International Paintball Group, Ministry of Paintball etc

Eric5765

Haven't seen one of these threads in a while.

So a year or more ago I was convinced to spend £100 on a set of these tickets from a very nice and enthusiastic guy in a shopping centre. I had never heard of these people before and it sounded like a great offer as I could get all my friends in on it and get a much cheaper deal.

I left it for a while and then when I came to actually see about using them, I realized that the tickets are literally worthless and its no wonder the salesmen are so eager to throw in entire free strips of them to trick you into thinking they are being extra kind and giving you an immensely good value deal.

So the guy threw in a free strip of tickets for me, 20 tickets total for £100 (With him claiming each strip has a value of around £300, literally no clue where they get that from as most paintball places offer a full day for £9.99 entry fee), I go on to the site later to find that you need to pay an additional £9.99 fee directly to them for your first 100 paintballs. So for me it was a saving of about £2 per head and that was WITH the 77% off AND a free strip

Without the 'extra free strip', you are paying £3-5 more per person than you would be booking directly through the place.

So what about people who buy at their full prices of £300 per strip, then £9.99 per person? £40 per person for the exact same thing you'd get for on average £15-17 per person going straight to the place.

The worst thing is that paintballing groups like Delta actively endorse and praise these companies who exist only to scam people with too good to be true deals. If you do enjoy paintballing at places like Delta I would recommend contacting them about this; I don't understand why they don't just get legit people to do great deals directly through them rather than this rubbish.

Anyone else had any recent experiences? Correct me if my math is wrong on the ticket prices/etc, but I read a lot of different web pages, T&Cs etc and it is all very confusing and vague, with there even being some conflicting info between different sites (The more confusing it is, the better for them I guess)

I guess I should thank them for teaching me to never trust anyone actively trying to sell me something, I just wish the lesson could have been a little less expensive!

daytona0

The other guy makes a valid point.

That aside, it is all very confusing! I think it would be more apt to answer the following question with either "yes" or "no"

- Is your total outlay for the ENTIRE DAY more or less with these strips than it would be without the strips?

If it costs MORE with the strips then you've been conned and you should show better judgement in future (do some research! Even if it involves booting up your mobile phone internet etc).

If it costs LESS with the strips then I don't understand your post.

dacouch

They get a commission for introducing the business to the actual Paint Ball Event Organisers.

If you ring your local Paint Ball organiser directly and tell them you want to cut Ministry out of the loop they will give you a discount to get your business

Eric5765

No_hit_Sherlock wrote: »

There is your issue

I'm well aware of where the issue is, I did buy them more than a year ago after all.

daytona0 wrote: »

- Is your total outlay for the ENTIRE DAY more or less with these strips than it would be without the strips?

--

If it costs LESS with the strips then I don't understand your post.

At worst its conning, at best its false marketing. They claim their strips are worth £300 for 10 day tickets (Even though the average day price is £9.99 per booking, not £30)

The other catch is that in their T&Cs it says you need to pay an additional £10 on top of your ticket for 100 paintballs, from their own website they answer the point of "I was mis-sold tickets by a representative, they didn't tell me about the hidden costs" with what is basically "You agreed to our T&Cs and its all legal so SUCK IT!". I have also heard reports from people of the reps actually lying about the tickets, the T&Cs/hidden costs, among other things, and of course there is zero accountability for anything a rep says, even if they blatantly lie.

In shopping centres/etc they claim a super discounted price to get people interested, £100 for 10 tickets, which is still more expensive per head than going through the place. My inner self was pushing against this guy really hard at first, but he kept throwing in more and more sheets of tickets and being really nice about it that I caved. Yes it turns out to be £1 or so cheaper per head for me just because he threw in loads of tickets for free, but I don't particularly want to give these people any more money.

Is it naive to fall for this kind of thing? Yeah. Does that mean people deserve it? No... These people are actively endorsed by paintball centres and get spots in high traffic areas like shopping centres and supermarkets. They are there to prey on parents who don't know any better and can easily be convinced that its an amazing deal going on that they can snap up for their kids.

dacouch wrote: »

They get a commission for introducing the business to the actual Paint Ball Event Organisers.

If you ring your local Paint Ball organiser directly and tell them you want to cut Ministry out of the loop they will give you a discount to get your business

I have read that as well in the past actually, I will have to keep it in mind, thanks.

What I don't get is, why don't the paintballing places just sort out their own or at least outsourced advertising like this, where they can offer actual good deals to pull people in, rather than a 3rd party marketing company who tries to sell tickets for 3x their asking price. I guess it removes all costs on their end, but there must be a less disingenuous way they can do it than this.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

No, anyone that runs round pretending to maim or kill another being is in the same league as that dentist. My father never bought me a toy weapon, his understanding was if you wanted to use one, join up and learn to use it properly

daytona0

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

No, anyone that runs round pretending to maim or kill another being is in the same league as that dentist. My father never bought me a toy weapon, his understanding was if you wanted to use one, join up and learn to use it properly

Haha you'd be a right laugh in work!

ME: "Lets go paintballing next weekend"

YOU: "nah, I don't socialise with people who pretend to kill another person using paint. You are the lowest of the low. I'm instead going to practice shooting real bullets at a cardboard cutout of a person, and I'll secretly be thinking about how much I hate both you and dentists who shoot animals. Care to join me at the shooting range? wink wink"


(not to dilute the seriousness of the dentist guy issue, but man have you just swung and missed with the paintball issue!)

RacF

I thought I would add my opinion here as I actually had a good experience with IPG. The person that sold me the tickets explained to me that if you had to buy the tickets online, you would have paid £300, but the seller is allowed to sell it at a discounted rate. I paid £60.00 for mine for 10 people. That is £6.00 per person for entrance and equipment and I get a 100 free paintballs with that. Most places charge you £10.00 for entry alone and then paintballs cost around £7.00 for a 100. You do buy your first 100 paintballs at £9.99 with these tickets, but for a total of entry and 200 paintballs, you only pay £15.99. That would have cost you around £25.00 per person to go directly through the paintball centre.

I am so glad that I used these tickets. At the centre on the day, the staff were amazing, everything is clearly explained, safety is top notch and the game zones are out of this world! At least know that IPG sold tickets to me for respected centres in the UK, If I had chosen some random centre myself, I don't know where I would have landed up! Nothing is perfect in this day in age, but I have learned from previous experiences, that if there is anything that is unclear, you have the right to ask before you make a decision to purchase.

walwyn1978

RacF wrote: »

I thought I would add my opinion here as I actually had a good experience with IPG. The person that sold me the tickets explained to me that if you had to buy the tickets online, you would have paid £300, but the seller is allowed to sell it at a discounted rate. I paid £60.00 for mine for 10 people. That is £6.00 per person for entrance and equipment and I get a 100 free paintballs with that. Most places charge you £10.00 for entry alone and then paintballs cost around £7.00 for a 100. You do buy your first 100 paintballs at £9.99 with these tickets, but for a total of entry and 200 paintballs, you only pay £15.99. That would have cost you around £25.00 per person to go directly through the paintball centre.

I am so glad that I used these tickets. At the centre on the day, the staff were amazing, everything is clearly explained, safety is top notch and the game zones are out of this world! At least know that IPG sold tickets to me for respected centres in the UK, If I had chosen some random centre myself, I don't know where I would have landed up! Nothing is perfect in this day in age, but I have learned from previous experiences, that if there is anything that is unclear, you have the right to ask before you make a decision to purchase.

A first time poster, who digs up a thread from last year to praise the company being slagged off? I call SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM.

Reported.