Zero One airsoft, beware.

Sorry mate just want to clarify.
You made modifications to the gun yourself by replacing parts? Or were the parts replaced by a Zero tech? Sorry I know you changed spring what I mean is the other parts you have listed.

Not sure if I'm correct in this but if you make modifications yourself the warranty usually becomes void. If it's something they have done the warranty should still be good unless it's hidden in the terms and conditions that the warranty will be made void (which doesn't sound right to me).

All I did was put a different spring in it, an M120, which according to the spec of the gears should have been perfectly ok (and is an advertised feature for the gun..."quick-change spring!"). Additionally Zero One told me even an M130 should have been ok. I rang them specifically to get the green light on that spring in regard to the mods they'd done. Now they're telling me an M120 was "too much for those gears", adding that the 9.6v batteries they'd advised and supplied were too much for it too, until I told them I'd returned them for a refund and switched to 7.4v lipos (one of which was in the gun when it broke).

Going with everything I've read about Zero One from many old posts I've found spanning the years I think it's clear they're still a bunch of greedy scammers who prey on the weak.

As for their warranty stipulations, they are the same guys who told me I'd void the warranty on my MG42 if I removed the paint from its wooden butt and grips. Even when I pointed out those wooden parts could be removed easily from the gun and present no threat to the sensitive parts (gearbox etc) while using stripper on them.

It was simply an underhand excuse to have the warranty voided.

Did they explicitly say over the phone that your warranty would be ok if you changed out parts yourself?

Here's a screen shot of their t&c for their warranty. They should have at least warned you when you asked about the spring.-- attachment is not available --

"Used excessively." Lol. That alone is enough to have their T&Cs turned over on account of being "unfair and unreasonable."

But that was why I rang them to ask about the M130 spring, and the guy I spoke to in the tech dept (assumingly an expert) gave me the green light. Not that I consider using an advertised feature of the gun, within the spec of said gun, to be "modifying" or "upgrading" it anyway. But as Zone One consider removing two-tone paint from wood to be an act that voids a warranty I don't expect a small-claims judge would show them any mercy. What they're doing is blatant and leaving them wide-open to action from anyone who decides to go to the trouble of taking it.

Bottom line is the gears are advertised as being ok for an M120 spring (and their guy ok'd an even more powerful one) and the battery I was using was actually under the stock spec (they tried to use what they thought was my use of an over-spec battery as an excuse, so that ploy can cut both ways).

I've not had the promised return call, so I'll be ringing them tomorrow. If they're stupid enough to ignore the old adage of oiling the squeaky wheel I'll be costing them far more than the £76 they're trying to have me over for.

I'm afraid they're notorious for poor customer service and this sounds like a typical case. I've heard of many similar stories. I think you may well be in the position that as you changed the spring you have voided the warranty.

I'd rather define it as I'm in the position of them having a fraudulent excuse to try and void the warranty. They'll be getting a letter before action, followed by a small-claims case if they don't sort themselves out tomorrow. FMG, if they pull this kind of scam on customers who have spent thousands with them I pity anyone who spends a couple of hundred and has something go wrong. How the hell are these crooks still in business?!

The conclusion, now that the gun is on its way back to me. It's 20 minutes long but I think hearing it actually from the horse's mouth (as it were) is worth a thousand posts making what would otherwise be unsubstantiated claims. This is the proof of why nobody should buy a gun from Zero One. Needs listening through all the way for full exposure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsjRhQ_ ... e=youtu.be

Just listened to this video, exactly the same problem I had with my SRC MP41.

Sent it back for repair, which they charged for postage - fair enough.

when it arrived back, it didn't have single shot anymore, so I rang them up and they said, its not our fault... Even though clearly they hadn't put some of the washers and bearing back properly - Claimed it on shipping problems.

politely asked them to take it back and restore single shot for me, to which they said, do it yourself or pay for the labour/parts... I'm sorry, what?

Defiantly going to avoid them in future.

What companies would you recommend now?

I got the Ppsh-41 back from them a couple of weeks ago and at first it was like a different gun. The FPS was bang on and the RoF was up; they'd put 16:1 gears in it, albeit cheap s**t ZCA ones (I'd had £35 Guarders in, the ZCAs are £25 from them, £12 anywhere else). Not impressed with that rip-off but hey ho, the gun was transformed. Unfortunately it wouldn't fire on single-shot with the hop-up on (seemed to be no hop-up at all until about 70%, at which point the FPS would drop by 20 on full-auto).

Got it to the fortnightly game a few days later, tried to fire single-shot through the site's chrono, stripped a gear. One hour later my son's stock Ppsh locked up solid (total of three days' use over three fortnightly games). Rang Zero One the next day (Monday), agreed to have both sorted if I would agree to cover the full postage. With no assurance the repairs would be covered by the warranties.

Ho hum. They still have the guns, no word yet on what's to be done (early days still). I put a note in the box, asking them this time to a) put in gears of the same quality/value as I originally paid for and b) to fully test the bloody thing at all ranges of hop-up on both fire-modes before signing-off on the repair.

I chatted with some of the guys there, two of them had G&G Kar98's that had been going back and forwards between them and Zero One repeatedly...repaired...no it ain't...repaired...no it ain't.

Watch this space for updates I guess.

Certainly sounds like a good reason to take the plunge and learn how to do all your own upgrade work. Although I do still purchase from them on occasion, I've never been enamoured with ZeroOne's customer and interpersonal skills, it often feels like as the customer you're an irritation to them. I've bought two AEGs from them over the years and I don't think I would ever have contemplated returning kit to them under warranty even if I didn't have the skills to do the job myself.
Hope you get sorted out soon.

I gave them the option of refunding me the cost of the original up-graded gears (£35) and I'd do the work myself but they turned it down. I then asked them to use Lonex gears (I'd pay the difference) but they turned that down too. Just had an email, saying the guns are awaiting inspection & testing.

If this is an Ares PPSH to be honest its not a good gun to upgrade,specialist parts,that you can't get hold
of for starters.
When Tokyo Marui designed their gearboxes they were designed to run at 280 fps and then be disposed
Of and get a new product after a couple of years.
The fact people want to run their guns faster and harder was never
Considered by the designer,they are not exactly user friendly to work on,
and every component seems to be on the point of failing all the time.
Ares seem to have tried to innovate but for me not well Chinese materials
and manufacturing make it worse and all their designs have been cloned
By S+T who use other brand names to of load their crap,like snow wolf.
I have one of their Ares type PPSH,its crap,never been able to skirmish it yet.
The blow back puts strain on the gears and piston if not disconnected
and the split hop unit is bad also and often gives bad air seal so that is the
root of you full auto fps variance.I have seen one that actually fires at a game but
have heard of others that don't.
Certainly the gears should not have failed ,but Guarder gears are not highly
regarded at high load,although i have a set that run well with an M110
for some time,but this is another brand to avoid,bad nozzles and piston heads
and over priced.

All air soft gears are sintered ,thats metal powder compressed in a mould and
Baked,so not consistent strength.Good quality gears seem to be prometheus,
or the only machined from solid and hardened gears are Siegtek (spell check
that for me)but over £100 a set.
FPS is often over rated ,50 fps extra may only give you 20 foot more distance,
and 0.2 and .25 bbs seem not to need to be shot over 360fps to get the max range
they can fly for,heavier bb's can absorb more energy but cost a lot more to buy.
Also over 350 fps is likely to cause injury to unprotected skin and teeth so best
avoided.
To get that extra 50 fps may only be 15% more power but around 30% more stress
on your gearbox and internals,and also battery drain also.
Best upgrade you can do is use some good 0.25's,get a good air seal,which only
needs some filing and sealing ,very often,and stop inner barrel vibration.
That works for me,often all these so called upgrade parts do nothing,
and even make things worse if they are not a good fit in your gun.
That's my round up on upgrading anyway.

When Tokyo Marui designed their gearboxes they were designed to run at 280 fps and then be disposed of and get a new product after a couple of years.
The fact people want to run their guns faster and harder was never considered by the designer,they are not exactly user friendly to work on and every component seems to be on the point of failing all the time.

Basically true but at the same time rather unfair to TM. Yes their AEGs are best left stock and they perform perfectly well when left as such. My TM M1A1 Thompson is sixteen years old this year and is still going strong, I think I may have changed the gears once at most in that time. It was mildly upgraded about twelve years ago with an M100 spring and a bearing spring guide which in fact is about the limit of upgrades I tend to do on anything now. Early experience, my own and that of others taught me that going mad with upgrades rapidly gave diminishing performance returns and increased failure rate. My rule of thumb became generally to only replace stock parts when broken or worn and only then with items that would take the gun to the 330fps region alongside a good performing HOP.

One of the first things I did when I got my Ares PPSH was to deactivate the blowback feature. I've upgraded the hop bucking and barrel, also put in a m100 spring but that's it. Unfortunately it's never been a great shooter other than it can put out a lot of shots very quickly. At the last game I found the hop would just randomly adjust itself throughout the day. I wonder if it's to do with the vibration from the piston.

On the other hand my Thompson and Sten are very accurate and keep up well with the hi cap heroes at skirmish days.

At the last game I found the hop would just randomly adjust itself throughout the day. I wonder if it's to do with the vibration from the piston.

If you remove the entire barrel assembly you'll find there's a grub-nut that goes through the plastic hop-up dial and friction-contacts the metal groove underneath. Zero One neglected to tighten it properly on mine after they'd done the upgrade and it led to the same problem you're having. After tightening the grub-nut the hop-up setting stayed solid.

One of the first things I did when I got my Ares PPSH was to deactivate the blowback feature. I've upgraded the hop bucking and barrel, also put in a m100 spring but that's it. Unfortunately it's never been a great shooter other than it can put out a lot of shots very quickly. At the last game I found the hop would just randomly adjust itself throughout the day. I wonder if it's to do with the vibration from the piston.

On the other hand my Thompson and Sten are very accurate and keep up well with the hi cap heroes at skirmish days.

by contrast my S&T PPSH performs pretty well for what it is, it arrived hot out of the box but an m110 spring later and it's one of my favourite guns, aside from the bloody hi-caps.