Bought a Storm Cross Road last night (and a Roto Dark Star). I literally took my two new pieces to another center to jackpot with a few friends, as usual on Friday night. Around the 4th frame of the frist game, one of the guys noticed that he had 2-3" scrapes all over his ball, roughly 6-8 total. Apparently, more than half(6 of us) of our balls received this type of damage including my Cross Road which was literally  a couple of hours old. 

 

My ball looked like a ball that had 50-75 games on it and would need to be resurfaced at least to repair the damage. Am I wrong for demanding that they replace this ball that didn't have a game on it? Another thing to consider, during league play before we got there, bowlers complained about the problem, which they claim they fixed before allowing us to bowl on those lanes. I generally agree that normal wear and tear occurs and that scrapes will accumulate over time. I do feel that this is a unique situation and since the ball was so freaking new that my ball should fall into the replacement category. What do you guys think?

Most centers will try to resurface the ball, if the scratches are light.  Deeper ones they will try to repair.  They usually have an agreement with the pro shop that they do these repairs at no cost to the center.

 

I think, if you were a regular bowler there, they would probably work closer with you in corecting the problem but since you are not (at least I do not think) a regular house bowler then its a tough call.

 

As already said, talk to the owner/manager and try to work something out.  Remember, it wasn't just your ball that got damaged, so whatever he does for you he will have to do for the others.  This itself could be his reason for taking the cheapest route.

 

 

 

The biggest concern the center owner has is that if he replaces one ball then the floodgates will open and everyone will expect their ball to be replaced. That's one of the biggest reasons that many centers refuse to replace balls that are not completely ruined.

Update: Got to really look at the ball yesterday. The majority of the deeper scratches were right outside the bridge area, nothing in the track area. Smaller scratches and nicks were close to the track area but not especially deep. I just had the pro shop operator there resurface by the fingers and not the entire ball.

 

When I spoke to the owner, I was initially told that the operator couldn't resurface until Monday no matter what although he was working at the time with only one customer in the shop. After explaining multiple times that I needed completed Saturday because I would be going back home Sunday (3hours away) he finally realized that it wouldn't take much effort to quickly get it resurfaced.

 

He then continued to ask a few chastising questions like, "if one guy saw a scratch, why did you all keep bowling"? To which I replied, he noticed the scratch when it was his turn to bowl the next frame. At that point, the damage had been to done to almost everybody's equipment. Also asked bluntly "Why were you here yesterday anyway" To which I replied, I didn't know that I couldn't occasionally visit my hometown and bowl at the local centers.

 

It should be noted that in that morning that I was there, the youth league bowlers experienced the same problem with their equipment on the same pair of lanes, had to be moved. Apparently they were still having problems with that pair of lanes and allowing bowlers to damage their equipment until the issue was fully resolved. 

 

I spoke with a reasonable tone the entire time but when he began to question my intelligence, it took a lot for me to keep from making a scene there at the counter. The pro shop owner was very professional about the situation, the owner and staff, not so much. 

Being a former proprietor BW is correct.  Once a center starts replacing balls everyone wants a new ball.  The question here is if there were a bunch of guys bowling and they all have scratches once it happened did you ask to be moved? or did you continue on.  A center owner will repair minor scratches but if you knew the lanes were damaging balls and you continued to bowl chances of replacing the balls are almost zero.  If you threw a couple shots and reported it that may be a different story.  It is very common for bowlers that are not regulars to bring balls from other centers and claim they were damaged in the center.  We had a center 30 miles away that damaged a lot of balls.  People would bring them to me to have them fixed and said my center did it because our pro shop was a lot better.  If you bowled at my center on a regular basis and I could track your activities I would be more apt to replace the ball.  Many centers if they do replace a ball also require that the ball be drilled there.  They will keep the old ball resurface it and sell it. 

 

Smash49

 

 

 

 

 

The center manager or owner will hopefully do a good job investigating your issue and get you taken care of properly.  They most likely will go thru a process to see exactly what did occur.  They don't want to lose your business but they want to make sure replacing a ball is justified.  It is kind of like going down a check list and eliminating all the bad things that can happen and protecting themselves and making you happy in the process.  Honestly very few people try to pull something like ball damage scams over on centers but it does happen.  There is a certain amount of damages that centers allow for.  Machines do fail.  Center managers usually are well aware of what goes on and have procedures to go by.  My suggestion is be patient and understand.  I am sure you and the center will come to an agreement.  If your not happy with what ends up happening it is bad for the center unless they have a horrible reputation in the first place. 

 

Smash49