IPG/Delta Force Paintball - anyone with any experience of them?

Jays

Hi there

I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew here.

Has anyone any experience of this paintball company?

Whilst out shopping we were talked into buying a set of 8 VIP tickets for paintballing for £50, as it was my son's 13th birthday and he wanted to take some friends, I thought it would be great fun.

However, now we are trying to book the day etc, and look into the real costs I realise it is much more expensive than I was originally lead to expect.

I have to buy the first 100 paintball for each player costing £10, we intend to take 6, therefore, £60. No problems, I knew we needed paintballs. But, I'm now told 100 is nowhere near enough and the players need 100 paintballs for each game, and there are six games....3600 paintballs !!! :eek:

Now, on their website it does say they are happy to bulk sell 2500 paintballs for £125 :eek:

And then there is lunch, which is quite reasonable at £4.35 each.

So in all, taking six kids out paintballing will cost me £261

Does anyone know how many paintballs the kids really need, I have a feeling I may be being scammed as to how many balls they need.

Any help gratefully accepted,
Jays

jasons_2

I used to play 'proffesionaly' and between 5 (or 7 of us depending on the game) we would easily use between 2000 and 3000 a game.

I know its slightly different on these days, but realisticaly you would need more than 100 a game- there is nothing more frustrating than running out half way through a game due to the cost.

But in saying that, that is how the majority of these places make their money...

(and to make matters worse, a box of paint a 'cost is around the £25 mark..)


J

Little_John

I used to play paintball alot and would spend about £100 each day
£20 to play including lunch, overralls, gun hire, gogles and 50 paintballs
every 100 paintballs would then cost £6

at first I would be very conservative with the paint and manage to use about 75 a game but it was pretty boring but the manual guns they had at the time made it easier and I would vary my tactics of attacking and defending

When they switched over to semi automatic guns then it got fun and using 200 paintballs a game was a good game, shooting everything that moved towards me and being more attacking ect so the costs went up. the prices you mentioned above seem expensive it also depends on how many games you play over the day, we used to leave the camp area about 9:30 play 2 different arenas reversing at each one so 4 games then after lunch we would go to another 2 different playing areas and again 2 games at each area.
there would then be a final game in the arena of choice to finish off any paint left over or if a stag party was there we would go stag hunting or somthing

I actually think I once went to the deltaforce site near warrington, but they included lunch it was a hot dog which I thought was poor also alot of time was wasted returning to the camp after every game to buy paintballs and they only had 2 arenas where we played 2 types of games at each. the tactics were also give to us as it wasnt really possible to play any other way very limting I thought.

What do you get in the VIP tickets? for £50 up front I would be expecting 400 paintballs each and all equipment hire and lunch.

this has got me in the mood to go shoot a few people I may make enquieries later

clur84

HI I have been paintballing in wakefield with delts force. They had a similar promotion on to what you describe and came round my uni halls of residence and our flat decided to have a go. It is more expensive than they make out as we discovered to have a really good go at it you need alot of balls which cost extra, (there was other things to purchase too like paint grenades and us big kids couldn't resist) In all I would say we spent about £50 each! The luch was ok burger and chips I think. It was a really good experince though and I would go again. Hope your boys enjoy it.

carol-ann_5

hi they actually came around mine too and people have bought them for the same price..... im just researching them to make sure its legit so you actually got in with your tickets? if you could use the messaging thing on this forums to let me know that would be great

rickn

Hi All,

My 15 year old daughter was down at Dockside outlet, Medway and has been conned into paying £50 for 8 tickets to this paintball scam.

Her aim was to invite friends to this event for her 16th birthday.

After she bought the tickets she rang my wife who told her it seemed a bit expensive. My wife then spoke to the tout who sold the tickets and was told it was too late, the money was paid tickets had been signed for and she could not get her money back.

We are now looking into the cost of booking the "event" and it turns out that buying the paintballs is prohibitively expensive. £60+ per person for a few games of paintballing is a ridiculous price for a 16th Birthday bash.

I will be investigating the legality of allowing a 15 year old to sign up for a con like this and will post the answer ASAP.

melf31

the paintballing deal is not really a scam, its just a way to get people to sign up and spend money. The deal is for 8 tickets for £50, then you have to pay £10 each which gets you your first 100 paintballs and then £5-6 per 100 after.

Most people would prob use 500-700 a day so you end up spending about £50 per person, which is quite reasonable.

The ticket cost is not at all reflective of the cost of the day out, in fact you can haggle with them a bit and get more tickets for the same price (16 for £50), they're just interested in getting you there to spend money on paintballs on the actual day.

After a quick search for paintballing sites in the UK you'll find that most offer similar deals and work out at roughly the same price for a day and 600 or so paintballs.

Also a point to note is that if you do go for this deal you have the right to cancel it within 7 days (written cancellation, recieved within 7 days).

robbo777

I own a paintball site and unfortunately it’s big corporations like these that can put people off playing paintball.
we're not all deceiving and when people book with us we are honest about what you will spend as a parent taking kids paintballing.
What we recommend is that the parent pays for the entry and the first 200 paintballs this will usually cost you around £15 per kid, and then to inform the parents of the other kids that they will need to give their kid a few quid spending money.
Kids usually use in the region of 500 paintballs per whole day. (unless they’re trigger happy)

scoobyvip

I agree with Rob, Paintball is not that expensive, but its best not to plan on paying for a party's paintballs all day. I have played paintball for a long while and also sell tickets to play (including for Rob's site!).
We generally recommend that the party planning parents pay for just the 1st 100 balls and the players pay for the rest, number one to make it viable cost wise and number 2 so that the kids see the balls as having a value, and not shooting every tree, rock, cloud, marshal that they see. Better all round! around 400 to 600 should do for a full day, and not all sites charge for food, many include it in the price, as well as tea and coffee. All in all, paintball is great fun and I wouldn't change my job for the world!

David

Gups_2

Hi. I disagree with Robbos post about large corporations putting people off playing paintball - IPG take paintball into the highstreet and bring the idea of playing paintball to many people who would otherwise not even think of it.

This generates a lot of customers for paintball centres around the country. IPG sell for delta force and many other paintball operators.

I disagree that the tickets are a rip off. It's true that you have to pay £10 after you have bought the tickets but this isn't to activate the ticket, it's for the first 100 paintballs which are then given to you when you arrive at the centre.

If you break down the costs you'll see that a book of 8 tickets = 50, so about £6 per person which gets you entry and all equipment / clothing hire needed to play the game of paintball. Then the first 100 paintballs cost £10 and after this you buy the balls from whichever centre you choose to play at./ Prices vary but for Delta Force this is £5.99 per 100 when you buy a whole box in one go (you can share a box with your friends) or £6.99 if you buy by the bag of 100. These are pretty average rates and cheaper than some other paintball companies.

The reference above about the Delta Force wakefield centre only having 2 zones - this is very outdated (2006) and the wakefield centre now has 7 game zones.

Delta Force have been running paintball games for over 10 years now and open new centres every year - currently 24 centres in Ireland Scotland Wales and England and new centres opening this year in Ireland, England and Australia. A measure of a company's success is it's growth and success is built upon customer satisfaction / repeat business. Bear this in mind when you choose your paintball games provider if 'soopasplats' only have one centre and have done for years, you have to wonder why they haven't grown or been as successful as Delta Force has. :rolleyes:

clarity

Warning - think very carefully before buying from this company and investigate the full costs FIRTST!!!!!

We also purchased tickets from IPG back in December for 2 of our children.

I am not doubting that this wouldn't have been a good day out for them but when we got home, we investigated the experience in more detail and were shocked to find out just how much extra this was all going to cost for paintballs etc. This certainly wasn't made clear at the time of booking and so on that basis we made use of our 'cooling off period' and applied for a refund.

We have followed their terms and conditions and requests to the letter and ensured that everything was confirmed in writing, including our reasons for wanting a refund (not that we have to provide a reason) and our bank account details (as they requested) so that a refund could be applied to our account.

A few weeks later, still no refund so I chased up via their customer service centre just before Christmas and still nothing. So then I chased up again but this time via email to the contact I was originally given.

A few days after that, I receive a message on my answerphone from (I presume) the man that originally sold the tickets to us in the first place. He asked me to call him back on his mobile phone. So I do this and he asks me again, why are you requesting a refund? I explain the reasons to him but also point out that we have already been through the process with customer service via email and on the phone. He tells me that the refund will be processed within a matter of days.

However, today we recive an email from customer services telling us

Further to your e-mail, I write to confirm that the refund of £50.00 for your VIP paintball tickets was processed on 22.01.2010. It usually takes 2-3 working days to reach your account. Unfortunately, it is not possible to refund the full amount of £70.00 as the seller tried to call you several times in attempt to talk to you, but couldn't get through to you. Please, contact the seller on XXXXXXXX or e-mail me proof of purchase (i.e receipt).

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

I am furious that they have tried to deduct £20 from the refund that they owe us.

Firstly, I cannot see how one phone call from a mobile phone costs £20.

Nor can I see anywhere within their terms and conditions that state that they can do this.

And why was it necessary for him to contact us in the first place? We have provided all of the necessary information that they requested.

This is essentially our childrens pocket money that they are trying to take from us

Can anyone advise on what we can do?