Tales from the stringers...

Discussion in 'Badminton Stringing Techniques & Tools' started by jug8man, Aug 25, 2004.

  1. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    hi,

    i didnt find any thing like this so i thought it might be a great idea to start one.

    this thread should be about stringers posting experiences with customers or related issues that may help other stringers and consumers alike. it basicly will act as a compilation of stories by various stringers.

    feel free to comment or put up any questions here. im sure experienced and knowledgeble stringers would not mind sharing there experience here.

    mind you this is not so about the technical aspects of stringing but the drama of everyday customer-stringer relations :)

    stringers wishing to share their experiences are wellcomed to do so.

    to keep things trackable and help readers diff between story and the rest (questions, comments, suggestions, discussions, and etc.) stories should be numbered according to order. if you want you can also put the title of the story after the number. the first story will begin with story 001 - rocks for shuttles and continue from there onwards.

    to contributors of stories i recommend you conclude the lesson learnt or what ever at the bottom of the story to make sure the message intended is clear.

    thanks.

    happy reading.
     
  2. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    story 001 - rocks for shuttles

    on one fine day a parent brought his two young kids to my shop looking for a pair of racquets. i introduced to them a low budget graphite racquet that i have sold to tens of other buyers without much of any problems or complaints.

    i strung the racquet with bg66 each at standard-low tension (about 17lbs) and did not charge for the string or the service. the racquet was sold at the standard retail price and i even droped in 2 free grips just for goodwill.

    come the same day the next week, the parent along with his two children (about 5 and 7 years old) came marching in with grumpy faces.
    the parent asked me why the racquet was so inferior and that the strings had already burst. he pretty much insinuated that i ripped him off.

    thankfully i had a 'cool hat' on and manage to approach the situasion with an open mind. i requested to see the racquets and to find 2 badly beaten down racquets with paint chipped of all over the frame and the strings were just 'messacared'. how could this ever have happen at the tension i strung and etc. i wondered.

    after spending nearly an hour of analysing, questioning both parent and children, and looking at every possible reason, this is my conclusion :)
    i must say that i finally did manage to convince/explain to him what happened and the basic fundamentles of how racquets should be treated/taken care of. he restrung the racquet and hasnt had the prob since.

    = kids play at their home driveway. using rocks as subsitute for shuttles. being kids not knowing better. having a hot head dad, its obvious they didnt tell him exactly how they were using them. their dad didnt bother to ask. dad doesnt know much about badminton. they butchered the frames by whacking the floor, scrapping cement surfaces.

    so the simple moral is, be aware of non badminton parents and little children.


    cheers

    oh yes he bought a tube of cheap shuttles as well.
     
    #2 jug8man, Aug 25, 2004
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2004
  3. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    story 002 - the toy car with strings

    this is another child-parent story. i wont be so long on this one however.

    the basic story is the main string burst either on the 1-2 oclock or 10-11 oclock of the frame (some times main lines some times crosses). at first i was quite surprised as it was not long since the last string job. and also because it was a kid using it.

    i initialy thought the reason was either a miss hit (but very odd at low tensions and by a kid) or it was due to tearing gromments. but since this was a graphite racquet and that the gromments looked perfectly fine it still remained a mystery. i did notice some scratch marks on 1-2 and 10-11 oclocks but it didnt seem that significant and did not give it much thought.

    so i ignored it and restrung it at a discount price for goodwill (returning customer with complaint). and didnt do a freebie cause i was sure i was not at fault......

    next week the mother returns with the racquet burst at the same spot (or the exact opposite?) . and mind you i was really begining to question my ablity as a stringer at this point.............. but lo and behold. i noticed that the scratch marks was getting severe than before. than it struck me.
    i gave the racquet to the boy and while i struck up a conservation with the mother i observed that the kid did exactly what i thought wa the reason.

    =he was dragging and pushing the racquet on the floor as he ran around the compund. the friction caused the scratches and the strings to burst. the mother was not to please to find out and........... diciplinary action.


    cheers. another riddle solved :)
     
  4. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    story 003 - restrung........ not?

    this is a story with adults.

    a man came with a racquet and requested it to be strung at a said tension with white string (bg66 - yes its a popular string where im at :D )

    so the job was done as requested and he returned later in the evening to collect it along with payments and no complaints.

    few days later he returned and said the tension was too tight for him. since i strung it at his requested tension it was not my fault so he paid a full price for it to be restrung with bg66 at a lower tension and bolted out as he was rushing somewhere else.

    i cut off the string and restrung it about 2-3lbs lower (at 18lbs if i remember correctly) with white bg66 since i assumed that was his favourite color.

    a day later he collected the racquet with no complaints. he returned again the next day complaining that the tension was still too tight. he then accused me of not actually restringing his racquet but charging him instead for just returning the racquet to him [this is because 1) he did not see me cut the string 2) it was the same string type and color 3) cause he's either a paranoid customer or 4) he's a cheapo of a customer, cant hit for nuts and blames the racquet and tension (or whatever he can use as an excuse) for his shortcomings in the game].

    what could i do?.............. fed up i restrung it for free with a diff color. i dont quite bother with this customer anymore after that incident...

    moral= make sure 1) you show that the original string has been cut 2) use different color string especially if the customer did not see you cut the string.


    cheers
     
  5. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    i hope this thread stays in the equipment forum as some may or might view this as a 'general issues' stuff and move this to the general forum.

    :crying: pls dont! please. this is pretty much about equipments and the issues about equipments and their maintenance during the stinger-owner/customer interaction period. im sure sharing of such stories will definetely benefit the equipments in the long run especially in the assymetric information problem among stringers and customers.

    cheers :)
     
  6. TheGr8Two

    TheGr8Two Regular Member

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    It's more about "interesting" customers. I don't see this thread belonging here..but I'm not a mod anyway.

     
  7. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    but it also has lots of information about how racquets can get damaged. im sure this could be usefull to both stringers and customers. would it not seem funny to have to go to the general forum to look for information regarding issues about their equipment wellbeing?

    just a thought. :)
     
  8. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    this thread is fine here.
     
  9. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    THANKS! :)

    getting late and sleepy...

    will continue another time....

    feel free to share your stories and comments.....

    till next time...... cheers ;)
     
  10. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    Personally, I did not experience any extreme stories like the above. However, the most common "request(s)" that could shock me were like:

    1. Ok, give me high tension. Say, 50s??? :eek: Guess, this person played too much tennis?

    2. I don't like high tension. Can I get 12? Errrr, should I just use a fish net instead? ;)

    Of course, I never laugh at them, but just try to explain things in detail, mostly, they will end up like 24-25 (instead of 50 :D ) and 18-19 (instead of 12 fish net).
     
  11. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    story 004 - the super pro lady

    this story is about an experience of an associate stringer of mine.

    an un-athlethic, beginer level lady with pretty much no strength in her shots came to get her racquet re strung. (i would know about the level of play because i sort of know the person). so it was bg66 at 19lbs. she had a spare racquet. the racquet wa strung according to request and collected and paid that same day after she returned from her game. she pretty much plays only 2 times a week at the most.

    the same day the next week after her game she came to the shop. she showed the burst string to my associate and could not stop saying/sort of shouting (she had a loud voice) one week! one week! one week!

    highly irritated he inspected the racquet. the strings were highly bruised all over. it appeared to have taken a lot of punishment over along period of time. it was not a clean burst at a spot but everywhere (inconsistent hitting) it is highly unlikely any man at any level could have damaged this string so torridly. even at high tension and high level strings burst are normally clean and at one isolated spot though it is possible to burst under a week under those conditions. but at 18lbs and her level/strength......... highly unlikely.

    he wanted to tell the lady that it was not possible but she kept yelling one-week! one week! (and in a very irritating way i might add) and demanded free stringing. the absurd request was rejected in a loud voice and both of them began to have a heated argument.

    when i finally arrive i found out what really happend by inspecting the evidence. it was her spare racquet that burst and not the freshly restrung racquet a week ago. so it was her own mistake and she was highly unfair to simply accuse us and not listen to reason or explanation. neither her rudeness and stubborness nor my associates hot head helped in the situation. needless to say that customer never came back again, and to tell you the truth my associate and i can do alot better without customers like these.

    i hope this can ne a lesson to all stringers and customers. respect and trust among customers and stringers go a long way.

    cheers
     
  12. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    I agree. If there's not trust and/or honesty involved, I would rather no take such case.

    Who knows, maybe it was not just simple mistake by her. I mean, I am pretty sure the racket owner should be able to tell which racket is which, even if the rackets could be identical. I mean, there's huge difference between a fresh string and a long time used one. Maybe she just did it on purpose, and trying to be "smart" to save some money. :rolleyes:
     
  13. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    actually i know the character of the person. not really a cheat. actually highly educated in her field (which is definetely not badminton :D ) but can be quite snobbish, pigheaded, resulting in blaming others without using her common sense/brain which by her level of edu she's expected and supposed to have plenty of that.

    this is the price of taking ppl for granted i suppose :(
     
  14. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    hahahah... if she's highly educated in badminton, then 99%, she did cheat on purpose then. :D
     
  15. jug8man

    jug8man Regular Member

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    regarding story 002 the toy car......

    i'd like to add that this (strings bursting at the edges) can also happen all the way up to 12 o'clock. it pretty much depends on how tall (or short) the kid is really.

    it may seem to look like a result of a miss hit but for kids its normally because of dragging the racquet. the exact opposite of the racquet should also have similar marks.


    quite busy now. i will post in more stories when im free.

    and does anyone else want to share their stories? :confused:


    cheers for now
     
  16. jianxiong

    jianxiong Regular Member

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    Stringer chipped my racket

    hey jug,

    I just had my racket restrung today. It's a pretty new racket, had for a month, not even a single scratch on it. Upon inspecting the racket i noticed that the stringer chipped my racket, nothing serious just a 1mm chip near the grommet. The stringer was using a pair of scissors to shift the grommet around, that was the cause. Normally i wouldn't care but being a new racket and not being able to chip it in my own hands kinds of pisses me off :mad:. I just wondering in situations like this, even though i didnt do anything, if customers bring matters like this up with the stringer. What would the stringers normally do? Deny it (clashes do happen)? Btw, where is your shop?
     
  17. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    This one was related to me by my stringing teacher...

    A 60-odd year old woman came into his shop one afternoon with an ancient tennis racket in need of restringing. He did the usual:

    "Do you know what tension you need?"
    "No, not really."
    "Well, do you want better power or better control?"
    "Er, I just need the ball to go far."
    "So you're a baseliner..."
    "Oh no, I don't play myself."
    "Ah, so this is someone else's racket?"
    "No, it's mine, I use it every day."

    It turned out she was using the racket to hit the ball for her DOG:D:D:D.
     
  18. Pathfinder

    Pathfinder Regular Member

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    I think Badminton Central has to add a Joke/Riddle Thread Forum. A very good one MARK A!:D The credit should go on and not fade. Calling on the moderators, hello, knock knock!:)
     
  19. Distanc3

    Distanc3 Regular Member

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    Here I got one, so bare with my VENT.

    I play badminton regularly at my local community center, about a year ago I've started stringing for people who i play with, and occasionally players will also ask me to string. I charge 15$ (bg65 and service) which is average around my area.

    First off, I have confidence in my stringing as I string my rackets well above 27lbs regularly with no problem.

    A week and a half ago, a new player asked me to string 3 rackets, which I agreed to after inspecting the rackets. He mention hes in a rush to use them, but I told him it usually take a week turn-around as I have full time school, and work and he said its ok. After 3 days I called him and said they're ready, and then he low balled me for a discount, or 40 bucks for 3 rackets strung and he'll pay by cheque. I kindly explained my prices are competitive and only cash deals, but I agreed to go out of my way to deliver the rackets which is quite far from where I live and where we played since he's in a rush. I arrived early because he said he get off at a certain time, 30mins passed the time he gets off work and no one went in or out of the house and he did not pick up my calls so I left. He calls me 4 hours later saying his phone was on silent. GREAT. A week gone by the time I dropped by and now he asked me to deliver to another place where hes playing, so he can give me a cheque. I said I will not as I have better use of my time than to drive 20 mins to receive a ___ing cheque. I'll leave it at my house, but if he decide to comes and offer me a cheque I'll have a pair of scissors ready, he can have his racket, and I'll bare the sunk cost, this is pure cow dung.
     
  20. ryim_

    ryim_ Regular Member

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    bs

    but I've had similar experiences dealing with people on redflags in Toronto as well...
     
    #20 ryim_, Dec 1, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2009

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