Have you ever taken the time to figure out how much money you have spent on ammunition at one particular dealer for about as long as you have dealt with them? Well, I did that today because I am having a bit of an issue with an order recently delivered to me in which 27 of 23 boxes of the ammo I bought were damaged, that evidently during shipment. Now, if I had bought this ammo with the intent of shooting all of it, the boxes being ruined would not matter much, but I had intended to sell much of it at guns shows, give some to my son as a gift and maybe shoot the rest if any was left over. The thing is, the boxes are so badly damaged that I'd have to sell them at a greatly reduced price, way under cost to get anyone to buy them.
So, I contacted Target Sports USA, the dealer from which I bought the ammo. They got back to me quickly wanting to know how many "bullets" were damaged. Yes bullets was the word they used instead of cartridges. I don't know if any of the ammo is damaged as I have not opened the inner paper wrapping around them. I told them to send an insurance adjuster/examiner to determine that if they want to know, otherwise to file an insurance claim for me promptly since I paid for the shipment to be insured, or to arrange for a return/refund for the badly damaged ones. Their site says ammo cannot be returned because of federal shipping regulations as best I recall. Heck, anyone can ship ammo. Thus, I anticipate they may not honor my claim. Add to that they have done the same at least once before (I think twice but am uncertain on that) by not honoring a claim, and apparently ignored me when I notified them of damaged goods received. One time though, they honored my claim and I think gave me a refund as best I recall and that was for almost exactly the same type of damage.
I will say this, I know for a fact that I have been making purchases from Target Sports USA for over ten years now, since at least March 1, 2015. I could have been doing so longer but did not save the invoices. In fact, I have 67 invoices saved and one MS Word document all showing purchases that I made from them. I actually may have made more purchases but did not save the invoices. When I checked my purchases on their website, it only showed 50 since 2020, so I am guessing they only go back so far and delete earlier invoices (but as I said I have 67 plus the Word document going back to March 2015).
Today, I decided to calculate how much I have spent there over the years. It worked out to a total of $15,454.48 since March 1, 2015, that over a period of 10 years 5 months, or 10.42 years, or 125 months, or 3,803 days. That equals
about $1,483.16 spent there per year, $123.64 spent there per month, or $4.06
spent per day (boy that last one does not make it seem so much). I am certain that I am not their highest paying customer by far but then I am no slug either. If I figure it correctly, I spent less each year during the first few years and much more since at least 2020. For example over the course of the last eleven months, since September 9, 2024 until today August 21, 2025, I spent $4,059.94 there. That is a little more than 26% of the total I spent with them in over ten years, and that 26+% was spent in only the last 11 months. Maybe I should slow down, then again - maybe not.
I have to say, pretty much my biggest and definitely my most frequent disappointment with Target Sports USA has been how little cushioning/packaging material they usually put into their shipping boxes. For example, this time they placed one rather insufficient piece of brown paper inside the outer shipping box atop the inner shipping box. Of course, it appeared that the parcel was dropped landing on its bottom or a bottom corner where there was no cushioning inside the box. A few more cents spent on cushioning probably would have protected this shipment much better. The other thing that bugs me about them is that their customer service is not that great in my estimation, that or the reasons I mentioned above regarding my past contacts about receiving damaged goods from them.
Some things I found excellent about Target Sports USA have been: great prices, usually fast shipping, a usually decent inventory, an easy to navigate website, free shipping on cases of ammo, free shipping on any amount of ammo purchased with their Ammo+ membership, an 8% discount on ammo with that same membership making prices even better (which saved me about $324.80 minus the cost of the membership which was about $110.00 per for the past year; so I actually saved about $214.80 off of their already low prices). That may not seem like much but it could buy a case of 9mm, 115 grains, FMJ ammo at today's prices.
I am uncertain as how I am going to proceed if they decide not to honor my claim for either reimbursement or a return and refund for the damaged product. If they decide not to reimburse me via insurance for the
damaged product, or to not allow me to make a return for a refund, I am
going to remind them of what I spent there. If that does not change
their tune, then I may tell them to go screw themselves if they expect
me to pay another penny to them for anything. I'll then also be
contacting my credit card company to see what they will do for me
regarding reducing my loss. American Express is excellent in that
regard, it's one reason why I use my American Express card whenever
possible. I have to balance my loss against how much I save on ammo by purchasing from them before I do something as drastic as deciding not to purchase from them again. That is because they almost always have the lowest prices, at least that I have found, on ammunition when you calculate in the cost of shipping usually even without the Ammo+ membership. Oh what to do if they do not honor my claim, decisions - decisions, decisions!
Then again, if they make good, I will be a happy camper or is that a happy shootist!
Edited to add, on September 5, 2025: Much to my relief, target Sports USA sent me a return label for the ammo in the damaged boxes. The lady in customer service, at first wanted to know how many of the actual cartridges were damaged; which was what they told me the first time I had the same issue with another order. It was evident, she only wanted to refund any money at all, if cartridges were damaged. After a bit of back and forth though, she relented and sent me the label. Luckily I found a box from a prior ammo shipment that fit all of the damaged boxes perfectly. I went to the UPS store and because it had a preprinted label, they accepted the ammo for shipment (which if I understand correctly, they do not usually do for ammo shipments saying they have to go through a UPS customer center - and the one near me closed their customer counter thus eliminating chances of shipping ammo through UPS in most instances for the average Joe). So my worry apparently was for nothing (that is at least once I receive my refund, it will have been so) and I am quite happy to remain a loyal Target Sports USA customer.
All the best,
Glenn B
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