# A Warning about purchasing goods online!!



## Riddepoff0 (Feb 20, 2008)

I hope this post will serve as a warning to fellow martial artists who are considering purchasing from Paragon Martial Arts Ltd.

On the 19th December 2007, I placed an order for the following item:

Blitz Black Challenger karate gi (Size: 6/190cms)

According to their order tracking facility on their website the order was received on the following day 20 December 2007.

Appreciating the closeness of Christmas and the New Year I gave them ample time to fulfil the order, but towards the end of the second week of January 2008, I emailed Paragon Martial Arts Ltd inquiring as to the status of my order and as to when I could expect delivery.

It was only after the THIRD email, sent on the 14 January did Paragon Martial Arts bother to reply.

In this reply sent on the 16 January 2008, a 'Steve' stated:

"Your order should be despatched in the next 3-4 working days"

After 3-4 working days the goods had not arrived, so therefore on the 30th January 2008, 10 working days after receiving the email of the 16th January, I sent another email to Paragon Martial Arts Ltd, stating that they had 7 days to refund my money or, I would report them to Hampshire Trading Standards, and instigate legal action.

Due to work commitments I was unable to pursue this matter any further but on the 12 February 2008 I Phoned them on 0870 760 6618, but nobody answered, instead I was put through to an answer phone, where a left two messages.

Finally after not hearing form them (I was by then not surprised), on the 15 February 2008, through Hampshire Trading Standards, got in contact with Consumer Direct South-East, and was informed that Under the CONSUMER PROTECTION DISTANT SELLING REGULATIONS 2000, I was legally entitled to a full refund, and that under the aforementioned regulations Paragon Martial Arts Ltd are clear breach of contract due to their failure to deliver the goods within 30 days.

I was advised to send them via recorded delivery a letter demanding my legal right to a full refund, which I did so (Paragon Martial Arts Ltd, 4 Deerfield Close, Bramley, Hampshire, RG26 5UP ENGLAND), on the 16 February 2007.

As I write this post on the 20 February, it has been 62 days. And still NO contact from Paragon Martial Arts Ltd, or refund, or the now cancelled goods.

Are they Scammers, or just completely ignorant of both English law, and customer service?


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## JayC (Jul 16, 2007)

Thank you, I will sticky this thread for all to see!


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

I read this earlier and was a bit undecided of what to think of it, ive decided to unstick this Jay, heres why.

Paragon martial arts have been around for a long time, longer than most mma websites they have an ebay store with (to date) 2312 feedback 99.4% of which are positive.

I have scrolled through the last months ebay sales (30+) are all positive.

Sometimes large companies do get it wrong, i myself run a shop with a busy website on ebay alone we've got 850+ positive customers over the last year...a few months ago we had a complaint from a customer calling us thieves, they paid us Â£40, they never recieved there goods, never got any replies to emails they where suing us etc...as it turned out there email address was something like [email protected] so our spam filter blocked any incoming emails...and the package was at there local sorting office waiting to be picked up!!!

My point is sometimes problems arise which are unavoidable, or out or your control.

From what you have said though it does sound like you have every right to get a refund and i sincerly hope you get your money back


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## MMABulk (Oct 17, 2007)

i've heard quite a bit of bad press about paragon...

i'm having a nightmare with fightshop.com, they've totally screwed up my order and i had to go to a fight with half of my kit missing as they told me it was all in stock when it wasnt.

3 weeks nearly for my order... still not got the right stuff

sugarrays.co.uk is not the best for service either, i'll never use them again


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

www.Black-eagle.co.uk and www.westfightcompany.co.uk are sponsors of this forum.

The good thing about ordering from a company that sponsors a forum is that you can get hold of them if anything goes wrong with your order matt and will from wfc company are pretty much always on here, and steve from Black-eagle is also a registered member


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## MMABulk (Oct 17, 2007)

black eagle is about 10 mins from my house, i live in pompey

hmmm... i'm in the market for a long sleeve rashy, i'll look at those ATAMA ones, a few of the guys here sport black eagle stock


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## Chibi Sean (Dec 21, 2007)

I've had a similar problem with muaythaifactory over some shorts I ordered back in October which I still haven't recieved


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## Riddepoff0 (Feb 20, 2008)

Hi

Just an update.

Paragon Martial Arts have now relented and my refunded my money, although I received no word of an apology!!

In answer to my question: "Are they Scammers, or just completely ignorant of both English law, and customer service"? has now been answered:

It was the latter!

Paragon Martial Arts was only my second bad experience purchasing goods online, the other being FarEasternCombat.co.uk. To be fair, the problem was not directly due to FarEasternCombat.co.uk but the company they choose to have deal the financial side of the transactions: PayPal (Enough said)!!

One company who I have a positive experience buying training equipment from is MartialArtsShop.co.uk

I will certainly check out the sites of both Black-eagle.co.uk and westfightcompany.co.uk


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

Good to hear you got your money back mate.


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## JayC (Jul 16, 2007)

Aha the only bad experience I've had was from AbsoluteMusic, but again it was the fault of Paypal having to verify my e-mail address, and it took 5 weeks to come instead of a day. As soon as I got in touch, however, they were like "We've been trying to contact you as regards to your order, all it needed was confirmation" and they delivered it that night and it came the next at 9:30, Parceline are an awesome postal service


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## Imy (Jul 20, 2007)

Bit odd.

I've ordered with Paragon Martial Arts before and they were perfect.

I guess it's like Marc says; companies do get it wrong sometimes. But I fully understand why you would be pissed off. No contact from them for just under a month is a bit of a piss-take on their behalf.


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## ezee (Apr 11, 2008)

ive placed a few orders recently with cutting edge martial arts supplys

and i just want to say they are a fantastic company... not nly does all the stuff turn up quickly (which you expect) but today they went above and beyond the call...

i wanted a 120lb banana bag (6ft heavy thai bag) they had but i want to be able to put it on a free standing stand and they had noting that seemed strong enough... i phoned them and they have commisseded an enginering company to design one to my spec with the optin of i integrated ipod player etc... took them a day to sort all that out and a couple f weeks to have the stand built... and the stand (no ipoddy bits) is only ging to be about the same as the other stands they have on the site anyway...

plus they have sme nice chucks...

great company...


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## JayC (Jul 16, 2007)

Cheers for the input ezee! I need a bag myself with a stand and I'll check them out


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

Got a link for them ezee?


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## JayC (Jul 16, 2007)

http://www.cuttingedgemartialartssupplies.co.uk/


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

No matter good old google

http://www.cuttingedgemartialartssupplies.co.uk/


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

aah you beat by 2/15th's of a second


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## JayC (Jul 16, 2007)

I'm faster than you at boxing, jiu jitsu and now google.

Beaten by a 17 year old every time


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## ezee (Apr 11, 2008)

JayC said:


> http://www.cuttingedgemartialartssupplies.co.uk/


yes them...

they seem decent... just wish they did a "plastic" wooden freestanding kung fu dummy... immortal has stopped making them and icant find one anywhere in the uk

http://www.immortal.co.uk/immortal-dummies.asp

any ideas???


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

JayC said:


> I'm faster than you at boxing, jiu jitsu and now google.
> 
> Beaten by a 17 year old every time


Shut it you slaaaaag


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## marc (Jul 16, 2007)

ezee said:


> yes them...
> 
> they seem decent... just wish they did a "plastic" wooden freestanding kung fu dummy... immortal has stopped making them and icant find one anywhere in the uk
> 
> ...


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## ezee (Apr 11, 2008)

marc said:


> Ebay maybe:
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WOODEN-DUMMY-JKD-WING-CUN-KUNG-FU-KALI-MMA-VARY3000_W0QQitemZ140206350544QQihZ004QQcategoryZ97043QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem


can get a wooden one easy enough... but a plastic one i can set up outside which is what i want to do...

use the one in the gym a couple of times a week as a warm up but i know having one at home would be a help... especially to use after a hard workout cs thats when i get sloppy


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