Battle of the Driver Shafts

[deadsolid...shank]

Jag - don't see how stating facts is deriding, but whatever. Thought this was a place (and especially DOND) to discuss "Deals", give opinions of what is a "No Deal".

 

Straightshot - I fully understand free market economy. And you obviously didn't read too thoroughly, or you'd know how I feel about price matching. And we are talking about a nine year old shaft in my reference, not something being used as a loss leader or Golfworks needing to unload inventory fast.

 

Why has this been moved back into the equipment forum where it started, when it originally was moved to DOND?

 

Hallie, as someone in retail for the last 26 years I can say this. You can’t ever bump someone up in price, but you can always come down.

 

We were almost always the highest price in town, and I don’t apologize for it. The money we made from starting the prices higher and working from there way more than offset the potential customer who was so upset that we couldn’t even talk with them further. There’s only one way to maximize your profit, and that’s by having a starting point high enough to work from. I fully appreciate that some people don’t appreciate that way of operating, but you have to do what gives you the potential for the best margin.

[straightshot7]

Jag - don't see how stating facts is deriding, but whatever. Thought this was a place (and especially DOND) to discuss "Deals", give opinions of what is a "No Deal".

 

Straightshot - I fully understand free market economy. And you obviously didn't read too thoroughly, or you'd know how I feel about price matching. And we are talking about a nine year old shaft in my reference, not something being used as a loss leader or Golfworks needing to unload inventory fast.

 

Why has this been moved back into the equipment forum where it started, when it originally was moved to DOND?

 

No problemo man. I just don't agree with bashing a company and accusing them of price gauging because their pricing is higher than other websites that you visit.

 

ShaftShack is a sponsor of the site and a small business, and I don't think your criticisms were really fair. And they seemed totally excessive.

 

I will admit perhaps I have a bias because I get sick of the arrogant online buyer that thinks every business should cow tail to them. They want the greatest deal in the world and even when they get it, they demand free shipping on top of that. And any website that isn't willing to comply with their demands is in the wrong and not a reputable business! Lol. I'm not saying this is you halliedog, just a general characterization of other things I've read from buyers.

[dxdgenert]

Update: Shaftshack hit me with a totally unwarranted $15 late fee. NOT HAPPY. Disreputable operation.

 

Details? Was your return late or not? From other complaints you've made about the whole process, it sounds like either you didn't ask enough questions (i.e. shaft length, adapter, etc.) and if shaft shack is going to suggest to people "HEY, TRY US" then you owe it to your fellow members to let us know if there was a problem or not, especially when you toss out the claim, "Disreputable operation"

 

Hi Duffer222,

 

We were kind of hoping to let this whole debacle sink into the abyss, but it has strangely been moved to this forum and not left in the Club Tech forum were it originated, aside from the fact that our experience with this customer, after the fact, was not pleasant for us by any means. Regardless, it looks like we're being called to the front of the classroom here...

 

So yes, Duffer222, you are very astute, as the OP did not ask any questions or read the Terms of Service he agreed to prior to placing his order, and in the interim obviously came back here to write some misleading things.

 

Let's clear up these things, and make sure we can move forward in a positive direction.

 

1. All our demo shafts are cut to a playing length of 45 inches. And because we utilize the Club Conex adapter system for our demos, and because it is true that some OEM hosels can sit a cm higher or lower than others, this means that the final playing length of your club, with our demo shafts, might be a centimeter above or below 45 inches. But definitely not 44.75 inches like the OP stated.

 

2. The OP made the claim that he was hit with an "unwarranted" late fee. Definitely not true. We keep detailed USPS tracking records of everything we send out and include tracked return shipping labels and that includes a required signature confirmation of all shipments. We are not about to post the tracking #s of the OP's order here, as they would obviously then reveal his identity and home address. But let's be clear, the real reason we are so anal about the method in which we send demo shafts in the mail, is to mitigate risk, and alleviate any burden away from the customer and give us enough legal documentation in the event we need to make an insurance claim or in the event the customer never returns the shafts to us so we can make a claim or send info to a collection agency, a sad and ugly truth of the rental industry. But we have to protect ourselves too. Look, we know no one likes late fees, but think of it this way, we are sending anywhere from $400-$4,000 worth of demo shafts in a single package/order and (1) we need to make sure it can be insured in the event it gets lost, damaged, or stolen through no fault of our own or yours. We surely don't want our customers being responsible for $1000s of equipment because they asked us to leave the package on their doorstep with out signature confirmation and it got stolen, or the Post Office damaged the shafts in the mailing process. And (2) Yes, we do charge late fees, as per the Terms and Conditions on our site. But let's be clear again, our business is not centered around making money on late fees. Trust me when I say I would rather forego a $15 late fee over potentially loosing a customer who may be worth $1000s down the road and lots of good word-of-mouth advertising. But we have to stick to our guns on this policy, otherwise we are prone to a few bad apples taking advantage of the system and making our service unreliable for others. You see, more often than not, we have many other customers waiting for the return of a demo that has already been checked out. So the late fee serves as deterrent and helps motivate customers to be timely and ultimately respectful of those in the queue. Regardless, the OP could have called us in advance, and told us he was going to be late in sending the package back and needed an extra day or asked for an extension or volunteered to pay the pro-rated overtime. But he obviously did none of that, instead he decided to take his frustrations to the internet...

 

Look, I wish we could have all the demos shafts in the world, and did not have to rely on people retuning things on time, but that would make ShaftShack a charity, and not a business. And while the OP is entitled to his opinion, we disagree with him calling us a "disreputable operation." You know, it's funny, but running ShaftShack.com is a lot like checking out books at your local library. Everybody has to play by the rules if the community is going to benefit from the service.

 

Ultimately, my brothers and I created ShaftShack.com to help solve a small niche problem of an imperfect system by empowering passionate golf enthusiasts interested in experiencing the world's best equipment by giving them the tools they need to definitively answer the questions at hand. Especially golfer's who do not have easy access to these high-end products and/or for those who believe that golf is played in the real world and products need to be tested outside under real conditions and not just on a simulator. Is this business unorthodox? Yes! Is it slightly disruptive? Yes! Will it make us rich…probably not. But it serves an unmet need, gives us a sense of purpose, has been really fun, frustrating at times, and rewarding, and for that we will continue against all adversity and bumps in the road to help those customers who see it the same way.

 

Thank you. We hope that helps! ;)

 

Sincerely,

 

Phil Weston

ShaftShack.com

Tele: 1-888-751-5127

Email: [email protected]

You know that 1 cm is MORE than 1/4 inch, correct?

 

Yes, thank you for pointing that out.

 

The shortest a driver should play with our demos is 45 inches, and the longest 45.39 inches.

 

ShaftShack.com

I’m sorry to play role of the Devil’s advocate but what you’re saying cannot be true. You, yourself, said that playing lengths can vary by a centimeter, due to difference in OEM adapters. I get that. You cannot guarantee then that a shaft will play at least 45”, unless you’ve cut every single shaft to the shortest possible OEM configuration, whoever that may be. Is that what you are suggesting?

[kiw1982]

Your swing profile is exactly the same with mine.

I went for a fitting and ended up with KuroKage HBP S with extra tipping.

 

It wasn't even a contender for me.

But it was outperforming fancy and expensive shafts.

[ShaftShack.com]

Wow.

 

I don't know if we should be laughing or crying right now -haha!

 

I feel like the problem with these internet chat forums is that it is really hard sometimes to interpret everyone's questions/tone/expectations/sentiments/etc. And then to trying to and respond accordingly without being misinterpreted is also a big challenge/gamble.

 

I'm kind of wondering if we should do a live youtube feed to answer all your questions?

 

Do you guys go on youtube? We have a channel, but weren't planning to do anything with it till later this year.

 

Is that something of interest? It's seems with something like +4k views on this thread alson, it might be?

 

Let us know!

 

Hope that helps!

 

Sincerely,

 

ShaftShack.com