American Golf

[JamieB]

It’s really not great that they don’t appear to own their orders.
I don’t want to get to the point where I am saying how they should run their business, and as there is less than zero chance I will order clubs from them again I shouldn’t really care.

Hopefully my order will turn up this week but if not will follow your advice on contacting the manufacturer.

If I was you I would contact the manufacturer anyway. All I did was give them a brief explanation, my order number and the store name as they needed that for some reason and I had my update within 24hours of the first email sent. Hope it sorts itself out quickly.

 

[JamieB]

So after my visit today, they were expecting my arrival and greeted with an apology, handed a demo set of the shelf Apex irons with a kbs tour stiff shaft to play with until my new clubs arrive and promised they would do their best to rush the offer through.

 

[Big Bandito]

It does seem like many golfers order clubs from AG once and then vow to never do it again. Consumables only for me I'm afraid!

 

[sweaty sock]

Are AG a victim of there own (relative) success. Near me theres AG, or a pro shop, or the internet. I reckon AG will sell 90% of sets, so would expect then to attract 90% of complaints?

 

[Slab]

Are AG a victim of there own (relative) success. Near me theres AG, or a pro shop, or the internet. I reckon AG will sell 90% of sets, so would expect then to attract 90% of complaints?

I guess so. The sheer volume gives more chance for things like delays/less than stellar service etc to occur (not an excuse by any means)

Even if each store only does 2 custom fit orders per week, that’s about 10,000 orders a year. Lots of chances for something to go wrong
Local course pro-shop doing one custom fit order every fortnight only needs 26 orders a year to get right

And when it goes wrong:
AG Customer moans to the nation on social media
Pro-shop customer moans to his FC’s on the 1st tee at the weekend

 

[Foxholer]

Are AG a victim of there own (relative) success. Near me theres AG, or a pro shop, or the internet. I reckon AG will sell 90% of sets, so would expect then to attract 90% of complaints?

While that MIGHT be true initially, their processes should be so well honed that such glitches are (virtually) eliminated! There was a great TV advert by a hugely successful whitegoods retailer (nothing causes chaos as much as breakdown of home appliances!) back home many years ago... The owner/CEO stated on the TV Ad... 'It's the putting right that counts! If it's not right, ask for me..Alan Martin'! So taking personal responsibility is the key to customer satisfaction after any glitch! Unfortunately, AG seems renowned as an org where that does not happen!

 

[Robster59]

The problem with AG is that because they have so many locations, the quality of advice can vary from store to store. I got fitted for my irons at Callaway in St. Andrews but there are many good professional club fitters out there.
As an example (and I am not saying this is symptomatic of all AG) I went to the Scottish Golf show a few years ago and all the manufacturers were there as well as AG. I tried out a few of them and the AG stand advice was totally different to what all the others were suggesting. I just wonder how good their training is for doing fittings? Is it done via a proper course or is it just passed on from one employee to another in-store?

 

[sweaty sock]

My post wasnt in any way meant to exonerated american golf. Just that, as golf aficionados we exspect an increadibly high standard of specialist knowledge, if I was to ask the local whitegoods shop the kind of nuanced detail about their products that I ask the local american golf, I can only assume I'd be equally dissapointed!

I do agree however, missing delivery dates by weeks and not communicating at all, is NOT nuanced detail.... and needs to be called out.

Ive currently got an order due for delivery next saturday, so I'm very happy to be informed of potential issues I should be prepared to manage.

 

[PJ87]

im going to revert to sticking up for AG for a min... i think manufactors are giving them the run around a bit..

I sent a club to be repaired 10th june to clubhouse golf. told 20 working days time frame now

21st june told its being upgraded... just the head

20th july clubhouse still dont have the new (current model) head from cobra.... they chased them thursday and was told they would hear monday (yesterday) nothing so far

 

[jasonn12]

can I know how American golf is different from other countries golf I mean every thing must be the same so what's the difference or the rules of golf are different?

 

[Neilds]

can I know how American golf is different from other countries golf I mean every thing must be the same so what's the difference or the rules of golf are different?

Oops!!!
American Golf is a golf shop, probably the one with most branches in the UK and almost a high street shop. They come in for a lot of stick about whether their staff are properly trained club fitters, or just salesmen trying to push a certain brand of club to make targets. For clothing, balls, shoes etc I feel they are good - accessible, reasonably priced and a good selection, but never gone down the club buying route with them

 

[Orikoru]

I've done a few free 'fittings' with American Golf before, usually just to hit some new clubs and see how I feel about them - and I've never got the impression that the staff member was a proper club fitter as such. Just someone who works in a golf shop and knows a bit about golf. Generally the approach is a kind of "try this... hmm... try this" approach. I'd imagine they're given a kind of paint-by-numbers 2+2=4 training with regards to trying different lie angles and so on. But there's a reason they don't charge for it.

 

[need_my_wedge]

im going to revert to sticking up for AG for a min... i think manufactors are giving them the run around a bit..

I sent a club to be repaired 10th june to clubhouse golf. told 20 working days time frame now

21st june told its being upgraded... just the head

20th july clubhouse still dont have the new (current model) head from cobra.... they chased them thursday and was told they would hear monday (yesterday) nothing so far

My lad ordered a Mizuno Driver about 2 weeks back via AG. He received an email from Mizuno yesterday telling him that Mizuno were out of stock and wouldn't be getting any until October, the custom order would then be an 8 week wait from then. Makes it almost a 5 month wait, and nowt to do with AG. Alternative plan in motion.

 

[TigerTime]

Passing on my experience of AG for anyone thinking of using them.

I had a fitting for irons with AG on 13th May.
The fitting wasn’t great, but I placed an order for a set of Cobra irons. I was told the lead time would be 6 weeks (24th June).
Ordered on finance and got an email from the finance company on the same day which I replied to with the information they asked for.
Got a receipt from AG when I ordered (for the deposit – no details of what I had ordered). Expected a confirmation email but this never materialised.

Went into the shop on 2nd June just to check on progress as I had not had an email.
After about 10 minutes of checking the guy in the shop showed me an email from Cobra that they had received on the 17th May. This stated that the shafts specified would cause a delay of 3 – 4 weeks and offered an alternative, closest match, which would allow then to stick to the original date.
The guy apologised that they had not contacted me before but told me that the email had been missed.
I wasn’t happy but accept that mistakes can be made. I agreed to the change but was obviously wary that the offer was 2 weeks out of date. The guy in the shop said that they would check with Cobra and get back to me by phone.

I hadn’t heard anything by the 5th June so emailed them asking for an update - up to this point I am polite with every communication.
I got a reply stating that they had emailed Cobra and were waiting for a reply ‘will be calling Monday to get it confirmed as it’s a priority to get this sorted for you’.
No further contact by Thursday the 10th June so I email asking for an update.
They reply stating Cobra only got back to them that day and they will be looking to ship in the next two weeks. (I.e. they will roughly meet the original time frame).

It gets to the 5th July and no further contact. I go into the shop to check and after a further wait get told that there has been another delay and the clubs will be with me in two weeks.
That was the first time I dropped my façade of politeness and had a rant in the shop about my experience to that point. I ask to see the manager, but they weren’t there. The guy in the shop told me that they would get them to call me.
Unsurprisingly I've not had a call.

At no point during this process have AG proactively contacted me.
I think that my issues with AG are self-explanatory, and highly likely are going to be replicated with other customers – at the very least customers of this branch.
I would not recommend AG to anyone else at present.

Out of interest, was this the shop at the Braids and Corstorphine?

 

[JamieB]

Out of interest, was this the shop at the Braids and Corstorphine?

I ordered my irons at the Braids and it was a disaster. I ordered vokey wedges from Corstorphine and they came within 8 weeks as quoted. Only thing I didn’t like with the Corstorphine was when I was hitting my shot, they had me shooting into a net. I struggled with that as there was nothing to aim at bar a big net. They had a projector on the other wall facing it but it wasn’t switched on.

 

[KenL]

My lad ordered a Mizuno Driver about 2 weeks back via AG. He received an email from Mizuno yesterday telling him that Mizuno were out of stock and wouldn't be getting any until October, the custom order would then be an 8 week wait from then. Makes it almost a 5 month wait, and nowt to do with AG. Alternative plan in motion.

All that time for a make of driver I've never seen anyone using.

 

[need_my_wedge]

All that time for a make of driver I've never seen anyone using.

Very good driver, performed much better than his current Taylormade driver at his fitting. It's been getting a lot of good traction this year as Mizuno have made some big investments in their drivers, they've also priced it better too. TXG did a driver shoot out between all the current drivers from the big boys this year, the Mizuno did pretty well

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

Good to see they rectified the mistake with a loan of clubs and reorder. Mistakes happen, and that one you're only really spotting when the goods come in.

Personally I'm giving most companies a free pass on delays at the moment. Manufacturing in far east heavily impacted, transportation across heavily impacted, postal service here heavily impacted etc. Yes, AG could be chasing everyday and more informed on delays but it's not going to do anything in most cases to speed things up.

 

[NeilG]

Out of interest, was this the shop at the Braids and Corstorphine?

It’s the shop in Nottingham.

 

[KenL]

Very good driver, performed much better than his current Taylormade driver at his fitting. It's been getting a lot of good traction this year as Mizuno have made some big investments in their drivers, they've also priced it better too. TXG did a driver shoot out between all the current drivers from the big boys this year, the Mizuno did pretty well

Not saying it is not good, just expect that if not many people are buying them there should be less of a wait.