Intro
Evike is probably one of, if not the largest airsoft retailers in the U.S. With its huge online inventory and frequent deals, Evike attracts many customers. This review is going to be in two parts, one focusing on the online store, the second focusing on the walk-in store.
The Site
When you first visit Evike.com, you are brought to the announcement page. On the left hand side of the screen is a navigation pane that has all the categories laid out. Each category has subsequent sub-categories, and so on and so forth.
The site is pretty user-friendly in that everything is pretty much laid out in categories, so if a new player were to enter the site, and was looking for a gun, he could probably find his way to whatever tickled his fancy.
Evike has the "Holy Cow Specials" page that lists all current deals going on. Most of these deals are magazines at extremely reduced prices with the purchase of a specific gun, for example, when this post was being typed up:
As you can see, the product listings are a bit confusing. Are the mags free, or are they $3? I do not know if this is intentional, but it may be a tactic they use to lure you into buying things.
Another potentially misleading aspect of Evike's marketing strategy is their tendency to lump different brands into one listing.
Like the caption asks, which brand is it? This leads to the question of whether Evike sells Matrix products as G&G. Airsofters pay more for an inferior product thinking they were getting the good one. While this is not as prevalent as it was in 2010, it is still there.
Another thing that bugs me about their website is that out of stock items that have been discontinued or are no longer carried all have a 'z' in their names. It's almost as if they were too lazy to just remove the posting from the back end database or something. While minor, this does clutter up website, especially when doing a search.
Service
The service representatives are polite people. However, they sometimes are not the most knowledgeable. I generally hang up the phone satisfied, but it's a hit-or-miss a few days later. Sometimes the request is carried out right away, other times, it can take a while.
Past Experiences
My
personal experiences with Evike have been predominantly poor. In 2010, I
was in the market for a flash kill for my ACOG replica that I bought
from Evike. I emailed their customer service about the product to see if
it would fit on the ACOG that they sold me before. After a few emails
back and forth, the customer service rep assured me that yes the flash
kill would fit. So as you probably guessed, the flash kill did not fit
as intended. The second experience I had with them was
when I ordered a G36C top rail from them. It came with the rear sight's
larger aperture broken. I guess they thought it was ok if they included
the mounting screws. I forgave them and proceeded to continue buying
from them due to their low prices. Another problem with their site is
that it is not a real-time inventory. There are plenty of times where
I've ordered items only for them to email me saying it is out of stock
or backordered. I've cancelled backordered items only to have them drag
their feet while issuing a refund.
Conclusion
Avoid if possible. I know it is tough because they carry a very wide variety of parts and their selection is huge, but if you can find it somewhere else, buy it there. It will always be a gamble with Evike.
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