Wolf Armouries

[the_robbo]

Ordered an aeg on Monday morning. Very prompt checking of defence details followed by a swift dispatch which I received today.

 

Everything was communicated as it happened by email. Very pleased.

 

Thanks Wolf.

[adam bussey]

don't by from wolf armouries! my gun arrived and was firing at 380fps with .2 gram bb when it says on their web site 320-360 and they said it would take large batteries witch it did not and the hop up did not work so it is being fixed by fire support. I got a src srg36kv, and I went to the shop and did not feel welcome at all!

[Airsoft-Ed]

I bought from them a few times as I was getting started. They really don't make you feel valued at all if you have any kind of direct contact with them.

 

Phone and emails.

 

They became very blunt and rude with me after a short time, maybe 5 emails at the most and a phone call or two. I was a noob, I was trying to get more info, I was unaware of the forums at that point as I wasn't a big internet user or anything etc etc. I was trying to get an idea of what I was buying and they just couldn't have given less of a shit, was my impression.

 

Whenever I emailed them and the email contained more than 3 questions, they would never answer more than 1 of them and even that wouldn't be in any detail.

 

They also have that automated response thing that says, "As we get hundreds of emails a day... blahblahblah" yeah right. Hundreds? That's got to be bollocks. Why don't they get more people working on responding to them?

 

I'm actually fairly sure I've been added to some sort of block list, as I've not received a single reply to anything I've ever sent them since they were rude all those years ago.

 

I try to avoid buying from them unless they're the only place stocking what I'm after.

 

I experienced the fps issue you did as well, Adam. It was shooting around 390 and they'd said it was in the 350 region.

[Finius]

I have had nothing but bad experiences with Wolf Armouries, mostly the same email issues as Ed.

 

Terrible customer service but such a good range of hard-to-find lovelies

[adam bussey]

I went to their shop and every one was giving me weird looks! and the guy who served me look like he had no interest in any of the customers at all, now I am quoting from the warranty "customised guns cannot be returned this includes painted VCRA compliant guns." and you have to fork-out the bill for shipping.

[iAcorn]

I ordered a few things from there abouuuut 4 months ago. Just a couple of accessories and such so I had no problems But their website is not exactly user friendly. Half their stock is alway sold out and the other half have no images. Shouldnt be difficult to update but meh. To each their own.

[Pockets]

Bit of an old topic, I know but I feel the same with iAcorn regarding the website. Their website is an absolute mess. There are rifles on there with little to no information regarding the item and no images. I certainly, as well as everyone else, would like to see what they are buying and what stats and information are associated to that item. I have only been in Airsoft for a short time and I'm actually avoiding to use them and favour companies such as LWA or Airsoftworld.

 

I do hope Wolf Armouries find someone capable of rebuilding their website and put accurate details up.

However, I have never brought anything from them or been instore so I won't comment on customer service etc.

[Jolley]

i like them i ordered all my stuff for my 416 from them and almost ordered the wrong mags in a different order and phoned to check if my order was correct. i think there service is good

[Suzuki Yamamoto]

I've used Wolf Armouries for the last few years for various bits and would have to say that they are hit and miss. At time their service is good and at times it pretty awful. My last visit to their store resulted in me walking out empty handed due to the unwelcome feeling I was given despite recognising staff who have helped me before.

 

I would continue to use them as they do have a pretty wide range of products but my main gripes about Wolf are....

 

1. Website needs a face lift. It is poorly laid out and there is a real lack of detail about their products and plenty of images are missing for products that any new player would not know anything about.

2. Their shop is in a right state. Its too cluttered and messy and trying to find a specific item can be a nightmare. Their actual armoury out the back seems to have been depleted of guns!

3. Customer service skills of the staff (Not all the staff, one or two are quite friendly and helpful) needs addressing. I have 10 years retail experience with Europe's largest mobile phone retailer and having been based on London's busiest shopping street (Oxford st), I can vouch that good customer service not only leads to a better customer base, better profits and FREE advertising through word of mouth.

 

Come on Wolf, pull yourself together.

[Jedi Knight]

I made a purchase recently, the website was ok to use and the delivery was good (even though it was City Link, who I hate with a vengeance and not Royal Mail as it says on the website).

 

The problem I had was when I called them to inquire about the item I was looking to buy, the guy sounded like he really coudn't be arsed talking to me, and almost as if I was bothering him, which personally I found quite rude.

 

The only reason I did go ahead and make the purchase was because they were the only place who had what I wanted in stock, if it had been in stock elsewhere, simply because of the chap's phone manner, I would have bought elsewhere (even if the price was higher).

[elomerid]

I found wolf armouries a pleasure to deal with. They had a good offer on MP5 and M4 mag multipacks, so I ordered both seeing as the delivery cost is quite high. I only got an order placed email (order dispatched email would have been nice), but my order arrived the next day as promised, and overall it was much cheaper than anywhere else. The stuff that isn't on offer is not very competitively priced though.

[Baz JJ]

The thing with all these shops is that anybody can build a website, take an order and despatch a gun. This proves nothing. The real measure of these retailers is how they respond to product enquiries i.e. timely, interested and more importantly, what they do when things go wrong i.e. warranty claims, lost packages, etc.

 

Saying I saw, I bought, I got doesn't mean very much.

[havok]

I went to wolf on Saturday. I've bought from their website and had no issues but this time i had to go up there for a specific gun. The shop its self was very cluttered and the armory out the back was a complete mess.

 

The chap who served me tried to help as much as he could but didn't seem to know much about the products and kept having to go and see his fellow employees.

 

The staff seemed friendly enough but even tho they were not that busy they all seemed to be rushing around. I ended up helping a noob as they didn't seem to have time.

 

All in all not a bad place. The staff were polite but could do with staff who knew more about the products. It really does need a good tidy up. Maybe they have tried to make their website look like their shop!!!!

 

Knowledge 5/10

Friendliness 8/10

Stock 7/10

[halfsack2691]

Worst shop ever, tried to get away with charging me twice, smarmy T**t on the phone when I called them, and it took four days for my order to turn up even though I payed for next day delivery which meant I missed a game day, and when I called asking for a refund on the delivery I was pretty much laughed at over the phone and got hung up on.

[BrightCandle]

I have never had any luck emailing queries to them, they simply don't respond at all. While my deliveries from them have gone without a hitch my face to face trip to the store is the last I will take, they are a surly bunch. Their website is just atrocious, really really awful. I look anywhere else but Wolf for an item. It all just goes along with their don't care attitude.

[Albiscuit]

Been in the shop a few times, a couple of the guys are really helpful, there's one or two who come across as unhelpful but I know who to talk to now so head for them as standard.

 

Website is a pain, its messy and confusing, lacking pictures or info for most products and if you are lucky enough to find something you want on there its out of bloody stock.

 

The shop itself needs an overhaul. Plenty of times I have gone in and they couldnt find items I was after, I think they have tried to pack too much stuff in and made it hard work for themselves.

 

I would continue to use them as their store is literally 10 mins from my house but they do seem a tad expensive and unhelpful. If they were to have a tidy up and a bit of training it has massive potential.

[Alex34]

I used Wolf for my first purchases and they seemed pretty standard to me. No problems with service or getting info regarding UKARA membership etc.

 

On the first visit I was there for 2 hours and if I got any dirty looks I didn't notice any. Seemed pretty helpful to me. Hopefully it stays that way as they will have my guns for 2 months.

 

I think a lot of these specialty type stores will have their problems with customer service as most people who work there will be airsoft enthusiast rather than sales clerks or customer service reps.

[sp00n]

Bought the Dd rail for my L85 off them (only place i found in the UK with stock at the time), it arrived the next day before 9am (Dam you for waking me up ...... but thanks for the DD rail )

 

no problems, no issues lots of

[DX115FALCON]

I wrote this review based on notes that I took as: I was ordering, after talking with customer service when I had an issue (and it's a really, really big issue- more on that later) and packing/shipping upon receipt of the product in question.

 

Part I: Front-End Website/ Products

It is clear that Wolf have not updated their website's design recently. I have used their site a few times over the past four years, and it has never once changed, other than product listing/ layout of products.

A major complaint that I've seen from other forum users is that everything seems to be out of stock. I can kind of see where they are coming from, even though every major category (of guns) all have at least half of their products in stock.

Due to these complaints, I think that it is great that Wolf have finally implemented a sorting system for their products- it organizes their products by in stock first, with out of stock at the end.

The site itself does not adjust to fit screen size, with no mobile version- not a problem for me, but can annoy some people.

 

 

 

 

Part II: The Ordering Process

You find the product you want- in my case, a Tokyo Marui Foliage Warrior (at the time of posting, it’s on sale if you want one). Then add it to the basket. But don’t leave the website when you have added something to the basket because, for some reason, the site didn’t save my basket. This was one of the most annoying things about the site for me. I mean, my basket cleared midway through PAYING FOR my order, which caused a website glitch (more on that soon).

They offer ONE shipping method in mainland UK. And it costs £9.50. It IS next working day (don’t make the same mistake I did and order on a Friday morning), but I think it is an essential to offer an economical option for shipping- maybe taking a few days longer but cuts the costs for the user. Even a "Spend more than £200 for free shipping" option would have been appreciated, as a kind gesture. Wouldn't have affected me, but it's a bit ridiculous.

So you proceed to checkout, only to find that you have to create an account to place an order. This is the only area on the site that you can make an account. That’s OK. I mean, at least I have somewhere to track my order progress through and check the usual stu--- wait, there isn’t even an account page? No order tracking? No past orders section? Nope! Your account lets you get through checkout more easily on any future orders. That’s it. Barebones doesn’t even cover it.

So, after registering your account, you get to possibly THE worst online payment page that I have ever seen. I’m a second year computing student and *I* could probably make a better one. I chose to pay by Debit (under Wolf’s Credit option), so I can’t comment on other payment methods from here on.

It has a couple of fields which only apply to one or two credit/ debit card companies- which confused me while I was filling out the stuff that I usually fill out.

I got my confirmation email, with a note that (because I’d ordered before 12 Noon, my package would be dispatched same day). And that’s when I found the big problem.

 

 

Part III: Issues & Customer Service

I opened up the confirmation email, and noticed that the total cost was £20 MORE than it should have been. I wondered if I’d accidentally ordered a magazine or something and checked the receipt (same email).The system had, for whatever reason registered my MARUI order as a KWA Glock 18-which was £20 more expensive. This was obviously a big problem so I decided to give them a phone call.

 

 

By my watch, my first call was made at 10:55. I was put through to an automated voice mail stating that their opening hours are between 11am and 5pm, then it hung up. OK, so that’s a bit of a weird opening time. Anyway, I got through to them at 11:05. The guy on the other end of the phone heard my problem, checked the order and confirmed that it had come through as incorrect on their end. He made a few jokey comments on the phone- the usual airsoft store stuff- and corrected my order there and then. I let him know what I thought had happened, and about the shopping cart bug that I’d experienced. He listened, and thanked me for letting them know.

I personally thought that dealing with them over the phone was a relatively pleasant experience, given the circumstances, even if their opening times are bullcrap.

 

 

Part IV: Communication & Shipping

Communication is really important for me. I like to know when my order is received & when my order has been sent out for delivery, at the bare minimum. I got my confirmation email for the wrong product but, even after calling them up, didn’t get any confirmation that the right product had been sent out until I opened up the package. As a matter of fact, I received NO communication from Wolf other than that one email I’ve shown (and a seriously barebones one at that!) and the phone call that I made. I got a text from their courier on the morning of my delivery letting me know the driver’s ETA (3:30-4:30pm). That was all the communication that I got, and half of it was from UKMail!

As previously mentioned, UK Mainland only has the one £9.50 shipping option. I’ve already mentioned that, so I’ll save you the drone, but I’m a bit unimpressed with only one shipping method.

Packaging was OK but, again, bare minimum. Box wrapped around 3 times in bubble wrap placed in UK Mail shipping bag. I always prefer having a gun sent out in a cardboard box with padding as it leaves less chance of damage to the inner box, however Wolf’s packaging sufficed. Luckily Marui’s boxes have really good padding in them.

 

Here are some photos of their packaging:

 

1- This is what the gun box (shown in picture 2) was wrapped in. Literally 2 folds of bubble wrap held together by a standard piece of sellotape.

 

2- The gun box itself. Very well padded. I'd expect nothing less from Tokyo Marui though. Then both were placed in the postage bag shown in picture 3.

 

3- The bag that all of this was sent in (back side to protect my address). It's thinner than a piece of paper

 

 

Part V: Summary & Final Thoughts

 

 

Front End Website/Products:

Good:

-Product selection (lots of rare goodies)

-Products break down by category very well

-Prices seemed fair for MOST of their product selection

-Search bar is useful for searching for what you want...

 

Bad:

-...However it can be a pain to just browse products. The site has NO sorting capabilities such as sorting guns from Low price to high price. This can be REALLY annoying if you have a budget, or are looking for a specific brand or style of gun (EG: Glock as a subcategory under Pistol).

- Very little information on product pages

- The Front End looks seriously outdated. The site's layout has not actually changed in the 4 years I've been viewing their site. Same featured brands and products...

- Still quite a lot of out of stock products (but it is unreasonable to expect every product to be stocked all of the time)

 

 

Ordering Process:

Good:

- It lets you order using credit cards. Which is nice.

- It is how you buy your products. That’s it.

 

Bad:

-Pretty much everything else. If you skipped this bit, please read it. It’s the most important.

 

 

Customer Service:

Good:

- Listened to feedback/ reporting errors (something that a lot of companies really don’t do)

- Staff member was kind and understanding over the phone and seemed willing to help.

 

Bad:

- 11AM to 5PM opening hours makes it difficult to contact them

- The fact that there was an error in the first place is pretty bad

 

 

Communication & Shipping:

Good:

-Got a confirmation email

-Delivery time was sent to me

-Package was not damaged upon arrival, and the product works

 

Bad:

-Bare minimum communication from Wolf themselves

-Packaging could have been far better (ESPECIALLY if I pay £9.50 for it!)

-No shipping options. Just one. Which is overpriced.

 

 

Would I order from Wolf Armouries again?

 

Probably. Their customer service was pretty good, and their product selection is really nice.

A few major letdowns prevent this from being a site that I’ll go to before anywhere else, but I’ll order from them if I need to. Heck, I have an account so that’ll make the order easier…

 

Overall, I’d rate Wolf Armouries a 7.5/10.

Yes, I did just write a 1400+ word post. If you made it this far, thank you for reading!

 

Oh yeah, here's a photo of my new pistol. Well worth the cost

 

 

 

16/09/2015 edit:

HOLY PLOT TWIST BATMAN!

Earlier on today, I received a phone call on my mobile phone from an unknown number. Curious, I answered it.

It was a representative from Wolf Armouries. They said that they had read my review on here (this post). I expected that they were calling to ask me to take this review down- something that has happened with another airsoft company (JustBBGuns- yeah, I'll name and shame them) over on TrustPilot about a year ago.

 

How wrong I was! Their opening line was "Hi Daniel, we've seen your review on Airsoft Forums, and would like to THANK YOU for your feedback." That took me aback slightly. The customer service representative then gave me a brief overview of what is going to be changed with the site.

 

My mobile connection wasn't great, but what I got from the rep was that Wolf's website is going to be updated over the next year or so. Hopefully this goes ahead because, as I said in the review above, the site seems relatively outdated. They thanked me for taking the time to write the review, because "they don't learn what people thought of their experience if nobody tells them about it".

 

I THINK THAT THIS IS BRILLIANT CUSTOMER SERVICE!

As a result, I've added an extra point to my final review score.

Edited September 16, 2015 by DX115FALCON

[proffrink]

Wolf Armouries seems to suffer from what a lot of small businesses do - relative website syndrome. I.e. get your son or uncle to build your website for you and do an incredibly poor job of it.

[DX115FALCON]

Wolf Armouries seems to suffer from what a lot of small businesses do - relative website syndrome. I.e. get your son or uncle to build your website for you and do an incredibly poor job of it.

Agreed.

[MikeMarden]

Definitely hit & miss in my opinion - Bought my TM416D Devgru from them a year ago, genuinely interested when I visited, helpful & made a tonne of recommendations, spent over £600.

 

Visited yesterday, bought x2 Hi Caps @ £79.98 for the pair, same guy was completely disinterested, asked questions about an MP7 & MP5 as i'm in the market for either, but he was more interested if anyone was out the front. Their HI-Caps were over a fiver more than the competition, but competition were out of stock (Which they obviously know). Did ask as i'm a returning customer was there any chance of a cheeky discount as well as them being way more expensive.

 

Have to say, yesterday done it for me, only reason I went their 1st time around was because of the price competitveness, 2nd because I had too, 3rd time.... Not bloody likely

 

Very disappointing

[BigAl]

Wolf Armouries seems to suffer from what a lot of small businesses do - relative website syndrome. I.e. get your son or uncle to build your website for you and do an incredibly poor job of it.

 

Yeah but after 15 years most companies would have improved it.

[Lozart]

I bought a spare mag for my Marui HK45. I too thought the shipping was a bit steep for a small item but as it was next day I figured that would be fine. And it was delivered the day after it was despatched. Unfortunately they just didn't bother despatching it for about 4 days.

 

Again, no shipping notification or any other comms other than the original order confirmation.

[MrMcG]

Considering these guys are my local shop I'm going to pop into it over the next few days website aside they seem to have a vast amount of stock so im looking forward to having a peak.

 

I would prefer a place I can walk into and leave with items I want, Having been burned by shops/postage twice now it will make a nice change