[Tiptoe]

Well, after having a terrible experience (including ruined birthday plans) trying and ultimately failing to purchase a CA MP5SD from 007, I found ASC through a friend and lurked these forums for a while. Everyone here seemed to be giving others like me the same advice: get age verified and order through Shootsoft... the transaction will be fast and foolproof. So, even though I was convinced at this point that the Universe didn't want me to have a quality, full-metal MP5SD, I went through Shootsoft.

Shootsoft's website proclaimed that everything I could see in the products list had already cleared customs (and was therefore, one might assume, sitting in a Canadian warehouse, somewhere.)

I requested a status update at the one month / no gun mark, which is about 20 business days. (Unlike 007, at least I always got 1-day responses from Shootsoft.) Unfortunately, the response I got claimed the order was "still in the hands of our distributor" ...and it included a refund.

I just don't believe that even the worst distributors in Canada would take a month to pull a small box off a shelf and put it in the mail, even if their post office was located in Tuktoyaktuk. In my speculative opinion, the month-long delay seems much more likely a customs issue than a slow-as-zombies Canadian distributor issue.

I can only assume that this "already cleared customs" advertisement is not true.

Anyway, based on my false confidence in Shootsoft's claim that all of their products are in-country & customs-cleared, I went ahead to ehobby and spent upwards of $150 (+duty) on MP5-specific accessories (magazines, sling, mount) which are all currently useless to me. Had I known I'd get 007ed on the deal, I would never have purchased the accessories before getting my hands on the gun itself. Good thing I never bought the compatible Pelican case. Lucky the Eotech clone works so well with my M4. Glad the 2 mini batteries still work with my M4.

So, to rote-regurgitate every existing review of 007 and Shootsoft combined, "I'm sure he's a great guy and everything, and I realize that, although posing online as a standard business, he has lots of super-important full time shit to do, BUT..." ...overall, I feel I got 007ed, and it sucks to be me, b/c the Universe obviously DOESN'T want me to have a good quality full-metal MP5SD, and if I hadn't recently purchased an M4A1 from Mopic (quick, flawless transaction), I probably wouldn't be playing any summer games at all.

Lesson learned #2: Don't buy stuff for your gun until you get your gun.