[Saifoda2]

Hello my fellow paintballers.



I don't spend much time in the forums outside of the commander, NW Brigade, and Tactics outpost subforums, but I have become so passionate about this company I just had to tell (I mean WARN) you about it.



ANIMAL PAINTBALL LLC (www.animalpaintball.com) is one of, no scratch that, THE worst company I have ever worked with. For those of you who don't know, Animal Paintball makes jerseys, pants, headwraps, armbands, mask banners, and various other sporting good clothing items specifically for BMX, paintballing, and other extreme sports. This is not about the quality of their products, but of their customer service, timeliness, and overall professionalism.

We have used Animal Paintball for our team's jerseys for the past 3 years and have thought about using their other services (i.e. mask banners, headwraps, pants, etc...). However, we opted not to because, well, I simply cannot take any more of a headache than I alread have. They warn on their site to plan for a 6 week turnaround time. What they really mean is "6 weeks -- if you're lucky." Of all the items I have ordered from them, I cannot count more than a light handful that actually arrived within an 8 week period, and can name several that took, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, and even all the way up to 54 weeks. That's right -- 1 YEAR AND 2 WEEK TURNAROUND TIME. Even as I write this I am still waiting on an order which I placed in April (quick time check -- it is now almost October).

For every order I have placed that is closer to their advertised shipping dates, I have had to communicate with their customer service representatives, artists, and managers by both phone and email, involving order confirmation numbers that, not only didn't match, but the numbers I got were not in the same format as the ones they have in their system, reminding them that my orders even exist, fixing payment problems, and when that's all done, I have to do it all over again 2 months later and all just to find out that the orders hadn't even been started yet.

I'm not trying to flame this company (not deliberately, but they make it very challenging for me), I am simply warning everyone in the paintball community, ESPECIALLY YOU COMMANDERS or whoever you have deligated to be in charge of jerseys -- please, stay away from Animal Paintball for your own sake. I have an email account dedicated to my paintball team and about one third (1/3, 33%, etc...) are order confirmations, correspondance about orders, and the occasional shipping confirmation, all from Animal Paintball, LLC, and write now my inbox is at 173 messages. This company has reached the top of my list of "things that take up the most of my time as Commander." And trust me, that is NOT where you want a paintball jersey company to be on your list.

Please take this warning to heart -- I would not write this if I truly did not believe it needed to be written. I am a busy guy (Part time working, Soldier, Student, and team captain) and my time is precious to me. Thank you all for your time in reading this.





Oh and by the way, if you think my claim about the 54 week turnaround time is BS -- just pm and I'll show you when I got the order confirmation email and when I received the shipping notice email from fedex.

[Legato]

i don't doubt you. Our team will NEVER use animal again either. They are horrid. On so many levels. I cringe everytime someone gets a jersey from them and says how great they are. Yeah they are "ok" jerseys at best, not amazing like people claim. You want amazing, get eye2eye or CSG. You want sub par, get animal. Their customer service is the worst piece of crap ever. God we refuse to ever use them again, even if they were the last jersey maker on the planet. Not worth our time or our money. Takes days to weeks to get in contact with them, and then even longer for them to reply to your immediate reply.

[Andy-darkwerks]

er, if they were so rubbish, why did you keep ordering stuff from them?

If someone doesn't fulfil my order in the time they say, I go elsewhere. It's not like Animal are the only company making paintball clothing.

[The Desacrator]

Saifoda2, on Sep 20 2008, 01:02 AM, said:

We have used Animal Paintball for our team's jerseys for the past 3 years and have thought about using their other services (i.e. mask banners, headwraps, pants, etc...). However, we opted not to because, well, I simply cannot take any more of a headache than I alread have.

Thats why Andy-darkwerks.

[Kodiak]

Our team used www.Eye2Eye.org. Fast turn around, great customer service, no setup or art work fees.

[Aussie_bloke]

oh this will be interesting, i ordered a semi custom jersey from them couple weeks ago, they have an aussie distributor and through him they wanted $140 and quoted a 9 week turn around, so i ordered off the website and $100 and a 6 week turn around they claim.....ill keep everyone up to date, damn i wish i saw this a few weeks ago

[Saifoda2]

please, let me know how that goes. BTW Animal Paintball actually responded to this post I x-posted in pbnation. Check it out there too (I don't think I'm supposed to place the link by specops forum rules). Just go to "products" category and "anything else" subforum and "Animal Paintball" topic. I think. Or just look up animal paintball idk.

[Jackson]

We got our team jerseys from Animal as well. While the process was not near as horrendous as yours, it did take a good bit longer than they quoted. I can't remember the exact timeline, but we ordered our jerseys I think in February and we barely had them in time for a game at the end of April. Personally, I think I'd go with another supplier next time.

[Saifoda2]

Well Jackson I'm glad to hear you had a better experience with them, I would beg you though (for your own sake -- I don't care whether Animal gets your business or not) don't use Animal because I can nearly guarantee you will run into problems in the future. Like I said, their company has made it to the top of my list of things that take up my time and I am so glad to be done with them -- a lot of stress off my shoulders. Check out eye2eye.org and somebody else mentioned a company named "CSG" I believe it was -- haven't heard of that but check it out too.


It's really too bad because Animal Paintball had such a wide variety of products that we would really liked to have used. Oh well.

[Jackson]

Saifoda2, on Sep 21 2008, 09:44 PM, said:

Well Jackson I'm glad to hear you had a better experience with them, I would beg you though (for your own sake -- I don't care whether Animal gets your business or not) don't use Animal because I can nearly guarantee you will run into problems in the future. Like I said, their company has made it to the top of my list of things that take up my time and I am so glad to be done with them -- a lot of stress off my shoulders. Check out eye2eye.org and somebody else mentioned a company named "CSG" I believe it was -- haven't heard of that but check it out too.


It's really too bad because Animal Paintball had such a wide variety of products that we would really liked to have used. Oh well.

A local team uses CSG for their jerseys and they look nice. However a few of them are running into issues ordering individual jerseys that were not in the initial bulk order. They aren't really responding and are taking forever, so I'm not sure how much better they are. I'll keep all other manufacturers in mind when we order new jerseys.

[ThirdI]

We had similar issues with our first run of jerseys, pants, hopper and tank covers etc. and, for the same customer service reasons described above, we're most likely going with Eye2Eye for our next run. Their products look fine...once you get them.

[Aussie_bloke]

ok well ive had mixed results dealing with Animal,

they were a lil slow to get started, fair bit of time between when i ordered til when they processed it however i got an email last week i think it was confirming the proof, which everything looked ok in the proof so i gave it the go ahead, which you can see below,





then about a week later the jersey arrived yesterday, was impressed it didnt take too long from time of the proof email to arriving on my door, however as soon as i put it on i realised something wasnt right, have a look at the pic below and tell me if you can see it, before you do look at the proof first




ok if you cant spot it look at the lapels, one is grey and one is completely left blank.......i emailed them yesterday afternoon and sent them a photo and told them i wasnt happy, i got an email back this morning saying something happened to the file from time the proof was approved to printing.....have been told to keep this one and they will be sending me out a replacement, should leave animal paintball in under 7 working days.....am very happy at the response to the issue with the jersey but little disappointed that there wasnt any checks made against the approved proof and what was printed.......have received apologies from the guy that did the proof and from someone else but still it shouldnt have happened

ive got a scenario event in two weeks i wanted to wear this too, got a feeling it wont be here in time now, ill keep everyone updated as to the progress with the replacement jersey

[Jackson]

Aussie_Bloke, a similar thing happened to my friend with Animal. He ordered a jersey and when it came, it had the wrong camo pattern (was supposed to be a woodland splash/splat but came as standard woodland BDU style) and one of the cuffs was only half stitched to the sleeve. The camo issue was an honest mistake, but the cuff was a blatant lack of QC.

I got to check out his team's new jerseys from CSG and they look great. Although now another team member is having an issue with CSG. He ordered a team jersey about halfway through the season, sent his money, and then heard nothing from them. After a couple months, he told them to cancel his order. About 2 weeks later a jersey showed up and they charged him for it. Still trying to sort it all out.

Overall, I think when you deal with any kind of custom orders like jerseys, you are bound to run into these types of issues from time to time. It just seems like some manufacturers run into issues more than others.

[Aussie_bloke]

Jackson, on Oct 7 2008, 11:36 AM, said:

Aussie_Bloke, a similar thing happened to my friend with Animal. He ordered a jersey and when it came, it had the wrong camo pattern (was supposed to be a woodland splash/splat but came as standard woodland BDU style) and one of the cuffs was only half stitched to the sleeve. The camo issue was an honest mistake, but the cuff was a blatant lack of QC.

I got to check out his team's new jerseys from CSG and they look great. Although now another team member is having an issue with CSG. He ordered a team jersey about halfway through the season, sent his money, and then heard nothing from them. After a couple months, he told them to cancel his order. About 2 weeks later a jersey showed up and they charged him for it. Still trying to sort it all out.

Overall, I think when you deal with any kind of custom orders like jerseys, you are bound to run into these types of issues from time to time. It just seems like some manufacturers run into issues more than others.

yeah i can agree with you on that point if you have a high sales and high demand from customers mistakes will happen more percentage wise, im just disapointed that there was a quick check from the proof and the finished product, i used to work for a company where nothing left the company until it had been checked........page by page!! slightest thing and it would be redone! shows pride in your job and quality in the brand name

[REBELS_PEACHZ]

Boy am I glad I caught this one....I've been in talks with a friend of mine to start a college team and guess who I thought of using for our jerseys? Oh gee I wonder. Thanks for the warning/heads up/company review, whatever's clever. Happy shootin.