The story I had an unpleasant experience recently when I put my racket in for restringing. Normally, I never break strings. (Yonex At800-DE, Ashaway Microlegend XL @ 23 lbs). I asked for my string tension to be increased by 1 lb. I broke the strings in the first game of my clubnight. Putting this down to chance, I asked for the racket to be restrung again (with the same tension). It broke in the warm-up. I inspected the racket carefully, and noticed that half of one of the grommets was missing. This had caused my string to break. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, "grommets" are those tiny plastic sleeves that protect the strings where they pass through the racket frame. Without a grommet to protect it, the string will rub against the sharp holes in the frame and will quickly be cut. I instructed my stringer to restring and replace the grommet. This time, my strings held fine. A stringer should always inspect the grommets before he strings a racket. Unforunately, my stringer didn't do this. He did not offer a refund, refusing to admit that the grommet was to blame, and so I lost £30 to this mistake. The moral: Before you put your racket in to be restrung, always check that no grommets are missing. Check both the outside and inside of the frame -- it's possible to lose "half" a grommet. This is especially important if, like me, you prefer to remove the strings from your racket frame first. If a grommet is missing, instruct the stringer to replace it. He may not notice otherwise. After you receive the restrung racket, but before you play with it, inspect the grommets again. If any are missing, return the racket to the stringer without payment, and ask for him to restring again.
i do have a quick glance of the grommets before stringing. it is to detect major grommet flaw. Minor or major gromment flaws, i'm willing to replace 1 to 4 gromments for free for my repeat customers. There are some who pay the lowball prices, i call them and let them know because grommets will be optional. Also, those who pay low ball prices usually have cheap or fake rackets and have many bad grommets. Fake rackets are the worst, their grommets last about 1-2 string jobs.
If anyone here is a serious badminton player and breaks strings every 3 weeks or faster, I'd recommend buying your own stringing machine and learn to string yourself. You can recoup your invest in a year or sooner if you string other peoples' rackets. In addition, you would not have to wait on the stringer and the string job would be better than getting it done outside.
I always inspect all grommets before I accept the string job from my customers. If any of them are bad, missing, or misplaced, I will tell them what will happen if I string with it. Also, I replace few grommets for free (as long as if it's not like 5+ or so) as grommets are provided by manufacturers anyway.
Restringing Hello, Becoming professional in stringing ah? Recoup investment too!!! What a brilliant idea. First of all, must learn how to handle the techniques of stringing. Good luck man. Matrix
Hello Mr. Matrix Sir, stringing badminton rackets is not difficult. If you have knowledgeable people that can help you, it's quite easy.
That's terrible service you got Gollum! Checking the grommets is one of the first things a stringer should do. Some don't even bother charging you if there's just one or two which need replacing. If you wanted the whole set changed, fine, there shold be a charge for the time, but one grommet will only take a few seconds to replace. Grommets cost something like a penny each.
Honestly, I think the stringer shouldn't take extra charge for replacing the grommets, it's obvious they break after a certain delay. They're so cheap as well, one grommet itself costs 0,02€ (£0,015 logically ) and even less if you need a smaller size. The stringer would take extra 30 seconds to see if the grommets are broken/missing, in my opinion it's not the customers job to check the grommets anyway. As for Gollum's story, the stringer should've at least restrung the racket along with new grommets without separate charge. Also, it's quite much you pay for your stringing, especially since that string isn't so expensive. My stringer takes 2 € (~£1,5) for the job, and the rest is the string's cost. Hm the durability depends on the string and the tension as well. But yeah, I break mine once every 2 weeks, I wonder, should I buy a machine of my own? My stringer has been doing his job for like 30+ years and he's really experienced with them. Besides, he only takes the mentioned 2 € for the job, which is really cheap(?). After using electric machines and such he switched back to his beloved manual. He told me the electric machine is unforgiving and doesn't detect any grommet problems or differences in the frame's particular spots.
don't go back to this stringer because he did not admit a mistake,like a fault when you cut the string ,you take a look at raquet then grommets to be replaced,then you put it on the machine!! he must do it for free and apolozize!!!put a grommet back cost one minute!few cents in euro,MING
I'm going to have to play Devi's Advocate and say a Professional Stringer, at a Pro Shop should charge for replacing grommets. The Pro Shop is a business and though grommets are inexpensive, it still takes time to remove/repair/replace the grommet. Time is money. Of course if you're nice enough like BJ and others and offer it free of charge, as a courtesy, that's great. But don't expect a Pro Shop to do things for free. That's just not the way it goes.
if one day you just repaired a raquet then it come back you don't think , costumer don't play well or my job stinks!!! i do repaire for my club partner and I only charge the grommet when they more than few!!before to do it myself a very good coach but a bad stringer ,usually the raquet restring by him broke very fast (once I play only 5mn) MING
I mean if a pro shop do a restring job for you ,you expect the job done but not half done ,because if a grommet miss you have to replace don't you think??? time is money for everyone,that is right!
I agree with Sire Dinkalot here. I am not a pro stringer and I only string for my friend in our club. Just like break pad on your car, it cost dealer less $20 per regular set. (Dan, let me know if I am wrong on this) It is about 0.1% for many new car. However they still charge you part and labor to replace a set. I am not a pro stringer and I only string for my friends in our club. I Do not charge my friends for grommets because they are my friends. However, it still takes 10~15 min to take out a broken grommet. I agree with many of your view that stringer should inspect the racquet before a new string job. It is also a owner's responsability to take good care and check their racquet also. In my car example, if you don't know how to take care of your car, you take it in to a dealer or good shop to have them do a good job and they charge you more for the good work. (some dealer still can not fix their own car) Here is my point. I, the stringer, find a broken grommet and call you, the owner, that I find a broken grommet. It will cost $2 to replace it or your string might break early. Now it is your, owner's, choice to make. I agree it might not be a best business decision to charge for grommet. (since it can be a write off in US) It is also not fair to business when you ask then to work for free when your old racquet has 4 or 5 broken grommets.
OK! That makes sense. I agree, if a Pro Shop does a string job for, it should be done right. But it might cost you.
in north america, things are might be different than in france. We have street vendors (with low ball prices) and gucci stores, same goes with stringers. Problem is most customers just use price as their only guide for stringing. They wanted low ball prices with all the trimming like free grommets, free delivery, free teflon tube, and great warranty like the full service stringer. I got people bugging me in clubs asking me like 'are my rackets have proper tenison like 23 lbs as i have asked for?; my string broke only 1 day (or 1 week) of use, why? is my racket distorted? Problem is, i didnt strung their rackets plus that i know they will go back to their same low ball stringer. The worst case is this one: this dude approach me showing his new broken MP100 that he sold to another noob ( i know this guy would go to a low baller stringer because he want to maximize his profit of selling his new mp100 to a noob) and said 'hey, u strung it and now the racket is broken, i want a replacment racket' . I told that f'n dude, it wasnt strung by me, i never use that color of string, it is not my unique pattern., go to h'l. Yes, i may sound rude but these are low street scum balls.
Hehe, I can relate to how you feel Now Im starting to appreciate why you use the cooler secret stringing patterns... It's "watermarking" Cheers, Twobeer
Thanks. I string it my way because i feel it's a better method and the watermarking part was an unplanned benefits Yah, i have lots of stories. A good study on human behaviors
