Heads up about Academy BS

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Nov 7, 2021
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Location
Oklahoma
Back in Feb 2020 my roomate bought a .22 pistol from Academy. This was shortly after his father died and his NICS got a delay as they had the same name and his dad was a retired cop. Those things happen, but he is not a felon or prohibited person. He was patient with them and finally after over 9 days he went to Academy and asked if he could pick up his pistol. Academy had given him a price match from Atwoods on this Heritage .22, and they acted miffed that they gave him the discount and then had trouble clearing his NICS. They let him leave the store with the firearm, should have been the end of it. However, when he was trying to pick up the gun, Academy mgr was required and would not come back to the gun dept and help him get it done. He waited over two hours, I know because I shopped while I waited on him. He was getting pretty aggravated and grumbling about it. Finally after about 2hr 35 minutes we left the store with the gun. Once again they let him leave the store with the gun.
Fast forward to Monday this week, Academy had some Savage rifles on clearance, I decided to grab one for my 16yr old grandson. I went in, bought the gun, and filled out the NICS. I am a former FFL licensee with tons of Government security clearance and background checks in my life, never a delay or problem.
The Academy counter person asked me if I had a room mate and I said yeah, what about it. Academy said to me, "We cannot sell you a gun. " Wait a minute, Was I delayed? No, Was I denied? No Did NICS issue order to proceed? They wouldn't answwer. I said is this an action by BATFE & NICS? They wouldn't answer. I said so if I am not denied, not delayed, not declared prohibited person, did I get a proceed? They still refused to answer.
Apparently, somebody did not like his impatience with their crap, pushed the flag button and banned him from being able to buy from Academy. Wait, they let him leave the store with the gun, ok. Year and a half later they refuse to sell me a gun because, they finally admitted, we share an address.
So essentially, even though I am 100% legal buyer, I was refused a gun, not because of me, but my address. In other words, they created a prohibited person from an address.
Sounds pretty impossibly stupid, but you guys should know. Academy will screw you over if you even look impatient or upset about how you are being treated.
I asked, "So if I move, someone else gets my address, comes in, you will refuse to sell them a gun based on their address, even if they are just as legal as I was? Deer in headlight stare, I said, well you lost a bunch of money in sales. I was going to drop $1000 on baseball gear for my my grandson's little league team, not now, I won't buy a fishing hook there.
You all shop them if you want to I guess, but personally I think this was really shady. Had they not wanted to do the sale to my roomate they should have never let him take the gun, much less try to make me prohibited buyer via an address. Something to think about before you spend money at Academy sports. They really looked stupid when I asked if I was denied, delayed, prohibited or got order to proceed. And would not admit that it was an Academy policy decision, they acted like it was the NICS & BATFE, to which I said.
"I know BATFE Mgmt level personnel personally, I will be calling them."
Reach out to the very top and make some noise.
 

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