airgun designs website

[Skeeter]

fixed.
just because they aren't around you, does not mean they aren't everywhere. Bad analogy, I know, but mags have gone the way of Phantoms...

Very cool. We sell TONS of Phantoms. I take that as a compliment. As of this September, we are #7 WORLDWIDE (this year, anyway) in Phantom sales!!! Last year, we were #9, IIRC.

I would much rather have a diverse batch of intelligent players shooting quality hardware (Mags, Phantoms, 'trixes, some Tippmanns, SS-25s, Egos, E-Teks, Shockers...) than a batch of 'bots or lemmings shooting Ions. Yes, we do allow Ions (we even sell a few) at our field, but for the most part, we encourage our players to purchase hardware that we respect and/or trust. We sell a full range of hardware, but we don't cater to the bottom feeders. NPS (and their 50+ web sites) can have them, unless the customer wants an Ego or E-tek, then we get them...

[Skeeter]

NPS has crappy customer service? Geez, all of these Wrath owners keep raving about it. If their board ever broke NPS would send them a new one right away. There have been reports of guys whose guns have been beat to hell, past repair. NPS simply gave them new Wraths and took the old ones. Nope, not sponsored either.

Then, why won't they replace or repair the 3-4 Wraths (out of the 8-10 total) that we mistakenly purchased from them in 2005? As a $250-300K per year customer (prior to 2006, that is), you would think they would make an effort to support us. Call Greg & get the numbers from HIM, if you doubt my facts.

EVERY time (and we didn't send that many returns) we sent something back, they would make us jump through hoops to get an RA & then usually refuse to repair or replace the hardware when they received it. On several occasions, they just kept the broken hardware (many Reloader-Bs, among others), with no replacement, repair, or even a return of the broken stuff, back to us. This is the primary reason we order from NPS, only as a last resort.

Call me an "elitist" or "fanboi" if you want. I am definitely a "fanboi" of any company that produces a quality product at a reasonable price and supports their customers, and that includes Tippmann as well.

[athomas]

Your area is the minority, most all over AGD is a niche company. It is not as popular as other products.

AGD is definately a niche company. The niche is quality.

AGD is recognized in my area as well. A lot of guys like the design and want one, but can't justify the cost for a mechanical marker. In the electro world, they opt for others as well due again to cost vs features. That being said, ADG is definately recognized as a major company in my area, especially in the past couple of years. Its like a rebirth. Now would be a great time for AGD to market a new product.

[Geoff Call]

First of all, lets not attack each other. Nobody ever set out to attack anybody here personally. Also, your paintball experience will never ever ever exceed that of Skeeter, don't argue it, just accept it.

NPS has crappy customer service? Geez, all of these Wrath owners keep raving about it. If their board ever broke NPS would send them a new one right away. There have been reports of guys whose guns have been beat to hell, past repair. NPS simply gave them new Wraths and took the old ones. Nope, not sponsored either.

Second you aren't looking at this from a business standpoint. If you are selling products from a company, that are continuously breaking due to quality issues, and that same company makes you jump through hoops to send said marker/product back for replacement/repair/refund, it's a waste of your time and money to deal with this task. Sadly the shipping is worth more than the product you're shipping back. Have you as a paintball store owner tried to send products back to NPS? What's that? Didn't think so. Shut up. Marinate on that for a minute.

Sure there is a need for lower end markers, but where do you draw the line? What does it make your company look like when ever gun you sell comes back broken every week? Does it make you look like you know what you're doing/selling or does it make you look like a sleezeball. I'd rather kids be out on the field playing, than in the shop trying to get their gun fixed. And if you knew jack about how a field/store is run you'd understand there is no great margin to be made in paintball equipment anyhow.

They have facilitated the incredible growth we have seen all over the world in our sport.

What? You mean they are personally responsible for all the cheap twin tube electro blasters that come into the shop every weekend to be repaired? Thats not growth, that's regression. That hinders players from playing. That is the goal of paintball right?

You dare compare Kingman to Tippmann as well. There is no way you can compare a company whose markers change every year in design, parts and compatibility to a company who's relative design and unparalleled(except by AGD) reliability. What thread are spyder hoses anyway? That's just stupid. I'd shoot a Tippmann any day over any ANY twin tube blowback on earth, mainly for the simple fact that when I air it up and go to play, it will work, period. And while I'm thinking about it, how many spyders are coming out of the box these days at an unreasonably unsafe velocity? The kids/parents that buy these markers haven't a clue about it and go out to their backyard to play with them. yeesh!

So yea thanks for being a miserable elitist without any common sense or realistic view of the real world and real business. Get real man, NPS isn't some evil empire bent on destroying paintball.

I'm sure they aren't bent on destroying paintball. It makes them a TON of money. I seriously doubt you know what running a successful business is like at this stage in your life either. You have that money making mentality instead of the making customers happy and maybe turning profit at the same time. Sometimes life isn't all about making money dude.

And we're not elitists, we're perfectionists. That's why we shoot Mags... and Phantoms:) (and markers from tippmann, and dye, and smart parts, and eclipse, and ans!)

[bluemidget123]

[QUOTE=Geoff Call]I'd shoot a Tippmann any day over any ANY twin tube blowback on earth, mainly for the simple fact that when I air it up and go to play, it will work, period.[/QUTOE] this is true. The twin tube blowbacks that NPS makes are just not of very high quality. It would be different if they were made with good quality parts, but they're not, NPS woudl rather get the profit from using the lesser priced, lesser quality parts and materials than make a better marker which doesn't break all the time because they won't make as much money.

And we're not elitists, we're perfectionists. That's why we shoot Mags... and Phantoms:) (and markers from tippmann, and dye, and smart parts, and eclipse, and ans!)

and don't forget all the snipers we have out at the field. many times it's upward of 20% of the players...

Skeeter has a legitamate complaint about NPS. Why would a company purposely go through the hassel of making a field owner's life harder by not refunding/repairing the returns they send? Why would they make it near impossible for the field owners who sell their products and make them money to get good customer service? It's because they don't care. They think that just because they control such a large part of the market and such a huge amount of the parts/equipment that players desire, they can walk all over everyone.