I know there has been a few posts/ questions about pistol safes, so I decided to make a independent post about what I finally decided on- FAS1 Magnum TL





It's expensive and took some work to get it shipped here, but is was all worth it.
NO batteries
Simplex lock
Auto present of pistol at opening( has a small piston)
Heavy, in a good way......3/16 steel body at almost 30 lbs.

After having to pry open my battery operated safe, I had enough....this thing is a beast and is bad ass!

Link-
http://www.fas1safe.com

It's expensive and took some work to get it shipped here, but is was all worth it.

Tell us a story about the shipping!  What kind of work did that take?

 

Tell us a story about the shipping!  What kind of work did that take?

 

The website says they will not ship to Hawaii at all. After a few phone calls and an email,  the owner was very cool and agreed to ship here.

It ran about $45 for shipping which was reasonable for the weight and awkward size. I REALLY wanted this thing too.

Cool safe. I've been meaning to get a replacement for my crappy one I got from SA

My biggest concern with this one would be the Velcro on the holster. I would want something more quiet as I'm reaching for my HD gun in the middle of the night

Cool safe. I've been meaning to get a replacement for my crappy one I got from SA

My biggest concern with this one would be the Velcro on the holster. I would want something more quiet as I'm reaching for my HD gun in the middle of the night

The velcro is for adjustment only. The thumb break is a standard snap.

Depending on the pistol, you may not need the retaining strap at all.

Nice. My SA safe has to go too.

This is nice!

The velcro is for adjustment only. The thumb break is a standard snap.

Depending on the pistol, you may not need the retaining strap at all.

 

The website says they will not ship to Hawaii at all. After a few phone calls and an email,  the owner was very cool and agreed to ship here.

It ran about $45 for shipping which was reasonable for the weight and awkward size. I REALLY wanted this thing too.

Who shipped it? Ups usps?  Seems they'll ship to Hawaii now but charge apprx $90.

Who shipped it? Ups usps?  Seems they'll ship to Hawaii now but charge apprx $90.

Mine shipped USPS, it was $49.90.

Mine shipped USPS, it was $49.90.

I'll have to contact them then.  Thank you much for the info!

Hi guys, I signed up to your forum for a couple reasons, first, THANKS for the business and it's been a pleasure doing business in Hawaii for the most part.

Second, if you purchased one of my safes, you know that shipping UPS is over $90 to Hawaii for my FAS1 safes. I think all the safes I have shipped there have shipped USPS by the CUSTOMERS CHOICE and I have worked with everyone for as smooth of a process as possible to try to drop that price down to the $50 range and make a trip to the local Post Office to ship it. You all know how much fun that can be 

As of today, I will not be shipping any more safe orders via USPS to Hawaii (or probably anywhere). I was notified by a customer in Hawaii that the USPS tracking showed the safe sitting in Richmond CA since Sept. 8th (it only took a few days to get there) and had an estimated ETA of Sept. 16th (2 days ago). The customer right away (today) put in a dispute with Paypal (by the way in 5.5 years this is the first dispute I have ever had) rather than investigate and maybe file a claim with the Post Office. Additionally, yesterday when the customer contacted me, I offered to do what I could as well and signed up to track the package as it moves. I told him  that I thought we should give it a few days and see if it shows up and to let me know what else I can do to help.

After a phone call to USPS customer service this morning they said it was probably still moving and just hasn't been scanned again yet. A quick Google search of the Richmond CA Post Office, I discovered a number of people posting about delays through this location. Seems most were for shipments to Hawaii and apparently it's common to have delays associated with packages not shipping out until a container is full. To me, that seems to make sense (this shipment is now only two days behind the estimated delivery time), especially if your shipment is one of the first scanned into that container and depending on volume. Maybe some of you have experienced these delays. I don't think any previous orders took more than 10 to 12 days to arrive.

Anyway, I apologize for this being so long, but I wanted to share with you guys why I am making this decision. Thanks again for all the referrals and I will keep an eye out for a better solution if one becomes available. Feel free to email me anytime if you have any questions or better yet another affordable shipping option.

Glenn

Well, This sucks.  Thanks to an impatient person blaming the seller instead of the commie Cali PO, it ruins it for all of us.  I have had issue with CA PO before and they are SLOW.  Any other PO that ships stuff to Hawaii, and the package gets here on time.

Thank you for posting an explanation for the lateness on our forum FAS1.  I hope that the person learns a lesson in this.  I order stuff all the time, and if I see it going to Cali I always give it more time.  Disputing with Paypal right off the bat, that's UNCOOL.

Hi guys, I signed up to your forum for a couple reasons, first, THANKS for the business and it's been a pleasure doing business in Hawaii for the most part.

Second, if you purchased one of my safes, you know that shipping UPS is over $90 to Hawaii for my FAS1 safes. I think all the safes I have shipped there have shipped USPS by the CUSTOMERS CHOICE and I have worked with everyone for as smooth of a process as possible to try to drop that price down to the $50 range and make a trip to the local Post Office to ship it. You all know how much fun that can be 

As of today, I will not be shipping any more safe orders via USPS to Hawaii (or probably anywhere). I was notified by a customer in Hawaii that the USPS tracking showed the safe sitting in Richmond CA since Sept. 8th (it only took a few days to get there) and had an estimated ETA of Sept. 16th (2 days ago). The customer right away (today) put in a dispute with Paypal (by the way in 5.5 years this is the first dispute I have ever had) rather than investigate and maybe file a claim with the Post Office. Additionally, yesterday when the customer contacted me, I offered to do what I could as well and signed up to track the package as it moves. I told him  that I thought we should give it a few days and see if it shows up and to let me know what else I can do to help.

After a phone call to USPS customer service this morning they said it was probably still moving and just hasn't been scanned again yet. A quick Google search of the Richmond CA Post Office, I discovered a number of people posting about delays through this location. Seems most were for shipments to Hawaii and apparently it's common to have delays associated with packages not shipping out until a container is full. To me, that seems to make sense (this shipment is now only two days behind the estimated delivery time), especially if your shipment is one of the first scanned into that container and depending on volume. Maybe some of you have experienced these delays. I don't think any previous orders took more than 10 to 12 days to arrive.

Anyway, I apologize for this being so long, but I wanted to share with you guys why I am making this decision. Thanks again for all the referrals and I will keep an eye out for a better solution if one becomes available. Feel free to email me anytime if you have any questions or better yet another affordable shipping option.

Glenn

Hi, Glenn!  Welcome to the forum!!

I am a satisfied customer of your FAS1 safe.  For reference, here is the tracking info for my order:



As you can see, there was an 8-day "delay" between departing Richmond, CA, and scanning for arrival in Honolulu.  It's obvious this is not flying to Hawaii. 

My personal opinion:  punishing all future and repeat customers because of one  unreasonable customer should be reconsidered.  We have so few options here in Hawaii for certain types of expensive-to-ship items.  Quality gun safes falls in that category.

Perhaps expectations regarding actual versus estimated delivery dates can be addressed with an FAQ type item on your web page?  Maybe add that to the payment invoice?

I do urge you to reconsider your decision to avoid USPS.  FedEx and UPS shipping to Hawaii is unbelievable compared to USPS prices. 

Have you explored selling through Amazon?  They have some of the most reasonable shipping costs of any online retailer day-to-day. 

Thanks very much for manufacturing an extremely sturdy, reliable and HEAVY pistol safe!  Again, I'm a very satisfied customer!

Aloha!

Also to add, UPS and FEDEX service in Hawaii SUCKS. 

On many occasions they (UPS and FEDEX) have left my package IN THE MIDDLE OF MY DRIVEWAY, not in the garage, not on the porch, the middle of the driveway!  Once they (UPS) even delivered to another house, who's house, who knows?  They sure didn't....and they told ME to canvass my neighborhood to look for it!  Needless to say that item was lost/stolen, and I had to fight them tooth and nail for a month and a half to get my money refunded. 

I make it a point to not do business with USP or FEDEX.   For the price they charge to ship they ought to have much better customer service.

Thanks for the input. This particular shipment doesn't show leaving CA like yours does. If it did, I doubt the customer would have jumped the gun so quick.

I know it seems like everyone else suffers because of this situation, but keep in mind I am the one on the hook for the customers decision to ship USPS and I am a very small business and can't afford to do business that way. I am considering Amazon, but if it is like Ebay the shipping to the customer is reasonable only because it is a flat rate for the customer and the vendor eats the rest. Between extra fees and shipping that I was paying for, I only lost money when I tried Ebay and those orders were shipped in the lower 48. I'll take a good look at Amazons shipping policy in the next week or so, but the Paypal/USPS situation would probably be the same.

Add Paypal into the mix and all the customer has to tell Paypal is that they haven't received their product and I get a chargeback. He doesn't even have to explain that it's not due to anything I have done or question if he has exhausted his options with USPS. All responsibility is now on me and I have to spend my resources trying to resolve it while the customer doesn't have to do a thing!

Now, it still could get resolved where both parties are made whole, but I am holding the bag until then. Why? USPS. I would have excellent tracking or a claim filed and settled in 2 to 3 days with UPS.

Thanks for the input. This particular shipment doesn't show leaving CA like yours does. If it did, I doubt the customer would have jumped the gun so quick.

I know it seems like everyone else suffers because of this situation, but keep in mind I am the one on the hook for the customers decision to ship USPS and I am a very small business and can't afford to do business that way. I am considering Amazon, but if it is like Ebay the shipping to the customer is reasonable only because it is a flat rate for the customer and the vendor eats the rest. Between extra fees and shipping that I was paying for, I only lost money when I tried Ebay and those orders were shipped in the lower 48. I'll take a good look at Amazons shipping policy in the next week or so, but the Paypal/USPS situation would probably be the same.

Add Paypal into the mix and all the customer has to tell Paypal is that they haven't received their product and I get a chargeback. He doesn't even have to explain that it's not due to anything I have done or question if he has exhausted his options with USPS. All responsibility is now on me and I have to spend my resources trying to resolve it while the customer doesn't have to do a thing!

Now, it still could get resolved where both parties are made whole, but I am holding the bag until then. Why? USPS. I would have excellent tracking or a claim filed and settled in 2 to 3 days with UPS.

Please keep us updated.  I'm planning on a second purchase before Christmas, and the extra cost of shipping here would cut into my holiday gift budget!

 

Please keep us updated.  I'm planning on a second purchase before Christmas, and the extra cost of shipping here would cut into my holiday gift budget!

 

Here's the update on shipping to Hawaii. This shipment has was delivered on Friday and took just over 3 weeks. I appealed the Paypal dispute and since tracking showed delivery they say I won my appeal. So what does Paypal do for me the Vendor? They ask the customer by email to please pay me. So what happens if the customer doesn't? Not real sure since he did pay, but it got me thinking about using Paypal in the future. Now the customer always said it was a misunderstanding when he notified Paypal and asked me a week earlier to confirm my email address twice since he was going to pay me and take a chance that he would be OK. Well, he paid me on Saturday after the safe finally arrived, so in the end I think everyone is whole at this time.

Here's what I decided to do for now and I'll see how it works out. I will still ship to Hawaii by USPS if that is the customers request, but I will not accept a Paypal payment with a USPS shipment. I don't think there is enough protection for the vendor before they refund money to they customer and any delay in shipment by USPS should be handled by the customer and USPS since that was the customers preference. Attached is a photo of the tracking showing the package was never scanned as departing CA. That's where the customer got concerned, understandably.

Glenn

Here's the update on shipping to Hawaii. This shipment has was delivered on Friday and took just over 3 weeks. I appealed the Paypal dispute and since tracking showed delivery they say I won my appeal. So what does Paypal do for me the Vendor? They ask the customer by email to please pay me. So what happens if the customer doesn't? Not real sure since he did pay, but it got me thinking about using Paypal in the future. Now the customer always said it was a misunderstanding when he notified Paypal and asked me a week earlier to confirm my email address twice since he was going to pay me and take a chance that he would be OK. Well, he paid me on Saturday after the safe finally arrived, so in the end I think everyone is whole at this time.

Here's what I decided to do for now and I'll see how it works out. I will still ship to Hawaii by USPS if that is the customers request, but I will not accept a Paypal payment with a USPS shipment. I don't think there is enough protection for the vendor before they refund money to they customer and any delay in shipment by USPS should be handled by the customer and USPS since that was the customers preference. Attached is a photo of the tracking showing the package was never scanned as departing CA. That's where the customer got concerned, understandably.

Glenn

I think it would be reasonable to add  notice to the website and the invoice stating, "US Postal Service delivery to Hawaii will require additional time.  Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery."  or 3-5, whatever is closest to reality plus some wiggle room.

With that, you'll have enough evidence to show any payment service the date of order and the purchaser's acknowledgment of the additional shipping time needed.

Glad this saga worked out for everyone. 

Thanks for the follow up!!

I have had several things disappear into the "Black Hole" of the Richmond sorting pit.  Had a scope stay there a month, wife had some family heirlooms stay there about as long.  Both were cheapest USPS shipping.

If you do a search, it is a well known problem for USPS.  I suspect it happens when the cheapest USPS mailing is used.  What used to be call Parcel Post of something, something else now. 

First class/Priority may be more but it does keep moving. 

Dunno what is with this Richmond thing, may be waiting for a barge to be full enough to toss your stuff on, otherwise, it sits and waits?  Fairly sure it is ship based rather than air, so loading up a ship makes sense.

USPS ain't saying.

Agree about the Amazon thing.  They can ship me a new printer that weighs about 30 pounds for free in less than a week, so it can be done.  Amazon is not losing money.  We are getting raped in the islands by the shipping industries.

If I do go expensive, FEDEX or UPS, I always use FEDEX, piss on the Teamsters union UPS.