Do you hate ARES?

[ZShot]

Hey guys, while watching one of Airsoft GI's new video reviews (it is of our competitor’s product - Airsoft GI - ICS M3 Grease Gun Pre Production Sample - YouTube) we noticed that *very strong language* was directed at the ARES brand in general. Some of the comments are rather nasty. (Yes, that includes the “F” word!”)

Obviously some of our team members here were rather offended, but after some thought we decided that it was time for some first-hand feedback from the community.

Do you like ARES? Are you indifferent? Or do you hate them with a burning passion? We want to know what YOU think of ARES products.

Your comments will help us improve our products and any feedback is much appreciated – good, bad or ugly – we will still love you!

[Amos]

I'm not a fan of products. I've been tinkering with the insides of airsoft guns for the past 5+ years, and I've been doing it professionally for at least the past 2 years.

They tend to use low quality metals, far too many proprietary parts and have very poor initial build quality (internal construction is always very off on every ARES I've worked on)

Their guns are nice looking and try to be very innovative... but they still fall short in quality and reliability.

The only ARES guns I'd recommend to my customers are their G36 and L1A1 Line.

[Basic-Wedge]

I saw the Airsoft GI review of the ICS product, and I was rather surprised Tim took so much time to dump on the Ares version. I agree it was dumb to install the batteries in the mag, but Tim seemed to have more of an axe to grind with Ares. Just my impression.

I've been quite pleased with my Ares G36, but that's the only Ares product I have first hand experience with.

[lurkingknight]

since when did the opinions of a bunch of retard youtube keyboard warriors matter?

I'm not an old salty dog of the airsoft world, I'm new to it, but my observations of a lot of people have been that once they've had 1 or 2 bad experiences with a brand, they tend to hold grudges and a good portion of the sheeple out there listen.

I have not owned, handled/fired/gamed an ares gun so I don't have much of a valid opinion on ares product.

Bob did the review not Tim, though I don't think he really dumped on the ares version, he compared the player practicality of the ics vs ares versions. How practical is it for a player to have a battery in every mag for the ares version? From a collector's standpoint, the ares probably has better fit and finish, which Bob did mention in terms of how much metal/polymer there was in the ics version. The comments in the video dump on ares more than the video did.

[Danke]

I love and hate Ares.

I love their product.

I hate the proprietary parts that you can't get replacements for.

Is this this Phil B? If so welcome aboard.

[wildcard]

Originally Posted by Amos

I'm not a fan of products. I've been tinkering with the insides of airsoft guns for the past 5+ years, and I've been doing it professionally for at least the past 2 years.

They tend to use low quality metals, far too many proprietary parts and have very poor initial build quality (internal construction is always very off on every ARES I've worked on)

Their guns are nice looking and try to be very innovative... but they still fall short in quality and reliability.

The only ARES guns I'd recommend to my customers are their G36 and L1A1 Line.

I had bought their M60E3 and and A&K M60VN around the same time to replace my stolen Inokatsu M60, out of the two the ARES lasted about 15 minutes of shooting before the mechbox fried due to stripped piston and gears, to topped it off during that 15 minutes of joy a stress fracture developed on teh hop up assembly and the body itself (RAS portion that connects to the main receiver) in anycase if ARES want to be a leader they should improve their internals. STOP Cheapening out on your internals. good looking gun with shitty internals may fool teh nubs but not the old farts around here and anywhere else, it is the biggest turn off to many players when you have to spend a nother chunk of change to make your AEG work as it should out of the box, especially after you spend a chunk of change getting them. Even your ELGM why do you have to put such a shitty spring set on a beautifull nade launcher, is that miniscule excuse that you call a spring the best you can put?? come on I have GBB spring set that have heavier pull that what you guys put in there.

[ZShot]

Originally Posted by Danke

Is this this Phil B? If so welcome aboard.

Danke,

It's a shared account, so a few of our sales staff will probably monitor it. Though since I handle 99% of the customer and end-user support I will be the one browsing and lurking more than anyone.

Thanks for the welcome. I've had a personal account for years, but I am not much of a poster. Glad to be here ( again )

Originally Posted by lurkingknight

since when did the opinions of a bunch of retard youtube keyboard warriors matter?

Lurkingknight,

Generally we try to abide by the "don't feed the trolls" and "haters gonna hate" mentality in regards to any bashing on the internet, but to see people putting it so flatly and to see so many agree, made us turn and scratch our heads a little.

Cheers,
Phil

By the way guys, we're eating this feedback up. We have been trying to stress some of these complaints to ARES for ages. Maybe it'll be the mouth of the consumer that reaches the ears in HK.

[Cactus-man]

G36 ARES good machine, too have it in my hands it felt great, was shooting great also
but
other than that, no way I'm going with ARES

And yes, I hate ARES, because they didn't do modifications with the nagants that they got when buying Zeta-Labs, I mean, they could make awesome Nagants and WW2 Stuff, but they decided to do it with cheap materials and a huge non-reasonable price tag.

( look at the M3 they got out, and look at ICS's M3, big difference There)

[5kull]

I like the fact that your posting on ASC. God knows a lot of people go overboard when you ask an opinion on the Internet. Good luck with the feedback to HK.

Take care, Denis

PS: my only experience is with a friends MK43. I love that thing, it rules the battlefield

[Yuu]

Well, I own an ARES M4 and haven't had much issue with it at all except the hop-up unit. Even with with hop-up unit now separated from the gearbox changing it hop-up with different brand e.g. Guarder caused 40 fps dropped.

I have no issue with your product except the fact stated above and you guys needs to release more of your proprietary parts e.g. (trigger assembly, gearbox, hop-up units, nozzle, and spring guide and etc...) Most your dealers rarely have anything in-stock of your parts.

I love your spring change feature but the only gun I would only buy from ARES are M4 and G36 series. I always planned to buy FN SCAR and ARES SR-25 series but then I figured out you guys used a lot more proprietary parts in them especially the magazine which FN SCAR and SR-25 can only use ARES magazines.

I would love to try to buy and hope ARES KAC LMG would be a lot better with less proprietary parts.

Do I hate ARES? Well, not really but just sometimes...

[Donster]

Originally Posted by Amos

far too many proprietary parts and have very poor initial build quality

Their guns are nice looking and try to be very innovative... but they still fall short in quality and reliability.

This is exactly how i feel about ARES!

[Danke]

To expand a bit on what some of the others have said. I have about 10 brands in the locker along with Ares. I kind of expect all of them to break or have a problem at some point in their lifetime. I don't think anyone will build something that won't have problems.

What counts is the response to the problems.

In the past, and this goes for all sorts of other companies; not just Ares or airsoft makers when something would go wrong the response would be "there are plenty of other fish in the sea". In other words we've lost one customer but there are lots more out there, even if that person influences their friends and family it's a minor setback.

Now though when someone has a bad experience websites like this, or facebook will give them a massive footprint. Suddenly no one in the UK will buy a grease gun because of bad reveiws in the US. Keeping on top of issues like this will pay back in spades with solid customer loyalty.

Based on my past experince; two marks you can use as targets to shoot for would be VFC, and KWA USA as an example of an Asian manufacturer and a North Amercian distributor.

VFC makes a wide range of odd AEGs with their own internal parts. I can go to two or three of the big HK airsoft webshops and order what I need. When a part isn't up there I can email VFC direct, have someone respond to me in English and they will send the parts to me by direct mail to Canada.

KWA USA has the same approachabilty, they have a wide range of parts on hand and when new items come into their system the parts follow, it may be 3 months later but when they say the parts are coming they can be sure the factory will ship them over. Then when they have the parts they'll get you on the land line and confirm the order, and then ship them to you.

So given the choice of a KWA M4, a VFC M4 or an Ares M4 you'd really have to struggle for a reason to pick the Ares if you were placing an order. And I think that is a real lack that limits their exposure here.

[tintin1223456]

I have a g36c, and have had no problems with it so far. Main reason I purchased it was for the quick change spring, so I can go indoor and outdoor with the same gun. It also had good reviews. I hope other companies use it on their products soon. Parts are hard to find. They do have a facebook page, and that's where I got an email address for customer service. I ordered a ball bearing spring guide from them, haven't got it yet, but it's only been 5 days.

I would have gotten the G36K, but I didn't want to pay extra for the scope/carry handle that I was going to remove anyways, since people say the eye relief was bad, and it had no way to mount rails on the front, which meant more money to purchase another handguard. They should sell the scope/carry handle as an upgrade accessory.

[wildcard]

Originally Posted by Danke

To expand a bit on what some of the others have said. I have about 10 brands in the locker along with Ares. I kind of expect all of them to break or have a problem at some point in their lifetime. I don't think anyone will build something that won't have problems.

What counts is the response to the problems.

In the past, and this goes for all sorts of other companies; not just Ares or airsoft makers when something would go wrong the response would be "there are plenty of other fish in the sea". In other words we've lost one customer but there are lots more out there, even if that person influences their friends and family it's a minor setback.

Now though when someone has a bad experience websites like this, or facebook will give them a massive footprint. Suddenly no one in the UK will buy a grease gun because of bad reveiws in the US. Keeping on top of issues like this will pay back in spades with solid customer loyalty.

Based on my past experince; two marks you can use as targets to shoot for would be VFC, and KWA USA as an example of an Asian manufacturer and a North Amercian distributor.

VFC makes a wide range of odd AEGs with their own internal parts. I can go to two or three of the big HK airsoft webshops and order what I need. When a part isn't up there I can email VFC direct, have someone respond to me in English and they will send the parts to me by direct mail to Canada.

KWA USA has the same approachabilty, they have a wide range of parts on hand and when new items come into their system the parts follow, it may be 3 months later but when they say the parts are coming they can be sure the factory will ship them over. Then when they have the parts they'll get you on the land line and confirm the order, and then ship them to you.

So given the choice of a KWA M4, a VFC M4 or an Ares M4 you'd really have to struggle for a reason to pick the Ares if you were placing an order. And I think that is a real lack that limits their exposure here.

You should count King Arms as one of them too, I have 4 King Arms AEG and none have issues out of the box so far the only thing I have to change on my go to field gun, my FAL is trigger switch which was burnt out (my own fault) and I upgraded the inner barrel to a madbull, if any ARES should make their product on par with those from King Arms not only do they look good they perform as well if not better than any of the typical AEG aside from a PTW out of the box.

[Danke]

Originally Posted by tintin1223456

I have a g36c, and have had no problems with it so far. Main reason I purchased it was for the quick change spring, so I can go indoor and outdoor with the same gun.

I have a SR-25, same thing. Quick change spring, great. build in Mosfet, great, nice metal hopup chamber great.

Broken tappet plate that is unique to that AEG and not available anywhere in the world, not so great.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.