BB Guns UK www.bbgunsuk.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

Excellent web site.
Good range of products.
250 free BB's with every order and free delivery if your order exceeds £50.

Customer service, generally.
Products out of stock are not shown as such.
Poor response to emails.

I had a BB gun years ago and decided recently to purchase another one. I did an AOL search and bbgunsuk.co.uk appeared as a sponsored link, so I visited it.

The site is very well put together and a definite cut above many BB Gun/Gadget sites, whose design is often amateurish and rushed in appearance. bbgunsuk.co.uk boast that they are the largest UK retailer of such merchandise and this engendered a degree of trust and confidence in me, as I am inherently distrustful of Internet transactions.

I navigated the site and was pleased with the quality of images and the vast array of different models/types available. The site guides you through all the various types of BB gun in the FAQs section, which was also a definite positive element in the site. 250 free BB's are also included in every order and the P&P is waived when your order exceeds £50. It all looked very promising indeed.

I placed my order for an electric BB Gun and a target and was sent to the usual payment screens. This was processed and a confirmation email sent straight away to my address stating that all was well.

The following morning I received an email from the customer service department stating that the BB gun I had requested was out of stock, with no due in date. The email was clearly a bog standard cut and paste job. I know this as subsequent correspondence with the same department did not show the same flair or expertise with written English!

I was offered a slightly more expensive gun than I had ordered originally for no extra cost. This seemed reasonable, but nonetheless I was still irritated that my original choice had not just been shown out of stock on the site. My irritation grew when I checked my bank account and found the full purchase price had already been debited. This was despite no product having been sent.

I emailed the company and made this case, suggesting their web designers address the stock issue and asking why funds had been taken when, firstly my order was out of stock and secondly, that nothing had left the warehouse. I received a particularly curt answer 3 days later, written in almost bullet points, that the funds were taken automatically and my new order would be dispatched straight away, and in full.

Yesterday I received the BB Gun, but no target. Inside the packaging was a small piece of paper stating that the target was also out of stock and that it would be sent when available. At no point had I been informed that the target was unavailable, despite the lengthy nature of the transaction.

It seems very clear that this company uses age old tactics to manoeuvre the customer into buying whatever is in stock at the time, and convenient for them to send. Questioning emails go unanswered for days and you are never kept informed of when your order will arrive. Basically, bbgunsuk.co.uk represented to me everything about Internet shopping that we all know happens, but you wish wouldn't.

Please take care when using this company. It became clear to me that as soon as your account is debited, there is a definite downward spiral in customer care. I would, at the very least, suggest that you place your order in office hours and make a phone call to make absolutely certain of stock availability before purchasing an item from them.