further
I took another more detailed look at that web site. Still, can not help but wonder about that underlying theme of anonymity, maybe I am overly cautious, but always concerns me when business proprietors do not make their names readily known; my experience has been that reputable people in business generally want you to know who they are. Anyway, in looking closely at their fee structure, while it is not clear, but seems possible the way they list fees that the $20 transfer fee may in fact only be available if you are already paying all the other storage, handling and administrative fees, and then there is the transfer fee on top of the other fees; not sure but that's what it looks like, the $20 fee does not seem to be offered up as a standard stand-alone type fee for a firearms transfer service outside of their storage services, seems more like it is a portion of their charges when conducting business. Their fee structure approach appears very smart (maybe not simplest, fairest and most forthcoming with total cost information), showing each fee as a relatively small amount, e.g. " 50¢ per item - per day", "Administration fee - $45", "transfer fee - $20 per gun", "Handling fee $15", etc. As a previous forum member pointed out, looks like it could add up to big amounts; it also looks like there is a possibility that all of us may already be paying these fees out of our tax money from the looks of their client list which is primarily public service agencies, if the list is accurate. Looks like this may be an area where some competition might benefit the taxpayer; would be interesting to find out if local agencies are not putting this out for competitive bids, my guess would be they are not or the rates would likely not be so high. On the other side of the issue, I do not know what the laws/regs are in MA that pertain to proprietors being able to assume ownership of property for unpaid bills, but, given the stacking of charges type fee structure this company is using and given the fact that they are, at least representing, doing a lot of business with PDs, leads me to wonder if they might be seizing ownership for fees of property (firearms) police departments may be taking possession of and turning over to them for storage and maybe subsequent forfeiture. My work brings me to observe what goes on in courts often and see not good people have firearms seized for good reason but also occasionally see just the average person caught up in circumstances that involve firearms in the residence having to be taken into custody; In light of the fact that their web site shows that LE agencies may be a large portion of their client base, or they at least are targeting that business and would like PDs to be a large portion of their business, and given that interesting fee structure, worries me that the average guy could end up having to pay these large expenses or perhaps even worse, lose his/her firearms because they could not pay the stacking type fee structure that would get out of control quickly, this is concerning. I am interested in anyone else thoughts on this, from previous posts, appears some of you know a lot more about the history of related matters on this subject than I do. Also, seems like someone on the forum may know the owner, would be interested to know the answer to the question: Have they/can they seize ownership when the fees build up and are not paid on time?