The letter I ordered Oct. 22 arrived today.
7 months and 3 days.
I have no solutions, but agree that the system seems broken.
7 months and 3 days.
I have no solutions, but agree that the system seems broken.
Colt Archives Frustration
I am getting increasingly frustrated by Colt Archives. Since Paul S. left it feels like the competence of people I talk to has gone downhill. I have been waiting tor 12 letters for seven months now. After being asked to send pictures of guns that really weren’t ambiguous I finally got my invoice two weeks ago, which I paid instantly. I called today only to hear that my letters haven’t been mailed yet. When I requested to get an electronic copy of my letters, one of the new guys there told me they didn’t do that. Last fast letter I ordered took three weeks instead of one day. I’ve had letters I requested and cancelled because I needed to sell the guns and couldn’t wait.
I’ve been told that Beverly has to doublecheck everything going out. That doesn’t seem to be a sustainable model. In this day and age of technology there are ways to turn Colt records into a much more intelligent self-service model, at least for the more straightforward models.
I didn’t want to call Beverly and complain, but that seems like the only thing left to do. Does anyone have better ways/luck dealing with Colt Archives?
I’ve been told that Beverly has to doublecheck everything going out. That doesn’t seem to be a sustainable model. In this day and age of technology there are ways to turn Colt records into a much more intelligent self-service model, at least for the more straightforward models.
I didn’t want to call Beverly and complain, but that seems like the only thing left to do. Does anyone have better ways/luck dealing with Colt Archives?
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Most likely not a high paying job and little to no room for advancement. You need someone with great attention to detail. Lettering a Single action is simple One gun one and serial number range. with the exception of the 44 Rimfires. A Double action can get very confusing for some. A 1911 may not even be a Colt.
I got a letter on my 1883 Colt Single Action Army in 2011. I called up, talked probably to Beverly, paid $150 by credit card and discussed the history of my revolver for about 15 minutes. I was sent a written letter a couple weeks ago. No other issues. I was thrilled and very complimentary of the entire process. Too bad it has gotten so bad now, almost like waiting 12 months for my last form approval for a suppressor from the BATFE!
You are absolutely correct for how things are running now. There are many intelligent automation choices to OCR and ingest all the data, organize and stage it, develop automated workflows and decision trees, and push data entry out to the end customer. This would also allow aggregation to answer questions like how many of gun X were made that meet criteria Y. I can envision multiple services ranging from individual letters like we have now to research subscriptions. I know I would pay for a subscription for properly staged data.Most likely not a high paying job and little to no room for advancement. You need someone with great attention to detail. Lettering a Single action is simple One gun one and serial number range. with the exception of the 44 Rimfires. A Double action can get very confusing for some. A 1911 may not even be a Colt.
People like Beverly are invaluable in terms of their knowledge. People that can’t locate a Super Match or mess up a Bisley lookup (which Beverly fixed) aren’t adding value. I bet there is a way to make more money than Archives make now with some technology and data analytics investments. The 1900s model of adding clerks without specialized knowledge isn’t scalable. And if they want to attract younger people used to Twitter, Uber, Amazon, etc., they really need to change their business model. I can barely tolerate at 57 years old.
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