Piman

The cheap rowing machine from Amazon has been getting a work out but the bearings on the seat are complaining under the weight. Definitely put on much weight during the lock down. After popping a button on a shirt I felt I really needed to lose some pounds and build up some stamina ahead of a first game.

So only 24 hours left of my UKARA and my shipment has not yet cleared UK customs. No movement on the tracker for days and no help whatsoever from customer services. I do not believe I have had as poor a service from UPS from any other company in my entire lifetime. The incompetence shown by them just staggers me. I don't know what I am going to do if it fails to clear. James

I have had numerous scheduled deliveries. Unless the tracking says it is with your local hub or out for delivery then it is not going to arrive. I believe these are automated estimates based on how they should be operating if there were no issues. There are no checks or balances to stop it posting unrealistic dates.

Yeah, agreed. I intend to completely strip these when they arrive anyway. James

I would only order one outside the UK if it really was very cheap and you do not mind fixing any issues. The nightmare it will be to return an item under warranty is not worth it. Unless the supplier is fully set up for it you could end up paying further duties to send it and then on return let alone the high shipping costs.

My first shipment is due today according to the tracker but as it is still showing as being in SLH I know it is not going to arrive. Having just had a UPS van pull up right in front of my house for a delivery to my neighbour it feels like they are rubbing salt into the wound. I decided to give them yet another call following numerous promises of call backs and updates. This time I was put through to the same Customer Services manager who apologised and has provided a direct email contact to him. I still don't see that as much help as their customer services have little to no influence as to what happens at their hubs. It feels more like a stalling/pacification tactic for now. I don't know why I do it but I keep going back to Turustpilot to look at reviews and share in everyone else's misery. Over 9,000 reviews with 93% at the lowest rating. I am surprised it has not been picked up in the media. Still, I find this thread very therapeutic as an output for my frustration. It gets harder every time I am on the phone to UPS to keep calm.

Well that is more than I have had so fingers crossed.

Does your tracking still shoe it at Stanford Le Hope? If it does it is highly unlikely that it will be delivered tomorrow as it would need to be on it's way to your local depot now. One of mine is also scheduled for tomorrow but I do not believe it. This parcel has had 5-6 different scheduled dates during its 4+ week wait. Currently sat at Stanford Le Hope with no update for several days. I would like to be able to order from Taiwangun again in the future but not while they use UPS. I did raise this with them before but they say UPS is the only courier that they can work with to ship to the UK. to quote them: "Sorry, but only UPS has developed options so that now, after Brexit, we could do some sales to the UK. It is not our fault" To be honest I don't believe that to be the case but would imagine that it is more about negotiating favourable rates for a large logistics account. James

You won't really see the real benefit right away. What a better charger will give you is more reliability and better battery life. That can often be clouded by the fact that the batteries themselves will vary wildly in quality. Unfortunately, no matter how much the marketing departments like to make you think that their premium brands are so much better than anything else, we only get the leftovers in the hobby industry when it comes to batteries. The best goes to the likes of military applications, with the next band going to commercial applications. The remainder is then sold off to us with airsoft being quite low even in that category. James

Yes. The technology in the IMAX is over a decade old. I know we don't like to do leading edge in airsoft but at least there are pleanty of modern charges to choose from.

I believe you have the wrong polarity on the Tamiya end of your adaptor loom. Look at your first picture and the red positive connection is going into the right side and on the second picture with the adaptor it is on the left. James

Until it goes wrong... 2 things I would not skimp on. Eye Pro and a charger. You don't have to spend a lot on these but it is not worth cutting corners.

I don;t think it even needs that as the built in controller/MOSFET is quite good. The Cerakote can be quite expensive but looking at the picture it looks just like the standard finish. If you were going to spend that much you might have wanted something different.

That is a great platform to upgrade but that takes the .... Dave's is already over priced as it is but here he has sold a lot of 'upgrades' that are more a side step. This really is taking advantage of your customers. ZCI hop and barrel, Maple leaf rubber and nub, new nozzle, shim and you are done. Will be better than 90% of the other AEGs on the field and less than £100 in upgrades.

These sort of status updates don't help "Your package may be delayed due to a required document inspection by the clearing agency. / Your package was released by the clearing agency." So which is it? Is it held up or has it been released?

Ah yes, moving along now. Only a few more weeks wait in the hole that is Stanford Le Hope. Yes that is just an intermediate hub of UPS about half way between the UK and Poland.

Well, for nearly 4 weeks mine covered a distance of about 0 Km. In case you don't work in Km I converted that to miles and it is 0 miles. However in the last 24 hrs it has gone to and left Germany. Next stop Stanford Le Hope where I can expect it to spend several more weeks judging on current history of that depot. James

After nearly 4 weeks at the same depot in Poland I got this update today. Dobra Strykow, Poland Departed from Facility Still not in the UK but some actual movement!!! I would stay patient. I filled in the forms for the above shipment 2 weeks ago. James

Yeah, those cutting mats are brilliant.... Seriously though what are they and do they need lube?

Looking good. Watch your suppressor alignment. It doesn't take much to have BBs shattering on the end of it if it is even a few degrees or mm out.

They phoned me to get my email address and then sent the form directly to me. First time it was after I had chased them directly on the status so you may need to do the same. The email was directly from the individual handling that item rather than a common department. However you could try [email protected] This is where they asked me to send my invoice when they needed it. I would check with them first before sending any documents there though as it may confuse things. Attached is the form to fill in (hopefully this is OK on the forum). They sent me a completely blank one this time as they usually complete the tracking number at the top. I print this off, complete and sign then scan back in although I expect a couple of pictures may be OK if you do not have a scanner. I would make sure your tracking number is in the file name(s). Fire Arm.doc

So an actual update today. After my call with them yesterday I also left a review on Trust Pilot. The call was just for my first shipment but the review I mentioned my two delayed deliveries. I got the request to email them at '[email protected]' yesterday and sent them my tracking details. Now this could all be coincidence but for my 2nd shipment I had the call and email to complete the arms declaration (already done for the first shipment) after it had been sat there for days. This is already in the UK at Stanford Le Hope. For the first shipment that is still in Poland it has just had it's status change to export scan rather than the daily 'delayed due to BREXIT' update. So things are moving slowly and expect further steps to still take some time, but it is something. Perhaps give them a call. They usually chase after the original sender first so may be quicker to take the lead. When calling them I find it is quickest to choose the customs and import option (6 I think) and then say no. I then get put in the queue to talk to an agent rather than going round in circles getting automated updates that are a repeat of the online tracking.

Cut the barrel off and add £50. OK so there are a few mags but they are not that expensive and you won't need that many.

So I have had yet another phone call with UPS this afternoon after they promised they would call me back in an hour this morning. After talking to the support initially I was then passed to a customer support manager. They are all very polite and not in an enviable position. I expect the amount of calls they are getting and what little they can do must be very stressful. As such it is always best to be as polite as possible even though that is very hard at times. So I spent a while discussing with him the situation with UKARA and the risk of that running out. Again they will pass messages on but it is up to the Poland depot as to if they do anything about it. What was interesting was what he said is likely happening and would explain why people wait different times. Our packages will all be loaded up in trailers waiting to depart. However, regardless of whether all your paperwork is good to go and has cleared customs, there will be other packages in the trailer waiting to be cleared or missing paperwork. The trailer won't move until the last one is sorted. They may unload and sort out packages that are good to go but you can imagine this is a last resort and something they would avoid doing at all costs. James

Agreed, you don't need it but with all the other troubles going on I would rather avoid further delays and confusion in trying to explain that to them. From their side it just removes all risk from customs and any potential checks to make sure it really is only parts. I got the following status change in my tracker "Original documents required (Immigration documents, Visa etc) / Your package was released by the clearing agency.". In subsequent calls they have confirmed it has cleared customs and is just stuck at the warehouse.