Experiences/advice with Airsoft retailers.

kevteljeur wrote: »

If anyone was following this, or is interested in ordering from fire-support.co.uk, I've just received my order from them. From when they processed the order to here on my door was 2 days, although it took about a day or two for them to process the order. It was a box of G36 140 rnd mid-caps, SL-8 20 rnd low-caps, and a duty belt. All in all, a helpful, friendly, fast service, though as I said before watch out for their check-out which can be a bit aggressive and assume you've ordered, even if you're only checking the shipping total. It's actually harmless and they'll cancel the order themselves.

If you haven't checked the site, it's not bad at all, a sort of Argos of Airsoft (a veritable warehouse of inventory) though not terribly cheap, and organised by manufacturer rather than type (which can make finding a specific item a long, tedious process - irritating, since their shopping basket times out in a hurry). I gather they don't ship guns or gas overseas, I don't know if that includes Ireland (they claimed not to process CCs from overseas either but I had no trouble).

I'd rather buy from our excellent local retailers but it's worth checking out for that urgent item you can't get here.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like they are worth bookmarking anyway.
It does seem like an awkward site to get around, needs javascript enabled too or it won't work (i usually have js disabled).
What's their shipping costs like?

Darn, didn't spot that, thanks.

I've personally just had a terrible experience up North with UPS. The VCRA probably affected it, but from any of my last RIF orders, they've all taken a month.

They also sent me a letter if I didn't provide evidence of skirmisher defence, which you have to do now , my stuff would be destroyed in 7 days, how nice!

Also, Boomarms lads, anyone use them? Haven't got a confirmed quote. and its been like a month

there sometimes very hard to get a reply from, when i have ordered from them the shipping has always been good, and there very good with helping you with downgrades

we can not ship any firearms by post office airmail from 03 Apr 2008

well if we are talking about rsov then more than likely the aegs are classed as firearms as there over 1j , but it might just be worded (translated badly) and an extension of the ems problem

the post office won't except any imitation firearm for shipping through airmail.

do you have any info on this as it may help to sort out the issues people are having at the moment, if this is the case it must be a change of policy on recently imposed as i've had not problems myself and i think i;ve imported about 15 aegs thought the post office, and a large number of them where open by customs, so this much have only changed in the last few days even

the post office won't except any imitation firearm for shipping through airmail.
what i had ordered was the m203 launcher.

that does not make sense as the m203 is not an 'imitation firearm'

interesting to know , somethings is getting lost in translation as im shore we would have got at least some information from an post or customs by know

under the requirments of the destination country

ok this clouds the water even more, have not heared anything from the post office or customs yet so might be nice to know where this has come from

Just thought id make a post hear about the obsured trouble im having with ehobby asia.

I purchased a bereta m9 full steel from them nearly two weeks ago. It costs me 34 euros including shipping.

Before purchase i asked what price shipping was on various items.

They said that the price was $10 for gbb pistols, ebb pistols where same as usa and that aegs are $25.

So away i go pay them and await my pistol. I then get an email about the various shipping issues that have been noted, so we have a discussion that results in them sending by normal post or ups.

So i wait a few more days.... then i get

"Unfortunatly the product you have ordered is not in stock, we can refund you or you can order other products"

ok , im pissed now but i go have a goosey gander around the site. Then i find this

a kjw full steel m1911a1. Its a beautiful looking piece, reviews are all good. It costs 98.99 then the 10 dollars shipping. So thats 108.99 in total.

So i tell ehobby, no problem ill take this and just send me an invoice so i can pay the additonal 54 dollars.

Then they reply with an outragous statement, the price of the pistol is now $143.99. And the way they break it down is, $98.99 + $45 dollars shipping.

So as you can guess im in deep talks with them and problems are going to arise.

I been with ebay for over 7 years now and know my rights and laws, im also highly aware of international trading laws, as my family have been trading online for over 10 years.

Ebay has its own legislation regarding shipping abuse and when there is a case it can result in a site being shut down.

Now I guess a foward apology is due, because if things are not sorted out for me, a complaint is going into ebay for it to be investagated. Being a long time ebayer, ive come across countless stores that rip off the customer.

I'm currently down €35, and nothing to show for it, might not be alot, but its the principle.

I'm hoping they can get their act together for everyones sake. It may be the case that if there is a genuine amount of customers here i might just ask for a refund and leave it at that, but id definatly like some input here.

As i said its principle and to keep ebay a strong marketplace, and I'd go to great lengths to ensure scnadals like this are at a minimum. There is no personal gain for me, except my money back, but after getting stung heavy in one of my first ebay transactions i said i wouldnt let it happen again and have had good success in having more then 10 stores running this simlar scandalous rippoffs have their stores shut down.

Again as i stated some input would be worthwhile, i dont want to make the store stop shipping to ireland cause of my 30 euro, but still anyone who has had any previous dealings with the store, if they could contact me regarding their shipping rates and the services they recieved, i might treat this as a once off.

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.

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

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

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)

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.

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: 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.

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:)