Help Taylormade - Stealth 2 Plus Driver CRACKED but Hong Kong distributor won't provide a warranty replacement

Rlawogus · February 5

Hi,

I'm an Aussie expat living in Hong Kong. I bought a Stealth 2 Plus driver from a friend (new condition / still in wrapping), who bought it from a store called Jumbo Apex in Hong Kong. She had originally bought it for her husband but he didn't want it.

The driver was bought new around September 2023, I've had an injury for around 3 months, so in reality I've only used this driver for 3 months on the range.

Today the driver cracked at the range during normal play. I noticed my distance was shorter by around 10% for the last 5 or so hits before the crack (even though I was hitting the centre of the face), then I heard it crack, and you can see the crack in the photos.

I tried to call up the store to get the warranty honoured, the store tracked the serial number and submitted the claim (according to them) to the Hong Kong distributor of Taylormade (RC Golf trading group) - https://sourcing.hktdc.com/en/Supplier-Store-Directory/RC-Golf-Trading-Group-Ltd/1S00OILJU

The response was that, this club (tracked by serial number) had already been 'repaired under warranty before', and therefore they cannot offer another replacement. This is a bizarre response, the store is now providing no further communication to me. I contacted the HK distributor, but they told me to talk to the store.
I don't understand why a record of repair exists for a club that was still in its brand new wrapping, the only two possibilities I can think of are:

1. The store is being dishonest and sold my friend a 'replacement unit' without informing her that that product will come without a warranty

2. My friend is being 'dishonest' and didn't tell me that she was selling me a replacement unit - but I guess from her perspective, whether or not it was a replacement unit, she was selling me a new driver

Regardless of the above, even if the club had been repaired/replaced before by Taylormade, I don't understand why a clearly defective unit will not be replaced for that reason.

Could someone from Taylormade USA step in and help me out? I bought this driver to replace my Stealth Plus 1 (I have both the driver and the fairway), but if I end up losing out here I probably will never buy Taylormade again. Stealth models always had rumours of durability concerns, but we buy with piece of mind because Taylormade are known to have excellent warranty, but it seems with the third party distributor in the middle in Hong Kong, that's not the case.

Thanks,

Joe

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Edited February 5 by Rlawogus

grochol17 · February 5

I'll add a 3rd possibility... this driver is counterfeit or "fell off a truck" and the store won't warranty it because they can't and they won't talk to you about it anymore because they don't want to admit it isn't legitimate.

You could always e-mail TM USA and give them the serial number and see what they say.

Rlawogus · February 5

Wow I never considered that, with Jumbo being one of the biggest stores in Hong Kong, but crazier things have happened in Hong Kong.

lipw87 · February 5

Call Taylormade. They have an online replacement process for US customers. I've had good experiences with them.

grochol17 · February 6

On 2/5/2024 at 9:43 AM, Rlawogus said:

Wow I never considered that, with Jumbo being one of the biggest stores in Hong Kong, but crazier things have happened in Hong Kong.

I don't know anything about Jumbo, but it could even be something like they took it in on a trade trying to be nice to a customer, but the person trading it in got it through illegitimate sources. It is an odd response that they just stopped talking to you, which is why I'm wondering if something weird is going on. I'd still say to e-mail TM directly and see if they can give you more info/help.

TM_HOYER · February 7

Here is another possibility of what happened. A customer of the store had a defective TaylorMade driver which the store sent in for a warranty replacement. The store then gave the customer a replacement from store stock. When the warranty replacement came in, they put it on the store floor for sale. Now they are ghosting you because they messed up. Your best option to get a resolution would be to go to the store where it was bought and bring the receipt from when your friend bought it with you if they still have it.

TwistedSister · February 7

Are the letters "ARP" etched into the hosel on the back?

Rlawogus · March 12

Thanks for the suggestions all, as an update, after much back and forth, driver has been confirmed as a genuine model, and the distributor has replaced it with an identical but used model, they didn't have any new stock left and wasn't willing to replace it with the Qi10.

Not an ideal solution as the replacement model is more worn than my one, but I'm overall satisfied with the outcome as I'm not left out of pocket. In the meantime, I got fitted for the new Ping G430 10K, and this will be my last Taylormade product until I move out of Hong Kong back to Australia or a country where I can deal with Taylormade directly instead of through distributors.

Luckily, I'm having a really good time with the 10K, so I'll be selling the Stealth 2 replacement driver online.

Edited March 12 by Rlawogus