The Lucky Paintball Story.
Sure, you can call this all a sham from the beginning, but this is the story. Argue and debate it as much as you want, but from everything I have came to understand, this is how the shit hit the fan………
Response from our best buddies at the UK ceiling tile factory (UK investors)
note: update: aaron's official response posted at bottom of page.
Lucky Paintball starts out. Growing in leaps and bounds. They focus on customer service, cheap prices, and quality stuff. All around paintball, people are talking about them, their products, and their prices.
Lucky Paintball snaggles a deal with PbNation, and gets a dedicated forum for chat all about their products and up and coming ideas. This is a first of its kind. Lucky Paintball hires people from all around the Paintball industry and community, they are producing so many new products so fast, and all at great prices.
Sure, some people may have had some quality issues along the way, but LuckyPB’s commitment to excellent Customer Service still shines through. Now, they are being almost overrun with orders. Shipping may get bogged down at times, but Lucky still stays on top of this.
Well, one thing we haven’t really covered, is all of this is happening in Chicago, Illinois. United States of America. Truth is, LuckyPB isn’t actually based out of Chicago. They are based out of the UK. That is England. United Kingdom. You know, that island off the coast of Europe.
We all think that there are companies in the Paintball Industry that seem a little crooked or ruthless in their tactics, but compared to the world of international business, the real world, we haven’t seen anything.
Sometime early this month (March 2007) or late last month, the headquarters of LuckyPB in the UK decided to make a big push, and put themselves in direct control of the US center and the entire company.
This is where it gets complicated…..
The UK branch is now in almost total control. They are dictating who works, how much they are paid, and who keeps their job.
Mid last week (week of 3/11/07), people the UK branch didn’t like, were being asked to work for free. Aaron Stephens, who had disagreements with the way this takeover was being handled, was fired. Aaron was one of the biggest players in USLucky. This caused quite a bit of turmoil with Lucky employees here in the US. They were loyal to Aaron, since he was the reason they were all here.
Friday, March 8th, John Dresser (Lucky Tech on PbNation) was fired from LuckyPB, along with all of the remaining Lucky staff in the United States. This includes Sonny Lopez, Brett (ElementPaintball) and the rest of the staff. These are real people, that held real jobs, and some had real families.
Now, Aaron, seeing that no one is working, closes the LuckyPB US online store, saving customers still under the impression that LuckyPB is still alive in the US a LONG wait for the products they order, and preventing even more turmoil. The UK people were upset by this move. But how does that make sense? No one is working for Lucky in the US anymore, but the store will stay open? That is 100% crooked. Aaron definitely made the right move and saved everyone lots of time. There was no way he could have planned ahead to let distributors know, so the best he could do was immediatley close down the US Online Store. By now, the old Lucky we knew is dead and gone.
The LuckyPB US employees had no news of this going on, if so, they would have let all distributors know beforehand, since Lucky is and always has been promoting their dealers to make money. All phones at Lucky are currently being diverted to the UK side, and all E-mails are being forwarded to the UK branches.
Aaron Stephens is working without pay, out of his own will, to fill paid orders and honor returns and customer service. The UK branch is even upset about this, and believes that he shouldn’t be involved anymore, no matter his good intentions.
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Currently, CompulsivePB is vying for the new LuckyPB US distributorship position, and the rest of them are all still hanging with no contact from the UK side of the company since the takeover.
Until the UK branch steps it up, there will be no more Customer Support in the US for Lucky Products. I cannot stress enough that the LuckyPB we all knew before this is no longer around, only the name. It is all being run by new people, with new agenda’s.
I highly discourage people from supporting this Neo-LuckyPB. They screwed us over. Not John Dresser, not Aaron Stephens, Brett, Sonny, or anyone else, it was a group of outside people grabbing money and jerking LuckyPB into a bad position and firing anyone associated with people they disagreed with. This is not the LuckyPB that I used to know, and it is not the LuckyPB that I will support. Ever.
Clear the names of the former LuckyPB employees that brought us their products. Even if you didnt like their stuff, these guys deserve a clean name. Spred this artile and link it back here (gotta give some credit ;) ) so we can let people know what REALLY happened.
I am in no way affiliated with LuckyPB blah blah blah.
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Aaron Stephens Official Response (Posted on PbNation)
"Lucky started as small 2-3 man operation up until the 'evolve deal'.
Lucky was profitable when the 'keys' were turned over but we wanted to execute some bigger projects.
-august-
Problems with vendors started. I was completely focused on getting these ironed out. It was costing more money than anticipated but I had a rat whispering in my ear. "Money isn't an issue, press on."
-dec-
The rat was playing this hard, because he was in trouble and going to be fired. The delays caused a financial crunch, the rat played his game. He separated the 'parties' and caused a huge rift. The 'investors' were distracted with other issues.
-jan-
The rat hired a consultant in the US, to assist me, who was never paid. The rat made BS offers to have people work for free. I was enraged by this and it gets real ugly.
-feb-
But the consultant and I continued to seek approval for a way forward. There was no urgency on their part, we got the feeling something was afoot. -march- Sadly, I was being set up to take the fall. I knew the web store was going down soon and income would cease, no money to pay employees, my credit cards the business ran on were full. The rat was offering no help, rejecting all financial plans, rejecting projects that were done. (myspace pic and others) Then the rats plan came to the light. Burn all vendors. Burn me with my debt. Use my prints and continue forward.
So with the facts in front of me, the unpaid consultant and their employee on the ground in the US, I made the only decision I could. Kill the site before we were locked out and couldn't help anyone, asked the kids to work through the weekend to sort orders. Ship unpaid product back to vendors. Clear out things that were on my credit cards. Look for a job and take the hits. But I will only take so much.
So as the sole founder of lucky, any product you purchase from the rat in the future is blood money. Peoples lives are in shambles and instead of coming up with a plan that may have worked in a reasonable fashion this is how it went down. I kept my mouth shut in fear of retaliation. But I have the emails, I have the witnesses and if this goes to court I welcome the opportunity. I can't stand watching this unravel, and I have to secure some form of income immediately.
Paintball has been my life for 15 years. I take pride in my relationships in business. And this situation burnt nearly everyone I regard as a friend. I did the best I could and it was not enough. The employees in the UK are cool guys - but there is a rat in that house."
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Post made by a Official Representative of the other party (Evolve) on PbNation
My personal opinion and what I have gathered from speaking to Lucky affiliates is that the above post, is a load of shit. Heh.
contact: rtibbitts07@gmail.com
last update: 3/27/07 10:26PM EST