Powder Valley Post on FB Today

[Andy S.]

Sharing for those who do not mess with SM:

" The battle is tough but some people just don't care. I hate it. I really do. Today we had to block a few persons from accessing our website. We also had to cancel over $20,000 in orders. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. We could have let those orders go through. But, we didn't. It cost us over $1,200 to cancel those orders. Each credit card transaction costs us about 3%. Figure in that running the card cost us 3% and then crediting the transaction cost us another 3%. How many statements do we need to put on our website? How many places do we need to put where you have to agree to the daily and individual limitations. People try to act all slick willy and figure out ways around the limitations we've placed and then act all coy like they had no idea....... Come on folks. I may look like an idiot but most of the time I'm not and this ain't my first rodeo. Heck folks, I've even had people contact me and ask for me to charge them 10% more than our listed price and allow them to purchase $50,000 to $100,000 worth of powder per month. We're not going to do it folks. I've said this over and over. We're here because we're shooters supporting shooters. We need to work together through this!"

 

[WTM]

scalping aint easy. PV should have hit them with a 10% restocking charge.

 

[Hunter 257W]

"We're here because we're shooters supporting shooters."

That's how it should be, not a bunch of opportunist trying to shut things down then profit from the chaos they cause.

 

[PossumSlayer]

I would have put them at the back of the line (back order) and kept their money.

 

[MUP]

So what happened? I hope my order didn't get cancelled. I ordered a jug of powder last week.

 

[WTM]

So what happened? I hope my order didn't get cancelled. I ordered a jug of powder last week.

scalpers trying to sneak in more orders and trying to order more than the maximum quantity so they can resell it. folks are starting to wise up to this stuff. i thought it was funny that the consumer electronics group pretty much screwed the scalpers on ebay. about 3000 of them bought some stuff at high prices and then cancelled their orders. the scalpers were left holding the bag to ebays commission, lol.

 

[MUP]

LOL That's funny. I have a couple of orders processing thru them right now as a matter of fact. I sure as heck don't buy it to sell it tho, although I have sold/traded a bottle or two to some members on here to help them out when they didn't have any I reckon.

 

[MUP]

So, I imagine there should be several lbs of powder being re-allocated to the shelves soon?

 

[Andy S.]

So, I imagine there should be several lbs of powder being re-allocated to the shelves soon?

That is the way I read it. PV is fed up with the scalpers, beyond fed up to take a monetary hit to prove a point. My hat is off to them.

 

[kornbread]

That is the way I read it. PV is fed up with the scalpers, beyond fed up to take a monetary hit to prove a point. My hat is off to them.

Yep. I knew it had to be going on. I'm glad they caught the issue and addressed it.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Glad they caught it. Think more should do the same.

Hodgdon on their site has a message with their limitation as one order per month to a person and that address.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Good for them. I wish that Brownells and a few others would do the same. We are competing against bots and apps that go to people who game the system to buy it all up and mark it up, so it's not even a fair fight right now. Companies who care about the sport and their customers help to slightly level the playing field.

Now, if I could just find a brick or two of SRPs and a jug of H4895

 

[casjoker]

When will the majority of people wise up and just stop buying off Gun Broker and other sites. Stop feeding the problem and it will sort itself out. There is no need to pay almost as much per primer as an actual round of 556 was costing before this craziness started. I am starting to see ammo trickle into stores and have found a few people on GB being sort of reasonable with ammo prices (just bought 2 boxes of 300 win mag core lokt for $40 per box of 20). Also found some powder at Sportsman's Warehouse. Benton's in East TN seems to have a steady trickle of various ammo with no buyer restrictions and everyone I have seen has been reasonable in the amount they buy (2-4 boxes).

I am a dolt when it comes to most tech, how do these bots work for buying stuff? Seems like it would be hard to set up an automated buying system for these sites like PV, Brownell's etc.

Excellent on PV for stepping up and doing the right thing! Hopefully, others will start to do the same.

 

[WTM]

When will the majority of people wise up and just stop buying off Gun Broker and other sites. Stop feeding the problem and it will sort itself out. There is no need to pay almost as much per primer as an actual round of 556 was costing before this craziness started. I am starting to see ammo trickle into stores and have found a few people on GB being sort of reasonable with ammo prices (just bought 2 boxes of 300 win mag core lokt for $40 per box of 20). Also found some powder at Sportsman's Warehouse. Benton's in East TN seems to have a steady trickle of various ammo with no buyer restrictions and everyone I have seen has been reasonable in the amount they buy (2-4 boxes).

I am a dolt when it comes to most tech, how do these bots work for buying stuff? Seems like it would be hard to set up an automated buying system for these sites like PV, Brownell's etc.

Excellent on PV for stepping up and doing the right thing! Hopefully, others will start to do the same.

the bots doesnt work like a human, that is go to a website, browse around put stuff in a cart and then check out.

it works like this if i can put it in laymans terms. there are two parts to a website, the front end is what we see when we go to a website and then there is the back end that we dont see, which contains coding that handles the server and data to a website.

what a bot is basically is an application, a piece of software, that filters your parameters through the backend of a website. it pings that website thousands of times a second until that parameter comes true then it initiates a purchase by passing the front end checkout. kind of like a thousand people hitting the refresh button.

here is the brilliant part, to keep sniffers from detecting them users utilize proxy servers and reloadable debit cards so that it looks like 100 different folks with different ip addresses and account numbers.

not only do these aholes scarf up all the product at one wack they also can slow a website down with the pings just like a ddos attack.

ill say this again, this is not a pure supply and demand situation, these scumbags are creating artificial supply and demand/scarcity with what they are doing and the fear mongers are feeding it.

 

[Hunter 257W]

WTM, that makes sense that they could do all that and appear to be hundreds of individuals placing orders so the MAX limits can be exceeded. But I wonder about how they would handle the physical shipping address. Maybe that's how they got caught. How many different shipping addresses could a cheater come up with trying to appear to be many different people? I'd guess that's how Powder Valley caught them, what do you think?

 

[WTM]

its no

WTM, that makes sense that they could do all that and appear to be hundreds of individuals placing orders so the MAX limits can be exceeded. But I wonder about how they would handle the physical shipping address. Maybe that's how they got caught. How many different shipping addresses could a cheater come up with trying to appear to be many different people? I'd guess that's how Powder Valley caught them, what do you think?

these bots search out hundreds of retail stores at once. these people that are using bots are fairly organized into communities. be easy to do, give a fake address and meet the UPS guy there or have it held at the hub for pick up or have it delivered to someone in the community that didnt get a sale.

some of these low end scumbags have even started to sell pokeman from mcdonalds. they said people were buying 20 kids meals at once, pulling the cards out and throwing the food in the dumpster. preying on kids and their parents money, that takes a special kind of scumbag.

 

[casjoker]

WTH is wrong with people, anything for a dollar I guess. I am betting there is a fair amount of fraudulent credit cards being used too. It would be scary and extremely sad if we actually knew the amount of crime that is overlooked and goes unpunished on the internet.

In the end, law-abiding citizens who do the right thing are the real losers and quickly becoming the real suckers in all this.

 

[Andy S.]

Latest post by PV:

" I love our customers. I really do! We have some of the most awesome customers ever but you guys would be surprised what kind of crap our customer service department has to deal with. There is no place for screaming, cussing and yelling at folks. None, not one! I hold no hate for any man. But, this guy is on the top of our list of "concern". Yeah, I know we're not perfect. I know things are frustrating and yeah I know we still had our primers set to buy a koozie in order to combat the bots, which we quickly had to take the primers off line to correct. Then we put the primers back in stock. But, I can tell you each and every one. You get more results with sugar than vinegar. Here's some communication we received today. Obviously this guy is a real class act:
"To say I'm fxxxxxxx pissed is an understatement. You require an individual to purchase a koozie in order to place an order for your Federal #210 Large Rifle Primers (1000), but the damn koozies are OOS and your site is not reflecting their status correctly. While trying to make several attempts to determine which of these koozies are in stock, the primers go OOS; WTF?!
What kind of axxhxxxxx demand someone buy a sxxx $2.95 product to get access to primers they have been waiting months to acquire? Must be run by fxxxxxx democrats. Fxxx Powder Valley. Never, never, never, NEVER will I recommend or purchase from you axxhxxxx. Stuff your primers up your axx."
Obviously I edited things because I do not believe in cursing although I do have my occasional slip. In whatever you do please be kind to people. Nobody deserves to be demeaned, disrespected and cursed at in any circumstance. For the 99.9999% of our customers we appreciate you much more than you know."

 

[WTM]

so thats how he got around the bots, very intelligent. i was thinking a dozen captchas, lol.

 

[LanceS4803]

Big topic of discussion on a long range hunting forum. To a person, they all agree with PV.
BTW, just missed some large rifle primers with them. So close...