Cracked Ping Driver. - update added 5/8/20

Slab

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Glad its sorted but I’m not sure I follow events. Curiosity has bitten. @Hendy Was this two different AG stores you visited?

The first few posts refer to a local golf store not helping you in returning the club to ping but later the store (which I think is the purchase store) is named as an AG with a 140 mile round trip and I can’t work out why, with original receipt in hand, another branch of the same retailer closer to home wouldn’t accept your query

Was the local store another AG or another ping dealer? If its an AG (& without simply slagging off) I wonder why they wouldn’t do a return based solely on your word that Ping wanted it back?
While Ping deserve plaudits for replacing it why are they not receiving any slagging when they couldn’t be bothered to email the retailer regarding damage to a 4 year old club, which surely can’t be an everyday issue (is it normal that a retailer might have some doubt and didn’t want to be lumbered with the club/complaint if ping washed their hands of it

If the local store was another ping dealer and not an AG, would that explain why they didn’t want to accept the club from you
Does anyone know what AG’s return policy is with that manufacture? Does it cover a 4 yr old unit or might that be out-with their contractual arrangement they have with ping, such that any exceptional claims of that age should first receive an email from the manufacture?

<confused>
 

clubchamp98

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Glad its sorted but I’m not sure I follow events. Curiosity has bitten. @Hendy Was this two different AG stores you visited?

The first few posts refer to a local golf store not helping you in returning the club to ping but later the store (which I think is the purchase store) is named as an AG with a 140 mile round trip and I can’t work out why, with original receipt in hand, another branch of the same retailer closer to home wouldn’t accept your query

Was the local store another AG or another ping dealer? If its an AG (& without simply slagging off) I wonder why they wouldn’t do a return based solely on your word that Ping wanted it back?
While Ping deserve plaudits for replacing it why are they not receiving any slagging when they couldn’t be bothered to email the retailer regarding damage to a 4 year old club, which surely can’t be an everyday issue (is it normal that a retailer might have some doubt and didn’t want to be lumbered with the club/complaint if ping washed their hands of it

If the local store was another ping dealer and not an AG, would that explain why they didn’t want to accept the club from you
Does anyone know what AG’s return policy is with that manufacture? Does it cover a 4 yr old unit or might that be out-with their contractual arrangement they have with ping, such that any exceptional claims of that age should first receive an email from the manufacture?

<confused>
I think with a current club under warranty the retailer should sort it with Ping.
But a 4 yr old club out of warranty Ping should deal with it themselves imo.
If the retailer says “no it’s out of warranty” you then have to find another to do it for you.
But well done to Ping.
 

Slab

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I think with a current club under warranty the retailer should sort it with Ping.
But a 4 yr old club out of warranty Ping should deal with it themselves imo
.
If the retailer says “no it’s out of warranty” you then have to find another to do it for you.
But well done to Ping.

I agree, the manufacture (Ping in this case) are possibly responsible for AG being seen in a bad light here when I'm not sure they've really done anything wrong

Unless the returns agreement for ping retailers currently covers damage to clubs up to 4 yrs old (does anyone on here know?) then surely AG were fine to say to Hendy "if ping want to see it after double the warranty period has passed that's no problem at all, the fella you spoke to just needs to let us know"

(Strange the ping lad wouldn't email AG, maybe the ping fella might not even be authorised to lead a customer to think that 'they'll do something' he might just want to get Hendy off the phone :eek:)

ultimately well done to ping..but maybe... No foul from AG either!
 

Hendy

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Glad its sorted but I’m not sure I follow events. Curiosity has bitten. @Hendy Was this two different AG stores you visited?

The first few posts refer to a local golf store not helping you in returning the club to ping but later the store (which I think is the purchase store) is named as an AG with a 140 mile round trip and I can’t work out why, with original receipt in hand, another branch of the same retailer closer to home wouldn’t accept your query

Was the local store another AG or another ping dealer? If its an AG (& without simply slagging off) I wonder why they wouldn’t do a return based solely on your word that Ping wanted it back?
While Ping deserve plaudits for replacing it why are they not receiving any slagging when they couldn’t be bothered to email the retailer regarding damage to a 4 year old club, which surely can’t be an everyday issue (is it normal that a retailer might have some doubt and didn’t want to be lumbered with the club/complaint if ping washed their hands of it

If the local store was another ping dealer and not an AG, would that explain why they didn’t want to accept the club from you
Does anyone know what AG’s return policy is with that manufacture? Does it cover a 4 yr old unit or might that be out-with their contractual arrangement they have with ping, such that any exceptional claims of that age should first receive an email from the manufacture?

<confused>

Sorry my English is not the best to be honest.

So basically the driver head was cracked phoned ping told me to return it to the retailer I got it from which was AG in Belfast (140mile round trip) so I phoned them first of all to make sure they would take it.. they said due to the club being 3/4 years old that they would not be returning it. Unless ping emailed them to say they wanted the club sent to them so I phoned ping again

The guy explained that I got the club from a retailer and it's upto them to send it back to us and that sending emails to a retrailer was not something they do. He then advised it AG are unwilling to help all I can suggest is to take it to your local ping retailer and get them to send it in.

I then took the driver to my local pga pro shop and he contacted ping got whatever details he needed and the driver was collected by them and then few weeks late returned to him with a debit of £194 and then a credit of £194.

What the fault was am not sure no details on that were given (I did ask this as I was curious to see how it happened) on a side note on that the pro was having a laugh with me and said I need to slow my swing speed down by 10mph to stop it happening again lol .

Anyways hope that clears it up a bit. And again well chuffed with ping. And with that level of customer service I think it will be a long time (if ever)before I change driver brands
 

Slab

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Sorry my English is not the best to be honest.

So basically the driver head was cracked phoned ping told me to return it to the retailer I got it from which was AG in Belfast (140mile round trip) so I phoned them first of all to make sure they would take it.. they said due to the club being 3/4 years old that they would not be returning it. Unless ping emailed them to say they wanted the club sent to them so I phoned ping again

The guy explained that I got the club from a retailer and it's upto them to send it back to us and that sending emails to a retrailer was not something they do. He then advised it AG are unwilling to help all I can suggest is to take it to your local ping retailer and get them to send it in.

I then took the driver to my local pga pro shop and he contacted ping got whatever details he needed and the driver was collected by them and then few weeks late returned to him with a debit of £194 and then a credit of £194.

What the fault was am not sure no details on that were given (I did ask this as I was curious to see how it happened) on a side note on that the pro was having a laugh with me and said I need to slow my swing speed down by 10mph to stop it happening again lol .

Anyways hope that clears it up a bit. And again well chuffed with ping. And with that level of customer service I think it will be a long time (if ever)before I change driver brands


Cool, makes sense. So the biggest fault lies with the guy at Ping who couldn't be bothered to let AG know that he wanted the store to do a return outside warranty (and weirdly to then make slight against AG (to the customer) by saying AG were 'unwilling to help' when it was really Ping's refusal to pop off a quick email that was the cause of this)
I've encountered this kind of sly customer service before where someone makes themselves appear 'the good guy' by slagging off another party, very poor

Seems AG were more than happy to help, all it needed was Ping to let the store know to take action in an exceptional case years outside warranty

You can see why a club pro would cover for pings oversight as they might get 2 or 3 cases a year like this, not really an issue
But with dozens of manufactures in each store I can see why a nationwide retailer with 130 stores wouldn't get involved in processing unauthorised returns for every piece of damaged goods presented to them that was years outside the warranty period... just because a customer said so. Can you imagine what the manufactures would do, getting all this unauthorised knackered gear dumped on their doorstep every week from all over the country, they'd actually go off their heads at AG!

Even if AG tried to cover for the manufacture and track down this 'guy at Ping' to check the validity just imagine how many calls/mails that would involve up & down the country every time someone walks in with a bit of golf gear that's 4 years old?
AG would spend countless hours doing many many thousands of returns each year instead of dealing with their usual business of selling golf gear & handling genuine warranty claims

Glad Ping corrected their error by replacing it for you ;)
 

Bunkermagnet

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Cool, makes sense. So the biggest fault lies with the guy at Ping who couldn't be bothered to let AG know that he wanted the store to do a return outside warranty (and weirdly to then make slight against AG (to the customer) by saying AG were 'unwilling to help' when it was really Ping's refusal to pop off a quick email that was the cause of this)
I've encountered this kind of sly customer service before where someone makes themselves appear 'the good guy' by slagging off another party, very poor

Seems AG were more than happy to help, all it needed was Ping to let the store know to take action in an exceptional case years outside warranty

You can see why a club pro would cover for pings oversight as they might get 2 or 3 cases a year like this, not really an issue
But with dozens of manufactures in each store I can see why a nationwide retailer with 130 stores wouldn't get involved in processing unauthorised returns for every piece of damaged goods presented to them that was years outside the warranty period... just because a customer said so. Can you imagine what the manufactures would do, getting all this unauthorised knackered gear dumped on their doorstep every week from all over the country, they'd actually go off their heads at AG!

Even if AG tried to cover for the manufacture and track down this 'guy at Ping' to check the validity just imagine how many calls/mails that would involve up & down the country every time someone walks in with a bit of golf gear that's 4 years old?
AG would spend countless hours doing many many thousands of returns each year instead of dealing with their usual business of selling golf gear & handling genuine warranty claims

Glad Ping corrected their error by replacing it for you ;)
Sorry, but the fault isn’t with Ping at all, they have policies that all the retailers that deal with them will know and have followed them. If they didn’t, do you not think that they would be inundated with people “claiming” this 3month old G20 driver (or whatever club) had its face implode as they pulled the club out their bag?
 

YorkshireStu

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These comments seem very unfair on AG.
If you took a 4 year old hoover outside of warranty back to Currys, I’m sure you would get exactly the same service.
It’s up to (and great of) Ping if they want to handle the item, they should organise the collection with AG and not make their customer get AG to do that
 

Slab

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Sorry, but the fault isn’t with Ping at all, they have policies that all the retailers that deal with them will know and have followed them. If they didn’t, do you not think that they would be inundated with people “claiming” this 3month old G20 driver (or whatever club) had its face implode as they pulled the club out their bag?

But that would mean Pings return policy stating that, damaged clubs years out of warranty period can be returned to Ping with no prior authorisation needed

I can’t believe that, it just doesn't seem likely they would manage returns in such a haphazard manner
 

clubchamp98

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I wonder why Ping insist a retailer sends it back and not just accept it from the owner.?
If AG won’t send it back you need to find another who will.
Bit of a strange policy imo.
If your local AG says they need an email, Ping won’t send one And the next retailer is miles away.
They swapped the head so a result ,but a bit around the houses policy for me.
 

Bunkermagnet

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These comments seem very unfair on AG.
If you took a 4 year old hoover outside of warranty back to Currys, I’m sure you would get exactly the same service.
It’s up to (and great of) Ping if they want to handle the item, they should organise the collection with AG and not make their customer get AG to do that
I can assure you if you took a 4 yr old vacuum cleaner back to Curry’s for repair they would ask if you had taken out insurance on it, then if not explain it was out of warranty and nothing they can do. “We can sell you a new more efficient one”
If the driver concerned had been bought from pro or small golf retailer, they would know about Pings policy on sending back items for repair/replacement. I have first hand expierience of this Having damaged my own driver.
AG would know how aping operat, and I suggest they were hoping the hassle being created by them would get them a new driver sale.
 

KenL

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These comments seem very unfair on AG.
If you took a 4 year old hoover outside of warranty back to Currys, I’m sure you would get exactly the same service.
It’s up to (and great of) Ping if they want to handle the item, they should organise the collection with AG and not make their customer get AG to do that

But, it costs AG nothing except a little bit of their time.
 

Slab

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But, it costs AG nothing except a little bit of their time.

It would have cost Ping nothing except a little bit of their time to authorise this action for the exceptional case

Whatever the exact returns policy is, I'll suggest that AG cannot just send any/all Ping clubs regardless of age/condition back to Ping just because a customer said so
 

KenL

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It would have cost Ping nothing except a little bit of their time to authorise this action for the exceptional case

Whatever the exact returns policy is, I'll suggest that AG cannot just send any/all Ping clubs regardless of age/condition back to Ping just because a customer said so

They contact Ping and Ping arrange for collection of the club, very straight forward and I am sure they are used to the way Ping choose to handle returns.

I had two of my 5 year old i25 iron weights replaced this year by Ping, collected from my pro.

Pro was happy to help (I didn't even buy them from him). AG should have been equally as accomodating. Good customer service leads to repeat business.
 

Slab

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They contact Ping and Ping arrange for collection of the club, very straight forward and I am sure they are used to the way Ping choose to handle returns.

I had two of my 5 year old i25 iron weights replaced this year by Ping, collected from my pro.

Pro was happy to help (I didn't even buy them from him). AG should have been equally as accomodating. Good customer service leads to repeat business.

I think that's too simple. And you assume ping will take back anything

That means the returns policy is that a customer can walk in with a 4,5 even 10, 15 year old club with any fault or damage and AG are obliged to take it (and are then responsible for it while it's in their care, or they end up with replacing) until such time they can contact ping (Inc weekends) who 'might' authorise a particular relic to be returned years outside warranty... And what happens if ping say 'no that club isn't coming back its too old etc'?

AG are then left to contact the customer and safely store the club until the customer sees fit to collect (if they ever do) or dispose of it if they don't

All of which will be avoided if only ping hadn't fobbed the customer off with a generic template email reply and punted the effort onto AG while slagging them off to the customer

Top customer service right enough ??
 

Bunkermagnet

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I think that's too simple. And you assume ping will take back anything

That means the returns policy is that a customer can walk in with a 4,5 even 10, 15 year old club with any fault or damage and AG are obliged to take it (and are then responsible for it while it's in their care, or they end up with replacing) until such time they can contact ping (Inc weekends) who 'might' authorise a particular relic to be returned years outside warranty... And what happens if ping say 'no that club isn't coming back its too old etc'?

AG are then left to contact the customer and safely store the club until the customer sees fit to collect (if they ever do) or dispose of it if they don't

All of which will be avoided if only ping hadn't fobbed the customer off with a generic template email reply and punted the effort onto AG while slagging them off to the customer

Top customer service right enough ??
I think Ping operate the way they do to stop endless supplies of Pong, Pung or even Ping irons with the same serial number as 8,786 others and use the retailers they generally have good relationships with to filter out the crap. Lets not forget Ping also have a policy that restricts internet sales that helps the pro's sales and those pro's and retaillers will get a reasonable percentage markup on the stuff they sell, so it's a 2 way street between Ping and the retailer.
I imagine the bigger issue really is that one AG store won't play ball with something from another AG store, I have had that happen to me before.
 
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