Brownells Reviews 

Inventory control and shipping are an absolute joke. Ordered a Part from them when I ordered it stated part was I stock then after I ordered it I received an email stating that part was on back order and could take 5 to 8 weeks to arrive. Received some lame excuse about it stating that on order sheet and how I must have "missed" it. Now a month later trying to contact them about it and they now say they are overwhelmed by requests and are several days behind in even answering customers inquiries! How can a business even continue when they have that alittle control over their orders?

Don't ever buy from Brownells, they will bombard you with emails from which you can't unsubscribe

Awful customer service. Canceled my order without letting me know and then when I reached out about my order I was told they no longer carry that product.

I'll start by saying the people are very polite. That's where it ends. I put in two orders for ammo. The first one shipped out after 2 weeks and got lost then found after an extra week. The second order which was $400 worth of creedmoor, well that's a different story. After 2 weeks they created a label and that's it. After I complained it went to claims where there was some excuse that made no sense but a new order was supposed to ship out. It never did. The best part is they don't even have the ammo to replace it, have no clue when they will have more and were just going to keep my money until I called and said something. I will never shop here again.

Terrible customer service. Had i not called back a few days later, i wouldn’t have known my order needed a “web verification” for fraud. I received no emails or confirmation number for my order. I literally spent almost $1000 on parts on 3 orders. 3 Customer services reps said i will receive an email. Never received an email. Finally got last of 3 items. Item tolerances are way off and doesn’t fit. Rep said i will receive a return/item exchange print out via email immediately. I never received an email. I will not be using Brownells after this is finalized. Never again! How can you blatantly lie to a customer.

Wow how can a company suck this bad ..
Ordered 3 separate times first 2 my orders where canceled after about 5 days and even though they canceled my order and sent nothing still got charged 3$ for shipping insurance.... I should of seen this as a sign but nope I tried a third time now my order is on hold so I call customer service AGAIN they can't help me I need the web team but they were off already so he said he was gonna transfer me well 15 minutes of being on hold I realized I wasn't transfered and no one is picking up ...
All I have to say is how the hell are they in business then I see girls with guns on YouTube and they are essentially advertising for them ..... once again what a joke they cant get the orders out that they get yet they still send me adds all the time to buy stuff.... ive tried 3 times to buy stuff from brown stain I mean brownells 3rd strike your out .... gonna let the world know how brown stain skid marks is as a company oh I mean brownells

While they have good products usually in stock, their shipping methods are TERRIBLE. I have ordered from them for the last few years and most all of the trouble is with SHIPPING. It is slow at getting packages picked up by their shippers.

They use FedEx mostly and USPS, both of which have become very unreliable in the last year.

Brownells needs to offer UPS shipping (Overnight, 2 day, and regular), so customers have a choice of shippers. UPS tends to be the most reliable for my area at least.

ALSO, I have paid for 2 day or overnight delivery on many occasions for an extra $10-$20, and Brownells will often pocket that extra money and just send it standard ground shipping. THAT IS FRAUD! Done with them. No other business I have ordered from in the last year has ever had any trouble getting packages delivered to the shipper on time, and not sending them how customer requests them to be delivered is unacceptable. There are several other businesses similiar to Brownells that will be getting my monthly orders for business customers in the future, since Brownells cannot keep their shipping end of the their business in order.

Made an order on Monday. There was no indication that there was an issue with my order. On Friday, they sent me an email that I needed to contact them and verify my details for fraud protection.

I called them, all my details were correct so not sure what that was all about. They said they would ship out my order in 5 business days. I told them that it had already been 5 business days and asked if they were going to overnight it. No, they said...they admitted they waited 5 days to call me but they couldn't ship today. Then I told them that I could go to Midway and get the same item for $50 less and asked could they price match. No again, they said. So, I canceled my order and did in fact get it for $50 cheaper through Midway and with no hassle.

I will never order from Brownells again.

Save time money don’t order from these guys really terrible experience ordered a Colt 14.5 LE6921 upper on the 14th of September ana still do not have my package talked to a customer service and all they said is we will get back to you. Very disappointed go somewhere else just a friendly advise.

Residing in The Netherlands, I'm dependent from Brownells when it comes to 'exotic' AR parts.
I have them delivered to a German gun store. When looking for a specific magazine, Brownells Switserland had (at least) one in stock so I asked the shop to order one. Brownells replied: just one? You better wait untill our German counterpart have them restocked. While their site clearly states that Backorder is currently not available.
So I'm not a respected customer? Come on.

Brownells needs to look at their Internet order processing. Placed and order that according to their website went through. Four days later had to go to their website to find out it was put on hold. No communication what sent to notify that the order was on hold.

Their customer service and sales processes are a joke. Don't waste your time. Same experience as others. I received an order confirmation days after I placed an order. The confirmation said I would be receiving a shipping notice next. The items were in stock so I expected them to ship that same day or next. After 8 days and no shipping information, I contacted them and got a reply that they were days behind on answering emails. I did get an email later that day that seemed unrelated, but said I needed to call and verify some information. When I called they verified my address, my billing information and every item on the invoice. They then wanted the last four digits of the credit card I used. When I told them I actively use 10 or so credit cards and could not tell them which one I used. They said they needed it. WHY? They had all my other information and could compare it to the card info. Worst experience ever. By the way- why did they not disclose they were going to reconfirm everything rather than leaving me hanging for 8 days. They did not even follow the process they said they would in their confirmation email.

Worst experience ever and the customer service woman was a witch. I will never order from Brownells again.

By the way I ordered some Ammo from Palmetto State Armory the same day and received the ammo 4 days later. Now that is what I call a great experience.

Don't believe the edited reviews on Bizrate or other sites where Brownells has edited reviews or paid for good ones. Both of my Brownells experiences were far from satisfying. In the latest case I needed an item shipped by 2-day air so as to avoid delivery while out of town the following week. The web site kept flipping the order back to 7-day default, no matter how many times I reset the choice to 2-day air. It finally displayed my choice correctly, along with the extra charge. I clicked on "Submit" and next thing that came up was a confirmation showing 7-day delivery again! I called and tried to get it changed, but the company was "unable" to upgrade the shipping. The item was shipped anyway, was delivered while I was out of town, and apparently stolen during that time. Now I am trying to process a chargeback on my credit card.

Beware. The web site is unreliable and will CHANGE your order after you hit the "Submit" button.

We have been a customer of Brownells since 1965.I doubt that anyone from that time is still there.
Never the less todays Brownells has treated us like we voted for biden.Never have we had to wait for them to ship products like now.2 years for simple screwdriver sets is unacceptable,but it is so. The prices we pay for these products is high,yet we always pay it because they always delivered.The clincher was on a set of Grace Brass drift punches that they made me send back ,(as only a few needed replaced ) its been 2 months now. I have called and they blame the kung flu! They tell me that they are not obtainable at all. So just for the he'll of it I called Larry at Midway about it and the exact same Grace set has already been shipped and will be here Tuesday! So Brownells is lying to me obviously. That is as low as it gets. Thats what they think of the thousands of dollars we spent there over the 56 years we have patronized them.

I ordered a $10 "warm bluing" product on 05/14/21. It is now 05/29/21 and it's still not here. And it did not require HazMat shipping either. I've called about it twice and received surly responses. I've been told that I should have bought expedited shipping, that the delay is essentially my fault! Who, in their right mind, is going to spend an extra $7 for shipping on a $10 order? They used to get orders to me in a timely fashion. Not one apology from the calls I originated. Rude people, too! The only mistake I made was ordering from Brownells. Never again!

I will also add that I left three texts regarding this issue and finally got a call back from a nice person and finally got an apology. However, they still really can't pin down a date of arrival. I'm restoring a fine SxS and ordered this bluing product to coincide with the polishing of these barrels. I'm tired of having to continually remove oxidizing while waiting on this product. I finally gave up and ordered bluing from another company two days ago. I'd give odds that the new order will beat the delivery of my now weeks old Brownells' order.

They used to be friendly, efficient, and responsive. They've really slipped. Not the nicest people to deal with anymore. I know that mistakes happen, but it's in how you handle mistakes AND how you interact with your customers that can make or break a company. I really am sorry to say that they're broken. They need to realize that they are not the only game in town. They need to do some customer service training, but it would probably be best if they just got out of the business and let the professional companies handle things. They've received the last order from this customer.

I strongly suggest that you look ANYWHERE else for your gunsmithing needs.

Addendum: 06/01/21. Yep. Just as I suspected. My replacement bluing from another company arrived today. Less than one week from the date I ordered it... including the holiday! It's going on three weeks and my Brownells order is still not here! Harumph!

Wow! Check out the massive number of 1-star reviews! It's regrettable that I have to add to it, but these guys are just plain doing it wrong. See, if I put quantity 2 in my cart and press "Checkout" that means a lock should be on the database. Then once payment is verified (within, say, 15 minutes) a "commit" should be issued for the transaction. But they cheaped out on their web developers and aren't doing that, so I'm paying $30 in shipping and hazmat fees and only getting $30 in powder instead of $60 I ordered. When I called, they said they couldn't do anything and I'd have to call back in the morning because the "A" team had gone home for the day. Nice customer service! When I called back in the morning they said they couldn't do anything except cancel my order. They altered my order after I placed it and after they sent me an email confirming all the items would be there and they defaulted on that contract. To make things even more interesting, I agreed to do the phone survey after the phone call and when the call came in I answered it but their phone survey robot doesn't "hear" the DTMF tones to answer questions! Why don't you guys just hang it up and let the big boys service the market? You aren't qualified to be selling on the web, because you don't comply with eCommerce norms or have good customer service. Just go out of business and blame Covid or something and be done. Someone else will step in and do the heavy lifting and you can sell ice and beef jerky and firewood on the side of the road.

Brownells used to be great but they have taken a nosedive over the years. I signed up for the $50 Edge program where you get free 2 day shipping. They would not let me apply it to a backorder even though the order was fulfilled after my membership started. Manager was very rude about it too. What a joke, much better retailers out there now, no need to waste time and money with these clowns.

Ordered some gun powder. Received updated shipping notices concerning arrival date. This really didn't matter to me because I have a barrel with a lid on it by my house that delivery companies all know about and place my packages. I received an email notice today that my package couldn't be delivered as nobody was home to sign for it. What? I hadn't been notified that a signature was required and that I must be home when the package arrived. I guess these people think that we are supposed to wait around home all day and dwiddle our thumbs until the package arrives. Why wasn't I notified of this or given the option to opt out?? That's ok, I'll spend the next few hours blasting Brownell's all over the internet.

I don't know about the rest of you I was very happy with my experience. The techs are a little snippy but I'm not in their shoes and they could be quite busy and under a lot of stress. I spoke to a sales rep who was very knowledgeable and walked me through everything I needed. My order arrived in a timely manner and I could not have been more happy. They are a little pricier than some other places oh, but I was very happy with the service and the products I got. I will use them again regardless of what the rest of the feedback in this site says my experience was good.

Not pleased with the service or Ron around I have been getting. Placed an order for a pistol a gift for my girl friend placed the order under her name and told them I would pay for the purchase they shipped the pistol under my name when it was supposed to be under hers. They made the error and now want the flat provider to send the pistol back so that we can replace the order under her name which will take another three weeks. It’s been that already. Multiple phone call that a supervisor will call me back which has been totally untrue. It’s quite obvious my $530 bucks are tied up else where and it’s no mind to them very bad business relations it would be so simple to verify with the flow the proper name!!!