HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Many of you have often posted tales of woe when visiting American Golf stores especially when looking at custom fitting. I have recently had an interesting experience at the Camberley store.
The wife picked me up after a round of golf (she needed the car) and I said I wanted to nip up to AG and have a nose round during the sale. We got there and I was eyeing up the irons when I notice a full set of X20's in the sale reduced from £499 to £439 and then further reduced and marked as sale offer to £413.10
We have been careful with cash flow lately and the wife said if I wanted to try a set out it would be OK (I love this woman!!!). I decided I needed to get them custome fitted as my old X12's were 1 degree upright.
This is where the problem started. THe guy that approached me in the shop was obviously the junior lowliest sales guy there. I said I wanted to be custom fitted and he took me to the bay and proceeded to measure me (using a Ping height chart). Surprisingly he came to 1 degree upright (he didn't know my clubs had been fitted before) and gave me a 6 iron to try fitted with impact tape on the bottom and on the face.
The good news was the marks on the bottom were central indicating they were correct and I was striking them off the middle.
The bad news was I asked him what the difference between the uniflex steel shaft and the graphite were and did he think my swing speed would benefit from graphites (usual sort of questions you would expect to be asked in a fitting session). He had not idea so when I asked how my spin rate was looking on the launch monitor he nearly freaked.
I said I wanted to try other brands and he became quite rude saying I had only asked to be fitted for the X20's and that a full fitting session was £25
I politely took my glove off and walked down and spoke to the manager. I pointed out to him that there was my wife in his store poised to spend anywhere from £400-600 on a set of irons and that frankly the service I had got was crap.
He was round the desk sharpish and took me back to the bay. He went back through the measurements (still 1 degree upright so shop boy had got that bit right) but also proceeded to measure my hand size to see if I needed thicker/thinner grips, measured club head speed and basically went through the whole swing process. I was hitting balls for about 40 minutes
I tried some TaylorMade, Mizuno, Wilson, Cobra and Ping in both steel and graphite in various flexes and weight. In the end it was down to the X20's with steel shaft or the TaylorMade R7's also in steel as my swing did not benefit from graphites.
I asked about a trade in thinking I would only get £40-50 form my X12's which are over ten years old. When he offered me £70 that sealed the deal. I went for the already discounted X20's which with a trade in meant I got a full set of irons for £343.10. Not a bad deal in anyones book from £499 down.
The morale of the story I guess is that American Golf do have competitive deals and can offer a full and comprehensive fitting service but you must ensure that you don't just get a trainee or junior but ask for the manager. In the end he couldn't do enough for me (I didn't have to pay for the fitting session) and whilst I don't hold any grudge to the junior sales guy I feel if he hasn't got the experience to fully custom fit he should leave it to others.
Well done American Golf Camberley for finally coming through. It will be 2-3 weeks before my sticks arrive (they have even let me keep my old X12's so I have something to play with).
I know people on here have knocked AG in the past (including me) but on this occassion they were very very good
The wife picked me up after a round of golf (she needed the car) and I said I wanted to nip up to AG and have a nose round during the sale. We got there and I was eyeing up the irons when I notice a full set of X20's in the sale reduced from £499 to £439 and then further reduced and marked as sale offer to £413.10
We have been careful with cash flow lately and the wife said if I wanted to try a set out it would be OK (I love this woman!!!). I decided I needed to get them custome fitted as my old X12's were 1 degree upright.
This is where the problem started. THe guy that approached me in the shop was obviously the junior lowliest sales guy there. I said I wanted to be custom fitted and he took me to the bay and proceeded to measure me (using a Ping height chart). Surprisingly he came to 1 degree upright (he didn't know my clubs had been fitted before) and gave me a 6 iron to try fitted with impact tape on the bottom and on the face.
The good news was the marks on the bottom were central indicating they were correct and I was striking them off the middle.
The bad news was I asked him what the difference between the uniflex steel shaft and the graphite were and did he think my swing speed would benefit from graphites (usual sort of questions you would expect to be asked in a fitting session). He had not idea so when I asked how my spin rate was looking on the launch monitor he nearly freaked.
I said I wanted to try other brands and he became quite rude saying I had only asked to be fitted for the X20's and that a full fitting session was £25
I politely took my glove off and walked down and spoke to the manager. I pointed out to him that there was my wife in his store poised to spend anywhere from £400-600 on a set of irons and that frankly the service I had got was crap.
He was round the desk sharpish and took me back to the bay. He went back through the measurements (still 1 degree upright so shop boy had got that bit right) but also proceeded to measure my hand size to see if I needed thicker/thinner grips, measured club head speed and basically went through the whole swing process. I was hitting balls for about 40 minutes
I tried some TaylorMade, Mizuno, Wilson, Cobra and Ping in both steel and graphite in various flexes and weight. In the end it was down to the X20's with steel shaft or the TaylorMade R7's also in steel as my swing did not benefit from graphites.
I asked about a trade in thinking I would only get £40-50 form my X12's which are over ten years old. When he offered me £70 that sealed the deal. I went for the already discounted X20's which with a trade in meant I got a full set of irons for £343.10. Not a bad deal in anyones book from £499 down.
The morale of the story I guess is that American Golf do have competitive deals and can offer a full and comprehensive fitting service but you must ensure that you don't just get a trainee or junior but ask for the manager. In the end he couldn't do enough for me (I didn't have to pay for the fitting session) and whilst I don't hold any grudge to the junior sales guy I feel if he hasn't got the experience to fully custom fit he should leave it to others.
Well done American Golf Camberley for finally coming through. It will be 2-3 weeks before my sticks arrive (they have even let me keep my old X12's so I have something to play with).
I know people on here have knocked AG in the past (including me) but on this occassion they were very very good
