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AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
I feel that there are some dishonest, unethical, and downright shady things happening with AZguns in Chandler so I want to take a moment to get the truth out there for everyone. Beginning on February 4th, 2016 I was contacted by Brandon Johnson, the owner of AZguns in Chandler. In my opinion, the stunts he is trying to pull are dishonest, unethical, and downright dirty.
To fully understand the situation at hand, I feel it is important to establish a timeline of events. What I am writing here will explain the timeline with specific dates and details of each incident. Attached to this statement is documented proof to back up what I claim.
In early 2013 I started a Facebook group by the name of Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade. The purpose of this group was to provide a community where both private sellers and dealers could list firearms and related accessories. The link to this group was Log into Facebook | Facebook
The community turned out to be a great success. In early 2014 I created a page on Facebook by the name of Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade located at Facebook This page is still up and active as of the time I’m writing this. On April 23rd of 2014 I uploaded the cover photos to this page. The large image is an AR15 with the text “Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade” and the smaller image is the Arizona state flag. You can visit the page now and look at the upload dates on the photos and go through the post history that dates back to early 2014. About the same time I created the group Arizona Gun Talk at Log into Facebook | Facebook to supplement Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade and provide a place where the community could have general discussions.
Lets jump forward in time a little. In February of 2015 Brandon Johnson created his business AZguns in Chandler. On March 9th, 2015 he filed a registered trade name for “AZ GUNS”. The owner of this trade name is his other LLC called “Moneyshot LLC”. On March 12th, 2015 he registered the trade name “Arizona Guns”, also owned by his company “Moneyshot LLC”. My research indicated that Moneyshot LLC was created in July of 2015.
Information including names, dates, addresses, and phone numbers about the trade names can be found on the Arizona Secretary of State with the following links : (I am also attaching screenshots of the records)
AZ GUNS - Tradename and Trademark Department
ARIZONA GUNS - http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Se...6&NME_CODE=NME
AZ GUNS/ARIZONA GUNS - http://apps.azsos.gov/scripts/TnT_Se...5&NME_CODE=NME
In February of 2015 he also created a Facebook page for AZguns located at http://www.facebook.com/arizonaguns On February 10th, 2015 he uploaded the profile picture for the page. The profile picture was an Arizona flag picture very similar to what I had uploaded to the Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade page nearly a year prior. His picture that he uploaded says “AZ GUNS” in white print on the bottom and has a silhouette of a rifle sight in the center of the flat instead of a star.
Almost immediately after Brandon created his AZguns business he began advertising in my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group. His ads always included a link to his AZguns Facebook page and he made it clear that it was a business classified ad. His very first post in my group Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade was on March 28th, 2015. His post did not comply with the set group rules so I deleted it and contacted him via private message on Facebook. I explained to him that his ad in Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade did not comply with the groups rules and advised him how to create a new ad that did comply with the rules. The following day on March 29th, 2015 he returned my message acknowledging what I had said and saying he would fix any ads he posted in the future.
For about the next 10 months both him and his employees advertised in Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade on a regular basis and never once complained about any issues with the name my group was using.
Fast forwarding to Friday January 29th, 2015. Facebook released a statement to major news outlets that it would no longer allow the sale of private firearms on Facebook. I immediately acted to preserve the community that I had worked for 3 years to build. I purchased the domain http://www.azgunbuy.com and built a website on it where my community could move to and continue to have a place to place classified ads and browse classified ads. I built the webpage and launched it about 24 hours later on Saturday January 30th, 2015.
Over the weekend I advertised the link for http://www.azgunbuy.com in my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group as well as about 20 other local gun groups. On Monday February 1st, 2016 Facebook began removing groups where gun classified ads were listed. Most groups were deleted by Facebook, including my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group. At the time my Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade was removed by Facebook, there were 11,117 members.
A few days later Brandon sent me a private message on Facebook. He claimed that he had recently become aware that I was operating under a name that was too similar to his gun shops name. He also stated that someone on the West side of town had been operating using his name. After doing a little research I found that Shannon Galloway, one of the founders of the group Gun Traders of Arizona had filed a trade name for “AZ GUNS/ARIZONAGUNS’ on January 13th, 2015.
I explained to Brandon that I had been using the names Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade and Arizona Gun Talk since early 2013, a full two years before his business existed. I explained that I did not intend to change the names I was using. I offered to come up with something to make it known that there is no association between the Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade group and the AZguns retail store.
This was not good enough for Brandon. Brandon and I exchanged multiple messages over the next 3 days. In those messages were several passive aggressive legal threats. I eventually told him to just leave me alone on February 7th, 2015.
The evening of February 7th, 2015 Brandons Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages for AZguns had a new post. This post read as follows.
“Well, we've had a couple folks do some shady stuff in the last year. (Like trying to trademark our company name... Thankfully unsuccessfully). We had a run in with a known Facebook character...But we want to make it clear that we are not associated with any of the known shady characters running private sale forums and advertising them on Facebook (despite having a name very similar to our business and using the Arizona flag as his logo). We want to let our pricing and business ethics speak for themselves. The good news: we've contacted our web guys and will be throwing up a forum that won't be shady for folks to sell their used wares given facebook's current position on gun sales. If you're interested in moderating it please comment on this post. Stay safe out there!“
continued on next post
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Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
“In a comment on the Facebook post AZguns had said “This particular individual is getting ready to slander us... Because we pointed to our trade name and engaged our lawyer. some peoples kids I guess.?
The links for these pages where the posts can be found are :
Facebook - Facebook
Twitter - AZ Guns (@_AZguns) | Twitter
Instagram - Instagram
In one comment AZguns made a claim that I copied their profile picture of the Arizona flag. Even though I had uploaded that picture to Facebook a full year before AZguns existed. This comment has since been deleted and can no longer be seen.
After my final conversation with Brandon I have seen my name being mentioned by a few various people on Facebook and them specifically pointing out that I had no relation to AZguns. This got me curious as this had never been brought up in the past.
On February 16th, 2016 I discovered that Brandon had registered a domain name of http://www.johnfurman.com The domain redirects to his website http://www.azguns.com so whenever you visit http://www.johnfurman.com you are automatically re-routed to http://www.azguns.com I discovered this because of a comment on Facebook that I saw in reference to me not having any association with AZguns.
I did a little research and discovered that the domain http://www.johnfurman.com was purchased by Brandon Johnson on February 8th, 2016, the day after my final conversation with him. He purchased the domain through GoDaddy and you can see the public record of the domain purchase including his name, address, phone number, e-mail, company name, and the date the domain was purchased. Attached to this statement is a screenshot of the public record but you can also look for yourself at https://who.godaddy.com/whoisstd.aspx
It is well established, well known, and well documented that I began using the name Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade a full two years before Brandon’s AZguns business existed. Brandon and his employees even advertised in my group up until the day Facebook removed it.
I believe that Brandon wants to take the name Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade from me so that when any of the 11,117 members of my group attempt to search for the deleted group they wind up on his business Facebook page. I feel that he tried to pull shady and unethical tricks with me using legal threats. It did not become a "problem" for Brandon until after my Arizona Guns - Buy/Sell/Trade group had been removed from Facebook and he no longer had that source of advertisment. After I discovered he registered the domain http://www.johnfurman.com and had it automatically send visitors to his http://www.azguns.com website, I feel that he is attempting to pull an unethical and dishonest stunt by fabricating “evidence” that I am trying to operate under his name. There is also the point that Arizona Guns – Buy/Sell/Trade is not the same as AZguns, even if you ignore the fact that I began using the name TWO YEARS before Brandon did. If anyone is trying to ride on someone elses name here, it is Brandon. Especially considering the fact that he registered the domain http://www.johnfurman.com and had it forward to his business website at http://www.azguns.com.
This whole situation has left a bad taste in my mouth. It is absolutely pathetic that Brandon is trying to do these unethical things to me. He frequently speaks of the wonderful ethics that AZguns has, but I have experienced nothing but unethical and dishonest bully business practices.
Attached to this statement are images to back up what I have said here. I can not attach all the images to one post, so the first couple comments on this post will have the remaining images.
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Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
This video shows what happens when someone goes to John The "Furman" Weiler – Professional Hunter and Wilderness Guide Please read the story above for the details about this website and why it is important.
YouTube
Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
Here are the social media posts quoted in my statement.
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Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
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Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
Crap John F. I had no idea!
Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
Always good to know which shops to stay WAY away from, this is a good example. Good luck with your dealings with him.
Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
Quote:
Originally Posted by bd731243
Crap John F. I had no idea!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbrad197
Always good to know which shops to stay WAY away from, this is a good example. Good luck with your dealings with him.
Thanks guys. I'm just blown away with it. I'm amazed that it is happening. I think he may have felt that I was an easy target. He thought wrong.
Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
I would not lose any sleep over this. He has the burden to provide proof of exactly when he established the name of his business, much like you have done here, to win any case in court. If you were using the name prior to him then the judge will tell him to pack sand. He is the one who has to "sweat bullets" if he wants to take legal action.
Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
People suck, I always say. Now you know why I've shy'ed away form getting into the business. Shady, unethical f*cks come from the woodwork at all angles.
and then there are the customers. Rofl. :-P
Re: AZguns In Chandler - A Nightmare of Unethical Business Practices
He can bite my ass. I'm not changing our name. Naturally there had to be a Furman fan interject himself into the middle of the situation screaming all over the internet that I have to pay for what I'm doing and how I got served legal paperwork. Nope. Nobody has done a damn thing and it is because they can't. I haven't done anything wrong. This was a review on a local business. That is a normal part of business, getting reviews. If someone doesn't want bad reviews then they shouldn't do shitty things. This is just a bunch of idiots throwing e-tantrums. I'm going to keep doing what I do. If some asshole is really that jealous that he actively tried to hurt me or the community we have created (without valid reason) then I am doing something right lol.
