Topic: Willow grades, do you trust your retailer? (Read 5249 times)

Aswani Cricket · « **Reply #15 on:** January 25, 2013, 01:07:13 AM »

Quote from: Vitas Cricket on January 24, 2013, 11:21:31 AM

I always consider myself as an advisory first, a salesman second. Some bats/brands make more money for us than others, but I don't lead customers straight over to them without even offering any other products as I suspect many cowboys do.

I think most people appreciate that someone trying to sell you something is going to do their best to convince you that what they have to offer is the best.

What infuriates me here is that even the biggest companies are lying, no other way of putting it. A grade 1 Slazenger V100 Pro simply doesn't exist.

I can see your frustration when you take the care to check against the manufacturer's catalogue, but I think to say "lying" is a bit harsh.

Rightly, we have to take the manufacturer's grading for an online description, no question. But as you know, every piece of wood is pretty much different, and you'll get some grade 1's that look better than other grade 1's. Some you think should have been graded 2, and the other way round as well. So what we can say to a customer is ... "well, this is supposed to be a grade 2 but to me it could easily have been graded as 1"

All the top retailers, the ones we can call cricket specialists, would have owners/staff who have played the game to a reasonable standard. I'd generally give them the benefit of the doubt if the grading on their web site is different from the catalogue ... it's more likely to be a cut and paste error that they haven't noticed.

So, the moral is, if you're copying from another web site, then better check what you are copying ... even the typos get copied and noone notices!

procricket · « **Reply #16 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:39:09 AM »

Me personally think and I respect your livelihood and envy your jobs but most of you all hide the fact.

You all sell pretty much the same products no matter what the speil you give hand picked bla bla,video and so on and so on.

It does show some of you will go the extra mile which I guess is good but please do not be offended when I say I agree with rob 90 per cent probably just type in the product see where it is cheapest and buy.

Let's not get blinkered the forum shops do not have a monopoly of the best bats.

shoab68 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 25, 2013, 05:30:21 PM »

Thanks to Vitas Cricket for sharing such valuable info. Now i realized that why some of the bats i purchased online from Talent store which they claimed as G1 turned out to G2 or even G3.

Aswani Cricket · « **Reply #18 on:** January 25, 2013, 05:58:17 PM »

Out of interest, what did you buy?

Aswani Cricket · « **Reply #19 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:09:59 PM »

Would you trust the ECB shop? Bargain price of �5 for a grade 1 EW bat

http://store.ecb.co.uk/stores/ecb/products/product_details.aspx?pid=51642&cid=7071&tid=&bid=1&nav=

Or is it a Kashmir? Hang on it's a Pro, Elite and County all in one

ProCricketer1982 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:14:33 PM »

If I were to buy from a retailer unless I already know what I was going to buy I'd barely take any notice of what the 'seller' is saying as they are bound to be 'pushing' their product.

It also doesn't surprise me that business can't be 100% trusted, at the end of the day most of them are there to make money so it's not in their interest to be 100% honest. Some of course are better than others so it's not a catch all statement there before anyone takes offence.

Aswani Cricket · « **Reply #21 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:21:24 PM »

Quote from: ProCricketer1982 on January 25, 2013, 06:14:33 PM

If I were to buy from a retailer unless I already know what I was going to buy I'd barely take any notice of what the 'seller' is saying as they are bound to be 'pushing' their product.

It also doesn't surprise me that business can't be 100% trusted, at the end of the day most of them are there to make money so it's not in their interest to be 100% honest. Some of course are better than others so it's not a catch all statement there before anyone takes offence.

What % of retailers do you think cannot be trusted 100%

ProCricketer1982 · « **Reply #22 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:22:25 PM »

Quote from: Aswani Cricket on January 25, 2013, 06:21:24 PM

What % of retailers do you think cannot be trusted 100%

not many fella, mainly the bigger ones tbh

The bigger people get the more likely they are to cut corners, take the risk etc. Smaller ones tend to rely more on word of mouth etc so have to rely on top Customer feedback etc. Just my opinion here.

procricket · « **Reply #23 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:28:08 PM »

But then how do the big shops get there names I mean they are big for a reason like barring tons and owzat as I did romida.

Aswani Cricket · « **Reply #24 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:29:32 PM »

Quote from: ProCricketer1982 on January 25, 2013, 06:22:25 PM

not many fella, mainly the bigger ones tbh

The bigger people get the more likely they are to cut corners, take the risk etc. Smaller ones tend to rely more on word of mouth etc so have to rely on top Customer feedback etc. Just my opinion here.

That's good

I like your ambitions (in your other post) to have a shop, nets, changing room, etc ... mine too, as good net facilities are scarce where we are.

ProCricketer1982 · « **Reply #25 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:37:58 PM »

Quote from: procricket on January 25, 2013, 06:28:08 PM

But then how do the big shops get there names I mean they are big for a reason like barring tons and owzat as I did romida.

I didn't mean they have never been 'good' etc, I just meant that as you grow standards slip as your attention is taken away either onto 'more important things than serving the customer' or 'handed down to a manager' so you can be the boss than doesn't work as much etc.. Plus I would also assume as you grow, you are required to take on more staff and unfortunately no matter how good people say their staff are they are not the owners and won't care quite as much about your business.

procricket · « **Reply #26 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:42:06 PM »

They did at the romida's I went to the dorking boys at leather head where great and so where the guys at newhay and magull less so at brighouse.
I understand your point mate but if you know a thing or two then whatever the salesman says you may know there talking dribble.

ProCricketer1982 · « **Reply #27 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:54:17 PM »

Quote from: procricket on January 25, 2013, 06:42:06 PM

They did at the romida's I went to the dorking boys at leather head where great and so where the guys at newhay and magull less so at brighouse.
I understand your point mate but if you know a thing or two then whatever the salesman says you may know there talking dribble.

I suppose I would just work on the assumption that most of the customers don't know what they are talking about. You can usually tell pretty quickly if people do, and in that case you leave them to it. It's the people that don't know what they are actually talking about that are the ones that will generally fall for sales speak etc. They are the ones retailers (all retailers not just cricket specific) target. You target the more... umm... gulible of people as they are more likely to spend spend spend and not really question you. It's the guys who do know what they want/talking about that will however build your reputation but it's once your big enough, it's the not so knowing who will make you the money as they trust the brand name and almost buy blind.

Just think what it's like in a place like PC World etc, their 'expert sales staff' actually know little more than GCSE IT, yet people actually ask their advice and listen to what they say, often buying off their recommendations. That's how powerful sales pitches are to gulible or non knowing parents can be/is etc.

Vitas Cricket · « **Reply #28 on:** January 25, 2013, 07:18:45 PM »

Quote from: Aswani Cricket on January 25, 2013, 01:07:13 AM

I can see your frustration when you take the care to check against the manufacturer's catalogue, but I think to say "lying" is a bit harsh.

Rightly, we have to take the manufacturer's grading for an online description, no question. But as you know, every piece of wood is pretty much different, and you'll get some grade 1's that look better than other grade 1's. Some you think should have been graded 2, and the other way round as well. So what we can say to a customer is ... "well, this is supposed to be a grade 2 but to me it could easily have been graded as 1"

All the top retailers, the ones we can call cricket specialists, would have owners/staff who have played the game to a reasonable standard. I'd generally give them the benefit of the doubt if the grading on their web site is different from the catalogue ... it's more likely to be a cut and paste error that they haven't noticed.

So, the moral is, if you're copying from another web site, then better check what you are copying ... even the typos get copied and noone notices!

I understand that point on a small scale. If there is a particularly nice looking low end bat, i can suggest to the customer that maybe its been misgraded. This only really works in person though. However, every single Slazenger Pro that goes out the door of Owzat and Talent (online sales anyway) is being sold as grade 1. They cant all have been misgraded.

As for the copy and paste oversight, i can understand this to a point, especially as copy and pasting is rife in cricket retail. But thats mainly for descriptions, where a bulk of boring text about concaving etc gets copied. Owzats listing of the bats looks like a table format where data like grade would be entered manually.

And even so, the biggest retailers are usually the ones that other retailers copy the description from, so the misinformation filters down. The bigger boys generally launch first, and someone has to write the original description. Whoever wrote it first isn't telling the truth.

Steveo1000 · « **Reply #29 on:** January 25, 2013, 09:36:02 PM »

A bloke at our club a few years ago bought online from a big retailer a kookaburra ice sub zero, which at the time was supposedly the top of the range G1 willow bat in that range I think. He paid around �250 for it, and when he bought it to nets everyone was to say the least surprised at how poor quality it was. The result of that was that no one from our club has bought a bat from that retailer since.
A week later someone else went to a local company and bought a bat from a manufacturer called Funky (Indian made but decent quality), they got good service from someone who knew their stuff, was clear about what they were sellin,and they paid a fair amount of cash for a good bat. The result of that was that within 2 weeks 6 players (including myself) had Funky bats for the season.
I guess the moral to that ramble is that if you you are a "big" retailer and pull a bit of a fast one you can loose a lot of potential business. And if you are a smaller business who focuses on the customer, are honest and sell for the right reasons there is a place in this market for you due to the power of word of mouth. And I for one am happy about that.

Author Topic: Willow grades, do you trust your retailer? (Read 5249 times)

Aswani Cricket

Re: Willow grades, do you trust your retailer?

procricket

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shoab68

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Aswani Cricket

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Aswani Cricket

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ProCricketer1982

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Aswani Cricket

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ProCricketer1982

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procricket

Re: Willow grades, do you trust your retailer?

Aswani Cricket

Re: Willow grades, do you trust your retailer?

ProCricketer1982

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procricket

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ProCricketer1982

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Vitas Cricket

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Steveo1000

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