Heya Gunblade, For all interested in knowing, I (jinryu) am the SOTX dealer mentioned here who failed to work out a reasonable response time with Gunblade and his friend. I have noone but myself to blame. I wish I could have helped you guys more, but the fact is that my own supply to SOTX has been very difficult-- and even now, I am reconsidering my carrying of their products for my co-op. I'd just like to say that RsM should not be mistaken for being owned by SOTX-- RsM is just a bunch of students like myself with part time jobs trying to do something for the community with what little resources we have. At the time, we did do SOTX sponsorships because our supply of SOTX was very steady. But at this time, RsM has been all but cut off from a SOTX supply and there's not much that I can do about that. Of course, my responsability as owner of RsM is to make sure that we serve badminton players. In that sense, it is my fault that I didn't drop SOTX officially sooner so that you could be sponsored under other equipments. As we said at the time of your sponsorship we couldn't guarantee a gear supply at the time because things were complicated. That wasn't a lie-- things WERE very busy and just because I as an individual have time to relax and come on BC and post every now and then doesn't mean that all other things in business are easy. Sometimes one has to allocate some leeway time away from business. If you were blocked on MSN it's because we had no further information to offer you regarding the sponsorship, and you'll have to just bear with me that because I use my personal msn account for business as well (probably not a smart move in retrospect, but I did say that it we are a bunch of part timers working co-op style and we don't actually have salaries) it becomes necessary to make distinct divides between business and pleasure. Not that we couldn't be friends, but you understand. I won't get into the ethics of 'block detectors'. So yeah, this post got a little long and it might be off the topic, but this is my sincere apology for letting you guys down. At least I did offer to make it up to you guys, I said that all that was necessary was to let me know when and to pay the shipping fee and I could already send some gear over. At this point though, I'll have to retract my offer because frankly, SOTX isn't up to RsM's demands, and it's to avoid further letdowns like this that I'm mostly suspending all sponsorships at this time. I accept full responsability for my failure in this matter. I wish I could 'fix it' by offering you a sponsorhip at this point, but I wouldn't dream to think that throwing money will fix any problems. I'm not trying to pass the blame onto SOTX, which is another topic entirely, but I think I just want to make it clear that I am sincerely sorry about this all. I'm a badminton player first, a team captain actually, and my duty is first and foremost to the faces at my club... if I fail at business endevaours like this, I apologize, I'm learning as I go along... I'm just trying to do what I can, but sometimes I don't see a right way to fix a situation. In your case, I shirked my responsabilities and tried to pretend it didn't happen, and that was wrong of me.
Erm, more to the point of this thread though, I do beleive that what Gunblade says is true about SOTX. Sotx has terrible support for it's distributors and dealers. The equipment itself is superb in my opinion, from the consideration of quality to price ratio. However, they simply don't take enough care of the distributors and dealers that work under them. It's usually tough for a store to add on new brands to their lineup-- SOTX kinda has a huge lineup of products to begin with, so carrying their gear is a huge investnemnt. But I've found that when the time comes down the placing orders, the odd thing is that it's actually DIFFICULT to obtain sotx gear. Steven Young supplies for North America, and I in a sense work with him for the Canadian branch, however the link problem is between china and north america. I just don't find them very effective with their communication, and they don't reward their north am connections for their dedication. For this reason actually RsM will discontinue carrying sotx gear in february if a suitable agreement is made. We beleive that SOTX is a good brand with a lot of portnetial for especially new badminton players (especially people with student budgets) and so we think alternative brands are essential to a main yonex linup, for example--however if they're going to treat us like this, well... As gunblade says, it puts us in a position where business deals can go sour. And I'm not trying to differ blame again... I definately could have handled that situation better... but to be honest, at the time when SOTX was letting me down, I was fed up and felt no reason to deffend their name in either a sponsorship context or otherwise.
A final note, If SOTX would pick up the pace, i would go back to it in an instant because of the quality of it's goods. But when it comes to business realationships with companies like this, i feel that it goes without saying that there's no need for 'loyalty'. If the company forces me to treat people who depend on me with bad results, then i will switch over. There are other companies out there who will fill the hole easily. I am saying that at the time, because SOTX was the first group that I acquired equipment from, RsM thought that we owed them something, but as the case with Gunblade brings up, it's that it didn't turn out well. I don't think big corporations really care about people beyond their marketing and their money-- and that's a bold statement-- but from running RsM, that's why their competition exists. Everyone makes mistakes, and people fall through the cracks. Gunblade and his friend were forced through the cracks of RsM, and RsM was forced through the cracks of SOTX. I'm not saying it's right, and perhaps in the 'big picture' things are 'more right', but I'm saying that I am doing my best to make sure this never happens again... but it is a very tiresome and thankless job at times
Hello alvin...How did you injure your skin bones?? You said by training..I'm just curious on what you did to it to injure it?
Jinryu, First and foremost, I apologize to you and all forum members for my first initial post, which was, truthfully, directed at not only RsM, but SOTX as well, I let my anger blind me. I would like to formally retract my past statement. I really do believe you when you say that SOTX has not sent you the equipment, because one of your co-workers/friends advised me so back in September 2006. However, I really did wish that you had told me this earlier because at the time, I had promised my team some discount racquets/equipments and when I had not heard from you, I became angry because I felt that I let my team down. That is in the past now, and I really hope you resolve your problems with SOTX. I have said it before and I will say it again, you truly are dedicated to badminton, and you have given alot to it's community and to your own and for that reason, I commend you. You not only work hard to realize your own dreams, you work hard so that other young/old potentials can realize theirs as well, so please do not think of it as a thankless job!!
Sorry about everything trickling down to your teammates like that, but on the whole I'm glad we had the chance to talk about this like this. It's a loose end that's finally been tied up as best as possible and that'll help me sleep at night!
I am glad to see the problem did get resolved in a positive way. I can see both parties were suffering, while trying to help their fellow team/club/local communities. It's just a "chain reaction" as the parent company did the poor job, then, the fellow distributor/dealer/sponsored members all suffer at once. Actually, SOTX was officially introduced in my local area not too long ago, but gain fairly good reputation on the quality vs. price ratio. However, the un-reliable supply just let SOTX missed many good business chances. I truely hope SOTX can take a look at the situation, and putting in a bit more effort to explore north american market. I know there's a lot of difficulties to begin with, but the futher is surely bright.
Oh man, I just hope this would never happen to anyone else, not even my opponent in the finals. The price to pay for this is simply too great. I was doing bench jumps, training my core stability and calf and quad muscles. But onthe 200+ jump, I slipped and fall forward banging my shins on the bench and topple over bench. Its the feeling that you don't know whether to laugh or to cry. The spasms of pain and hitting the funny bone on the elbow feeling came all at once like the tide. This happened a few times and I initially thought this is just normal pain in the shin and a normal bump like a bang on the forehead. But the bump did not go away and the pain got worst. I can hardly do skips and training became really hard and I became really slow and lost the explosiveness. I can't rush to the net fast enough after a smash. In the course of waiting it to heal, I took painkillers ie Neurofen, and and continue playing but stopped training as it is too intense. I can't do skips anymore and I resort to playing doubles more often. After March last year, I finally hang up my racquet and decided to rest and concentrate on my research work. Back to home in Malaysia for 2 weeks in summer, got a scan, revealed that I had fractures on the shin bone. Opt not to play and rest. Tried playing hard last night and its really obvious that my timing is really off and stamina is on the pits. So please please guys, becareful and take good care of yourselves for the sake of badminton.
Guys, fellas, I will take up this matter and your concerns to Sotx regarding their services and hopefully, they will review the situation and improve their services. Fingers crossed, we'll have better supply of Sotx goods everywhere soon.
Yeap very much agreed, lets not turn on each other due to situations which are not within our control. Lets enjoy some baddy instead~ its good to see how a sport can bring so many people from so many parts of the world together. Although we may not know who they are and have not seen them before but still, baddy unites us all. One world, one sport, one family~! (I think this makes a great slogan~!)
Seems that even European Union Badminton suffer from delayed goods~ Really honest of them eh? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQxJ-vViM0s
Hi Cayzi, Nope, not one is made with that stuff. Sotx has it's own "Woven" technology. woven material a a combination of Carbon/Graphite 'woven together' at 90degree angles. They claim it's for better stability and more durability.
I see. How this racquet can compete with Yonex? Does any of profesional players use them? I have to choice SOTX, YangYang or Forza...and there is also HL racquet at good price point...
Ok, so I guess I have a few things that I want to discuss: 1) iBuysports.com. Is the inconsistency there with delievering rackets on time related to the shipping inconsistency with the main company SOTX itself? I've known some ppl to get so frustrated from waiting for their rackets that they go and try to get a refund, and that in itself takes a long time to process too. 2) Is the Powerboss Woven Series going to be discontinued any time soon? If so, I'm going to stock up on them! My favorite rackets, you see. 3) Does anyone know the meaning of the numbers on the cone of the Powerboss rackets? Are they just numbers that correspond to the model? Thanks.
Sotx is the sponsor to Bayi, Sichuan and the European Badminton Union. Yes they are professional badminton players. The few famous ones are such as Lin Dan, Wang Chen, Jiang Yanjiao and I think Wang Lin too as she is also in Bayi team. I think Guo Zhendong too as he is in the Sichuan team.
Woven 16 can be strung up to 35 lbs. which makes it very durable when strung at lower than 35 lbs. Zhao Tingting is also in Bayi team. Does anyone know if the news models can be strung higher? Thanks
2)I don't think the wovens will be discontinued this year...the winner kinsmen, fox-stuff etc will ahev to bite the dust first... 3) the DED I don't know..but the first 2/3 indicate the model..all D900 start with 360, ie not touching point 1, because I think it isn't fair to Steve.. Ibuysports sells hundreds of rackets a year...all those satified customers just take the rackets and thank Steve...Give the man some credit, he put Sotx on the charts in the USA! those 5 times it goes wrong (things can happen) the whole forum sees it.. also, connection with Sotx HQ is always a tad slow, due to the time barrier... and some stocking problems..
2) Ok, good! Whew! I really like those. 3) Ok, I'll look further into it. 4) Well, personally, I haven't had any problems, but my dad knows people who have had problems getting their rackets until a long time later, and has had to go help them get refunds back. Yes, I do think it's pretty good, I'm just wondering if it's going to happen again, it seems strange that it happened just recently, didn't seem to have problems before.
