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Airsoft Imports - A Bad Experience, Sadly


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Hi all,

 

Not warning anyone off ordering from this company, only speaking of my experiences to get this out of my system.

 

Earlier in the week I ordered a Nuprol FAST Helmet from eBay.

I've already got a Tan one for my Tropentarn loadout, but want a OD one to complete my Flecktarn KSK gear. The price was very good, I thought to myself (£35, so below the RRP).

The photos on the eBay advert looked great - exactly what I wanted.

I did note that the sellers eBay ID was a persons name, rather than a company name, but this isn't unusual.

 

Postage was rapid, less than 24 hours by UKMail, which was awesome. It arrived wrapped in black cellophane with an "Airsoft Imports" label.

I found this a bit odd - wouldn't the company use that as their username rather than the name of the company director? 

I was pretty excited (in a geeky, Airsoft kind of way) when I opened the package. That's sadly where the fun stopped.

 

The box looked good, exactly the same as my other Nuprol lid came in. "Good news!" I thought.

It was secured by 2 pieces of tape and looked as if it had been opened previously.

I opened the box and was immediately disappointed. It definitely wasn't a Nuprol helmet. More likely a cheap chinese knock-off.

The shell was super light and felt cheap. The adjuster at the back wouldn't stay done up and the bolts that secure the rails on the sides were naff cross-head ones - not the flat-head ones that Nuprol use.

 

Disappointed, I emailed the seller. Explaining that there must've been a mistake. Perhaps another customer had returned the box with the wrong helmet inside or it was sent in error? Seemed like a pretty fair and honest conclusion to come to, don't you think?

 

The sellers reply hit me for six. I pride myself in knowing right from wrong and being an honest person.

He immediately accused me of trying to defraud him by attempting to return a crappy knock-off helmet to him and keeping the genuine one that was in the box. This was categorically NOT the case. 

He was very quick to jump to that conclusion. It felt almost as if it was rehearsed.

The helmet that I received was by no means genuine. When I sent photos of it to the seller he said that he figured it was a cheap Emerson one or similar. He maintains that those are not something that Airsoft Imports stock and that the box had never been opened. It allegedly came straight from the supplier and sat on a shelf for 6-9 months. 

 

I called eBay customer support, who said I should log a return request with the seller.

He then once again accused me of attempting to defraud him and says he has reported my 'illegal conduct' to eBay.

I've since spoken to Nuprol and supplied them with photos of the helmet and packaging, as well as reporting it to the eBay Trust team. 

 

As it stands just now, I am £35 down and stuck with a naff helmet that's no good to anyone. 

Airsoft Imports have my money and maintain that they sent a genuine helmet - a complete lie.

I now have to wait a week before I can ask eBay to step in. Hopefully they will see sense and side with me.

 

I've since bought a OneTigris one from Amazon so I'd have one for this weekend's skirmish. Yet more hassle caused by all this.

 

The whole experience has left me with a very bitter taste.

Has anybody else suffered the same fate with this company?

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Did you pay with PayPal?

 

Your next step is to log a complaint with them. They're are much more rapid at getting your money back than eBay and often side with the customer.

 

There is an option with PayPal to only pay once you've taken delivery of something and are happy with it - basically PayPal pays the eBay shop / seller and the thing is delivered. Once you are happy, you tell PayPal and they take the money you've "borrowed" from them.

 

The bonus with this is if there's ever a problem, PayPal come down hard on the seller as it's their money that is jeopardised, not yours.

 

Also, send Nuprol Rossco a friend request on Facebook, he's the marketing manager at Nuprol and can probably help.

 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009315937655

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1 minute ago, L3wisD said:

Did you pay with PayPal?

 

Your next step is to log a complaint with them. They're are much more rapid at getting your money back than eBay and often side with the customer.

 

There is an option with PayPal to only pay once you've taken delivery of something and are happy with it - basically PayPal pays the eBay shop / seller and the thing is delivered. Once you are happy, you tell PayPal and they take the money you've "borrowed" from them.

 

The bonus with this is if there's ever a problem, PayPal come down hard on the seller as it's their money that is jeopardised, not yours.

 

Yeah, paid with PayPal - but because it was an automated transaction through eBay (who are the same company), PayPal insists that it be dealt with through eBay.

 

From the off, the guy has outright accused me of fraud - that's really got to me. All I've done is give him my money and expect to get what I paid for. Hopefully eBay will see my side of it.

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Just now, proffrink said:

Run by the chap who scammed Mancraft out of a bunch of money/didn't pay his bills with them as a wholesale account. See this thread:

 

 

Ah, well at least I'm not alone...

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Maybe you could use that as evidence to back up your case with eBay?

 

Hope you get your money back.

 

Cheers


G

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6 minutes ago, MisterG said:

Maybe you could use that as evidence to back up your case with eBay?

 

Cheers


G

If it comes down to it, I will do.

 

For the sake of £35 I wouldn't normally be too fussed, but since the guy (who was clearly in the wrong) has accused me of fraud, I've seen red. I'll get my money back one way or another. eBay will hopefully sort it for me, but I have no qualms about taking him to small claims court if necessary.

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11 minutes ago, Trojax88 said:

For the sake of £35 I wouldn't normally be too fussed, 

Amounts immaterial , wether it’s £35 , £350 or even £3.50 , they’ve sent you a shoddy product you’ve called foul on it and they’ve had the cheek to accuse YOU of the fraud ! 

Take it all the way and use all the Ref material you can .

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4 minutes ago, Druid799 said:

Amounts immaterial , wether it’s £35 , £350 or even £3.50 , they’ve sent you a shoddy product you’ve called foul on it and they’ve had the cheek to accuse YOU of the fraud ! 

Take it all the way and use all the Ref material you can .

 

Yeah I'll definitely do that.

 

From the start I was willing to accept that I could be an honest mistake on his part. 

The whole experience has, however, lead me to think that he knew exactly what he sent me.

Although I have no evidence other than the crap helmet and official Nuprol packaging to back that up. 

 

People like that make me lose faith in humanity. 🤦‍♂️

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I'd definitely chase up on it. The guy clearly has a history of pulling this type of stuff and you shouldn't let him get away with it. 

 

Definitely go through PayPal or even your bank if eBay are of no use. As mentioned above 99% of the time they'll side with the buyer. 

 

Part of the reason I'll always request paying through them when purchasing goods online. Much easier to get my cash back is shit hits the fan. 

 

You wouldn't happen to have a link to their eBay store would you? I'd like to add them to my blacklist. 

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, L3wisD said:

How's this going @Trojax88?

Slowly. 

 

Waiting for the cut-off date so I can ask eBay to step in. Sadly until then it's just a circular argument between me and the seller. 

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On 5/25/2018 at 8:16 PM, Trojax88 said:

It definitely wasn't a Nuprol helmet. More likely a cheap chinese knock-off

 

This is a shit situation and I hope you get it sorted but this bit honestly made me chuckle. 

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Good news! 

 

eBay have sided with me and I'll get my refund. Perseverance has paid off and good sense has prevailed. 

 

All I need to do now is post it back and eBay will automatically refund me when the item is delivered. 

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1 minute ago, proffrink said:

Don't forget tracking :)

Aye, it's all arranged by eBay and Royal Mail. 😀

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Final update:

 

Full refund received today from eBay.

It came through automatically when the item was signed for on return.

 

Shame I had to fight for it, but thankfully it went my way in the end.

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Another chancer involved in lots of "companies", no doubt all of which are one man bands, take note he's started another one this year, watch out for Bravo Company, I'm sure there'll be a new thread about it before too long.

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If anyone does see Bravo Company crop up as an online retailer, feel free to make a new thread with that title and URL with links to this thread and the others. At least then people can see who runs it.

 

We get quite good search rankings for airsoft stuff so it'll come up in the top 3-4 results.

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Nothing says reputable like censoring poor reviews, having strike-off notices against your company for not filing accounts, and then starting up a new company with essentially the same name.

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  • 1 month later...

An update on this...

 

I've just noticed that the eBay account that the seller was using now no longer exists.

I'll update the thread if another similar one pops up...

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