Quote from: psycaz on March 24, 2016, 08:00:51 AM

Here is there original release:

March 15, 2016
Today the USBC announced that they have pulled approval of the Jackal and Jackal Carnage bowling balls due to non-conformance with current specifications. Recent spot checking in the marketplace showed that both balls had an average differential over the maximum limit of .060.
We are currently working on a form for our website that will allow bowlers to submit their Jackal or Jackal Carnage into a database to become eligible for a replacement ball. We expect the form to be online March 23. While we will not be able to reimburse drilling fees, we will replace the bowling ball with a current model or a future release of the Jackal. More details will be coming soon.
Thank you very much for your business. We sincerely apologize.


It's easy to see why folks expected to start registering the balls for replacement, it's what their own press release says. While the date leaves room that it might be a day or two later, the concept of what would happen is clear. The subsequent information from Motiv did nothing to change that expectation.

The Daily News article contains quotes from Scott Wilbur conveying that same information.

They put the expectation out there. They needed to manage their customers expectations. Any deviation, especially one this big, needed to be conveyed asap.
Again, not saying it's not their right to challenge the findings. Saying this is not how to deal with your customers who are sitting on an unusable product.

I spent over a decade in customer service related areas. When deviating dramatically from what the customer was promised, you advise the customer asap of the change. They may and probably won't like it, but it shows you respect their patronage.

Waiting until 4:40pm on the 23rd, give or take a few, shows little respect for their customers.

We expect the form to be online March 23

That's not exactly carved in stone.  And since the information and circumstances changed the situation, they did COMMUNICATE on the 23rd to meet customer expectation of an action item.  So they should ignore new information and not pursue what is arguably a more beneficial outcome for both themselves and their customers?

Quote from: Snakster on March 24, 2016, 08:34:15 AM

Quote from: bambalam on March 24, 2016, 08:10:51 AM

For the statistical discussion above, based on the tolerance you suggested, for a sample of any size to average at the upper tolerance limit and the population be on target are very low. For a sample of just 4 the probability would be almost zero.

yeah it's a tight spec. which furthers the point.

I must have misunderstood you. It seemed you were arguing that it was to be expected that the individuals could range all the way up to 0.0612, so the fact that there was a sample that averaged that was normal. It is not.

There are bigger things in my life to worry about that a BOWLING BALL!

I would be SHOCKED, TOTALLY SHOCKED if the USBC reverses course on this. It would totally ruin any remaining credibility they have. Motiv's only recourse will be a lawsuit and I don't see them doing that. If they lose the lawsuit, they still have to pay for the replacements. Add in legal fees and Motiv could go bankrupt.

In fact, I 100% believe that Motiv is fighting this because they know they will go bankrupt, and possibly out of business, if they have to absorb the costs to replace all of these bowling balls. Motiv already said it will cost at least $1 million to replace all of the balls. I don't see a small company like Motiv having that kind of money just sitting in the bank.

Quote from: Bowler19525 on March 24, 2016, 12:15:51 PM

Last story I read about Motiv a few years ago, they said they can produce up to 50,000 balls annually at the Muskegon factory.  The curing time for each ball is 2.5 weeks from start to finish.  If that is still the case, and Motiv intends to resume production of compliant Jackals, they would potentially need to stop production of all other balls for a few weeks to be able to produce enough replacement balls in a timely fashion for all of the bowlers and distributors out there that will be due replacements.  Once they get caught up, they could go back to mixing the production line.

I wonder if the $1M Motiv cost being floated out there is a comprehensive number that accounts for tooling, production, potential shortages of other balls, etc.?  Or if the $1M is strictly the value of the Jackal units that will need to be swapped out (not considering any other factors)?

How many Jackals are out in the wild at this point?  5,000?  10,000? 

There is no way they can use the Jackal name after this.  It would be to confusing for tournament officials to know which are good and which are illegal.