Blindone's Blog

Buyer beware!

Had this old saying thrown in my face last night………….Rick’s Christmas present arrived yesterday; from Hong Kong. If I had known then what I now know, I would NOT have made this purchase. However, I followed my heart and Rick’s information instead of digging a bit deeper into the website to find out the nitty gritty about this vendor. The package arrived all wrapped in unassuming green shipping paper; with no external markings as to place of origin. Hmmmmmmmmmm, the packing slip said that this package contained a TOY with no commercial value, but was valued at $30; a slight bit less than the $160 that I paid……..hmmmmm twice. (can you see this one coming?) I opened the wrap and found that the original package had been damaged and taped back together; upon further investigation I assumed that the reason that the package had been damaged was because it was not designed to hold the extra items that I’d ordered with the first item. (that makes 3 hmm’s) Ok now I’m less than cheerful, and closer to P.O.’d. Upon further (yet) inspection I realized that there is no battery charger included; even thought he packaging says that it is……..NOW I am mad. I dig out the packing slip to look for a phone number to give these clowns a call. Well that isn’t gonna happen, because I am not calling long distance to Hong Kong. HUH? Yeah, there is no State side rep for this fly by night operation. Great my only available option is to email these folks and inform them of my displeasure.

I did get a response this morning; it said that the reason that here wasn’t a charger include was because they only had the EU charger, but would see if they could find the 110volt one for it…………………..I’m still smokn! They can’t find the US charger?!?! Anyone with half a brain knows that most (not all) Air soft guns are made in China, Etc. AND they come with US chargers.

I’m not done yet………..I decide to go back to their website, where I find under the heading “terms and Policies”, the words “NO WARRENTY”. What did I get myself into?!?! Then I start to think about all of the little details of this whole event:

• The plain green wrapper with no indication of place of origin.
• The statement on the packing slip about no commercial value.
• The declared value @$30 US.
• No Stateside representation.
• The statement about the removal of any trade marks being US customs policy.
• The Orange tape (removable). Not painted or molded in orange.
• The funny made in China sticker that was half removed from the forestock of the gun.

All of which makes me very suspicious of the “legality” of the sale of this “toy” in the US, and the reputation of the company in general.

Bottom line here is that I can probably get around the charger issue, then the question of functionality comes into play.

If I can get the battery charged and installed, will the gun operate? And I suppose the next question would be for how long?! Truthfully I am not feeling too confident at the moment. If the whole thing blows up in my face, it pretty much looks like I am had by a bunch of no good nicks. Buyer beware….