BOTACHTACTICAL.COM

[vigilant2]

I purchased 2 M95 Gas masks w CA21 filters from them back in Nov 2001. Their
price was half what everyone else was asking. The order went through smoothly, got items in a timely manner with no problems. Since then I've read
loads of complaints on various sites. I'll consider myself fortunate but won't be ordering from them again. Their website is a pain to navigate.

[Al U. 5811]

Dude you don't have any idea how "luck" and I get along.

I would be the last guy to stand next to in a lightning storm.......or mortar attack.

[ST911]

Once in awhile there's a deal good enough for a throw of the dice with Botach. I ordered several items on the Woolrich closeout July 2. No comms for several days. Call to BT was met with a "someone will contact you" response. An email notification of partial shipment was received thereafter. Partial order (in-stock items) arrived today 7/14, all pants in various styles and quantities. The balance of the order wasn't in stock. They charged my card correctly, on shipment.

Not my best Botach experience, not the worst. At $19.95/ea for the pants, the extra bother paid off. Credit where credit is due.

[Rider79]

Had good experiences with them in the past, quick shipping, but I don't like their practice of charging your card immediately, especially when the in stock status of their items is questionable. However, my past few times dealing with them have been terrible, with the exception of a Pelican case I ordered from them a month or so ago. Items just haven't shipped, and I've just emailed them and cancelled. No reply, but the charge disappeared. Did that about a month ago for some Glock mags, Lancer mags, and batteries. Nothing for about a week, so I emailed and cancelled. No reply, but the charge disappeared. Get an email today, saying my items have shipped, and my card is charged again. No big deal, I can use the stuff, but seriously, WTF?

[bkb0000]

there's positives to charging the card immediately- like not being over your limit in three months when they ship.

[the1911fan]

Once I started using the police dept. (work) address as the shipping address for my orders they have been 100% timely and accurate..maybe it is coincidence but I was advised to no longer use my home address after having a few problems similar to what I have read here and it has worked great.

[chadbag]

Had good experiences with them in the past, quick shipping, but I don't like their practice of charging your card immediately, especially when the in stock status of their items is questionable. However, my past few times dealing with them have been terrible, with the exception of a Pelican case I ordered from them a month or so ago. Items just haven't shipped, and I've just emailed them and cancelled. No reply, but the charge disappeared. Did that about a month ago for so Glock mags, Lancer mags, and batteries. Nothing for about a week, so I emailed and cancelled. No reply, but the charge disappeared. Get an email today, saying my items have shipped, and my card is charged again. No big deal, I can use the stuff, but seriously, WTF?

They are not actually charging your card when you first place the order. They are doing what is called a "pre-auth". They do a "pre-authorization" for the total amount of the order but they do not close it out until they ship. Ie, they do not get your money. This is the same thing that happens to you when go to one of those "swipe the card pay at the pump" gas stations. They do a "pre-authorization" against your card when you first swipe it and before you pump -- but since they don't know how much you are going to pump they will pre-auth $50 or $75 (or more depending on gas prices and average sale) but when you are done pumping they will actually close out the pre-auth to finalize the charge but at the actual sale amount. It sometimes can take a few days for the "pre-auth" to go away once they finalize the charge so you will log in to your banks online system and check and it shows you down $50 or $75 even though you pumped only $20 in gas, and then mysteriously a few days later your available credit jumps up $30 or so bucks as you get that pre-auth back.

Except in BOTACH (and others who pre-auth you) case, the pre-auth only will last for a week usually (each bank may have slightly different policies) and so if BOTACH does not ship to you within the week, you magically get that money back on your spending limit. They just never finalized the charge and it expired.

Why do they do this? They want to make sure you can pay for your purchase before they go to the hassle of packing it up I guess. But since half the crap BOTACH sells they don't have in stock the pre-auth ends up being a PITA for you since you think your stuff is coming. It doesn't, you get pissed thinking they have charged your card (which they kind of have but they don't get the money) and then a month later they actually ship and do an actual charge on your card.

I almost never do a pre-auth unless I get someone who places a special custom order I have to get in and I want to make sure the money is allocated to me before I order it in as it is expensive to return special order stuff I don't normally ship. BOTACH seems to do it automatically on every order.

[chadbag]

there's positives to charging the card immediately- like not being over your limit in three months when they ship.

Actually the pre-authorization they do (they don't do a full charge it seems -- the experience you are replying to mirrors my own with them) expires in about 7 days, plus or minus...

[Rider79]

Well, I've had mostly good experiences with them in the past, but the whole Obama panic has really thrown things off with them I guess. I used to order stuff, select UPS ground for shipping, and have it the next day almost every time. Ever since the whole debacle with the Pmag backorders everything has pretty much been f'ed up with them. I ordered that Pelican case, and got that next day, but nothing else has been right. I've pretty much given up on them, good prices or not.

[Rider79]

Received the package today, everything was there, in good condition, no problems. Came in a soft sided bubble wrap package which was so dirty on the outside it looked like it laid under a shelf in a workshop for a month.

Maybe that's why it took so long.