What Should You Do When a Buyer's FFL Won't Accept the Transfer or the License Has Expired?

What should you do when a buyer’s chosen FFL won’t accept the transfer, or when the dealer’s license has expired before you ship? It happens to every online gun store sooner or later. The order is paid, the firearm is pulled, and then the dealer says no, stops answering, or turns out to have a license past its expiration date. The short answer: hold the firearm, don’t ship on an old certified copy, and help the buyer pick another licensed dealer or cancel under your own policy. The one thing you can’t do is send the gun to the buyer’s home instead. This post walks through each situation. It’s general information, not legal advice. For your specific store, talk to a firearms attorney.

The option you don’t have: shipping to the buyer

When a transfer falls through, some buyers will ask you to just ship it to them. Federal law doesn’t allow that for an interstate sale. A licensee may not ship firearms in interstate commerce to someone who isn’t licensed (18 U.S.C. 922(a)(2)), and a licensee can’t sell to an out-of-state non-licensee except for in-person rifle and shotgun sales (18 U.S.C. 922(b)(3)). So when a dealer refuses, the realistic choices are another licensee, holding the item, or cancelling the order.

Situation 1: The dealer won’t accept the transfer

Dealers turn down transfers for their own reasons. They may not take transfers from online sellers, may not handle a certain type of firearm, or may be too busy. A dealer’s license being active tells you nothing about whether it will take your particular shipment. Our mixed-carts post puts it this way: “License information and a dealer’s willingness to accept a particular transfer are separate checks.”

If you learn about the refusal before you ship, the steps are simple:

1. Hold the firearm. Don’t ship to a dealer that has said no.
2. Tell the buyer quickly and plainly. Explain that the dealer declined and ask them to pick another licensed dealer near them.
3. Get a new certified copy of the new dealer’s license before you ship. 27 CFR 478.94 requires the shipping licensee to verify the receiving licensee’s status through a certified copy of the license (eCFR, 27 CFR 478.94). Our guide on how to verify an FFL before you ship covers that step in detail.
4. Update the ship-to on the order in your ecommerce platform, then re-check the new dealer’s status the day it ships.

Changing the dealer on an existing order happens in your platform’s order tools. Automatic FFL doesn’t have a documented feature for re-routing, holding, or refunding orders, so plan to handle those steps in your store’s admin.

Situation 2: The license expired before you shipped

Licenses have expiration dates, and a dealer is supposed to file for renewal “prior to the expiration of the license” (27 CFR 478.45). The certified copy you have on file covers the dealer’s current license term. Once that term ends, a renewed license is a new term, and it’s the dealer’s job to send you a copy of the renewed license.

The regulation does include one sentence about expiration. It reads: “A transferor licensee who has the certified information required by this section may sell or dispose of firearms to a licensee for not more than 45 days following the expiration date of the transferee’s license.” How that applies to your situation is a question for your attorney, not a blog post. The safe practical habit is this: don’t ship on an old copy without checking.

What to do:

1. Check status before shipping. ATF’s FFL eZ Check shows whether a license is currently active. It doesn’t replace the certified copy, but it’s a fast way to catch a problem.
2. Ask the dealer for the renewed license if they’ve renewed. Get the new certified copy on file.
3. If the dealer can’t produce one, ask the buyer to choose a different licensed dealer and start the new-dealer steps above.

Situation 3: The package was already refused or sent back

Sometimes you find out only after the box arrives. Federal law allows a licensee to return “a firearm or replacement firearm of the same kind and type to a person from whom it was received” (18 U.S.C. 922(a)(2)(A)). That’s the legal basis for a receiving dealer sending a refused firearm back to you. How the return actually happens depends on the dealer and the carrier, so call the dealer, agree on how it will come back, and check your carrier’s own rules before anything moves.

Once the firearm is back, you can ship it to a new licensed dealer the buyer picks (with a new certified copy) or refund the order.

Cancellations and refunds: follow your own policy

Whether you charge a restocking fee or return shipping when a transfer falls through is your store’s call. Write the policy down, show it before checkout, and apply it the same way every time. Buyers take a cancelled transfer much better when the rule was clear up front.

Transfer fees are set by each receiving dealer. If you show fees at checkout, they’re the numbers you maintain, so keep them current and tell buyers to confirm the fee with the dealer.

How to prevent most of these problems at checkout

You can’t stop every refusal, but you can cut down on surprises:

• Ask buyers to confirm with their dealer that it will accept the transfer, and what it charges, before the order ships. A line in your order confirmation email does the job.
• Steer buyers toward dealers you know. In Automatic FFL you can mark dealers as Enabled or Preferred, and you can look up other dealers in the same ZIP code and disable them with bulk actions.
• Show fees and store hours on dealer listings, so buyers can compare before they choose. Automatic FFL lets you add transfer fees and store hours to the listings customers see during dealer selection.
• Use the order data on shipping day. Orders include the dealer’s FFL expiration date and an eZ Check link, so your team can re-check status before the label prints.
• Keep certificates current. Automatic FFL only includes a certificate on an order if it’s valid and hasn’t expired. Expired certificates are kept out of active use until the dealer uploads a renewed one.
• On BigCommerce, offer the Bypass option for buyers whose dealer isn’t on the map. Bypass lets customers skip dealer selection and send you their FFL’s certificate and information directly.

If a buyer’s dealer doesn’t show up on the map at all, one common reason is that the license is inactive or expired. Look the dealer up on eZ Check to confirm.

None of this guarantees a dealer will accept a transfer. It just means fewer orders where you find out the hard way.

Try it on your own store

Look up a transfer dealer for free. Create a free Automatic FFL account to search FFL dealers by license number, name, city, state, or ZIP, open each dealer’s ATF eZ Check record, and see which dealers have certificate data on file. Start with the FFL database. The database is not legal advice and does not replace your own compliance review.

Try Automatic FFL free for 30 days. Add FFL dealer selection to your checkout. You’re not charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel before then.

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Sources

• Federal: 18 U.S.C. 922 · 27 CFR 478.94 · 27 CFR 478.45 · ATF FFL eZ Check
• Automatic FFL: documentation · About Us FAQ · FFL certificate upload · Mixed FFL carts