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

QuadChallenge

I run a paintball centre and I think it is unfair to make assumptions that all centres are run the same. We charge £14 ( if booked in advance, £15 if you turn up) for half a days paintballing, this includes everthing you need and 200 paintballs.

On average around 1/3 of our customers use no more than the included 200, 1/3 use an extra 1-200 and 1/3 use an extra 3-400 ( usually stag groups !)

So even at the most extreme the maximum spend at our centre is £39 and the average spend is £26 for a half day activity . As a comparison karting costs around £1 a minute and quad biking 50p a minute ( yes we do that as well )

Not every paintball centre is trying to rip you off, do some research before handing over cash to a stranger in the shopping centre....

QuadChallenge

Mikeinho wrote: »

You seem to be missing the point. The paint is the cheapest part of running this business, but becomes the most expensive part of playing the game.

Therefore, the question is - why don't organisers charge appropriately upfront instead of 'stealth taxing' players once they are at the venue?

This could all be sorted by the business pricing the experience according to the running costs (i.e. higher initial outlay), then letting the customers get on with shooting the bejesus out of each other during the games without worrying about how much they are spending per trigger pull.

The first paintball company to change their business model to something akin to my suggestion would be able to make the same level of profit. The big difference would be that their customers would come away feeling they got value for money instead of feeling like they were just fleeced.

In fact, there could be a case for bigger profits if the paint is kept at a low price, as players would likely turn in to trigger-happy terrors.

Anyway, you're all getting my business consultancy knolwedge for free now, so that's the last I've got to say on the matter until something changes out there.

I agree with you on this and in an ideal world we would do exactly as you say by charging a fair price but including all the paintballs you need for a fair days play.

Unfortunately the problem for us is the naivety of some people. As said in my previous post we charge £14 inc 200 balls for a half days paintball, but we lose lots of business to people who claim £14 is 'expensive' when they can get it for £7.99 down the road. When you point out they dont get any paintballs for that and we are infact substantialy cheaper on a like for like basis they don't believe us!

csc1973_2

I got a the same IPG VIP tickets and took a school group of 50 to play.....saved a fortune and well worth the original £50!!
:rotfl:

BoingBoing_2

I recently bought 10 tickets for £60 for Xperience This paintballing, and was told at the time by the vendor I could request a full refund if I changed my mind and returned the tickets within 7 working days. I did return the tickets but have yet to receive any form of refund, and when I tried to email them using the "contact us" form on their site, I had to use a different email address to the one provided at point of purchase, as it came up as being a "Banned Email Address"!!!

Unfortunately I was in a rush when returning the tickets and didn't make a note of my reference number on the tickets (stupid mistake I know), but did send them back by Recorded Delivery so I know that they have been received.


Does anyone else have any experience in dealing with Xperience This???

amyrose96

This happened to me recently. We had just finished shopping when we were stopped and asked to buy 10 tickets for £59.99. They then snuck in a £2 charge for using a credit card as we were paying. We've read further into the details and they do try to charge you more so in reality you end up paying the same you would normally. On ebay, they are selling 24 tickets for £0.99 and you get 100 paint balls per person with £7.99 per 100 for extras. This is much cheaper as depending on how many courses you are doing, you will need about 300-500 per person for the whole day. Do go on ebay though because you can spread out when you use these tickets. They are scamming you and hopefully you can return your tickets in time.

Hope this helps if you need anymore help just ask.

Falafely

I have always fancied trying out paintballing until I found out that they use gelatine in the balls! As a strict vegetarian I am not going to touch the stuff. Seems pointless as I doubt they need animal parts inside the balls, sigh!

DF>former_worker

I will put a few things straight as a former employee of delta force I can tell you the truth about it, as I have nothing to loose or gain.

IPG a different company? yes technically, however it was set up by one of the men who set up delta force so in essance it is all the same company. the reason delta force say its a different company/ a sales company is because they dont want any aggro off what the sales people have said to people if you say its a different company you can sort of blame them a bit.
IPG SELLERS yes they do misslead people into buying the tickets at times.
CURRENT IPG TICKETS: the current IPG tickets are a good deal I think its like £60 for a book of 10 and then you pay £10 per person when booking so £16 per person and you get 200 paintballs now which is like £15.98 on site so your getting into the site for 2p so not too bad at all.
DELTA FORCE: Yes its an expensive day out but well worth it in my opinion, they do make an absolute fortune I agree £25,000,000 a year + easily. They dont pay the staff well at all, in fact at times they dont even get minimum wage, no holiday pay, no sick pay and if you complain you don't get anymore work.
So if you ask me its a really good day out go do it but when you have spent a fortune, spare a thought for the marshals who will be there long after you have gone for very little money!

JaymesKenin_2

Delta Force sites are pretty naff.
They'll hard sell you tickets in shopping centers, from the few sites I've been to each team gets one marshall, which isn't enough for the number of players per team!

And yes, you're getting into the site for practically nothing, and you're being charged £120/2000 paint balls or £8/100...
A case (2000) of same-quality paint balls costs £25-£30 retail. But they do have to make profit, at it makes sense to do it where the consumable product lies, rather than the fixed entry fee.

Most "independent" sites are the same, some offer fixed entry which includes enough paint balls to last the day, some don't.

It's a worth while experience, try it once and you'll get hooked. I love paint ball and I play on a regular basis, but I do have all of my own gear and I buy my own paint balls, so I suffer from a higher initial investment (anywhere from £150 - £900 for all the kit), but I only pay £30 for a case of paint, £10 entry to which ever site I go to.

QuadChallenge

JaymesKenin wrote: »

Delta Force sites are pretty naff.
They'll hard sell you tickets in shopping centers, from the few sites I've been to each team gets one marshall, which isn't enough for the number of players per team!

And yes, you're getting into the site for practically nothing, and you're being charged £120/2000 paint balls or £8/100...
A case (2000) of same-quality paint balls costs £25-£30 retail. But they do have to make profit, at it makes sense to do it where the consumable product lies, rather than the fixed entry fee.

Most "independent" sites are the same, some offer fixed entry which includes enough paint balls to last the day, some don't.

It's a worth while experience, try it once and you'll get hooked. I love paint ball and I play on a regular basis, but I do have all of my own gear and I buy my own paint balls, so I suffer from a higher initial investment (anywhere from £150 - £900 for all the kit), but I only pay £30 for a case of paint, £10 entry to which ever site I go to.

Not quite sure where you manage to play for £10 entry and bring your own paint !

I am unaware of any site that would let you do this - unless of course you are smuggling them in...

QuadChallenge

Its clear the problem is the mis selling of tickets. Even if you go crazy a days paintballing is no more expensive than any other outdoor activity. Try comparing it to quad biking, go karting, track experiences etc etc etc.

The problem is where someone is led to believe they can go paintballing all day for £6, they think 'wow bargain' and get their cash out only to find they could be spending another £30 - £50 each.

I appreciate these ticket sellers are possibly bringing in people who had never even thought of paintballing, but how many of these will ever return ? Its just short term gain with no thought of the consequences.

A word of advice to anyone thinking of buying tickets - you will always get a better deal direct from the centre. Just get on google and search for your nearest centre or better still go on the UKPSF website ( federation of paintball centres ) and look one up. Also don't fall for the 'online ticket sellers' who are mostly a couple of people with a laptop and a phoneline just waiting to relieve you of your cash.