Shot in the Dark Scare Tools - Never Delivered 2011 order

[Lcox]

Hello all, Just a friendly warning if you ordered anything from Shot in the Dark scare tools.

I put an ~$600 order in with them at the St. Louis Show in 2011, they charged my credit card but have never filled that order and will not refund my money.

After the delivery date came and went, I got in touch with them and they said they couldn't find the paperwork for the order. I sent them a copy of what I had and they said they would send me the order in the next few weeks. They said they would throw in an extra product or two for the inconvenience, I was really excited because their products look awesome.

That time came and went without any word About every 6 weeks I would send and email or call Mike K., I assume the owner, and he said he would have my order in the mail soon, by the end of the week or month or whatever. I never got anything from them. Now he will not respond to my emails or calls. I have been as patient as possible and given him more chances than I should have to fix the situation. I am really disappointed, I really wanted those products!

Anyway, this is just my experience with Shot in the Dark Scare tools. Their products look awesome, if you order from them just keep an eye on them and dont let it get away from you.

Did everyone else get their orders filled from Shot in the Dark?

And Mike K., Like I emailed you, If I receive the order I will update this post.

--------------------------------
5/10/2012
I finally received the order. Thank you to everyone for helping. And Mike, Thank you for shipping this, I no longer feel that you stole from me.

[Dman]

A different experience.

I have had wonderful dealings with Mike from Shot in the Dark, I have used their products with Great results since day one at Transworld. This year we purchased their complete Co2 System (gun and mask) as well as another shot gun, spark gloves and TNT boxes. I had a problem where the handle to our co2 gun was broken during shipping, I contacted him and he said he would replace the unit (this wasn't his problem, TSA broke the handle) but he is covering it. I had a similar issue happen last year where TSA snapped our cattle prod from the spooky chainsaw maker. They also offered to repair or replace the broken prop.

I hope that this is a honest mistake or glitch because they do have effective durable unique products.

Dan Augusto
Owner Tombstone Productions

[Lcox]

Dan,

I'm glad you have had a good experience with them. I hope our experience is just an honest mistake as well. The CO2 stuff looks incredible. I didn't get to go to St. Louis this year, is it as cool in real life as it looks online?

[Bradenton Haunted Trail]

shot in the dark

Well if you do a thread serch on them you will find that they have a horriable reputation for not getting orders shipped i know of 5 haunts that did not get there stuff. so good luck.

Shawn
Twisted Woods
http://www.twistedwoods.com

[john haines]

more loser vendors from transworld......... thanks, guys !!!!!!

no wonder the show is worse every year. this incident happened in 2011 !!!!! ripoff vendors who gladly take your money 2 years ago, and still can deliver. just wonderful. give it a rest DAN..... you're probably one in a million who got their stuff. anyone else get ripped off from these losers with customer NO SERVICE ? please post !!!!!! any problems with vendors at hauntcon ? another show that gets worse every year..............

[HauntedPaws]

I emailed them about their product and haven't heard from them in weeks.

[Dman]

Shot in dark

I think the problem may be there is only one person trying to produce all the products. Mike has come up with a very unique product line that fills a huge void. Problem, I think Mike may be the only one producing all of these items as well as research and development. He may be spreading himself too thin in trying to do everything and experience the growth that he has (growing to big to quickly). I'm not making excuses for anyone. I would like to see them solve their issues and continue to bring us cool props for our actors...

As far as giving it a rest John, maybe if your good and keep sucking up to the National show while complaining about the others they'll give you a free VIP pass..

Dan Augusto

[Twin Locusts]

There are some transcendentally talented and responsible vendors in this industry and there are some deadbeat garage hacks who've never met someone that's actually busy. When you take money intended to purchase a product and don't provide the product, then are too much of a coward to answer the phone, you are a thief. Plain + Simple.

[SeanMassacre]

Charged Twice

Shot in the Dark has great products. One of a kind. They work great. We had purchased the horn box from them at the show in St Louis. They charged our credit card using the iPhone & Square thing right there. Then that evening we saw it got charged again. After numerous emails and calls, Mike said he would reverse the charge and after over a month, he hadn't done so. We had to dispute the charge with our credit card company. I believe that Transworld should take a look at these forums and the reputation of some of these vendors and be stricter on letting them exhibit if they are ripping off customers. Almost like a Better Business Bureau for the haunt industry.

[HauntedPaws]

I think based on these comments I'll cross him off the list until I hear otherwise. I think TW should be on the hook to not allow him in again too.

[BrotherMysterio]

Q: What are the odds of actually getting your order filled?
A: It's a "shot in the dark".

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

[Lcox]

Q: What are the odds of actually getting your order filled?
A: It's a "shot in the dark".

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I did get a laugh out of that, Thanks!


I cant say that I feel better due to the fact that I am the only one that has had this problem.

Maybe there Transworld/hauntworld or whoever could make some sort of rating for vendors, like ebay.

I just don't want this to keep happening to people.

Thank you for your input everyone!

[Twin Locusts]

I did get a laugh out of that, Thanks!


I cant say that I feel better due to the fact that I am the only one that has had this problem.

Maybe there Transworld/hauntworld or whoever could make some sort of rating for vendors, like ebay.

I just don't want this to keep happening to people.

Thank you for your input everyone!

Hey Lucas, Tworld will never do anything like this - they have a simple business interest to get as many vendors paying for space as possible, no matter how dirty and greasy the hand, they'll shake it for the money. Their PR and sales people will say the opposite, "customer focused", "we're on your side", blah blah. In most companies the sales division knows only what they need to know to sell the product, so they likely don't even know the "history" of any of the vendors.

Boards that aren't censored and word of mouth is really the only way to know these things. Meet as many people as you can and figure out which ones will give you the straight dope on a vendor. That and search for litigation under every name iteration the vendor has, i.e. some vendors don't anonymize domain name info and you can get real names there, also if you have any lawyer friends have them do a nexix lexis search. Any person that's a party to litigation will show up there.

[BrotherMysterio]

Also see if you can build the prop in question yourself much more cheaply. You'd be surprised at what you can build yourself, and you'd also learn the true costs of the product you're buying, vs. the inflated retail price. I've seen simple - and in many cases rather simplistic - props that can be built easily for less than $200 that go for $2000 or more.

Check out Allen Hopps' youtube vids to see what I mean.

C.

[Lcox]

Update

An update

I emailed Mike a link to this thread and I have received a tracking number for a delivery from Shot in the Dark, I'll keep everyone updated. Thanks!