Anyone else had issues with airlab?

[NH Shooter]

I ordered a nub from them last sat, and long story short they didn't bother to send it out. They didn't bother to contact me and I had to ask why my order day so pending for a Thursday (maybe) shipment. God only knows when they would have chosen to contact me...

So the rifle was already in bits waiting for the parts, which now means I miss Sundays skirmish.

The issue is... I have a vast amount of upgrading to do on a few rifles and hopefully... Some additional rifles belonging to others... So I don't want to be dealing with bad suppliers. After tomorrow, as no post will arrive on Sunday... That's 12 days or 9 post days to send the smallest and simplest of packages.

So has anyone else had any dealings?

 

[PT247]

Airlab have never returned my many requests for info on the BTC mosfet, I'll not buy from them except for the mosfet if they ever get any in stock.... tbh tho the kit is even rocking horse shit in the states, but it would be nice if airlab actually treated potential customers with common courtesy at least!

 

[NH Shooter]

That's the thing in worried about... Kind of. Pricing the bits I want in my "next" order... I'm looking at just over 900 notes... I ain't willing to spend that sort of cash likely... Not if I'm gonna get screwed over our treated like a tool.

I also can't be promising people results based on their delivery schedule... I lost this weekend skirmish... Not sure I wanna get blamed for that myself...

 

[Lozart]

I ordered a sorbo pad a few weeks ago and hadn't heard from them. Got a reply and an apology plus my order yesterday.

They have a large backlog at the moment. Give it a t least 10 days then email or call.

 

[NH Shooter]

I emailed them... They didn't have a reason, just apologies. But that's no good, really... Being busy is no reason to be unorganised, inconsistent and uncommunicative. My first order say fine... They did mention sorbo pads, actually... But I'm not entirely sure how that affects other orders.

They've gotta have about a bedrooms worth of stock... How hard can it be to organise that? lol

 

[Spatch]

There are many many other companies out there with exemplary service, I wouldn't spend £5 let alone £900 with a company that seems to not give too much of a shit about service, there is ZERO excuse for the kind of service explained in this thread in today's market

 

[Lozart]

OK, my last post was from my phone hence the brevity so let me expand.

Lee (for he is Airlab) went on holiday but continued to accept orders. This created a backlog.

The emails I've had from him have been nothing less than exemplary in the way to handle a problem. In general he has a very good reputation for good customer service and despite having waited a LOT longer than the OP for my parts I honestly don't feel in any way worse off for the experience.

Personally I think people can be a little quick to dismiss someone as being useless without knowing the full story. It would be no different than one of the people NH Shooter is working on a rifle for getting the arse about his gun being late due to something outside of his control.

 

[PT247]

I have still not had a reply from my emails almost a year on. Guess it was a long holiday! lol

 

[PT247]

They seem to be the only supplier of the BTC Spectre mosfet in the UK so are the only company I can turn to in the UK, I have tried sourcing them in the USA and they are loads cheaper but are no easier to get hold of out there than they are here.... A response saying just that they have no idea when they would be getting them in stock would have been better than no reply.

 

[Lozart]

They seem to be the only supplier of the BTC Spectre mosfet in the UK so are the only company I can turn to in the UK, I have tried sourcing them in the USA and they are loads cheaper but are no easier to get hold of out there than they are here.... A response saying just that they have no idea when they would be getting them in stock would have been better than no reply.

Click to shrink...

You're right, that is taking the piss.

 

[NH Shooter]

Going on holiday is fully in someone's control, I think ... As is a website update stating that orders will be delayed... Or a Facebook one... Or not taking orders... If I was contacted in any way, or otherwise informed I'd not have not stripped the rifle down.

The really is no excuse for it... My issue is that you pay for a service. If orders will be late cus you're on a jolly... That includes communication or arranging cover... You don't just sack it off for a bit and hope for the best...

I'm honestly well disappointed... They had did some awesome components for a clean sheet build.

 

[Lozart]

Going on holiday is fully in someone's control, I think ... As is a website update stating that orders will be delayed... Or a Facebook one... Or not taking orders... If I was contacted in any way, or otherwise informed I'd not have not stripped the rifle down.

The really is no excuse for it... My issue is that you pay for a service. If orders will be late cus you're on a jolly... That includes communication or arranging cover... You don't just sack it off for a bit and hope for the best...

I'm honestly well disappointed... They had did some awesome components for a clean sheet build.

Click to shrink...

The website clearly stated when they were closed and currently states that there is up to a 10 day delay on orders.

Personally I don't think he should have been taking orders while he was away from the business but that's his decision. I emailed him, he responded with:

Hi Laurence,


Many apologies for the slow service and lack of communication. We’ve had a very busy period over the last few weeks, which, coupled with extended downtime in the production of sorbo pads, created quite a large backlog of orders to process. We just finished a large batch of pads today, so now we can start shipping all the orders which have been waiting.

I’ve just found your invoice, and I’ll make sure it goes out today via special delivery (for delivery by 1pm tomorrow) at no extra cost to you. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Click to shrink...

When he realised that actually it went out standard 1st class he emailed me again saying that if it was a problem he would send another one out SD. As it turned out it arrived next day anyway.

Seems the squeaky wheel gets the grease....

 

[NH Shooter]

Yeah... Didn't state any of that when I ordered. Just business as usual... Looks like I got the same stock reply as well. Also that he only let people know about delays AFTER orders are taken... That's pretty bad form.

By the sounds of it... It's some dude who doesn't really know what he's doing... That sadly sorts that out.

Cheers for the replies all.

 

[Longshot]

I read a very similar thread to this on another forum just last week.

Personally I ordered a load of stuff about a month ago (including sorbo) which just didn't turn up. After a couple of weeks and emails (that were responded to fairly slowly) he told me they must have been lost in the post and offered to resend. I sent him some extra cash for special delivery this time and they turned up a few days later. To his credit a friend of mine had made three orders from him in between all this (including a super expensive and fancy MOSFET) and all of them had turned up in timely fashion. That said, the same friend has ordered some sorbos about two weeks ago and they have not turned up yet!

I think one problem is that 'Airlab' is just one guy (who may well also have a 'day job'). If he goes away everything backs up. The other problem is that he just seems to be a bit useless at responding to emails (I had no response at all to any emails I sent before I ordered and afterwards responses once I had issues took days).

Lots and lots of people have ordered with Airlab and got good products at a good price, but the overall 'experience' for quite a few of us has not been as professional as might be expected.

 

[NH Shooter]

Yeah... Not what you want really if your using them as a proper supplier... That's well crap. I do hate this sort of thing... If your going to run a business... Run it...

Chess for all the input peeps.

 

[NH Shooter]

In case future people read this thread... Item should have arrived today first class after being given "the highest priority" on Wed. It has not.

No response to email. No response to text. Will not answer his phone. And no update of any description. My account still states that the item is "processing"

Disgusting behaviour!!!

 

[NickM]

Not what you want to hear I'm sure but I ordered from him about 10 months ago, service was fantastic, items arrived within 2 days of placing the order and I hadn't selected for any kind of special delivery just went with whatever it was they use as standard.

 

[NH Shooter]

It's not a case of what I want to hear. lol... I'm just relaying my experience. What I actually want to hear is "your order was shipped and will be with you tomorrow, and here's a generous discount to say sorry about being a tool."

I'm glad that others may be alright... But to be fair, the mark of a company in my mind isn't how they operate when everything is fine, it's how they deal with their own failings... Which in this case, they have royally boned.

I've felt the need to take it through PayPal now to try and get a response. Such a useless company.