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[Batbuddy99]

Horrible business experience.

Would you care to elaborate?

[Sitonit]

Would you care to elaborate?

No, it's perhaps not the right place. This would be unfair to his business and his reputation, and I don't want to create a mess for him or for this forum.
Who knows, May be I had a one off bad experience and perhaps he is generally a good guy? I hope so.

All I know is that I am gutted and not doing business with Paul anymore.

[Batbuddy99]

Fair enough, you're probably doing the most honourable thing by not disclosing your dispute on here

Maybe sometimes others should follow your lead on things like this
But then again that would make the forum a lot more boring!

[FattusCattus]

I would actually say that I disagree Benj -  @Sitonit has graphically described that he has had a 'horrible' experience and that he 'hopes' Paul is a good guy.

In my opinion this is as bad as some of the histrionic posts people put on here moaning about their bats before even trying to settle the matter with the bat-maker.

The poster has merely hinted at dissatifaction / poor service / something seriously wrong/ without giving any facts. This is the sort of thing that will lead some of the more highly-strung and imbecilic members to put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4000. No-one actually knows what happened, and sometimes half facts are no better than no facts at all.

I do apologise @Sitonit- I have no axe to grind with you - but in my humble opinion, making vague and unsubstantiated comments about someone is worse than coming out and criticising them specifically.

Other people have posted that Paul is not on here as much as he used to be - and you wonder why?

Either go the whole hog, or say nothing at all!

[Bats_Galore]

Couldn't agree more with the previous post. These are people's livelihoods we are messing about with and I can quite understand why a lot of the craftsman in the industry as a result don't partake in discussion on here.

[Northern monkey]

One of the nicest blokes I've ever met
And Paul's bats are world class

But I suppose you can't please all the people all the time
I've worked in customer service for twenty years,and there are some incredibly unrealistic people

[Andythomo21]

I've bought a bat from Paul and he seemed like a lovely bloke and my experience was good.

Seems like there's not as much discussion about Aldred bats on the forum anymore as any time a topic is posted, Paul pretty much says email me, check my website or Facebook page.  There are obviously reasons for this but it's a shame. 

Even if not directly, I'm sure that this forum has given Paul a lot of trade over the last few years.  I for example phoned Paul to order my bat, but was very much made aware of him and his bats by the forum.

[liscon12]

I spoke to him in person recently (a couple of months ago) and from what I could gather he has gone off the forum for a number of reasons.

The first one is time, being the only person in the company and doing everything himself he finds it hard to do a lot of the social media, forum stuff along with doing day to day work like making bats. Paul isn't interested in growing the business quickly and is happy doing what he does now and if there is always enough to put food on the table then he's happy, his goal is to simply make the best quality kit for us cricketers and not to make a quick buck.

Another reason is that he kinda feels the forum isn't the best place to sell bats as a lot of people (using his words) "just want me to upload pictures of grainy bats with no intention of buying anything". I can see what he means as he can put a lot of work into the forum and bend over backwards for people who have specific requests for them to turn around and decide not to buy a bat. This can be very frustrating as all that time and effort has been for nothing, multiply this by 10 and you can easily loose a day of potential work chasing potential customers who have no intention of buying from him but just like to see bats.

I'm sure if he had the time or someone to do the sales side of the business then he might be more active on the forum but it is sad that he feels his time isn't best spent on here. Personally over the last 12 months the forum has become an odd place where threads turn into areas for keyboard warriors to fight in, please can we just get back to the cricket and the love of the game.

[Percy]

Personally over the last 12 months the forum has become an odd place where threads turn into areas for keyboard warriors to fight in, please can we just get back to the cricket and the love of the game.

Hear hear!

[John P]

Just wanted to add that I got a bat from Paul about a month or so ago and his service was brilliant. Replied to my numerous emails usually within minutes and was really helpful when I asked him other things about knocking in and looking after the bat. He told me that he just doesn't have time to constantly be on the forum any more, so if people are interested in his bats I would recommend searching for his facebook page. He puts up pictures of the clefts he has in and you can choose what you want by messaging him on there or emailing him. That's what I did with the bat I got and it was at my house 10 days later.

[Kulli]

From my experience he can be a touch grouchy at times, but I won't hold that against anyone. There's no doubt he makes a mean bat though, the ones i have seen have all been stormers from Grade 1 to Butterfly, and the coach at Lords wanted to sneak off with it when we were there!

[brokenbat]

No, it's perhaps not the right place. This would be unfair to his business and his reputation, and I don't want to create a mess for him or for this forum.
Who knows, May be I had a one off bad experience and perhaps he is generally a good guy? I hope so.

All I know is that I am gutted and not doing business with Paul anymore.

um...you kinda already created a mess for him, by saying this, and keeping it vague. better to reveal the details so at least people can reach an objective opinion, instead of just worried about what about him made you feel gutted.

[Sitonit]

um...you kinda already created a mess for him, by saying this, and keeping it vague. better to reveal the details so at least people can reach an objective opinion, instead of just worried about what about him made you feel gutted.

That's your assumption and your opinion that you are entitled to.

I have left it open when I said "May be I had a one off bad experience and perhaps he is generally a good guy?"

[FattusCattus]

Well my entitled opinion is you've half-opened the door and will lead people to make their own assumptions about a man and a brand on a forum that loves supposition and making ridiculous bullsh*t statements.

By all means come on here with a valid complaint, particularly if you have discussed it with the man himself first - but you implied something and then didn't back it up, in my book that's bad form and the sort of thing that keeps manufacturers off this forum because we're too much grief for them.

Not your finest hour!!


ps - before any of you start yowling "Forum Sponsors should be allowed to be criticised" - I completely agree, but this is not what has been done here. Either get it out and wave it about, or keep it zipped up!

[TangoWhiskey]

I've got a bat from Paul and it is up there with the best bats I've ever used. I've only ever found him to be polite, helpful and patient when dealing with him and in my opinion his butterfly offerings are probably the best value bats around.

I'm not surprised he doesn't post much on here any more for various reasons. I'm sure many of us have had a bat off Paul, some will go back and get another, some might not. There aren't many new members knocking around that don't end up leaving before they've bought a bat and managing a group of potential customers on here without rubbing someone up the wrong way or getting targeted as some other sponsors have been probably isn't worth his time now.