Wow delta force

[madness]

Im a driving instructor and one of my old customers was having a 21st party at a paintball site in Orpington. He invited me along. Now I'm not one for woodsball but I did the mayhem big game last year and also had the pleasure of meeting FSUP scenario team and thought what the hell I'll leave my marker at home and be a punter for a day.
Well when I turned up it was delta force! The dark side!. So I looked at the price of paint £7.99 a 100 or 1000 for £69.99 well I bit the bullet after trying to barta with the manager(Steve).he couldn't give any on that price.
Went out and played 8 games and had a great time. After all the fun I had a chat with Steve and it turns out he had been at delta force for about a year and had no idea about paintball before that so I introduced him to p8ntballer and the community that's out there. I also told him more about mayhem Essex and what they do to promote paintball and it turns out not only was he very interested he is developing a passion for paintball.i think Unfortunatly that working for such a big company his hand are a little tied but I did my best to promote us tournament players in good light by being polite and approachable and I had my marker out on the firing range and let anyone that wanted to have a go. They loved it also offered up tips and tack ticks. Steve said he hadn't met any paintballers before and what he he'd been told about us I proved to him to be untrue and that I could come back anytime. I said at his prices I couldn't justify coming back again all thought I had a great time. He must have been impressed because If I go back he will make it cheaper for me.

So in conclusion maybe a bridge built with a nice manager at delta force.

P.s everyone I talked to I pointed them in p8ntballer.com direction and I told Steve that as delta force don't promote there customers into buying the own equipment and that mayhem do I was telling everyone about mayhem. To which he laughed. Also he said that there market was children 10 years and up. To which I said mayhem have C.O.D. Maps so what do you think there market is. He was gob smacked.

 

[metalfof]

I hope bridges can be built,it would be great for the community in general,but he is only one manager.Delta Force has a bad reputation for a reason- I have experienced their business policy first hand when I got roped-in to play for a pub day out and was not impressed.The best description I heard that day was " run by kids for kids".They have been around for a long time (Flying Colours) and seem to do well,they would at their prices.I also think that they also put potential paintballers off with their dubious charging policy and confusing promotional offers.That is my diatribe over,all I know is that I won't be going back and don't reccomend them when asked,biased,opinionated,yes I am,but I have played a lot of paintball over the years,punter,walk on,tourneys and I know when my rip-off radar goes off.

 

[madness]

If I had known it was delta force I would not have gone and as for price policy that is more to do with a promotion company found at many a shopping centre not only here but everywhere in the world where there is a delta force. In new Zealand they even got pulled up by trading standards. Not sure there offering the same scam here but lets face it people should know that you first have to pay for the facilities and equipment and then your paintballs as you go. When I started playing many many years ago not only did you pay for paintballs you had to buy co2 powerlets to shoot the very over priced paintballs (£1.50 for ten). But if that's up front then it's up to the individual to buy as many paintballs as they like. It is nice that they do a bulk deal.
I do think that I was very lucky to meet a nice manager. And I will go on there website to see if I can tell them that this is the kind of people that they need. What I will say is this if only one Pearson that I spoke to takes a look at p8ntballer.com and finds the way to tournament or walk-on,scenario paintball then it was worth my time and monies going.

 

[metalfof]

Kudos to you for being positive.I am aware of the situation in New Zealand,it was posted here a short time ago,but a friend of mine took his school party to the Effingham site and and experienced a situation where the kids were encouraged to buy as much paint as they could for the last game with no chance of buy-back,luckily he was an old torney player (Lps Adrenalin) and wised-up to what was happening.

 

[Tom]

Nothing really wrong with delta force itself. Just corporate big business
The pricing model is fine and about standard for punter paintball. This is the bread and butter that keeps sites in business

The bad side is the dodgy ticket sellers ripping people off with sets of tickets that only cover entry but telling the buyer that is all they need for the full day
And unlike delta force and their IPG sellers there are the truly dodgy ones that claim other independant sites in their tickets. The buyer gets conned, the site gets the brunt of angry customers and honours their tickets with just paint sales for income

I've never played at a delta force site, but you get both bad and good feedback. The good feedback comes from those with good staff

 

[madness]

I emailed delta force quite a long email say why for the most part the paintball community is not convinced that they have the good of paintball at heart but there manager and staff gave almost everyone I spoke to a great day. And they called me back today thanking me for my frank views and where very glad I had a good day and that they would pass the email on to the site manager. Didn't try to sell me anything they new I had a paintball tournament today and asked how it went for me.
What can I say positive.

 

[Canon Fodder]

Delta Force come in for a lot of stick but I think the sites are okay, prices aren't much different from most punter days, the sales tactic of hanging aorund shopping centres and selling vouchers seems dodgy (and if I've got nothing else to do I'll hang around the stall for a bit wasting their time so other passersby don't get thier time wasted, I get an odd sense of well being out of wasting sales peoples time, while unemployed a few years back safe style windows started refusing to send reps out to me when I agreed every time they rang up, had them measure the whole house then told them I wasn't interested, took 5 different reps about an hour and half each before they cottoned on I had no intention of buying any windows).

I do always tell anyone I know to ring a site direct to book if they mention they are thinking of going paintballing.

 

[madness]

Delta Force come in for a lot of stick but I think the sites are okay, prices aren't much different from most punter days, the sales tactic of hanging aorund shopping centres and selling vouchers seems dodgy (and if I've got nothing else to do I'll hang around the stall for a bit wasting their time so other passersby don't get thier time wasted, I get an odd sense of well being out of wasting sales peoples time, while unemployed a few years back safe style windows started refusing to send reps out to me when I agreed every time they rang up, had them measure the whole house then told them I wasn't interested, took 5 different reps about an hour and half each before they cottoned on I had no intention of buying any windows).

What a legend you are. How good are you with Indian call centres?

 

[Canon Fodder]

Telesales either string them along that you are really interested in buying, until it gets to the point of confirming that you actually want to buy something (saying "that sounds really good" or "thats much better than my curent contract" is not the point of confirming you want to buy) then putting the phone down, then telling them you don't know what they are talking about when they ring straight back and demand to know where they got your phone number from because you're on the telephone preference list thing. That or confirm your identity when you pick up the phone then leave it on the side and go and make a cup of tea.

 

[skirmish_tigger]

its the awquard moment when your strolling through your local town centre with friends are approached by a sales person asking if we want to play paintball and i simply reply 'no thank you i play paintball at skirmish already ' and stroll away