Praise where its due

Pretty much across the country we hear of all sorts of issues with SG renewals so i thought i would tell you all of my experience.

Force - West Mercia / Warwickshire. 

So currently the renewal lead time in the area is advised on their website as 7 months!

As a skeet shooter who travels to the USA as often as i can and a SG license that expired in June 2017 presented a problem. Anyone who has travelled to the USA knows you need an ATF form and this contains your license details etc and lasts for a 12 month period. With my license expiring mid year this would mean potentially 2 ATF forms needed for 2017 one for prior to June / another for after plus the added complication of needing my UK license for returning to the country.

On 2nd September i contacted the force's firearms dept explaining the situation and my 2017 travel plans.

They advised an immediate renewal application and send a covering letter with my 2017 travel plans / invites if i had them etc. I did this within 24hrs and sent it all off.

2 weeks later i received a phone call from them - uh oh!...... but actually no problem it was to advise me they would not be able to renew from the "expiry date" some 8 months from now. Would i be happy sacrificing the remaining time on my cert in order to obtain a new 5 year cert?........ Hell yes!

Once agreed - they processed the application as normal.

New license arrived in the post today - 50 days to process a SG renewal and they automatically did my European aswell!!

I have to say the whole operation was easy and painless so credit where its due for their co-operation and speedy service. Full marks from myself.

Shame they can't be as good as that with others. I know people who have been waiting for there first cert since January. And others who have had their's in 6 weeks of putting the paperwork in.

shredder said:

Shame they can't be as good as that with others. I know people who have been waiting for there first cert since January. And others who have had their's in 6 weeks of putting the paperwork in.

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I guess (and it's only that) a first time certificate issue is a much more in depth / complex item as they need to be sure they get it right and all the required paperwork / checks and security in place.

I have been a holder since 1994 and under the same force for 99% of that - even the same FO for most of that too. I even have the chaps mobile number in my phone which he gave us a number of years ago. Plus with my wife also having a certificate we on average get a visit every 3 years (due to expiry dates). We very rare buy new guns / we have only had 1 change of address in the last 13 years so it's a stable simple renewal. Like everything in life that stuff counts for something i am sure.

Hence my praise and appreciation for the service i received as without that level of dedication i would be up the creek without a paddle for my 2017 USA plans. In all my years of holding a SG license i have never had an issue with the force or my FO but this time they went a step beyond. 

Skeetfreak said:

Pretty much across the country we hear of all sorts of issues with SG renewals so i thought i would tell you all of my experience.

Force - West Mercia / Warwickshire. 

So currently the renewal lead time in the area is advised on their website as 7 months!

As a skeet shooter who travels to the USA as often as i can and a SG license that expired in June 2017 presented a problem. Anyone who has travelled to the USA knows you need an ATF form and this contains your license details etc and lasts for a 12 month period. With my license expiring mid year this would mean potentially 2 ATF forms needed for 2017 one for prior to June / another for after plus the added complication of needing my UK license for returning to the country.

On 2nd September i contacted the force's firearms dept explaining the situation and my 2017 travel plans.

They advised an immediate renewal application and send a covering letter with my 2017 travel plans / invites if i had them etc. I did this within 24hrs and sent it all off.

2 weeks later i received a phone call from them - uh oh!...... but actually no problem it was to advise me they would not be able to renew from the "expiry date" some 8 months from now. Would i be happy sacrificing the remaining time on my cert in order to obtain a new 5 year cert?........ Hell yes!

Once agreed - they processed the application as normal.

New license arrived in the post today - 50 days to process a SG renewal and they automatically did my European aswell!!

I have to say the whole operation was easy and painless so credit where its due for their co-operation and speedy service. Full marks from myself.

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Good to hear you got good service from West Mercia.

im currently waiting on a new grant and looking at an 8 month wait minimum.

i appreciate they are having issues, but is 8 months a fare wait. And is it fare for them to bank my money before starting the process. I understand they have only started looking at February's applications. 

Just started looking ato Februarys but my mate put his in in January. I keep telling him they have lost it but he won't get on to them. Any longer than 3 months I would be putting a complaint in to the chief constable as you are paying for a service that should last no longer than that.  

Big Gaz said:

Good to hear you got good service from West Mercia.

im currently waiting on a new grant and looking at an 8 month wait minimum.

i appreciate they are having issues, but is 8 months a fare wait. And is it fare for them to bank my money before starting the process. I understand they have only started looking at February's applications. 

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You will not get the application money back if they reject you anyway i believe as the fee is non refundable, so they may as well bank it ASAP as you know its dealt with and will not catch you unawares in 8 months time.

To give you an idea latest figures show that West Mercia have 27,984 shotgun certificates on their books (this does not include Section 1 Firearms) They currently have 1 x FO covering the whole area which is grosely unfair on him.

Plus i still believe that a NEW grant will take longer. I feel for you i do but there is not a lot i can say about your situation. I sit here now wishing i had never bothered to be positive and praise someone publically. 

As they state on there web site, the times stated are to begin the process and not the completed application.

Still not a satisfactory state of affairs.

Skeetfreak said:

You will not get the application money back if they reject you anyway i believe as the fee is non refundable, so they may as well bank it ASAP as you know its dealt with and will not catch you unawares in 8 months time.

To give you an idea latest figures show that West Mercia have 27,984 shotgun certificates on their books. They currently have 1 x FO covering the whole area which is grosely unfair on him.

Plus i still believe that a NEW grant will take longer. I feel for you i do but there is not a lot i can say about your situation. I sit here now wishing i had never bothered to be positive and praise someone publically. 

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I know they are in a big hole at the moment and the guy's on the ground are doing there best in with a dreadful situation. It needs the higher up's to pull there fingers out and support there charges.

I haven't pushed the situation as it will not do me any good and only add to the pressure to the already pressurized FO's.

Its good to hear they are flexible when it counts, and with those with a certificate already and have a special need.

I wonder how much additional pressure the 'Beckham Affect' will apply as he's been out shooting with Guy Ritchie. The guy does tend to attract a huge number of wannabes whenever he does something!

I'm glad you had a fast experience with West Mercia, Skeetfreak.

I thought I'd share my experience of dealing with West Mercia. I applied for the grant of my first SGC back in June when the West Mercia website stated a wait time of 90 working days (roughly 4.2 months). Since applying, the website has been updated to 6 months wait for the grant of a SGC. I've had a lot of time to do research in to what gun I'd like and found an amazing deal on my dream gun. I wanted to put a deposit on the gun to hold it until I got my SGC but was concerned with how long it might be until I got a visit from my FEO. Not wanting to leave a deposit down for several months, I emailed my FEO asking if the updated waiting times were for new or existing applications. To be fair, he replied very quickly, saying he didn't know but he was currently dealing with applications from February and March. This would mean someone who applied in February has been waiting 8 months and seeing as though wait times are getting longer, someone who applied later in the year is likely to have to wait even longer. The FEO was sympathetic and cited a large turnover of staff due to the high volume of work, whilst this is not ideal, it's seems the blame for such long waits lies at either the senior level police, not allowing for the high staff turnover in recruitment policy or even at government level for cutting policing budgets to a level where secondary services get cut to levels where they can barely operate. I mean lets face it, the average Joe Bloggs doesn't care or even know about the waiting time for shotgun certificates.

It's nice that you praise the speed of service you got, but it seems it's the exception, not the norm.