Hi, Me and my friends wereinterested in picking up some racquets from this so called Racquet Doctor..and before I did...I emailed my contact at Yonex Canada to check if he was legit or not...this is the reply I got.... "Thank you for your email. The Racquet Doctor is not an authorized yonex dealer. Please be careful and advise your friends that their are some counterfeit Yonex racquets floating around." Just wanted to share this with you and to remember the buyer beware saying.... Anonymous
Like I've said before and I'll say it again..if it ain't got serial numbers..it ain't going to be bought by me..
I'm sorry, we've already had this checked out by a guy in person at Yonex Canada. He's legit. Why the anonymous handle? Afraid to get sued? If you feel that you have substantial proof besides an email then please do tell, other than that, keep your trap shut. This topic has long been beaten to death enough.
Besides, as a Yonex guru of rackets...I mean..TODAY's rackets...I've learned from other people on how to spot fake rackets. You gotta have eyes you see...and having serial numbers comes to a plus for a real one. You gotta check out the whole racket. Look at everything closely and at the cosmetics.
Damn Don, why you bashing on this guy? The dude is probably new so give him a break. He ain't as "well-educated" or "well-informed" like we are. Like I said before...we all learn something new everyday.
Tony, This poster knows what he's doing. He's not new and should know better. Would you go into a MacDonalds and yell out that the burgers are made of rat meat because someone in the industry told you? I don't think so, chances are you'll be served after making a comment like that.
Give me a day, and I can produce a fake Yonex with perfect cosmetics and a generated serial number. Serial numbers are not tracked as far as I know it. It's only used for distribution purposes. That's not enough to spot a fake. The only way I can see to spot a fake is to crack open a racquet and take a look at the interior construction. Wouldn't it suck that you "thought" you had a fake, but you really had a legit racquet.
Have to go towards Don with this one. What about this situation? Say i buy loads of Yonex stuff from Japan, put them in my suitcase and sell them in US via mail order, then I'll be as legit as racquet doctor. Thought it was already mentioned the sources are different than from Yonex distributor.
It is not necessarily inconsistent for the Racquet Doctor to sell genuine Yonex racquets yet not be an authorized Yonex dealer. As is pretty clear from all that we know of him, the Racquet Doctor does not sell the very latest 2001-2002 model racquets, but sells new, unused racquets that have been on the market for 1-6 years and which may no longer be in production. He could very well be a liquidator, not a dealer. I have purchased quite a number of high end, expensive items of outdoor gear and clothing from Sierra Trading Post (www.sierratradingpost.com - I highly recommend it), receiving items that were overstocks, last year's models or factory seconds at discounts of anywhere from 30% to 75% and I have been entirely happy with the products I received from the company. This mail order vendor is able to sell at such low prices because it is a liquidator, not a retail dealer, of products from the North Face, Lowe Alpine, Marmot, Vasque, Asolo, etc.... What is the good Doctor's warranty practice? Does he simply provide the equivalent of a Yonex warranty on his own initiative, exchanging defective racquets for new ones out of his own stock of products, or does he deal directly with Yonex on warranty issues? It is interesting that, according to our friend "anonymous," Yonex would make an implication that RD's racquets may be counterfeit Yonex products. I also have some doubts about the authenticity of such a statement, as one might assume that a large, multinational corporation like Yonex would employ individuals who would be sufficiently careful and/or knowledgeable to avoid basic writing mistakes such as "their are." Don is correct that we should not continue exchanging gossip, hearsay and innuendo about the Racquet Doctor. If a poster has a genuine, indisputable fact not previously discussed, then that might be appropriate to post here. However, thus far no one has shown any genuine and credible proof that this individual is doing anything other than what he claims to do - sell genuine Yonex products to badminton enthusiasts at very low prices. That seems to me to be a service to the North American badminton community.
That really makes you think about ways to make it harder for people to counterfeit rackets. Yonex needs to come up with a system were people can track serial numbers. Something needs to be done about this...or..just go do with "Anonymous" did...call Yonex themselves and ask what's up.
That's why I always stay informed with this website and other reliable sources...it's good to always do research about this stuff..I do it almost everyday. I could major in this..heheheh
Are you a lawyer Brett? It seems that everytime you say something...there's like an essay or some sort of great argument that you always bring up...good shiet though...
To begin, I'd like to claim that I'm not taking any sides here. However, if the question keeps coming up about the legitimacy of the RD, then I have to say from MY perspective, that I'd be hesitant to purchase from him. I have not seen ANY conclusive proof that the RD is real; neither have I seen any that he is not. I just think that all the arguments, if you can call them that, for or against RD are mostly from personal experience. Brett, you do make a good point that, though RD may not be "Authorized" he can still be genuine as a liquidator. But, for me, as long as questions and hearsay continue to be raised, I'll continue to be wary. From what I've read, I don't doubt RD's authenticity, but I'm also not sure enough to send him 150 bucks to test my hypothesis.
Knock-out, I think there has been some proof of satisfaction with the RD's products. Shaun has ordered a number of racquets from him, met with him in person, and while Shaun may like switching racquets more than most of us, it seems that his issues relate to his personal preferences, not quality of the racquets. Other Canadian posters such as Don and at least one or two others have reported receiving racquets from him and have only praise for the product and service. There has been a lot of conjecture that the RD's racquets are fakes because (a) his prices are so cheap; (b) he is not an authorized Yonex dealer and (c) Shaun's friend's stringer thought these racquets were fake because they did not have serial numbers and he didn't feel the Yonex logo was real. I think that Shaun's follow-up after talking with the man himself, along with several other explanations provided by others, give reasonable, plausible explanations for each of these three concerns. The mere fact that a lot of people have doubts about this vendor does not necessarily concern me because they have no facts to support those doubts. After all, we still see lots of statements from newcomers to the site who keep repeating the same "old wives' tales" of badminton that have been discussed and debunked already (e.g. merits of titanium in racquets, looser strings always produce the most power, etc...). I personally haven't heard anything among all these concerns that would make me refuse to do business with the Doc. However, despite having said all of the above, I join you in having no plans to buy from the Racquet Doctor. I'm still getting used to my new Airblade 900, but I like it a lot so far and I plan to stick with it for a long time. I might buy another AB 900 as a backup, but since the Dr. only carries Yonex products (and since I've decided not to bother with Yonex for the foreseeable future, see previous posts this week), RD doesn't sell anything I'm interested in buying. Now if he gets Carltons in stock.....
Most of the Yonex stuffs are made in China. There are a lot of way for third parties to export real Yonex products (but not sold by Yonex). The difference with the OEM products is that Yonex has more quality control men at the factory. I'm still unsure how the racquet still have Made in Japan wording, but the racquet are made in China. The graphite material are shipped in Taiwan and most of the other component are sourced locally. So try to play a few Chinese made racquets, you may find it play like Yonex as they all come out from the same factory.
