Complaining about a site?

I

inbredyokel

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I went to my first Airsoft game in the UK just over a week ago.

I gave the people there my money thinking that as I was a customer

I might be treated as such and I might get fun for my money– evidently the
company and it's staff think I’m an idiot to be misled on sales, ignored while on
site, abused when confused and frankly robbed of my hard earned cash.

I left rather unhappy and wrote a lengthy and full account to the site owners
raising my complaints and have been completely ignored.

I’m now am looking at further action, but before I head to a

small claims court, I’m wondering if there is an administrative body which
oversees British Airsoft Activity.

 
what did they actually do or not do ?

What was your expectation ?

I first went to an Airsoft game on my own and found it slightly confusing.

People tended to assume that I knew much more than I did and I found it a little bewildering and chaotic.

 
Mike636 thanks for the heads up mate, not naming and shaming - that'd be poor form.

Baz JJ - the service they provided falls well short of what they advertise.

The staff looked after the regulars and ignored the new users.

When the staff did speak to me (and others) it was a though I was something horrid on the sole of their shoe.

I don't give my money to people who treat me with such disrespect and contempt.

 
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I cant comment on the quality of the service they provided you because I have no way of judging, but they should respond to your written complaint. To my way of thinking and I have worked in sales and customer relations for many years, no company is too big or too successful to ignore customers. I have a similar problem with a well known Airsoft retailer at the moment.

If they dont reply to a polite and reasonable contact, then that is just either arrogance or failing to respect their customer.

Unless they have a nmber of similar complaints, I doubt an isolated complaint to an official body would go very far, but then you dont know if it is isolated.

One comment I will make which applies to both Airsoft and many other leisure activities, is that they often get people coming to do a one off activity and are never seen again. Of course, as customers they are entitled to a degree of attention and respect, but its human nature to have a closer relationship to those regulars. Its the same in pubs. It all comes down to whether they were rude and disrespectful to you or whether they just didnt make a fuss over you as you might expect them to.

You say it was your first visit.

On my first game, they kitted me out and put me with one of the regulars so I could ask questions and follow them to get the ropes.

Even now, I have to ask the marshalls questions occasionally because we play a new game to me or something doesnt get covered that is obvious to the regulars. With 100 people on site and a handful of part time marshalls, I guess something that runs every two weeks is never going to be as polished as a full time business that does it every day.

If you don't want to name them here to warn other players, All you can do is put a complaint in to UKASGB and then vote with your feet.

 
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inbredyokel said:
Mike636 thanks for the heads up mate, not naming and shaming - that'd be poor form.

Baz JJ - the service they provided falls well short of what they advertise.

The staff looked after the regulars and ignored the new users.

When the staff did speak to me (and others) it was a though I was something horrid on the sole of their shoe.

I don't give my money to people who treat me with such disrespect and contempt.
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I think many of the members here would actually prefer if you did name the site as it provides the younger players an idea of where the friendlier sites are, and the older players a chance to be on guard if the worst comes to the worst.It is admirable that you don't want to "tell" (can't think of a better word, sorry) but they are a business and if a shop where to rip me off I would be on every forum giving a bad review. And if its a site with that amount of rudeness to a paying customer, I can guarantee that you won't be the only one being treated like this.

@Baz Jj

I was writing my response while you were writing yours, just beat me to it lol

 
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inbred, sadly you have very little come back if the company disputes your claim that they did not provide the expected level of service. In theory the normal rules apply (fit for purpose, etc. etc.) but actually proving poor service is inherently difficult as one persons expectations might be very different to anothers.

I'm not sure if UK airsoft sites appear on trip advisor. If they do it's well worth leaving a review on there. You will, unfortunately, be very unlikely to get your money back, but you can at least stop others from having their money taken for a poor service. If you have tried to contact them to discuss, and have not had a reply, I think you are totally justified in naming and shaming!

 
I believe airbana lets you leave quality ratings, never tried it personally though.

 
What happened exactly? What's the site called? It's highly unlikely you'll get a refund, but you could type up a review about this site to warn other's of the poor service.

 
Well as I stated it's been just over a week and I want to give them a chance to respond, so I'll give them another couple of days.

However I don't believe that they will reply, as on receipt on my email I would have expected at least a -, "thank you for your concerns...here's an acknowledgement of your whinging email and I'll get back to you once I've had a chat with the lads"

From the comments it seems there really doesn't seem to be much recourse or hope for a favourable resolution regarding this, regardless I won't be heading back to them again.
 
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As this was your first game, would I be correct in thinking that you hired your gun/gear?

Did you stay for the whole day? Did they provide any food/drink within the fees.

If the answer to both the above is Yes then that would probably reduce your chances of getting a full refund if you did go to the small claims court as you did receive some benefit even if you did not enjoy the day.

The other problem you could face if one of witnesses - can anyone support your version as opposed to the site staff/marshalls. They might try to imply that you would not listen to instruction etc.

There is a section of this forum where you can post a site review. Why not write one and maybe agree with one of the moderators that you can pm it to them first - just to make sure they would not delete it if they felt it unfair. They may even know someone at the site and could invite a response for fairness.

Finally, have you called to see if they received your email? A lot of email can be diverted to spam boxes if any words in the title or content of the email are on their filter lists.Even a word like `refund' in the title could stop the message getting through as lots of spammers send emails suggesting you are entitled to a refund from HMRC.

 
How much did you actually pay? My local

Site charges a modest fee for hire and for the sake of £30/£40/whatever it is I'd have thought small claims action was laughable.

However I've seen some places offering some kind of 'experience' package for £100 to £150 and whilst I think you'd be foolish to pay that, I can see why Simeon might be hacked off if they didn't get what they expected.

If say most sites favour their regulars, and the smaller they are the more likely it is.

 
The company was Combat South - Woodland.

The money paid is immaterial; I paid £50 for entry/hire/lunch and another £20 on pyro and extra ammunition.

I wrote a two page drip complaining to the owner/manager about the low standards of customer service, poor serviceability of kit and have been roundly ignored.

I only took exception to this as I work abroad and due to my family commitments while home I have very little spare time. This means I place a great deal of value on the time I have and I had spent most of my time away looking forward to this event only to be let down by poor service.

I will not be going anywhere with this as after a bit of thought I won’t gain anything from this and I really cannot be arsed – well only arsed enough to post up here at any rate.

If anyone wishes I can post up a more detailed whinge outlining my list of specific complaints.

It makes no odds to me at this point as I will not be giving any more money to this lot and I would warn anyone off against doing same.

If any member of staff or regular user from the site wants to defend Combat South and protest this with a line of usual high standards of service not being delivered or I must have went there on a bad day – fill your boots. I would have possibly conceded that one if I hadn’t been so completed blanked by them in the aftermath.
 
I used to play at CSW regularly and I know what you mean, the site is pretty good but of you aren't friends with the marshals, some of them can be complete arseholes (not that they all are, some are great) Part of the reason I rarely go there anymore these days, I've never had a big issue but there's one in particular who is often in my opinion a bit rude to other players, I've often thought if I was one of those people I would complain too. If your letter doesn't get you anywhere, don't worry there are plenty of other good sites around with a full set of decent staff.

 
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My first game was also at CS Woodland and i had the piss taken out of me by the regualrs but the staff were good.

I have played there quite alot over the last 18 months and have had no issues. As M_P said there is one marshal that is a total bellend!

Russ that runs CS is a great guy and always been VERY helpful so the lack of response is a surprise to me. I am not defending them as i know exactly how you feel as i felt the same after my first game.

I am going to promote a better site (sorry to break the rules!) IronSight is in Andover and the atmosphere is great and ALL are welcome and treated the same! M_P and nickona can vouch for the site and the staff.

 
Sam_G said:
I have played there quite alot over the last 18 months and have had no issues. As M_P said there is one marshal that is a total bellend!

Russ that runs CS is a great guy and always been VERY helpful so the lack of response is a surprise to me. I am not defending them as i know exactly how you feel as i felt the same after my first game.

I am going to promote a better site (sorry to break the rules!) IronSight is in Andover and the atmosphere is great and ALL are welcome and treated the same! M_P and nickona can vouch for the site and the staff.
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I don't know many of them by name anymore but agree'd Russ is a good guy, as is Doc.

Also at Iron Sight you get domino's pizza for lunch- that's an auto-win right there.

 
Funnily enough after I posted up here, Combat South got in comms - apparently they never received my email.

Short version - they feel they're doing a great job as is, they've noted what I've said (all two pages of it) but feel that they don't really need to make any changes to their system as is.

I won't be going near them again.

.

 
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