Warning: Xtreme Paintball - False Guarantees

[MILKMAN]

This is just a warning to any of the forumers that shop or buy from "Xtreme Paintball," or "Anything Xtreme Paintball." (www.xtremepaintball.com, www.xtremepaintball.biz, or www.anythingxtreme.com)

Xtreme Paintball (XPaintball) has an in-stock guarantee; meaning they guarantee to have all of the products on their web site in stock. Their guarantee states they will do "Whatever it takes" including an upgrade to your order to keep the customer happy if the product he/she orders is on backorder and not available. They say they will also contact you "ASAP" if your order is unavailable and will not be shipped. This said, they also do not include with any products description on their website an in stock or out of stock check for the customer, making him/her believe they have all items in stock and ready to be shipped.

After reading all of this, I figured it would be the best company to buy my new black Halo B with Rip Drive from. I ordered the hopper on a Thursday afternoon. On Monday morning I received an e-mail from one Ken Raber of X-Paintball's customer service stating that my order was unavailable and the only alternative he could offer was a different color hopper. I ordered a black hopper due to the fact that I have an all black marker, why I would want a red or green hopper has yet to make sense to me. Another thing I don't understand is why a company with their so called "excellent customer service" would have waited 3 days to contact me about the unavailability of the product (they are operational through the weekend). I then attempted to contact Xtreme Paintball by phone, but after listening to countless answering machine recordings, I decided to e-mail them. Putting all negative thoughts aside, I e-mailed Ken back telling him I would accept an upgrade to a Black Empire Reloader B for my order. He replied stating that it was out of the question; a red or green Halo B is all he could offer. After I expressed how I believed and trusted in their guarantee, he refused to honor it and succumbed to refunding the money to my credit card, thus wasting my time. After the countless phone calls I made and Xtreme Paintball's failure to communicate with the customer, I am shafted with no hopper for this weekend's tournament.

My new impression of Xtreme Paintball is the following: They label their web-site with a guarantee that is designed to make the customer feel secure in ordering the products they need from them. If the customer's product just so happens to be one of the products on the hundreds of backorders, they will delay contacting the customer just in case a shipment of the needed products arrives at their warehouse. If the product does not arrive after a few days, they will contact the customer in this late fashion. If the customer inquires about their "stock guarantee" they will not honor it and devise to you an excuse enabling them to pass the blame elsewhere; thus attempting to sell the customer with a color that is undesirable and undoubtedly unpopular, or return the money to the customer.

Xtreme Paintball Problems Overview:
1. Extremely poor customer service.
- 3-Day delay to receive information of a backorder.
- Out of 24 phone calls made to their customer service, only once did I not get an answering machine.

2. False Guarantees.
- They do not honor their stock guarantee in contacting the customer immediately regarding backorders and they do not back up their promise to upgrade from an unavailable item.
- Over 5 Days were wasted of my time. If I would have ordered from a different company, I would already have the product in hand with no hassle.

[Vex]

I feel for you man.
I ordered a case of paint from them, no problems. I did, however, have a question that I emailed to customer service, and I still haven't gotten a reply. That sort of pisses me off, but since my order came on time, I figured maybe it didn't get through. It probably did go through, but since they shipped my order, they figured they didn't have to answer the email.

I'll think twice before I order from them again, I suppose...

[cdacda13]

I said it on the tippmann forum.
Should have ordered from county. It would have been there already

[yakitori]

so you purchased the halo on thursday evening, then got a reply monday morning? That doesnt sound all tha bad as far as replying to you. It sucks for you that they didnt provide you with a reloader B, but dude, thats asking a bit much. I mean, I can understand them making a customer happy by giving you a battle swab or something when your backorder is filled, but you went so far to ask for a reloader B instead? Thats a bit much. No company would do that. I agree that they shouldnt advertise it, but they are not obligated to do that. They say they will make the customer happy, some customers are harder to make happy than others. It seems that you are one of those ones that is difficult to please. Esp. since you went so far as to post a thread discrediting a companies name for it. It happens man. Ive had probs w/ other companies. At least you got a refund.

[MILKMAN]

so you purchased the halo on thursday evening, then got a reply monday morning? That doesnt sound all tha bad as far as replying to you. It sucks for you that they didnt provide you with a reloader B, but dude, thats asking a bit much. I mean, I can understand them making a customer happy by giving you a battle swab or something when your backorder is filled, but you went so far to ask for a reloader B instead? Thats a bit much. No company would do that. I agree that they shouldnt advertise it, but they are not obligated to do that. They say they will make the customer happy, some customers are harder to make happy than others. It seems that you are one of those ones that is difficult to please. Esp. since you went so far as to post a thread discrediting a companies name for it. It happens man. Ive had probs w/ other companies. At least you got a refund.

You are missing the principle of the situation. It does not matter, if a company guarantees something, they should always come through no matter what. If they aren't prepared to do it, don't put the guarantee, IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

And besides, what one of you on this forum wouldn't have suggested a Reloader B?

(edit: spelling)

[Lohman446]

You are missing the principle of the situation. It does not matter, if a company guarantees something, they should always come through no matter what. If they aren't prepared to do it, don't put the guarantee, IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

And besides, what one of you on this forum wouldn't have suggested a Reloader B?

(edit: spelling)

Suggesting and expecting are far different. The thing is, I would have gotten a Reloader B because the person I order from is a good friend. And I would have paid the difference, for the same reason

_________________________________________

[MILKMAN]

Suggesting and expecting are far different. The thing is, I would have gotten a Reloader B because the person I order from is a good friend. And I would have paid the difference, for the same reason

_________________________________________

I did not expect a Reloader B, I did however, suggest it. Yes this is true, like you say two different things. I did expect to be happy with an alternative suggested by the company. The customer, in this case me, is nowhere near happy with the alternatives offered. This goes against the companies guarantee, "The bottom line: We'll make it happen for you!."

[WARPED1]

Everything else you say I agree with. But the phone thing, they need those automated hoppers, it's usually 2 or 3 keystrokes to get where you need to go. Imagine if they just answered the phone by hand. The business would have to hire extra operators which would drive thier prices up. Also, when you call, you would most likely be on hold for a very long time, in fact, you would still be on hold from whenever you called. But the guarentee thing they failed to honor sucks butt.

[Brophog]

You need to understand some things:

First, that's Thursday to Monday. They probably don't get the order till Friday, and then called you on Monday. That's 1 business day. Chill out.

Secondly, Halo's are notorious for being backordered. I've never had an item that would simply go out of stock EVERYWHERE like a Halo will. I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems to happen quite frequently. Knowing this, it's likely a manufacturer problem and not a website issue.

I've never dealt with this company in question, but you are seriously taking this 'guarantee' to it's limits. Sounds like your idea of customer service is the 'gimme gimme' kind.

[Asym]

Agreed with a few that you were pushing a little far with their gaurantee, but do agree with you their system sucks. They should have let you know the following day it wasn't in stock so you could have made other arangments if you did have a situation like a tourny coming up.

That being said, I feel almost the same as you about them since I've dealt with them several times. I live about 10-15 minutes from them and would rather order from or buy from anywhere else.

[TheTramp]

Sounds like your idea of customer service is the 'gimme gimme' kind.

Which I've learned is standard for a good portion of the Paint Ball community.

I've never seen so many people trying to get so much for so little as I have with Paintballers. It's embarrassing to be at the proshop sometimes and listen to the kids beg and the older people demand free/discounted crap.

Believe me, I understand the value of a dollar but damm, some people are CHEAP. It reminds me unpleasantly of going to Dead shows and watching the followers desperately trying to score/con whatever they could as cheaply as possible.

[Jakedubbleya]

Xpaintball is my fav company to order from... never had a prob, sorry u feel u got jipped here bro..

[hitech]

If that is their guarantee, they should have honored it. I had a similar situation with the mother's ring I ordered for my wife. On their web site it claimed that the item would ARRIVE in 5 to 8 days. I held them to the eight days. It did take talking to a supervisor, but I did get it, and in 5 days (shipped Fed-ex next day air). They kept trying to tell me that "fast ship" meant that it would ship by 2nd day air. I kept asking if they meant what they said on their web site.

[Brophog]

I think in this case, that's two diffferent guarantees. Saying something is going to arrive by a specified date and having something in stock is two different measures of control. Especially when your guarantee is 8 days on jewelry. Anywhere in the world you can get something there in 8 days pretty easily, particularly on something as small as jewelry.

If Odyssey doesn't ship you a Halo though, which as I said they are VERY prone to doing, then it's pretty hard to satisfy a customer the next day, especially when he orders on Thursday.

[Automaggot68]

A LONG time Ago i ordered a barrel from them.
It came, and somehow the inside was scratched up.
REALLY bad.


They refused to replace it.