I recently sent my Warsop Venom bat to Warsop for a bit of a refurbishment and I've got to say what I got back and the customer service I received wasn't what I expected from them.
The original e-mail I sent to Warsop about what I wanted doing to the bat when I sent it to them, however I also left some things a little open for them to query when they received the bat. I asked for the face of the bat to refurbed(which I also stated that, depending on how much you were going to sand off the face the stickers may need replacing, also that I had a hammer edge sheet at home ready to put on the bat), the tape to be taken off and to give the toe a bit of a sand and also for the handle to be made thinner.
I had hardly used the bat before and this was the first time I had sent a bat back to be refubed by a company as I usually do it myself. Nothing much needed doing to the bat, but I wanted the bat to be in a good state to sell and I didn't want to ruin this bat by doing it myself.
A few emails passed and I eventually ended up sending the bat to Warsop with some information where to look what I wanted doing to that bat which I linked them to my original email and my details. I was originally quoted £18 for this service which I thought was reasonable and I thought they understood what I wanted even though they didn't clarify anything they were going to do with the bat. I thought this to be fairly normal practice and when they receive the bat they'll look at it and then see what it needs.
However about 10 days had past since I had sent the bat and I still hadn't heard anything from them so I sent them an e-mail saying "
I was just wondering what is going on with my bat? I haven't received any information about my bat, I don't know if you have received it? What you're doing to it? How much it will cost and so on?". Which the response I got was "
The cost of the work will be £20.00 plus carriage £8.50 if paying by credit card please allow 2.5% surcharge debit cards no charge". Then I replied "
Okay, well can you list the services that I'm paying £20 for please?". They then asked me to phone them, but I couldn't phone them at the time so I stated that I was quoted £18 before and that it would be nice what I'm paying my money for... However I got a snappy reply from them quoting "
Then that is the cost!".
A few days past and I got an email from them to phone them up and pay for the bat, which I did. I received the bat I couldn't believe what they had done to the bat. They had basically done a completely different service that I had asked for. They did make the handle thinner and sanded the bottom half face of the bat, however they removed the tape and put new tape on the edges, put a scuff sheet on and also put a toe guard on.
The bat now looks a bit of a state as they sanded upto the bottom of the stickers on the face(when I stated in my first email "
Depending on how much you were going to sand off the bat the stickers may need replacing"), which has left two triangles below the sticker where the bat hasn't been sanded and obviously is a lot darker wood than the face that has been sanded. This may not sound that bad, however they have put a scuff sheet over this part of the bat, so I cannot rectify their work unless I take this off and will then become un-useable(which will be a waste of my money). So now the face of the bat (that has been sanded) is a completely different shade to the rest of the bat, however I expected them to be able to spot this and then rectify it as it doesn't look good at all. As I sent it back to a company to do, I expected a professional job and it looks like a complete amateur/someone who couldn't care about their bats has done.
The next thing, I stated that I had a hammer edge sheet at home to put on the bat which is mainly why I wanted the face sanded and also the tape removed(as you can see in the previous pictures, there are hardly any marks on the face because I had hardly used it). However when I got the bat back, they had put two lots of tape down the edges of the face and also a scuff sheet over the top of the face. This means my hammer edge sheet that I had already paid for is now just collecting dust and it is basically now a product that has become worthless to me and it's money I had already spent.
The last point is that I had a toe guard put on when I didnt ask for one to be put on. The bat didn't have one on before, so I have no idea why they put one on.
The worst part of this for me, is that I didn't get any sort of invoice regarding the work they were going to carry out on the bat before they did it. All it would've taken is a few quick emails or something stating what they understood I wanted carrying out on the bat before they went on and did it.
So I sent them an email regarding my disappointment and all I got was, can you ring us to discuss this. I did ring them and I've not long got off the phone to them, however I was again displeased by the customer service I received on the phone. I think I spoke to a woman called Clere and the main reply I got from her for each thing they did with my bat was "That's normal practice". I cannot state my disappointment in them enough, I thought a smallish company would want to keep customers happy and provide a personal service as they are not of the likes of Kooka etc as most of the bats from Warsop are customised to the buyers needed. However the response I got from them about the toe guard, tape, scuff sheet was "That's normal practice etc..", but when I originally brought the bat from them I only had tape on the edges(which I didn't ask for).
I stated in my email about the face of the bat being sanded of which I said the stickers MAY need replacing depending on how much they were going to sand. I stated this to her on the phone about how it looks a state with only half of the face being sanded and leaving it a completely different colour. Her reply was "you should've been clearer", which I brought it back to my original email I sent to her stating that I left it open for Warsop to discuss this with me when they got the bat(which I expected would happen). For instance it's like sending your car in for a respray and they only do half of the bonnet and the rest is a completely different shade of the same colour.
I was thinking about selling this bat which I said to her on the phone and the response I got was "you should've said"(why? I thought that would've been cheeky, sending the bat back to the company where you brought it from and stating to them that you were going to sell it), which is another main reason to why I sent the bat back to them to be refurbed. I underestimated how clear I would've had to be with them in my original email as I thought it would be in some sort of processed discussion, expressing their prices for each service as I would've thought a company like that would be a lot more personal.
At the end of it they did say that if I sent the bat back to them and 'clearly state' what I wanted doing to the bat then they would do that and send it back, however I stated that it would cost me an extra £16 in postage both ways for bat, for something that should've been done in the first place and I wasn't pleased with that. I did at least want them to send me some stickers so that I could re-do their work myself but they stated that it was against company policy to send out stickers.
I've got to admit I wasn't the nicest and easiest person to speak to on the phone, however she wasn't being acceptable of what they had done to the bat was completely different to what I asked for. Anyway, here are the pictures of the bats and you can make your own minds up - I just can't believe they let a bat go out of their shop looking like this. How simple would've it have been if they had some confusion to ring/email me about this, rather than doing different work than what I asked for before I had paid for it and received it.
All in all it would've been sorted out if I had some feedback from them before they did any work on it, or if I had done the work myself. I know what I'm going to do next time...
Original state of the brand new bat
The bat before I sent it off to Warsop (as you can see it had hardly been used)
The bat I received back after the refurb
Rant over.
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Topic: Warsop Customer Service. (Read 24605 times)