Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Companies => Custom companies => Fusion Sports => Topic started by: Howzat on July 16, 2009, 06:34:10 PM
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EDIT: Having been invited to phone Bill, I had a nice conversation with him. Bill explained to me that Fusion are happy to deal with any customers complaints/problems. We had a nice discussion about cricket and I will be sending my bat off to the guys at Fusion who have said they will be happy to check it out and resolve my problem.
I realise in hindsight it would have been much better to get in contact with Bill in the first place!
Thanks to Fusion for their top customer support.
Well I decided to use the Fusion I have seems as I sold my CE, to be honest it didn't really "go" at all, it feels perfect when I stand in my stance with it and looks lovely but the ball refuses to ping off it.
I got the bat free during the sticker design competition that was held by Fusion last year but haven't really used it until now.
I thought it might be that it wasn't knocked in fully so I used the mallet on it for a good 5 hours despite the fact it was pre-knocked in, no difference to the ping.
I thought it might just be me making the bat feel bad but I gave it to a few of my teammates who used it during the match and received the following comments...
Player 1 - "Thats the worst bat I have used in 55 years of cricket"
Player 2 -"When I hit it - it sounds like a gun going off"
Player 3 -"Feels lovely in my hands but the ball doesn't go anywhere off it"
Anyone got any idea what could be wrong, it really is poor?
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Would guess it's a case of middle positioning or dodgy piece of willow
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I had a bat I chose from Warrior bats made by the great Richard Wensley.. Just the same terrible and nothing I could do made a difference. Gave it away in the end!
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I know exactly what you mean. I refurbished a GM Catalyst 909 today and all of our team have said the same... that it doesnt ping. I have oiled the bat twice and knocked it in and its improved a little i think, but i dont know whether its just me or something has improved. Maybe email fusion and see what they think?
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What should I say in the email? Not sure what to say its not like I can be picky really... it was free!
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From what i've heard, when people use my 'non-branded' bats. They seem to have negativity in there head before they pick it up, and they just say its crap. Some say different though. But even so, if you and most of your teammates say its crap, it probably is.
Shame, mines a gunn.
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Remember that it will be hard for your team mates to time the ball when batting, a better test of ping is to give return catches with a horizontal bat to outfielders.
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yeh fusions are nice
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Leo. you have funny way of showing gratitude, You know full well that we here at Fusion will do their utmost to remedy any reasonable difficulty that our customers may encounter.
Why don't you, as I have said before, get in touch with us so we can sort it out for you. My guess is that its more fun to get on these forums and slag.
Leo come visit us with your free bat and have a friendly chat with us.
I wait for your reply.
Bill
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Thank you for your reply Bill, I was not intending to "slag" off fusion, in fact I do regularly recommend Fusion on the forums if someone wants a cricket bat. My idea of posting on here was more to try and see if anyone knew what the problem - if any. To be truthful I didn't want to contact you guys as I thought it would seem a bit ungrateful to ask why the bat was not really performing, when the bat was very kindly given to me for free.
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Bill,
As a member of this forum, I feel I have a right to express my honest opinion:
I find your post quite harsh and unnecessary. First, it is implied in Leo's initial post that he won some competition that Fusion held and won the bat as a prize. Obviously, he won it because he did a good job. Therefore, he won his prize fair and square. You gave him the bat because of the sticker design work he did and not for 'free'. So, yes, out of courtesy, people are grateful for winning but technically he doesnt owe you any gratitude.
Second, he hasnt come on here and 'slagged' Fusion. He has just provided the forum with his honest view of the bat, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Is this the way you would approach anyone that says they dont quite like your bats? As a bat maker of such reputation, you must know very well that you could make the best bat in the world and some people might just not like it.
Just because he has a won a Fusion doesnt mean he is obliged to love it. There have been countless positive reviews for Fusions on this forum and its really weird that you would respond to the odd negative review in this manner.
I dont know what relationship you share with Leo, but your response has left a bad taste in the mouth of atleast one potential customer.
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I dont know what relationship you share with Leo, but your response has left a bad taste in the mouth of atleast one potential customer.
I found Bill to be a very pleasant man when speaking to him on the phone.
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I see it completely from both sides. If you've spent hrs working on a bat for someone to rubbish it and call it a the worst bat they've seen in 55yrs it's probably quite upsetting. Particularly when the company producing is your own which you've spent 10yrs building the reputation of.
If you bought a TV and it wasn't correct, (e.g a pixel was dead) would you contact the manufacturer or would you go off onto a forum saying that your mates think it's the worst TV ever? Problems happen more so with bats as they're done by hand and it's a natural product that's being worked with and for those reasons I think it's always right to give the manufacturer chance to rectify it especially as the problem can be out of their hands on many occasions.
On the other hand as a consumer if you are unhappy you do have a right to air your feelings and I've slagged off bats in the past after using them. That was before I had anything to do with bat companies or making them though!
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We pride ourselves that every customer is asked to contact us with any problems they may have,and we will be more than happy to get it sorted for them,
It is very simple,come and see us, we have all the facilities here to help you.
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To play along with your example Tom, I did a lot of research before buying my TV by going to a couple of different forums. So, depending on what the problems were, I would decide whether to contact the manufacturer or go to a forum. For example, if I had no audio, I would go to the forum first to see what the experts had to say and try different things before contacting the manufacturer. But like you said custom made bats are different from TVs and therefore, cannot be compared.
Its just that I find it disturbing that Fusion would respond in such a manner. I understand and agree with you, Tom, when you say that it is upsetting when someone says your product is rubbish after you have spent so long in building your reputation. I have no doubt that Fusion have worked tremendously hard in order to get to the position they are in and I commend them for that. However, at the end of the day, if you are going to enter the market, then you must be prepared to accept the negative reviews along with the positive. Bill doesnt come around thanking everyone when they give his product a positive review. IMO, it was completely unnecessary and weird that someone representing Fusion would confront someone in a forum this way just because they provided fellow members with their honest review.
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This wasn't really a review though I don't think. It was all very negative and the inclusion of quotes such as "Thats the worst bat I have used in 55 years of cricket" made it seem like it was just there to slag off. Maybe that wasn't the intention but Bill has obviously interpreted it that was whereas you have interpreted it differently. It's very difficult on a forum to get a feeling of how positive someone is, whether they're 100% serious etc as there is no body language to read.
It's been common knowledge on here for years that if you have a problem with a Fusion bat it's rectified 90% of the time if you contact them. If they rubbish your complaint or don't help then the time is to slag.
If you do have a brand or product of course you expect some negative press, but when your brand can rise/fall through word of mouth you want as little as possible and those that are you want to rectify it. Which is probably why Bill has posted asking Leo to visit so it can be sorted.
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Scuudz, why dont you give me a ring sometime !
Bill
01270 256120
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i cant say so myself as i have never used a fusion but a few people i know have one and this years does not seem to be up to the standard it was a few years ago
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Bill I would love to come and visit you but as you can imagine its not really practical for someone living in London to come to Crewe.
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Leo, Then have the good grace to ring.
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Scuudz in all fairness to Bill I would have been upset if someone had posted on a forum about a bat, free or not. You would expect a phone call, the bat is like this any ideas what is wrong. I agree with Tom, which I do from time to time :) if someone then said it was free what do you expected then post that up....
Also there is no real need to reply to good reviews other then maybe just a simple "Thanks"
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Having been invited to phone Bill, I had a nice conversation with him. Bill explained to me that Fusion are happy to deal with any customers complaints/problems. We had a nice discussion about cricket and I will be sending my bat off to the guys at Fusion who have said they will be happy to check it out and resolve my problem.
I realise in hindsight it would have been much better to get in contact with Bill in the first place!
Thanks to Fusion for their top customer support.
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Perhaps, I have not made myself clear.
It is quite obvious that Fusion makes a good product. If I had to pick the top three custom bat makers in the world, Fusion would most likely be on my list.
Maybe review is not the right word. It's more like he was sharing his experience with us. It just so happened that the bat wasn't to his liking. I tend to take everything I read on here as the truth unless there is proof to prove otherwise. Therefore, I believe he took the bat to his team-mates and posted their true comments. This, IMO, is not slagging off. He didnt come on here saying, "Man, this bat is awful and you would think Fusion would put up a really good bat as a prize" etc.
Also, Bill didnt just post saying "Leo, give us a ring and we'll sort it out" or something to that effect. Saying that he has a funny way of showing gratitude and that it must just be more fun to get on a forum and slag ...just doesnt sit right with me.
Im not in Bill's position but if I try and put myself in his shoes, I would be pretty upset too if someone was unsatisfied with my product that I have worked so hard to create and was making their views public on a forum such as this. However, imo, Leo did not deserve the response he got.
Norb, yes, you would expect a phone call but it depends how you look at it. Leo's reason for not calling them first is completely logical. Also, even if the bat was not free, I would still post on here since this is a very good resource and there are a lot of experts on here who could give you ideas on what to try to remedy the problem. Im not sure what is common knowledge when it comes to Fusion, but the fact of the matter is there was absolutely nothing wrong with what Leo did.
Bill, I have heard an infinite number of good things about you and your fellow colleague (James, I believe) and your bats. 99% of the time people only have positive things to say about Fusion on all three forums that I frequently visit. If I was in your area, I would have been happy to call and discuss this with you, but I'd probably run a huge phone bill calling you from Canada. Our philosophies on handling customer situations such as this probably do not match, but you run a succesful cricket equipment company and I don't. So, all the best to you. :-)
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Hey Bill, do you know what would be good for this thread - particularly seeing as you and Leo are now good buddies again - it would be to let us know if there was anything wrong with the bat when it comes back to you, or if it was in fact absolutely fine.
As a previous customer of yours, I cannot praise your service highly enough, or your tea, or the dog - however, we're all bat nerds on here, and I'd be fascinated to know what the score was with this blade.
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Hi guys, just a quick word on Fusion. I have been to Fusion 3-4 times and spoken to Bill and James numerous times. At all times I have found them to be very polite and courteous.
All my visits to their workshop in crew have been more like a visit to a close friend or family. I have never felt unwelomed. In fact there have been times when James was finishing my bats and I was freely roaming around chating with his mum and dad and playing with is 2 lovely dogs.....
Compare this with other batmakers, they don't let you out of sight.
Though Leo's intentions were not to bat mouth or slag about Fusion or their workmanship, the way it was worded and presented were inappropriate.
As a thumb rule one should always contact the manufacturer (batmaker) for any perceived quality or workmanship problem especially when you have the option of direct contact.
So many times we all crib about not being able to get to the manufacturer, yet when given the option to contact (basically encouraged by the batmaker to contact with any problem), we don't bother calling and look for answers from others (many of whom will have not knowledge about willow and batmaking)
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As I've said before, I dont see anything inappropriate about Leo's post. I find it quite remarkable that everyone is pulling up Leo for his post but no one had any issues with Bill's post. I own a custom made bat and wouldnt necessarily contact the bat maker for everything I had a question about.
I dont really 'know' anyone on the forum but after sharing the forum with these guys for over a year, I have come to trust their opinions on cricket equipment. Some of them have extensive knowledge about this stuff (Tom, Talisman, Norb just off the top of my head) and I wouldnt mind hearing what they had to say first before I took it up with the bat maker.
Anyway, I'm glad Leo and Bill have sorted things out, and I hope the bat he gets turns out to be a gem.