Shock over $1700 kids’ paintball party

TONY Blackwood thought he was giving his 15-year-old daughter the dream birthday party – a day out paintballing with 12 friends.

Instead, he was charged $1700 – and says he was misled by the company.

His wife paid Delta Force a $280 deposit, and expected to only have to purchase paintball pellets on the day.

But when he arrived at the paintball site at Woodhill Forest, west of Auckland, Blackwood was told he needed to pay for upgraded safety equipment, and sold thousands of paintball pellets.

Delta Force is now investigating how the Titirangi film technician ended up being charged an extra $1440 after being upsold extra safety equipment and paintball pellets.

Blackwood was left with thousands of unused pellets, and was refused a refund, and ended up giving the pellets away to other paintballers.

Blackwood says he raised concerns about the expense on the day, but didn’t want to ruin his daughter’s birthday.

He tried to contact Delta Force the following day, and was assured someone would contact him, but he never heard back from the company.

‘‘It’s a disgusting way to run a business and I don’t want any other families to go through what I’ve been through.’’

A spokeswoman for Delta Force said an investigation was being carried out.

The Commerce Commission said it had received five reports about the company over the past year, and had given it ‘‘compliance advice’’ in the past.

The firm Delta Force was investigated by TVNZ’s Fair Go in 2011 for complaints it was trying to sell paintball vouchers at stalls in shopping malls. Several people complained the deals were misleading and it would have been cheaper to buy the tickets from the company’s website.

Worksafe NZ confirmed it had received a complaint but were not taking further action.