Forgive me for the long post...
He’s baaack...
I have finally had a moment to sit and read most of the comments about this issue. It has been quite interesting to read all of the different point of views on this matter.
Before I get started, let me say that this issue is really not about me or my ball. It is about “CUSTOMER SERVICEâ€. If I had written out every little detail about what happened the other day, the original post might have looked like a small novel. I was at work at the time when I wrote and I was not fully focused on getting down every single detail. The actual experience in the shop did not take more than twenty minutes. However, the memory of bad customer service from that particular pro shop will last a hell of a lot longer.
Now to all of the folks who have chimed in about whether or not I was being truthful about this matter... Let me say this... “I have no need to lie†about this. It serves no purpose in this matter. However, I do understand that my perspective is from a “customer’s standpointâ€. And from that point of view, I did not expect for anyone to intentionally try to mislead me just because I did not purchase a ball at their place of business.
Hear are a few facts.
1. I went to the shop to get a ball drilled and to buy a few other accessories.
2. I came in with a new ball, new inserts, and a new thumb slug.
3. When I opened my bag, the driller sees the ball and the inserts.
4. I pull the ball out of my bowling bag, (the ball is still in the plastic bag that comes with the new ball) and then I give it to him.
5. He takes the ball, pulls it out of the plastic bag, then puts the plastic bag back in my bowling bag. He then proceeds to walk back to the drilling area.
6. As he is walking back, he says “I may have to charge you $60 dollars for the drilling.â€
7. The posted price is $50 on his pricing menu.
8. The price that I paid two weeks before when I had another ball drilled was $50. The exact total that I paid for the entire drilling was actually $65. I also purchased a thumb slug from him. The shop charges $15 for a thumb slug.
The mention of the price difference was the first blip on my radar. I didn’t say anything because nothing had been done. In that brief moment, I knew that there was the possibility that they had raised the price of drilling and that it just had not been posted yet. (Possibility – He said...)
Still with me?...
9. Read the original post for those details.
10. I knew what a “DeTerminator†machine was before I came in the shop. However, I did not know at the time that in order to get a true reading for the mass bias, the ball should be spun at least twice.
11. See
http://www.jayhawkbowling.com/DeTerminator/DeTmanual.pdf for more info. (Every serious bowler should read this document!!)
12. This is a key point... He did not perform the steps as they are written. He may not have had to do so. He knows more about his machine than I do. However, he did not mark the ball and he definitely did not use a Pro-Sect to check the markings.
13. I watched him put the ball on the machine. He did not spin it twice before he said “I hope you didn’t pay a lot for this ball…â€.
14. When he put his ball on the machine, he did not spin it twice.
I will say this again. At the time, I did not know all the technical aspects of the DeTerminator machine. But I do know what I feel like when something does not feel right. Did I know he was trying to mislead me at the time? No, I did not. Did I feel like there might be an issue with getting my ball drilled at that particular moment? Yes! Yes, I did.
15. After spinning his ball, he spins my ball again. (Verification – LOL!)
16. He then says... “Now, I can not give you a trade, but...†then he immediately starts to look through his inventory of balls.
17. While he is looking, he says out loud, “Here is one with a five inch pin.â€
That’s when I picked up my stuff! My “radar†was at full blast then. There were blips all over my radar screen. LOL! That’s when I started to put my stuff back in the bag.
He then goes on some more about the how other companies had a few issues with their balls. As I am picking up my bag, he tries to tell me about how he could give me a discount if I purchased a ball, bag, and shoes at the same time.
Small talk, small talk... Gotta go! That’s when I walked out.
I called Storm later that afternoon. I tell the tech rep that I wanted to ask a few questions about mass bias settings/markings. I also told him that I thought that the shop might have been trying to pull a fast one because I brought a ball into the shop. He agreed.
After asking him a few questions, the rep then stated that it was “very rare†that their balls are mislabled or marked incorrectly. He did say that is does occur once in a while, but it was unlikely to occur. He also said that if a pro shop’s machine is not calibrated properly, or if the ball starts to wobble, that you might not get a true reading from the DeTerminator machine. He then offered to ship me another ball if my ball turned out to be not up to specs after I had it checked at another shop. (Remember the thing is said about about “Customer Support�)
After the conversation with Storm, I looked for and found the document listed above.
The first chance I got, I went to another shop to get my ball checked. The original pro shop driller did not become a “liar†on the day I went into his shop. He became a liar after I got the ball checked out “properly†and drilled at another shop. The rest is history!
Customer support is not about trying to mislead a customer in order to make a sale. To me, that is unacceptable and unprofessional. And folks, I don’t care how you look at it, that is exactly what occurred in this situation. I guess he was trying to make me feel like I had purchased “inferior†equipment because it was not purchased from his shop.
He checked my stuff, told me it wasn’t up to snuff, then tried to sell me something. Twice! Can you blame him? Not if you are in the pro shop business. LOL! He saw a customer come in with a new ball AND inserts, then probably thought that I was trying to cut his profits.
From a customer’s standpoint... Hell yeah, you can blame him. He’s trying to get my money and I am trying to save it. LOL! Seriously, why would he even take the risk? I had just come in a few weeks before to get something drilled. (From my perspective, everything went fine that day.) They didn’t go out of business because I saved thirty dollars. LOL! I even told him then that I would be back in June. I also told him then that I was replacing all of my old equipment because I want to move down to 14 pound balls. If he had an issue with me bringing in a ball from outside of his shop, then that was the perfect time to say something.
Did he know that I was waiting to purchase the Virtual Energy from him later this month? No. But I sure planned on telling him after I got the Gravity drilled. Did he know that I also wanted to purchase one more ball after that? No. But I planned on telling him that, too. In trying to get his $20 or $40 dollars back or whatever, he missed out on another $200 or $400+ from the pending sales alone.
To the pro shop owners, do what you do to keep your business going. But keep in mind that saving money is not a crime. The next time someone brings a ball to you to be drilled, accept their money just as if they bought that ball from your shop. The last time I checked, the color of money is still GREEN! Whether you want to save it or earn it is up to you. Your customer support should be the same for all of your customers. Treat them with respect and professionalism and they will gladly go out their way to spend at your shop.
PEACE!
