[TechPB-Mike]

Paintball has a VERY dirty secret, and many people have found this out the hard way, including me.

Paintball is FULL of scammers, thieves, and people who are looking to steal your stuff. I personally have been scammed many times using the buy, sell, and trade on other sites. I wanted to create something that was safer, and better for the paintball community.

I believe I have done this with the TechPB Player's Club.

When people pay the $30 via paypal to sign up for the TechPB Player's Club, here is the information that TechPB archives in case of a deal gone wrong-

1) TechPB now has a verified record of the person's name, email address, and address
2) The address is verified by me sending them a free TechPB Tshirt
3) The email address, name, and home address are connected to the person's online screen name.
4) If there is an issue, or someone turns out to be a scammer, TechPB feels that the combination of information that is collected will lead authorities to the front door of the person attempting to steal your property
5) If these steps fail, TechPB insures each trade with our $200 "Scam Guard" Insurance


What is TechPB's "Scam Guard" Insurance?

By carefully collecting some basic information of each person who trades in our forums, we have something to provide the authorities to begin an investigation.

Other Sites -

"I think I was scammed by aggboy41, I shipped my gun and haven't heard from him in 3 weeks. Can you get my stuff back?"
"Not our problem, sorry"

What happens on TechPB?

"I think I was scammed by aggboy41, I shipped my gun and haven't heard from him in 3 weeks. Can you get my stuff back?"
"We are contacting him now. We also have his email addresses, IP address, personal address, and legal name. If he ignores our contact, we will provide all this information to the police department and postmaster once the proper reports have been filed. Give us 30 days to follow the proper channels and allow this to take it's due course, before the disbursement is filed"


My shit got stolen, how do I get paid?

Because of our involvement in the Paintball industry, we can purchase things at a considerable discount than someone else. For items under $200, we can simply purchase the item that was stolen, and ship it to you. For instance-

You ship a PMI tank to someone for trade for a loader. The tank dissapears, we'll just purchase a new tank from PMI and send it to you.

You ship a Ego9 to someone, and it dissapears. We can apply the $200 credit towards the purchase of a new gun AT COST, or issue you a check.


Note: We do NOT cover items lost in the mail. You must always ship things with tracking and insurance. All claims without signature confirmation and a police report will be denied. We need proof that someone signed for it, and proof that a police report has been filed for our records.

I might add/edit this as we go along, hopefully this helps!!

[Stix]

Damn. Pretty sweet.

[A.Tech]

hmm, Great ideas. I like this. And I when I saw $200 protection I was like... Wait what happens If I sent someone a DM9 for an Ego9? How would $200 cover that. And of course Mike answered that question hhaha


So Mike you can really get that gun at cost though this? Damn that is a pretty good deal if u can pull that off...

[TechPB-Mike]

A.Tech, on Nov 1 2008, 12:56 AM, said:

hmm, Great ideas. I like this. And I when I saw $200 protection I was like... Wait what happens If I sent someone a DM9 for an Ego9? How would $200 cover that. And of course Mike answered that question hhaha


So Mike you can really get that gun at cost though this? Damn that is a pretty good deal if u can pull that off...

By using our resources in the industry, we can stretch the $200 Scam Guard Insurance quite a ways. For instance

(I'm using an imaginary paintball gun called a JX-9, to prevent disclosing dealer cost)

1) Your JX-9 Paintball Gun brand new costs $1600
2) Dealer Cost on the JX-9 is $1100
3) Your JX-9 gets stolen by a scammer in the TechPB forums
4) After the police report is filed and the proper time goes by, TechPB offers you two options-

4a) You can get your $200 in cash
4b) TechPB can apply the $200 off a brand new JX-9, meaning you will get a JX-9 for $900, saving you $700 ($1100 Cost - $200 Scam Guard Insurance = $900)
4c) You can apply the $200 to any other gun at cost

It allows us to stretch the coverage to help you even more

[Schultzie]

I've never been scammed before, however done lots of trading/buying selling online. THIS is going to make me sleep alot easier.

[chad]

in a fews years when someone hears the word paintball the first thing to pop in their head will be Mike? or Techpb?

[Nicholai]

Nicholai, on Nov 1 2008, 07:16 AM, said:

I would still pay the $30 even without access to the new B/S/T forum. I think it's a bad idea to limit that part of the site to members only, it will only hurt the section and lower the selection available. Mike I love you man and I will probably sign up for this but the whole members only BST forum part of this is a bad idea.

On a side note to raise funds or add features: you could allow members or non members with a small fee or only members with an additional fee another service where people can ship the gun to you before they pay and you can verify it works and is described correctly then the you could ship it out to the buyer once payment has been verified etc. I know this service might be more of a pain then it's worth but you could use the "testing" time to do more techpb shows on markers you haven't gotten your hands on yet and if it turns out to be too much of a hassle just make the fee what it needs to be to make it worth it.

One thing I always hated with the whole buy sell on forums thing is the " I wont ship first" crap. Plus the fact there is no guarantee the kid will ship what your buying or it will work. Feedback is nice, but shit still happens and people would pay to have the piece of mind. A seller could even just ship the marker to you first for the fee and then post a "mike" verified sell thread and people wouldn't have to worry about it being bunk.

Just wanted throw this up from your other thread Mike. It looks like you are addressing the fraud issue pretty well and I like you ideas, just wanted to add to them with what I said above in the quote. I also wanted to add that I have friends who have been burned in the past and had the actual address and plenty of proof from being ripped off and the authorities were less the helpfull about it. That's why if people really want the piece of mind I think my idea above would be the best solution. But at least you are doing something about it! Which I really respect. I am really happy with the direction Techpb is moving paintball. Great job!

[TechPB-Mike]

Hi Nicholi! I appreciate the post

Honestly, I would much rather have no activity in my BST, than risk someone being scammed on my website. I would much rather my section be dead in the water, no one post anything in it, than risk a TechPB member being scammed on the TechPB page.

When someone is scammed, they don't blame the person who did it, they don't blame themselves, they blame the site that the scam took place on.

You never hear someone say "I was scammed by Josh Albert who lives in Dallas Texas, I blame myself and I blame the person who scammed me"

They always say "I was scammed by Ebay / PBNation / TechPB / PBReview etc"


So with that method of thinking, TechPB is going to take responsibility for every transaction on our webpage.


I'd much rather no one use the TechPB BST, and no one get scammed, than one million people use it, and one person gets scammed.


Maybe it's wrong, maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but I care enough about YOUR personal property to do everything in my power to protect it from being stolen on MY site. One person out of a million people doesn't sound like much, until YOU are the person who got ripped off.

[easye]

TechPB-Mike, on Nov 1 2008, 04:02 PM, said:

Hi Nicholi! I appreciate the post

Honestly, I would much rather have no activity in my BST, than risk someone being scammed on my website. I would much rather my section be dead in the water, no one post anything in it, than risk a TechPB member being scammed on the TechPB page.

When someone is scammed, they don't blame the person who did it, they don't blame themselves, they blame the site that the scam took place on.

You never hear someone say "I was scammed by Josh Albert who lives in Dallas Texas, I blame myself and I blame the person who scammed me"

They always say "I was scammed by Ebay / PBNation / TechPB / PBReview etc"


So with that method of thinking, TechPB is going to take responsibility for every transaction on our webpage.


I'd much rather no one use the TechPB BST, and no one get scammed, than one million people use it, and one person gets scammed.


Maybe it's wrong, maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but I care enough about YOUR personal property to do everything in my power to protect it from being stolen on MY site. One person out of a million people doesn't sound like much, until YOU are the person who got ripped off.

I agree 100% if we are going to build a stonrg paintball community we have to respect each other and each other's stuff I have been ripped off form other forums and it sucks big balls.... keep it up Mike

[BloodsheD]

Very nice job Mike, You are taking the scum bags out of paintball, You are doing a good thing Mike Not only for our sport, But for the people that play in it, Keep doing what you do.

[onemanmafia]

this is a good idea im impressed to see you taking the players into so much consider that you go out of your way to make sure that we are all happy. More power to you man

[*Anthony*]

THANK GOD, I AM LIKE A FUCKING MAGNET FOR SCAMMERS its happened to me 3 times in the past 4 months

[Nico Canada]

great idea mike.
I dont think that that section should be open to the public as there is no point. No one is going to trade here with some one who is not a PC member. So why let non PC members see those threads?

[Nick A]

This is amazing, probobly not going to sign up yet, but if I do plan to sell anything I definatley will!

[colin]

is there others ways to pay??

[adrenilanejunkie]

WOW mike you have done this sport so good your ideas for this website are absolutely genius Thank You very much I mean this in no awkward way but Mike you are my inspiration to do better in improving not only my paintball skills but also the paintball community.

[Nicholai]

TechPB-Mike, on Nov 1 2008, 01:02 PM, said:

Hi Nicholi! I appreciate the post

Honestly, I would much rather have no activity in my BST, than risk someone being scammed on my website. I would much rather my section be dead in the water, no one post anything in it, than risk a TechPB member being scammed on the TechPB page.

When someone is scammed, they don't blame the person who did it, they don't blame themselves, they blame the site that the scam took place on.

You never hear someone say "I was scammed by Josh Albert who lives in Dallas Texas, I blame myself and I blame the person who scammed me"

They always say "I was scammed by Ebay / PBNation / TechPB / PBReview etc"


So with that method of thinking, TechPB is going to take responsibility for every transaction on our webpage.


I'd much rather no one use the TechPB BST, and no one get scammed, than one million people use it, and one person gets scammed.


Maybe it's wrong, maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but I care enough about YOUR personal property to do everything in my power to protect it from being stolen on MY site. One person out of a million people doesn't sound like much, until YOU are the person who got ripped off.

Sounds awesome Mike, Did you give any thought to my idea about people shipping the guns to you first for ultimate piece of mind and buyer protection? Also are we going to get a feedback thread going as well? I would also like to throw out the idea of getting more attachment space with the membership, any chance that could happen?

[ajn]

awesome! Im defenitely doing this

[FamousForNow]

Nicholai, on Nov 2 2008, 03:24 AM, said:

Sounds awesome Mike, Did you give any thought to my idea about people shipping the guns to you first for ultimate piece of mind and buyer protection? Also are we going to get a feedback thread going as well? I would also like to throw out the idea of getting more attachment space with the membership, any chance that could happen?

To add on to his idea or modify it if you will. I think you should have the guns sent to like kohn sports or like a few shops that can be trusted around the country and even internationally to ease the cost of shipping, or just a few of the TechPB elite that could inspect the guns to make sure they are working as described. And i dont mean to take an idea and just like run with it bc i usually like to think things through but just to put these ideas out there so they can be modified by other members as i am doing with the member above. I think the local shops thing would be so sick. For one local shops woul receive a bit of profit from this or reape some sort of benifit which is always good, bc the ppl that invest to meet our needs as paintball players are respected in my book always. And also certain shops could offer extra services like teching/cleaning/relubing the gun. Like putting all new orings in there and cleaning it to like good as new would be awesome, bc it would be just like getting a new gun, but used. Or if someone bought a PM7 or something and the 3rd party shop carried UL frames and the buyer planned on getting one to begin with. The shop can charge the buyer and install the part. This goes with all upgrades aswell, like a feedneck, asa, bolt, or like a reg for a tank or something, depending on the shop. And like with kohn sports, with it being a specialty shop they could have it sent to kohn, then kohns makes sure its working, cleans it if the package is wanted and then kohn can lazer it. So when the buyer purchases the gun they recieve it and dont have to worry about wanting to add this or that or get this done and worry about down time on there gun. I know i would rather play a weekend then have it sent off. It arrives just as they want and they dont have to worry about a damn thing after that. Same can be done with annodizing. The way i see it is like when a buyer purchases an item they have a choice from a provided list of shops and the packages/benifits they offer organized by region and then they pick that. Pay the fees. And just sit back and wait for their gun to come in. Bc i know this is going to be the new way to B/S/T your paintball stuff and its going to see alot of traffic, and it would be really time consuming for you to inspect all these guns. Which could take away from time spent with your fam, or trying to progress this sport even further. And this traffic could be channeled to bring in more revenue to local shops so we can see this sport grow even faster. And its easier to charge or create speculation on a business then one individual person, so i know i would feel a hell of alot safer. Well its just an idea that i had itching in the back of my skull. Let me know what you think mike, and everyone else. Bc im sure its the users feedback we are looking for aswell. Thanks for reading.

P.S. MIke im going to the tryout at kohns this sunday, so maybe we can talk more in detail there.

[major-gray]

simply genius mike. keep up the amazing work.