Ben Taylor & Son

[Baxterbasics]

BTAS have closed which, from a customer service perspective, can only be a good thing.

I sent the leaking regulator for my ''Taylored'' FAC mk1 Rapid to him as it was letting by. I saw the O ring was perished before I sent it (cause of the let by?) and pointed it out to him; it returned to me with the same leak, the O ring was still the same perished item, and there had been insufficient postage applied to the package, which meant I had to pay the surcharge.

Therefore, not only did BTAS take the fee to fix and return it, they actually didn't address the fault, and returned it to me in the same condition as I sent it, and it cost me a few quid to pay to have the Post Office hand it over.
I would never recommend BTAS, or Ben for that matter. Never have I experienced such terrible attitude and flagrant disregard for customer satisfaction.

In the end KevG said he'd sort it for me. It was fixed at no charge, and I was returned in 2 days.

It's funny how Baz used run KevG down as being a monkey, whilst selling his mate, Ben, as the man to see for all things rapid, but in my experience Ben was the monkey and Kev's still the go-to guy.

Kev is a superstar, Pete. Has sorted two rapids for me, over the years and the turn-around, quality of work and price were, quite frankly, unbelievable

[barrel]

BTAS have closed which, from a customer service perspective, can only be a good thing.

I sent the leaking regulator for my ''Taylored'' FAC mk1 Rapid to him as it was letting by. I saw the O ring was perished before I sent it (cause of the let by?) and pointed it out to him; it returned to me with the same leak, the O ring was still the same perished item, and there had been insufficient postage applied to the package, which meant I had to pay the surcharge.

Therefore, not only did BTAS take the fee to fix and return it, they actually didn't address the fault, and returned it to me in the same condition as I sent it, and it cost me a few quid to pay to have the Post Office hand it over.
I would never recommend BTAS, or Ben for that matter. Never have I experienced such terrible attitude and flagrant disregard for customer satisfaction.

In the end KevG said he'd sort it for me. It was fixed at no charge, and I was returned in 2 days.

It's funny how Baz used run KevG down as being a monkey, whilst selling his mate, Ben, as the man to see for all things rapid, but in my experience Ben was the monkey and Kev's still the go-to guy.

I would echo your sentiments with regard to his attitude. I spoke with him and found him incredibly condescending, it was for this reason I did not put the job his way. KevG on the other hand know's his stuff and is a nice bloke to deal with.

Kindest regards

Barrel

[Rapidnick]

It really saddens me to read this thread. Clearly everyone should 'speak as they find' and equally clearly, some on here have had poor service from BTAS which is a great pity. By contrast I have had excellent service every time I have had anything needed to be done by Ben. The great thing about him is that he was an innovator and not just a fixer. His work on regulator efficiency and reliability was outstanding. OK these days HUMA and Edgun have moved regulator technology on considerably-progress continues all the time after all.
Kev is also a great help and is my 'go to' man when I am unable to sort things out myself.

[eyebull]

BTAS have closed which, from a customer service perspective, can only be a good thing.

I sent the leaking regulator for my ''Taylored'' FAC mk1 Rapid to him as it was letting by. I saw the O ring was perished before I sent it (cause of the let by?) and pointed it out to him; it returned to me with the same leak, the O ring was still the same perished item, and there had been insufficient postage applied to the package, which meant I had to pay the surcharge.

Therefore, not only did BTAS take the fee to fix and return it, they actually didn't address the fault, and returned it to me in the same condition as I sent it, and it cost me a few quid to pay to have the Post Office hand it over.
I would never recommend BTAS, or Ben for that matter. Never have I experienced such terrible attitude and flagrant disregard for customer satisfaction.

In the end KevG said he'd sort it for me. It was fixed at no charge, and I was returned in 2 days.

It's funny how Baz used run KevG down as being a monkey, whilst selling his mate, Ben, as the man to see for all things rapid, but in my experience Ben was the monkey and Kev's still the go-to guy.

As per my post above, this is why I am very leery of 'forum flavour of the month' gunsmiths.

The guy who ripped me and several others off is still getting recommendations. Go figure. I remember when the sun shined out of his arse on this and other forums.

[DSidelever]

I had several dealings with Ben in his BTAS days at that unit in the middle of nowhere.

I have to admit he was a generally 'grumpy' man by then (home life issues, I believe), but was always very honest in his appraisals of the work required. He was famously 'grumpy' about airguns that had been messed around with by owners in regard to FPE.

His retirement had been postponed several times due to outside problems. I understand he now devotes his time to Motorcycle tuning/racing (or similar).



During one visit (a LONG JOURNEY for me) a small, dark-haired lady come in with her BTAS / FX Verminator. "sort this out now" type of thing.

WOW, did Ben go into overdrive or what!

I nodded my agreement to her far more pressing issues




I'm sure it was a lady 'Rapidnick' will remember from a few years ago, on here - 'Fran'

(Small but incredibly fierce ).

[barrel]

It really saddens me to read this thread. Clearly everyone should 'speak as they find' and equally clearly, some on here have had poor service from BTAS which is a great pity. By contrast I have had excellent service every time I have had anything needed to be done by Ben. The great thing about him is that he was an innovator and not just a fixer. His work on regulator efficiency and reliability was outstanding. OK these days HUMA and Edgun have moved regulator technology on considerably-progress continues all the time after all.
Kev is also a great help and is my 'go to' man when I am unable to sort things out myself.

It does make me wonder Nick why some people (not just Ben) seem to have such an inconsistent manner. If they can be courteous and offer excellent service to some then why not to all. Just me thinking out loud but a question that leaves me wondering none the less.

Kindest regards


Barrel

[Gavlar]

Another vote for Ben from me.
I sent him a S410 to be regulated. I spoke to him before and after sending it. He was as good as gold and did a great job. Ditto when I sent him a rapid. Both guns I regret parting with!

[Rich]

First impressions count for a lot; maybe they shouldn't but they do, they put down a marker.

Snock and I went to the Theoben factory when the Fenman was being launched; didn't get good vibes then.

[Scaley]

Umm BT.
Myself and a friend decided to get our rapids serviced by the man himself and wanted to meet him so we arranged it and drove up to Milbro hq 3hr journey and he didn't even wait for us so we just left them there. Few days later we collected them
Shocked was an understatement at what had been done to our pride and joys there was some kind of cleaning fluid/ oil pouring out of them my mates air guage was full of it!...had to go all the way back again so he could have another go...
In the end kev g had to sort mine out.
I too never understood all the hype.

[Hellequin]

BTAS have closed which, from a customer service perspective, can only be a good thing.

I sent the leaking regulator for my ''Taylored'' FAC mk1 Rapid to him as it was letting by. I saw the O ring was perished before I sent it (cause of the let by?) and pointed it out to him; it returned to me with the same leak, the O ring was still the same perished item, and there had been insufficient postage applied to the package, which meant I had to pay the surcharge.

Therefore, not only did BTAS take the fee to fix and return it, they actually didn't address the fault, and returned it to me in the same condition as I sent it, and it cost me a few quid to pay to have the Post Office hand it over.
I would never recommend BTAS, or Ben for that matter. Never have I experienced such terrible attitude and flagrant disregard for customer satisfaction.

In the end KevG said he'd sort it for me. It was fixed at no charge, and I was returned in 2 days.

It's funny how Baz used run KevG down as being a monkey, whilst selling his mate, Ben, as the man to see for all things rapid, but in my experience Ben was the monkey and Kev's still the go-to guy.

Absolutely agree with this in relation to BTAS. I had one of their BTAS Cyclone's years back and the awful & inconsistent performance was only matched by the customer 'service' from BTAS. I wouldn't touch another, even if they were still in business.

[eyebull]

It does make me wonder Nick why some people (not just Ben) seem to have such an inconsistent manner. If they can be courteous and offer excellent service to some then why not to all. Just me thinking out loud but a question that leaves me wondering none the less.

Kindest regards


Barrel

Good engineers don't always make the best businessmen. TBF most engineers need a good 'front of house' partner to keep them in the real world.

[Spitzer]

Good engineers don't always make the best businessmen. TBF most engineers need a good 'front of house' partner to keep them in the real world.

Yeah, and Theoben (Ben Taylor days) didn't even have a good 'front of house' partner to keep them in the real world, what with that CRAZY woman who always answered the phone when you had a technical question to ask or just plain wanted to make an order or something simple.

[Lol Moore]

Good engineers don't always make the best businessmen. TBF most engineers need a good 'front of house' partner to keep them in the real world.

I have experienced this several times, some time back read a study article which claimed very technically minded people are wired different and are usually quite high up the Autism scale, they also generally have poor interpersonal skills.

[MartynB]

First impressions count for a lot; maybe they shouldn't but they do, they put down a marker.

Snock and I went to the Theoben factory when the Fenman was being launched; didn't get good vibes then.

This is fairly sad in some ways, I met Ben and Dave when they first built the early pre-production Scirroco (as it was to be called)

They were really enthusiastic and explened how it worked and offered to let me take the .22 one home to test but depsite their assurances it was OK if it picked up any marks, I didn't dare accept the offer

I did have a couple of shots out the back of the shop and remember being very impressed with the firing cycle and stunning finish of what wasn't even a production gun

I did have one of the early Mk 1 Sciroccos in .22 (scope only, no open sights) and remember it being very accurate and taking quite a few rabbitts with it

[snock]

This is fairly sad in some ways, I met Ben and Dave when they first built the early pre-production Scirroco (as it was to be called)

Rich and I arrived at their Cambridge premises (I was surprised at how small it was) to have their 'tour' of the factory.
We arrived in the reception area and could see Ben and Dave through the window. Ben turned to look through the window and could not hit hide the irritation in his face that there were 5 or 6 eager visitors in the foyer waiting to be entertained and informed by the airgun maestros that they had read so much about in the magazines. The magazines gave you the impression that they were good company and very interesting to talk with...

It very soon became apparent that the Ben we walked around with was impatient, irritated by questions and generally couldn't wait to see the back of you, but only once you'd finished cooing and drooling over the array of toys at your fingertips.