Beware Ministry of Paintball

[Dougal]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by sjt19
Because the lunch probably costs about £2 per person, and if it attracts the MOP players to spend money at the site on paintballs its less profit than a 'normal' punter, but profit nonetheless

Fair enough, but in this case the punters paid £10 to MOP and nothing to the site operator for him to make ANY profit!

So this operator only had opportunity to make profit on additional paintball sales, having taken a loss in the first place by GIVING AWAY 100 balls, and costs associated with marshalls wages, uniforms, etc, etc.

Pete, I wish you well in pursuing MOP, and would caution all other operators to be careful, as it has the potential to blacken the name of the whole industry.

Dougal

 

[sjt19]

from dealing with MOP at Campaign, we have never haany problems that i am aware of

the costs of the marshals and the day running of the site is taken care of by the other paying customers. A site wont be profitable on the basis of MOP business alone, but as a suplement to normal business its ok.

 

[chrismrgn]

Originally posted by sjt19
the costs of the marshals and the day running of the site is taken care of by the other paying customers. A site wont be profitable on the basis of MOP business alone, but as a suplement to normal business its ok.

Exactly true, even the least trigger happy punter is going to use more than 100 balls surely. Say they were to use 500 that day, thats 400 balls that the site sells them, at the reasonably common price of £5 for 100 thats £20 the site has made per customer. Take off all the other site costs and the site is still making money, admitadly a reasonably small amount but it is better than nothing!

 

[JM #036]

Altho MOP r rip off merchants they r still bringing valuable customers to site. When we have MOP customers book in we explain everything very clearly about what their ticket entitles them on our site so that they aint any complications or hiccups. Site owners r happy as it brings in customers, customers are usually happy although they have paid quite alot to go and play and MOP r making a mint from selling practically nothing!

 

[Steve Hancock]

So let me get this straight - are sites (like campaign for example) signing up with MOP, agreeing to provide the entry kit rental and 1st 100 balls, and being listed in MOP literature as venues? Or are MOP just listing any venues they fancy without speaking to them first, and then punters turn up making demands at the site based on MOP promises?

From the first post it sounds like the latter. If that were the case i would be inclinded to explain to them that their voucher is not valid and say they are welcome to pay the full normal price or they can try and find another site. To be honest i doubt many people who have done without their usaul weekend lie-in to treck down to a site would want to waste their journey, yeah they might be pissed off but if they have any sense it will be directed at MOP.

Or are they phoning up the site's booking office to try use the tickets to book their game.

 

[Smally85]

I think its the former Steve, I understand that Ambush also make use of MOP as a supplement to their normal days and as far as I am aware never have any problem with them. They obviously don't rely on MOP to make their money but they will take them on as extra on top of a normal day as it sounds Campaign also do.

If the latter is happening its really quite simple, someone needs to complain to MOP about it and they need to sort it out, but I'm sure that a company which is being used by two successful sites such as Ambush and Campaign is not simply listing any site it feels like without any prior warning to the site.

Could it be that the customers in the first post simply mistook the site they were supposed to be attending?

 

[go-one]

Originally posted by chrismrgn
Exactly true, even the least trigger happy punter is going to use more than 100 balls surely.

You would like to think so but in Warren woods experiance of MOP the street sellers are pedeling the 'tickets' as a total cost. Tim has had a number of groups who ONLY shot the free paint and maybee another 100 TOPS. Tim reconed he was not even breaking even on MOP customers as he is a small site sometimes without non MOP customers on a specific day. Even with repeat trade comming direct the whole experiance has probably only made him a bit of turnover but very little profit.

 

[Liz]

Originally posted by go-one
You would like to think so but in Warren woods experiance of MOP the street sellers are pedeling the 'tickets' as a total cost. Tim has had a number of groups who ONLY shot the free paint and maybee another 100 TOPS. Tim reconed he was not even breaking even on MOP customers as he is a small site sometimes without non MOP customers on a specific day. Even with repeat trade comming direct the whole experiance has probably only made him a bit of turnover but very little profit.

The problem here is that many agencies like MoP don't explain to the customers what the likely paint burn will be, so they turn up expecting to only use 100 or so & without the money for any more. I have seen full day customers only shooting the 100 on their ticket!
AFAIK they usually only use sites on their list who they have an agreement with, and customers have to call MoP who then check with the relevant site to see if they have availability on the chosen date(s). The site I work at only accepts pre-booked customers (staffing, and equipment issues as kit is not kept on site), and have never had MoP customers just turn up out of the blue - it's clearly on their literature that they have to pre-book via MoP.

 

[steviecarson]

its funny but theres another company who we use and they dont sell on the streets and they only take half the game fee
they have been very good to us in sending great numbers of customers and are very helpfull
they also dont make us give away the first 100 paintballs

those of you who are members will know who im talking about and its not mob or df so as not to accidently sully anybodies name they will left anon
i would like to say a big thanks to them for suppling me with about 30% more trade

 

[Twiglet]

In general, the punters book through the ministry, who then in turn call up the site to check availability and book the day. It sounds like, in this case, the punters have gotten confused and gone to the wrong site or something. We have never had a problem with them, and though you lose the day fee you will make the money back on paint.