Experiences/advice with Airsoft retailers.

TheDoc

Well I was put through to a manager of customer service and we had a talk.

It seems that the price hike came from them going to a courier for delivery, but failed to inform me of this, lol.

Basically they are refusing to ship ems, i have mentioned that numerous irish consumers have received similar GBB pistols through ems, but they are telling me they are not resuming weapon sales to ireland until a resolution is resolved.

i was given a great line " Sir I dont understand, we have been informed of new legislation in your country, we have to comply with it"

my reply

" I understand, but that law is in the uk, that is not an irish law, the Republic of ireland which consists of 26 counties, including dublin, is a self governed, independant country"

reply from manager

"since when?"

I let him settle on that question for a few minutes before i replied.

Basically it looks like ups is my only option, brings the price to 100 euros, which im sure i can buy off irish sites here, unless someting can be arranged, just gna take my refund and leave my airsoft needs to irish stores, which is unfortunate because everything is so much cheaper.

Might still get slings etc from ebay, but i guess some irish store gna get my money for a pistol, unfortunatly now gna have to wait till september, whole idea was because of price i could get it now, awful pity.

theburi

Just some feedback on Ebaybanned.com
I ordered Guarder C4 and two weeks later recieved Guarder C3
So I wrote to them saying that wrong goggles has been send.
Next day Ebaybanned.com resend me Guarder C4 without any problems or hassle.
-1 for messing the delivery up.
+1 for reliability and service.
Still waiting for delivery.

TheDoc

well they are adamanet they cant send through ems, and that they will no longer be sending firearm imatations through ems, as they refuse to take the package.

asked for refund waiting to see what happens.

total letdown was well excited to get my hands on a gbb psitol, and tbh the price difference is massive, when it was ems, im sure this will get fixed eventually.

but the orignal pistol i wanted to get for 34 euro, is 110 euro on the irish sites, why such a price hike, i know this is ireland but : /

bit ridic

Shiva

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

but the orignal pistol i wanted to get for 34 euro, is 110 euro on the irish sites, why such a price hike, i know this is ireland but : /

bit ridic

The Hong Kong retailers are located right beside their suppliers, so shipping is next to nothing. They dont have anywhere near the running costs of a Western European business. They dont have anywhere near our tax rates. Because of the almighty volume of stuff they sell, then can afford to sell at almost cost-prices.

On the other hand, an Irish retailer who buys at wholesale prices from an Asian wholesaler pays only slightly less than you pay, but has to buy in bulk. He then has to pay a a huge chunk of cash in shipping fees to get the stuff here. Then he has to pay import duty, VAT, customs clearance agency charges and more shipping fees to get the stuff from the point of entry to his premises. Then, if he has a retail premises, he has to factor in the expense of renting or leasing it, supplying it with power, and generally maintaining it. Then, and only then, does he get to add a small percentage so he can actually make enough of a profit to take a wage and invest in new lines and stock, cos much as we love you all, we have families to feed

€110 for a GBB in Ireland is a bargain. Good luck getting a similar deal from a UK retailer, where the market is much, much bigger, and theoretically, the cost of doing business is lower.

I'm not having a go at you by any means, but I think sometimes people forget that, a) cliche or not, Ireland IS a very expensive place to live and do business, and b) 10 months ago there were no airsoft retailers in Ireland and you could either pay through the nose to buy from the UK, or get them cheap in Asia but deal with the hassle of hidden postal costs and possible customs and VAT charges.

Irish airsofters have never had it better.

TheDoc

yeah i totally understand

im just use to online shopping, and generally anything for sale in ireland that i want, i buy online for a fraction of the price.

it just seems airsoft is something i cant get around, and definatly not now anyways.

Business' go into business to make money, or you go outa business

but then customers look for savings and the cheapest prices.

im sure ill get a pistol of you eventually dont worry

RC car fanatic

Got a great buy again from scopes4us on ebay.Got a 4x32AOE millidot scope.kinda fast shipping and excellent prces.The scope is top notch!:)

defenderdude

RC car fanatic wrote: »

Got a great buy again from scopes4us on ebay.Got a 4x32AOE millidot scope.kinda fast shipping and excellent prces.The scope is top notch!:)

had a look for em on ebay but cant find them. Sure the name is scopes4us ?
Thanks.


edit - ahh just found them:
http://stores.ebay.com/scope4us

kinkstr

Bless engrish. I emailed ebaybanned yesterday and asked when my dump bag would be shipped. This is what i got back -

hi,

give it to you when we've shipped it out

sincerely,

Jesse^_^

That smiley at the end almost made me sick.

Killinator

Anybody have anything to say as regards WGC,
ie: does anybody know what there TNT shipping charge is,
or how much they charge(if any) to downgrade?

any help much appreciated as soon as possible, its been too long since my last purchase(about a week:D)

kevteljeur

[DM]-TheDOC-: Dude, no offence, we've crossed swords over this before and I know this is a bit off-topic, but for example just because a litre of milk in Germany is half the price of the same thing in Ireland, doesn't mean you would have a serious issue about buying the same thing here. That's the frame of reference over there. Germans earn less than we do too and overall consume more (there are 80 million people in Germany), so many things cost less. You'll see that local produce in Aldi and Lidl (such as milk and fresh meat) cost only fractionally less than in other local shops, because they have the same minimum cost in Ireland for every retailer.

The same goes for airsoft kit that you see on an Asian website. Once you factor in the sheer work of getting it over here, it'll start coming in to the same price as buying here, because the Irish retailers have removed all the work and risk for you, for only a nominal overhead. Seeing something on an Asian site for a 3rd of the Irish price is just an illusion. That is the price for someone who earns a 10th of what you do, to walk into a shop and buy it there without it getting shipped anywhere, from someone who has a 10th of your cost of living. That isn't the price to you, even buying it from them online.

Mind you, I'm sorry to hear about your experiences, that's very unfortunate and I hope you have better luck in future...

kevteljeur

Begadi.com is a German Airsoft supplies site which I got through kdouglas (who has also ordered from them, I believe) - thanks! - which specialises in bbs. They have just about every size and type imaginable, from low to high end.

The site
The site isn't bad, everything's where you'd expect it to be, but the shopping cart has a pretty quick time-out. Another irritation for Irish customers is that there is no shipping to Ireland option in their check-out; this makes the shopping cart useless, and you'll only find this out after doing all your shopping. They do ship to Ireland, however - you need to email them to ask for a shipping form, calculate it all yourself, add €25 for shipping, email it back and then send them to money through Paypal. It's not actually as bad as it sounds from all that, but it could be easier.

The service
The guys who run it seem pretty friendly, although they are pretty terse in their emails. It's all business with them.

Shipping
They got the order together quickly and efficiently, shipped it straight away when they got the payment, and it got here in less than a week; they use DPD. I still think the shipping price was steep, but on the other hand it could be more and it was efficient, so I can't really complain.

Overall
All in all, I was pleased with the service. The prices are not too bad, but far from a steal, which goes to show once again that our Irish retailers are as competitive as we could hope for, but the main attraction with Begadi is the sheer variety of bbs, and the fact that they have every respectable brand of biodegradable bb available in bulk.

Two-thumbs up.

Killinator

kevteljeur wrote: »

It's all business with them.

quickly and efficiently,

They are German:D:D

TheDoc

Big thumbs up to Tony from Eirsoft.

Made my first visit yesterday. Shop is well hidden and took me over an hour of strolling round cabra to find, thankfully saw to guys carrying arisoft boxes.

Shop itself is a decent setup, you can see hes been run of his little toes with business, which is a good thing.

Very friendly guy, was a pleasure dealing with, and will definatly be dealing with Tony again.

Got a JG g36c, hicap and mp5 hicap and 3000 bb's all flawless, the aeg even came charged.

two thumbs up keep up the good work tony

Frank the Manc

Killinator wrote: »

They are German:D:D

hey killenator,

that tack vest you have upin the pics thread, thats from ebaybanned is it? whats the build quality like on it, are they better than the usual ehobby sh1t?

SniperSight

@Frank: No, he got it from bidchart on ebay(its a store, lots of gear in lots of styles). As for build quality having seen and worn it, its very good, very comfortable and of course being MOLLE style its customisable.

Killinator

Yeah its a great vest,
as siad i got it from ebay(a store), the seller is 'bidchart', sells everything except actual aegs i think, the shipping was speedpost so it was relatively 'quick', good communication but becasue the store is in hong kong you need to give at least 24hrs for a response, when itme was shipped i got an email with tracking number, even got reduced shipping because i both more than one item,ie:vest,helmet cover,goggles and knee-pads.

the only problem you might have is if you have an aeg with large mags(AK/G36/etc) becasue the triple pouch at the front appears to be for M16/M4 mags, the g36 mags will fit but its a tight squeeze and not practical in a skirmish to be fiddling around trying to pry them in and out,
But instead you can just use the large zip pouch(left side in the pic) and should be able to fit at least 3 mags in

RC car fanatic

defenderdude wrote: »

had a look for em on ebay but cant find them. Sure the name is scopes4us ?
Thanks.


edit - ahh just found them:
http://stores.ebay.com/scope4us

ye sorry,it was scope4us...i think theyre really good:)

Hande hoche!

Ordered a M83 vest off on patrol.It arrived quickly in time for the
gathering and I was even refunded part of the delivery cost.They
were very helpful and even sent an email regarding washing instructions.

Mark_Sc

Does anyone make a sand-coloured SCAR-H?

iceage

feast your eyes!!

http://www.wgcshop.com/pcart/shopper.php?itm=VFC-AEG-SCARHG3FDE_srch_1

purdy, ain't it?:D

Mark_Sc

Thank you

iceage

No bothers man...cos I want one too!!!:D

LSnK

Hey guys, what do you think of CheckSix? I want to get some UMP and L96 magazines there, but I'd like some input from those with experience first. I've never ordered anything from overseas before.

I'd also like to know if this silliness with Speedpost EMS will affect ordering something as trifling as magazines. (Edit: IronWolf says it only affects the guns.)

By the way, if anyone knows where to get that stuff in Ireland, please do tell me.

nutzbutz

LSnK wrote: »

Hey guys, what do you think of CheckSix? I want to get some UMP and L96 magazines there, but I'd like some input from those with experience first. I've never ordered anything from overseas before.

I'd also like to know if this silliness with Speedpost EMS will affect ordering something as trifling as magazines. (Edit: IronWolf says it only affects the guns.)

By the way, if anyone knows where to get that stuff in Ireland, please do tell me.

i purchased from these guys,it took over a month for the package (electric dum mag)to arrive.but in all fairness i did order just after chinese new year and they were swamped with back orders.they awnsered all e-mails promptly so i cant say anything bad about them,hope this is a help to you. i don't think mags are affected by the speedpost ems new restrictions....

LSnK

It was, thanks Nutzbutz.

Ample Free ...?

Quick qestion: do "fire-support.co.uk" usually give confirmation of payment and delivery?

Shiva

Ample Free ...? wrote: »

Quick qestion: do "fire-support.co.uk" usually give confirmation of payment and delivery?

They have when I've used them in the past, but it can take a day or two, depending on how busy they are. Which is usually "very"

FunkBlaster87

Hey lads. Was just about to order a Mauri G3 of ehobbyasia when i saw some people discussing shipping problems on this thread. is shipping an airsoft AEG to ireland still legal or was it just a few sites getting there wires crossed?

Really appreciate any reply as it this kinda scuppering my attempt at my first Aeg

Shiva

FunkBlaster87 wrote: »

Hey lads. Was just about to order a Mauri G3 of ehobbyasia when i saw some people discussing shipping problems on this thread. is shipping an airsoft AEG to ireland still legal or was it just a few sites getting there wires crossed?

Really appreciate any reply as it this kinda scuppering my attempt at my first Aeg

Its still perfectly legal, but you might find some retailers wont ship to Ireland because they exclusively use EMS, who have decided they wont ship replicas to Ireland. Most of the HK retailers will simply quote you for another courier, like UPS, Fedex or TNT. So far I've received stuff from Red Wolf and WGC via Fedex and TNT. Its slightly more expensive, but problem free.

I placed a small pistol order with E-Hobby on Saturday to see how they go about shipping it - they quoted me a shipping price and took the payment, so no problems so far. They used to use EMS exclusively as far as I know, so I'm interested to see how they handle it.

You might be better holding off until I hear something and post here just in case there are problems, or buy the G3 from Red Wolf or WGC instead.

FunkBlaster87

cheers mate real helpful. Any rough idea how much shipping would be on a g3 plus battery and stuff from wgc?