How often have you wondered as to what goes on behind the scenes when you place an order for your latest Airsoft gun? You pick the phone up, provide your details, and several days later your shiny new toy arrives… But what happened before it got there? I meet up with the nice people at dEFCONAirsoft to discover exactly what goes on behind the scenes…
It’s not often you get to spend a day with an Airsoft retailer and learn about how the business works, so when dEFCONAirsoft were kind enough to invite us along for the day, I jumped at the chance. My weapons of choice this time were a digital camera, a Dictaphone and a packed lunch, and all three came very handy indeed. The shop is tucked out of the way in the rural countryside of the area, but the directions from Multi-map seemed to get me there ok. After a 45 minute drive to Stoke, with only a few navigation glitches, I arrived about 11:15am and parked the car.
I was greeted by the owner of dEFCONAirsoft who gave me a guided tour before we got started. When you walk into the shop, the first thing you see are guns, LOTS of guns. Stacked several feet high in front of me. To the right of this is the storage area for the larger boxes, AEG’s and pistols. Again, LOTS of guns stacked up almost to the ceiling. It’s certainly true that dEFCONAirsoft have come a long way in the past year or so. I remember visiting them when they were just starting out, to pick up a gas blowback pistol, and the premises they occupied were shared with another company. Now they have their own dedicated facilities, but even this is filling up fast as the business continues to expand. If you’ve ever browsed their website, you’ll see they stock an enormous number of products, and here it all was in front of me. Just as Charlie was in chocolate heaven in Willy Wonka’s factory – I was in my own personal Airsoft heaven, and it tasted just as sweet.
I was then taken upstairs to where the main offices and further storage areas were. As I walked round the corner there was a neat pile of guns awaiting repair, alongside those were ones finished and ready for posting. The repair and upgrade side of the business has certainly become a lot busier, so much so, the waiting time has now increased from two weeks to four, but Paul assured me they always do their best to have weapons repaired and shipped out as soon as possible.
A dedicated area for packaging and testing each firearm before shipping was in full swing manned by dEFCONAirsoft’s latest recruit, Nick, who started there last week. Further along from this is an area where weapons are repaired and upgraded, fully kitted out with all the necessary tools and equipment to perform a top-class job. I was perhaps a little worried by the hammer on the tool bench, but then I guess brute force and ignorance should be anybodies last resort! Behind the repair area is the office section, kitted out with PC, fax machine, printer and the usual kind of things you’d find in any well run office. Paul explained to me they’d had a problem with the telephones that morning, which is why it was so quiet… well, it didn’t stay that way for long. An hour later, BT had resolved the issue and the telephones sprung into life – which is how they stayed for the rest of the day, non-stop. Around 70% of the orders come in via telephone, which quite surprised me in this modern day and age. The rest of them are handled on-line. As dEFCONAirsoft have the facility to handle credit/debit card transactions, the order process is a quick and smooth one. Paul is very knowledgeable about every product he stocks, providing advice over the phone to make sure you get what you wanted. This is a nice touch I feel, as it shows they care about you, the Airsofter, rather than just take your money as quickly as possible.
Further along there were more rack shelving, which housed all of the smaller boxes and accessories, all neatly placed in labelled storage boxes. Almost every AEG accessory, spare parts and assorted magazines live here, and this is where I spent a lot of my time, but more on that later.
After a brief tour of the operations I decided to embark on a little photo shoot. I’ve included the most relevant photos within this article, but you can view the rest of them here.
Paul had kindly agreed to give dEFCONAirsoft an interview, so armed with a notepad and the Dictaphone, we sat down and went through the questions:
How long has dEFCONAirsoft been running now, and how did it start?
dEFCONAirsoft has been going now for about 3 years. It all began when we started running the woodland skirmish site. People would ask us to buy Airsoft guns, as we had to order parts to maintain the hire-guns, and it gradually grew from there, where we then decided to take the plunge. I invested some money, and we bought a load of stock. It took six months of emailing Japanese whole-sellers, which was not an easy thing to do. We spent months surfing the web, contacting shops and eventually we managed to set up accounts with whole-sellers, and have been using them ever since. Neither of us would of imagined it would have grown into what it has. We started off placing the stock in our garage, until last year we progressed to the building we’re in now.
How many people work for dEFCONAirsoft?
It used to be just myself, but now we have Nick, our full time employee who has been with us for a week. Starting at the beginning of the summer we took someone on part time, we’ve also taken on a school leaver, who then left for university. We’ve now found it’s busy enough to keep someone on full time. I spend many nights a week updating the website, keeping stock levels up to date and sorting through the accounts…
What makes dEFCONAirsoft different from other UK retailers out there?
When we started out, we decided that we want to treat people how we would want to be treated and that’s what we do. Maybe it is to our detriment, it costs us money, but you hear horror stories about other retailers who charge you for returning goods that you don’t want, charge re-stocking fees etc. All our guns are tested before they are sent out, except for Marui AEG’s which are 99.9% reliable and work every time. We try to make sure all of our customers are happy so they return to us, we get a lot of repeat business and all I can put that down to is our good customer service.
The VCR Bill, what impact has that had on business recently?
No, if anything it’s increased. People have been rushing to buy guns before they are banned. They don’t seem to be too bothered about what to do with them after that. At the end of the day, we would have always found a way round it, and I’m sure other retailers would have too. Whether they would have been 100% legal, well who’s to say.
There a lot of new products on the scene now from STAR, ICS, Classic Army, G&P, which are all full metal, high quality replicas, but they’re more expensive than Marui. How do these compare and are they good value for money?
The Classic Army, the ICS and the G&P are worth the money. You get a gun approximately £60 more than a Marui gun, but you get a metal body on it, which is worth anything from £90 – £120. You get a higher FPS out of the box, which to get the equivalent on a Marui would cost £60 to upgrade. So you’re looking at about £160 of extras, for only £60 more.
Are you able to order guns and parts on request, that you don’t stock?
We can, there is book called Gun Digest which details every Airsoft item sold in Japan, we can get hold of almost anything in there. So long as it’s still being made, we can find out a price for you, and get your item shipped over.
I’ve had a number of guns serviced and repaired at dEFCONAirsoft before, is that side of the operation busy at present?
It’s overly busy at the moment. It’s that busy that we’ve now got a 3-4 week turn around on getting them repaired. It used to be 2 weeks, but as we’re getting busier, the waiting time increases.
Do you provide a warranty for any repair or upgrade work done?
Yes, if we repair or upgrade a gun, we provide a 6 month warranty on the part repaired or upgraded. Even after 6 months, we more often that not provide a very favourable price on any repair work outside of the warranty period.
Any plans to expand the business further?
We need to make more time for forward thinking. Hopefully now having Nick here, it gives us more time to concentrate on other things, such as finding other Skirmish sites. The shop continues to expand as our level of customers expand. We are intending on converting the premises into a proper shop where people can visit and browse. We’d most probably have a ‘grand opening’ with discounts etc.. Customers can visit now, but we like them to call first to make sure someone is here.
-After we’d finished the interview I’d asked Paul if there was anything I could help out with whilst I was here. He presented me with a clipboard and a pen, then asked me if I fancied doing some stock taking. Of course, this was an ideal opportunity to have a peek at some of the product lines they have, so off I went down the storage areas to complete my task. This really made me appreciate the size of the operation, as they have almost everything you’d ever need in stock, and what they don’t, they’re quick to order in. I also got to have a look at some of the latest products and get an idea as to what dEFCONAirsoft should review next. See the rest of the pictures for a look at what caught my eye.
Paul has been kind enough to loan me some guns to review for the website, so it was time to choose what I was going to take to get started. I’d already decided on a Marui 1911 GBB as I’ve been waiting for these to arrive for some time, but what else to look at! Browsing the huge array of stock, we decided on the Tanio Koba USP GBB, which is a very solid piece indeed. Look out for reviews of both of those guns in the very near future.
After having one last quick look at some very pretty and expensive toys it was time to say good bye, and avoid the rush hour traffic that was certain to be waiting for me. In the time I had been at dEFCONAirsoft, over 6 orders had been taken by phone and 10 guns and assorted accessories were thoroughly tested and packaged up. It was worth noting that someone placed their order only 30 minutes before the courier company came to collect the parcels. But dEFCONAirsoft had already tested and packaged their gun, ready to be picked up and delivered the very next day. Now that, is an impressive service indeed!
We were only there for about 3 1/2 hours, and it certainly seemed very busy, so you can imagine the work that gets done in a whole un-interrupted day.
So, in essence, what started out in a garage, has spawned one of the UK’s most popular and successful Airsoft retailers. I wish them the very best of luck, and we hope they continue to serve the Airsoft community as well as they do.
