The Dorset Gun Company (Formerly A1 Airsoft)

[Shizbazki]

Hi all

 

I was wondering what you guys though of The Dorset Gun Company?

http://www.dorsetguncompany.co.uk/

 

Have any of you ever bought from them or even been to their shop?

 

I know your wondering "But they are a gun company" and whilst that's true they were selling Airsoft Guns (more on why later)

 

So i was in the market for a KWA Kriss Vector when i stumbled across their site, as the only place in the UK that showed to have the Vector as "IN STOCK" for £330 i placed an order for one on 13-05-15.

 

Expecting it to be shipped the next day it showed just as processed, it wasn't until 15-05-15 that i called them asking the status of the gun to learn that they had a few on their way, that should have arrived on 13-05-15, that they had been unloaded from the shipping container, passed customs and were due in the store soon, once they arrived they would shipped to the customer. I was also told that they would be emailing everyone that ordered one on that day in an hour or so and assured me that when they do arrive i will be getting one.

 

4 days later and no email (both inbox or spam) on 19-05-15 i called again asking a) what happened to my email i was supposed to get a few hours ago on 15-05-15 and if the guns had arrived. Sadly no guns and the staff i spoke to said that he would email me first thing next day, next day nothing Their staff told me that due to the orders on the Vectors and the fact they had not received them yet and to stop people ordering them he had removed them from the stores catalogues.

 

I sent them an email on 22-05-15 at about 1000Hrs so they had most of the trading day to reply but not heard anything, do note that i have already had the money debited from my account by them trading under A1 Airsoft.

 

So here we are on the 23-05-15, more than a week later and still waiting for the guns to be apparently shipped from the containers to their shop, in that time I have managed to order some thing from Hong Kong for about the same amount and it arrived a few days ago.

 

Pulling some investigative skills in i decided to look them up and have found that the company is registered at one address but trades from another about half a mile away in a new shop only opened in January 2015, i also noted that they used to trade as A1Airsoft which is now permanently closed try their website, it returns an error and even google lists it as CLOSED.

 

So have you guys had any dealings with The Dorset Gun Company or their former company A1Airsoft? what were they like?

 

TBH I don't get the Vector by the middle of next month i will call it quits and seek to get a refund (if i can that is).

[Zak Da Mack]

One of my mates bought gun from A1 airsoft, people seemed nice. But the fact they've changed their name is probably because of bad publicity in the past, so I'd avoid unless I knew someone who has bought off their new website

[Shizbazki]

Finally got whats appears to be a generic "sorry we are still waiting for the Vector email" today.

 

Dear Customer

Thank you for being patient with your order for a KWA Kriss Vector. We had hoped to have shipped out all the orders we have for these by now however we are still awaiting delivery ourselves from the UK distributor.

The last update we had was that they had arrived in the UK, had cleared Customs and were on the way to the distributor. We have been told to expect our delivery shortly which in turn means we shall ship your order out immediately.

We are sorry if this delay is inconveniencing you and will happily offer a refund to anybody who wishes one. You might have noticed that we have now removed the KWA Kriss Vectors from our website, this is simply because we have sold all of those we have on order and as KWA no longer make the vector we shan't be getting anymore in the future.


Kind regards

The Dorset Gun Company Ltd
01202 980204

 

So still a wait

[Adam3088]

If I'm not mistaken a1 was where I ordered my first aeg's from. Bought a g&g f2000 + ebr and some silicon spray, guns arrived fine but they sent the oil separately for some reason.

A couple of weeks later it still hasn't arrived, they ignored two of my emails asking where it was so I raised a PayPal dispute over it which temporarily deducted ~£650 from their account. Unsurprisingly they got the hump over this but I did get the missing item sent out extremely quickly..

[proffrink]

Just a bit of trivia, but PayPal business accounts that have had a decent turnover for more than 3 years don't have the balance deducted temporarily in the case of a dispute. If they're having money deducted then that's a sign of a very, very small company (or very young). Either of which don't immediately fill one with any confidence.

[EvilMonkee]

I have always been wary of them as they are quite obviously drop shippers.

[Shizbazki]

I'll keep you guys posted on the outcome of this company, see if they can delivery.

[Shizbazki]

Right update was required.

 

So After waiting ages to get the Vector and starting to worry a little I decided to call them up on 27-05-15, spoke to one of their members of staff and i informed them of my decision to cancel my order for the Vector but send me my other items (some 8mm blanks) that remained on the order.

 

With what i can only call as a "sigh of relief" from him as he sounded like a massive weight (of annoyed Vector customers bugging him because of no Vectors) had been lifted from his shoulders he stated that he was happy to cancel the Vector from the order, refund me the £330 and send the 8mm blanks to me, a day later the blanks arrived

 

Is it OVER! Oh no it wasn't

 

So back in the market for another vector i began scouring Online shops here and abroad, they were either too expensive or out of stock everywhere, eventually i began perusing forums, none here of AF but saw a few decent sales on another, contacted the sellers asking basic info etc whilst waiting for the money to be refunded. Got a few deals going and close to finalizing a sale but was still waiting on the money to be refunded.

 

On 02-06-15 called them back asking where the hell was the refund after 6 days of waiting and was told that they had done it, on the 09-06-15 was still out of pocket of £330 bearing in mind that it was almost 2 weeks since i cancelled the Vector order and still no refund! :@

I called up on 09-06-15 and question the staff there until one of them ended up checking there merchant system to see what stage it was at and then told me that it was pending still, it wasn't until the late afternoon on 10-06-15 that i recieved my money, a full 2 weeks since Vector Cancellation.

 

Furthermore when i called on 09-06-15 and enquired if the Vectors ever did arrived they said no, they were still waiting on them.

 

Sufficed to say guys stay away from them for anything Airsoft related, that said i may still use them to get 8mm blanks but its rare i buy them so dunno if i will ever use them again.

[beastmode]

I went in their when they were in the old shop. Bought my first gun ics m4 from there which they two toned and sent it next day via courier. Been in there just after they moved and had a chat with them and a feel of a few guns. Seem friendly enough. Sorry you didn't have such a good experience there.

[Avionyx]

I had dealings with this company a good few years ago under the old name and found them to be ok. Sorry to hear of your bad experiences, will certainly be a bit wary if I ever intend to order anything from them again, these days I do tend to call to check stock before ordering though.

[RR01]

Just for an update, Dorset Gun Co are now a Section 5 Firearms dealership and no longer deal in airsoft of any kind.