or coupons, no issues with small price increases as they may be paying more money to get products in faster, and I understand our society let's them determine the price they want to sell at. However the outright gouging is too far.

 

[Muddyboots]

Price increases to stay alive is one thing but dang this is a 50%+ increase in price of box of 50. Hoping a mistake but we will see and like you said, I may not have long memory but I have a list!

 

[cohunt]

yes, bound to happen--just like during the Obummer gun/ammo/component scare --- CTD became notorious for it back then, but plenty of others jumped on the band wagon too. Some people were willing to pay those prices--- I had a buddy that sold off lots of 22lr for 10c/round, and 223 for $1/round, also had a local gun store that was selling at those same prices-- and people were willing to pay those prices--I don't support it, but that is the free enterprise we were all taught about in school -- supply & demand

I did it before, I'll do it again -- I will support the companies that dont raise prices but do allow back orders--- I place my orders for what I know I want in the future and then wait till they show up at my door--during the obummer era I waited 7 months for primers and 11 months for a particular bullet -- this is why I keep a back stock of items on my shelf that I commonly use--I refuse to pay scalpers prices

 

[Muddyboots]

Those that bite the hand that feeds them will regret it at some point.

 

[Tensilon]

Hey Muddy.... many states have laws regarding price gouging or profiteering during a pandemic and I would imagine that you are aware of this. I of course, have no idea where the store you are concerned about is located but here is what attorney general's office in Michigan relates to in regard to their law:
Retailers may be in violation of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act if they are:
• Charging the consumer a price that is grossly in excess of the price at which similar property or services are sold; and
• Causing coercion and duress as the result of the time and nature of a sales presentation.
It appears that there have been complaints against 75 businesses operating in Michigan at this time and they are being contacted and/or investigated by the Michigan attorney general's office.

Michigan attorney general's office receives 75 complaints (so far) of price-gouging related to coronavirus pandemic

The office has received 75 complaints as of Friday, March 13. Four businesses have been contacted and letters mailed out.

www.abc12.com

While I find this upsetting in regard to any product during this time, in light of what is going on right now I am particularly ****ed off about this issue in regard to PPE that is needed by front line healthcare people. Both my wife and I are high risk yet we fear that soon we will not have what we need to keep ourselves safe while working to keep others alive. The ball was dropped way back in January in regard to this issue and healthcare people are dying because of it. As far as I'm concerned...prosecute them all.
Tens

 

[Riflehunter1776]

the problem is that guys then buy it for the normal price at a shop and then turn around and flip it on gunbroker for a huge profit.

 

[Muddyboots]

Yep, this site though is not in MI otherwise I would consider but mistakes can happen so I am waiting to see what their response will be. You hate to cut them off at knees and find out it was a real pricing error that can happen when you have thousands of products on your website.

To your other point, I retired as Dir Environmental Health Safety of global company and the statements I hear on TV just boil my blood. Its the old saying " Don't blame your emergency on your own poor planning!". Ventilators that were purchase 5-10 years ago, never inspected, never had batteries removed or charged up, not stored correctly and so on. WTH! These are professionals in our government who cannot maintain high level instrumentation medical devices? No stockpiles of PPE in accordance to the Pandemic Planning requirements issued years ago? We are providing the blueprint to the bad guys on how to easily take us down with our own incompetence.

I was looking through FDA 21 CFR including Parts 868 and get even more ticked off. If these were private companies they would be taking the CEO's to jail.

I hope you and your wife are able to get through this safely and I for one, appreciate everyone that is fighting in the trenches. My wife and I fall into the high risk due age as well as underlying condition that suppressed immune system in my wife. So we are hunkered down out in the country doing facetime with grandkids.

Thank you for everything you are doing for other folks that need it!

 

[cohunt]

.....----

 

[cohunt]

humor always helps

EDITED
WARNING FROM ADMIN

Edited: got it been warned, guess not all our sense of humor is equal, understandable

 

[Muddyboots]

Cohunt, saw that vid few days ago from cuz in upstate NY. I have another one that is so funny I almost snotted coffee out of nose BUT I do not wish to receive ADMIN warning! Just go to youtube and search for "stay the blank at home" pandemic song.

I do not disagree with just don't buy it but disappointed that a website that a lot of us use. BUT I am hoping just a pricing error.

 

[Tensilon]

Cohunt,
Yes N95 masks really are 1x use masks. When you leave a room with a covid-19 pt all of your PPE is covered in viral particles. You can easily infect yourself, the walls, the halls, or any other person that comes into contact with any of this gear. The CDC has no credibility left at all. For years they have been telling us how to use this equipment, and now that they and the government have dropped the ball on this whole pandemic issue they are trying to tell us that we should try to reuse these masks simply because they don't have anymore and did not take this issue seriously enough in January, to see the writing on the wall. This is a pandemic. That means this is an issue that is threatening the health of the whole world. At this point it is clear that the US is woefully behind the rest of the world in dealing with this issue and Americans are going to pay the price for the incompetence of those in positions of power.
In regard to you and your fellow workers using respirators with gas filters, it is not the same at all. The respirators that you are using are built to use replaceable filters that are inside the mask and for this reason they are able to be used until they won't work. The n95's are made of paper and they are not contained inside a holder. After one use these cheap little masks are covered on the outside with viral particles that are killing people. Not just the masks, but everything that you wear into the room that is not covered. People that are not involved in healthcare really have no idea what we have to do to not infect ourselves or others while we are being exposed, or after we have been exposed. I will put up a link to an official video that is being sent to healthcare people employed by the federal government and you can take a look at what it takes to keep one's self and others from becoming infected. It is long. The nurse in the video actually starts putting on the PPE at about 6:05 of the video. With so many people working so closely together, there are literally hundreds or thousands of opportunities for one person to make a mistake and infect hundreds or thousands of others. I mean anyone, the doctor I'm sitting next to or the nurses sitting next to each other. Any of us could make one mistake. I'm guessing that most folks will not take 17 minutes to watch the whole video unless it is something they have to deal with daily to keep themselves and others alive. Not even nearly like anything close to me painting a car in my garage while using a respirator. And I pity the respiratory therapist that thinks that reusing N95's after covid-19 exposure is a safe practice.



Are you going to watch it and become more informed? Or are you going to keep spouting off about things that you obviously do not have a clue about?
A side note: I was worried about making you angry by sending this so I asked the wife. She said go ahead and send it because it might actually help people to better understand just how difficult it is to deal with a contagion. We are all stuck on this one little ball called earth, we are all in this together, and we all have to depend upon one another to do their best to stop this thing.
Tensilon

 

[Muddyboots]

Tensilon: the real issue is how badly the State governments have failed us not the federal. The States have lead authority on COMPLYING with the Pandemic Requirements and they have failed miserably. Complete lack of commitment to the Pandemic Planning requirements because the States CHOSE to not dedicate the resources (financial and technical) to insure they have a plan that is UP to Date and viable. The States know where the money needs to be allocated since they have the direct control over those resources. But nope, there is no threat of a Pandemic so why should we do WHAT WE ARE REQUIRED to DO? Obviously States have not self audited or have done so and not done anything which is even worse. Not inspecting ventilators is like not inspecting AED's! You HAVE to inspect and validate on a prescribed schedule depending upon the manufacturer and the legal requirements. SO how did the States not do this at all? Maybe they should turn over Pandemic Planning to the SERC (State Emergency Response Commision) that routinely conducts readiness drills with government entities along with private. At least there would be readiness. I hope there is a look back Lessons Learned from this fiasco and openly and honestly assess the failure to comply and put into place viable corrective and preventive actions for future Pandemic or Bio-Attack that will surely come again.

 

[Tensilon]

Disagree,
All of these months of denial or dismissal could have been used to build up the resources that we need right now but as it was, many of the items that we need were shipped off to aid China and other nations in their crisis's. There is a reason we had a pandemic response team at the federal level for decades prior to their dismissal in May of 2018. At that time funding for the CDC's global disease outbreak prevention efforts were reduced by 80%. This was the result of the anticipated depletion of previously allotted funding. What we have now is a patchwork quilt of newly hired personnel. The folks with 30 + years of experience are not there anymore. This thing needed to be coordinated at the federal level and it has been anything but. They knew about the issue in November of 2019 but they didn't even address the issue fully until March of 2020. Does it appear to you that other nations have left dealing with this pandemic to the individual states, provinces, or localities? They have not. All of these other nations are fighting this thing with the active coordination, participation, and support of their national governments. This, for the sake of a coordinated effort alone is not best left to individual states to accomplish on their own. The states do not have the funding necessary to accomplish what is needed. The power and financial strength of the federal government is what is needed to get everybody on the same page and have the financial strength to get the supplies that we need to beat this thing down. What we are seeing now is the result of lack of a timely and coordinated federal response. And this will be measured in deaths. Deaths are increasing exponentially as we speak. Federal projections of deaths have been increasing exponentially also. I am guessing that it is going to be difficult to convince you that the federal government should have been the lead on this one. You are entitled to your opinion but most healthcare people that I know....and that is many....put the blame for the progression of the disease squarely upon the shoulders of the federal government. C'mon down here and we'll wrap a bandanna around your face and send you in to take care of people sick with this disease and we'll see if you come out the other side. For God's sake, how stupid is that idea? And this is from the CDC....worthless, foolish, and unbelievably stupid advice. Yea, I'm putting my faith in the feds...after all they've done for me already....this thing isn't even close to over.
Tensilon