Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Companies => Off-the-shelf companies => Topic started by: Whispering Death on September 24, 2023, 06:11:52 PM
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Anyone ordered bats recently? Been hit with custom charges?
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No bats ordered from there.
Got softs and pads. shipping is with DHL. Had to pay DHL brokerage fee.
They under-invoice which helps,
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Asked my friend last night who ordered for team mates semi regularly in past
Customer service was downhill
And seemed to have changed courier as you say
Any issues too they made excuses
Prices also seemed higher than before - as In not as competitive
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Anything from OS should be getting charged import duty and the couriers' customs charges unless it's a small order.
Undervaluing is their way to try and get around it, but that for one leaves you with pretty much no protection should anything be wrong with the order, and 2 it's illegal...
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Not everyone can afford to spend £100 on a new duffle bag, or £400 on a bat.
Problem is, with the amount companies are charging these days for kit here in the uk, which is a joke, it’s hardly surprising people go elsewhere.
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Kit is rediculous these days and only going higher with upcoming prices
Sometimes it seems if you know a reliable seller on the bay they prices are more digestible sometimes
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Placed 5-6 orders with online stockist over the years and never been charged anything at customs.
Products have all been top notch.
Found they offer a really great service to the customer. Hopefully this is not representative of things moving forward.
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When was your last order circa
Mate said he hasn’t ordered for over a year now but when any questions are asked before a purchase now very little service .
Maybe he annoyed them somehow lol
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My experience of OLS is usually good. Of they have the stuff in stock then you get it in good time.
If they don't have it in, then you get the chaos.
Always worth a WhatsApp first although to be honest I wouldn't buy a bat from them, I tend to try and keep my bat buying to retailers/makers in the UK.
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What I have learnt is you don’t have to fall for all the pro grade nonsense that we are constantly fed. It’s possible to get a quality bat here in the uk, for a good price. Take @jonny77 Scott’s bats, or @SOULMAN1012 as an example, or Red ink ( who I have used and he makes a top bat)
I like the fact that we aren’t hoodwinked into thinking the higher the grade, the lighter the cleft, the better the bat. And the prices are reasonable.
I bought some softs from os and they arrived fine- admittedly it was 10 years ago.
I like the look of some of their wheelie duffles tbh
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10 years ago, selling gloves for £35 was only just about feasible - my original gloves from the first run back in 2013 were £35, with pads £50 and I made maybe 15/20% on each pair. Fine when I was selling them from the 3rd floor of my uni house funding beers on a Wednesday, not fine in the real world lol.
With the abhorrent increases in costs over the past 3/4 years (materials/labour/importing/shipping/rent/utilities - the list goes on) coupled with the bs BSI safety standards malarky that's still ongoing, if I was to sell for anything less than I am currently I simply wouldn't be able to operate. Willow costs alone rose by ~27% over the 2022/23 winter and softs in general haven't been a million miles off it, the rate of cost increases in cricket I've seen over the past decade far exceed inflation and it isn't getting any better.
You'll always get a better deal from home-based micro-companies trading below the VAT threshold, same with any industry - it doesn't mean the rest of us are dining off a silver platter every night (if that was the case I wouldn't still be contracting full-time alongside building Neon!! We can all dream mind :D).
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What I have learnt is you don’t have to fall for all the pro grade nonsense that we are constantly fed.
Couldn't agree more on this by the way, anyone that's been in to the HQ will know I do everything possible to push people away from the top grades - I say it over and over but the grade of the bat makes so little difference to the performance if they're pressed properly in the first place. It might make a slight difference in the hands of a legitimate pro, but definitely not in the hands of your average clubbie!
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You'll always get a better deal from home-based micro-companies trading below the VAT threshold, same with any industry - it doesn't mean the rest of us are dining off a silver platter every night (if that was the case I wouldn't still be contracting full-time alongside building Neon!! We can all dream mind :D).
Don't believe this for a second, we've all seen the Neon branded, gold-plated limousine parked outside Neon HQ by your personal chauffeur 😂
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Rumbled! :D
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10 years ago, selling gloves for £35 was only just about feasible - my original gloves from the first run back in 2013 were £35, with pads £50 and I made maybe 15/20% on each pair. Fine when I was selling them from the 3rd floor of my uni house funding beers on a Wednesday, not fine in the real world lol.
With the abhorrent increases in costs over the past 3/4 years (materials/labour/importing/shipping/rent/utilities - the list goes on) coupled with the bs BSI safety standards malarky that's still ongoing, if I was to sell for anything less than I am currently I simply wouldn't be able to operate. Willow costs alone rose by ~27% over the 2022/23 winter and softs in general haven't been a million miles off it, the rate of cost increases in cricket I've seen over the past decade far exceed inflation and it isn't getting any better.
You'll always get a better deal from home-based micro-companies trading below the VAT threshold, same with any industry - it doesn't mean the rest of us are dining off a silver platter every night (if that was the case I wouldn't still be contracting full-time alongside building Neon!! We can all dream mind :D).
Wow.27% increase? That’s crazy. Why has it gone so much though?
I think branding and zoning in on who your target market is must surely be what sets companies apart? That and customer service and a quality product of course. Out of interest, has having an hq made a big difference? I think some people still crave that.
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I have placed an order with OLS before the start of every season for a number of years and never has any issue with customer service, delivery or hold ups with customs. My order has always arrived sooner from India than anything I have ever placed with All Rounder.
I have never ordered a bat with them though as i don't buy off the shelf
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Wow.27% increase? That’s crazy. Why has it gone so much though?
Mixture of a lot of factors as I understand, but the cost of utility/fuel/wage/general cost rises coupled with demand for willow being at an all time high will only ever lead to price increases. Naturally when only one or two major players control the supply that also has an effect.
I think branding and zoning in on who your target market is must surely be what sets companies apart? That and customer service and a quality product of course. Out of interest, has having an hq made a big difference? I think some people still crave that.
Yeah no I couldn't agree more. Customer service and the end product for me is absolutely key, but until you've attracted the customer in the first place both of those don't even come into play. I know brightly coloured bats aren't for everyone so I'm very much targeting a specific market myself.
HQ wise, my sales for last FY (Jul 22-Aug 22) were still only something like 10.6% in-person, but having the physical unit definitely helps on the whole. Arguably more from a day-to-day logistical standpoint (lugging stock/orders up and down 3 flights of stairs in my old warehouse wasn't exactly ideal!) but it's definitely still the preferred option for some when buying kit. Funnily enough pretty much everyone that comes in to buy a bat makes the point about how they'd never buy a bat blind online, and most the time can't believe quite how high the % of online sales actually is.
Nowadays the younger generation have pretty much grown up with buying almost everything online so I find most don't have the same attachment to buying equipment in person as some of us do. Any youngsters coming in to buy bats tend to be accompanied by a dad who plays or has played before, and who wouldn't buy a bat blind online themselves.
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Having got me intrigued, I did some digging on the website backend - even though the % of in-person revenue was 10.6%, the % of bats sold in-person was 13.62% so there is a slight skew towards people buying bats in-person vs the revenue (albeit very minimal, still 86.38% of bats being bought online!).
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Having got me intrigued, I did some digging on the website backend - even though the % of in-person revenue was 10.6%, the % of bats sold in-person was 13.62% so there is a slight skew towards people buying bats in-person vs the revenue (albeit very minimal, still 86.38% of bats being bought online!).
Surely the next step is growing your own willow and having an in house batmaker/finisher.
This is interesting stuff! Have you thought about going into schools during the off season to share your story and talk about how you have set your brand up? Would also help brand awareness but I think it could be quite inspiring tbh ( hope you’re enjoying this ego trip!)
I now want to visit your hq… where is it as I’m taking time off work to re- evaluate my life.