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Yes- there is a review thread on the knee blocks, but now here is a gear thread. 

Some of you feel the same way about Jeff Laum as I do about Dave Wilcox. I get that. My initial experience was uniquely different, just like some of you had a much better Wilcox experience than I. It does not mean that either of us are liars. 

I can say, however, that Jeff is trying. He hired someone to be his main rep, if you will. I bought some Hals on the April 15 flash sale, as it was basically two for one. 

Needless to say, no email by yesterday was making the old rabbit twitchy. When I get twitchy, I get to start emailing people, then phoning them. I thought to myself "Great. I am going to be out $20". I don't even like to lose a penny, let alone $20. Being of two ethnicities that are reputed to be bargainers and misers, I get quite irritated even losing a penny.

I enquired about the status of my order last night, which got a reply within an hour. I was told that the Hals for the flash sale were on back order. Of course in our email exchange,  coming from a man who has owned his own businesses since a wee boy, I gave my two cents worth saying that it would have been nice to have received a "sorry, but we're out; would you accept a substitute colour/style, instead?" email when the demand was going to obviously outstrip supply. 

Well, I got what I wished for. It took a little bit of prodding, but it's going to happen. 

Flash sales should have ample supply, or at least a finite supply that should be stated (i.e. 500 units left at this price). The concept of a flash sale is actually quite an old one. They are typically a way to either thank past customers or get new ones with either an over-run or a product that is a slow mover. Flash sales should never wait for production to pick up the slack. 

Customers should NEVER be left hanging when purchasing from a sale like this. The SECOND it becomes a back order situation, an automatic notification should go out with each receipt, offering a substitute or a refund. The customer should NEVER have to enquire about an order's status when it becomes a back order situation. Constant contact is key as far as business success. With numerous places to complain, fiascos like this can kill a business.

I am giving this ordering experience a C, being that the experience would have been graded lower had the new Monster rep not answered me in an expedious fashion and offered an alternative. It should have not taken an exchange like this to make me whole. Of course, I have not received my product, so we will have to wait and see.

I have another situation with an order I had placed on Thursday with a different vendor.  I got the "we took your money" email, and no shipping confirmation. If I don't either see a shipment confirmation email or my product by Monday (as I paid for 2day shipping), you had better BELIEVE I am going to raise holy HELL with that merchant, as they have more than $20 of mine!!!

Stay tuned.

 

Edited by bunnyman666
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I was going to order their Bacon Suspenders or what ever they are called... but then they charge $15 USD to ship them to Canada... which added on top of the USD base rate makes those far too expensive for me to order. Shame really and I know those could be sent off in basically a letter envelope for a few bucks.

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I don't want to turn this into a bash thread, but I'm disappointed in the "high quality" shock cord.  It's already fraying and losing elasticity after about 6 months of playing once a week.  I know it's cheap, but still.  I know these things have been said before but there's just so much "other" stuff going on with that company that takes away from some of their good ideas.  Seems like their brand name changes per social media platform, some vulgar-language filled social media posts, constantly changing pricing, out of stock issues, favoring pro customers and those through other sites like GGSU and lastly their promotional strategy (this one gets me).  It seems like they run sometime every damn week or day so why am I going to buy something now when it might be cheaper later?  Openly admitting that if you just talk to a Rep you get a discount code?  Why would I ever buy anything at full retail price from them again?  Rant over.  I should really keep my concerns to myself because I really don't know what it's like to run a small business, but man that stuff gets under my skin.

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12 hours ago, sebastiancp1 said:

I don't want to turn this into a bash thread, but I'm disappointed in the "high quality" shock cord.  It's already fraying and losing elasticity after about 6 months of playing once a week.  I know it's cheap, but still.  I know these things have been said before but there's just so much "other" stuff going on with that company that takes away from some of their good ideas.  Seems like their brand name changes per social media platform, some vulgar-language filled social media posts, constantly changing pricing, out of stock issues, favoring pro customers and those through other sites like GGSU and lastly their promotional strategy (this one gets me).  It seems like they run sometime every damn week or day so why am I going to buy something now when it might be cheaper later?  Openly admitting that if you just talk to a Rep you get a discount code?  Why would I ever buy anything at full retail price from them again?  Rant over.  I should really keep my concerns to myself because I really don't know what it's like to run a small business, but man that stuff gets under my skin.

You may not know about running a small business, but you do know the recipe for losing the faith of a small business' bread and butter- the regular paying customer. 

I am now changing my tune on Laum. Once he has your money, you just have to piss off and wait with no communication. 

This has become the norm. Poor customer service has become accepted practise. 

I apologise for EVER defending Laum.

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15 hours ago, Hills said:

I was going to order their Bacon Suspenders or what ever they are called... but then they charge $15 USD to ship them to Canada... which added on top of the USD base rate makes those far too expensive for me to order. Shame really and I know those could be sent off in basically a letter envelope for a few bucks.

Even from the "Monster Canada" site?

You saved yourself serious frustration.

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16 hours ago, sebastiancp1 said:

I don't want to turn this into a bash thread, but I'm disappointed in the "high quality" shock cord.  It's already fraying and losing elasticity after about 6 months of playing once a week.  I know it's cheap, but still.  I know these things have been said before but there's just so much "other" stuff going on with that company that takes away from some of their good ideas.  Seems like their brand name changes per social media platform, some vulgar-language filled social media posts, constantly changing pricing, out of stock issues, favoring pro customers and those through other sites like GGSU and lastly their promotional strategy (this one gets me).  It seems like they run sometime every damn week or day so why am I going to buy something now when it might be cheaper later?  Openly admitting that if you just talk to a Rep you get a discount code?  Why would I ever buy anything at full retail price from them again?  Rant over.  I should really keep my concerns to myself because I really don't know what it's like to run a small business, but man that stuff gets under my skin.

Did you get the shock cord sleeve that he sells?  maybe you should have gotten the shock cord sleeve...JK  Seriously though, I purchased the same shock cord and some connectors on Amazon for like $10-$12 and made 3 sets because the shock cord will fray and/or stretch out.  Its not hard and took about 10min to make all 3 sets.   

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40 minutes ago, sebastiancp1 said:

I think it's a great idea.  Any added protection is nice.

Why do I need an extra piece of padding there on top of my existing 1/2" of padding? If anything, I would think that it could throw off the fit of mask. 

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12 hours ago, bunnyman666 said:

Unless the mask already fits poorly? 

 

17 hours ago, TheGoalNet said:

Why do I need an extra piece of padding there on top of my existing 1/2" of padding? If anything, I would think that it could throw off the fit of mask. 

The one shown on IG has two 1/8" strips so even at 1/4", I dont think it'll make too much of a difference fit wise.  I did make the assumption that their might be different widths.  I've tried Maltese GPS kits and can not stand the feel of the dots/strips.  I still use rubatex for the full coverage of the inside of the mask even though I know Maltese would protect me better.  Because of that I wouldn't mind adding a little more protection.

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  • 7 months later...

There will always be the raging fan boys for this company and their marketing. Some of their ideas are nice, but execution isn't all there, nor is the aggressiveness/overly defensiveness of their reps. 
There's always delays for some reason or another. I could go on, but not a fan of the company. 

I had one order from the company, which took very very very long (although i'm sure that's quite a common story). At least the rep I went through initially is a pretty stand up guy (who left the company in short order too). ;) 

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That’s one huge part why I left. Quality really went down hill when the big boom of the company came. 

Jeff has great ideas and does great work himself but since they’ve moved to outsourcing these issues seem to be more common. 

Edited by cwarnar
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Just to add my .02.  I have had both great and awful experiences with Monster.  The first set of elastic toes were delivered in 2 days without any shipping upgrade charges, ironically I received the package before I received the order confirmation.  Since then I have ordered more elastic toes, suspenders, a mask bag, and several other items, and none of them shipped anywhere within the expected time window.  My last order that included the mask bag (BTW....  IMO,Not worth the money) took 8 months with no communication.  I agree with all of the comments above that Jeff has some great ideas, but needs help on the business side to under commit and over deliver versus the other way around.  Having said this, if I see something innovative on the Monster site I'll probably order it, forget about it, and be surprised when it shows up :)

On a side note - I am now sewing my own toe ties, suspenders, and strapping so I don't have to wait.

-steve

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33 minutes ago, beansbats said:

Just to add my .02.  I have had both great and awful experiences with Monster.  The first set of elastic toes were delivered in 2 days without any shipping upgrade charges, ironically I received the package before I received the order confirmation.  Since then I have ordered more elastic toes, suspenders, a mask bag, and several other items, and none of them shipped anywhere within the expected time window.  My last order that included the mask bag (BTW....  IMO,Not worth the money) took 8 months with no communication.  I agree with all of the comments above that Jeff has some great ideas, but needs help on the business side to under commit and over deliver versus the other way around.  Having said this, if I see something innovative on the Monster site I'll probably order it, forget about it, and be surprised when it shows up :)

On a side note - I am now sewing my own toe ties, suspenders, and strapping so I don't have to wait.

-steve

I am trying like mad to find a good sewing machine cheap. I want a floating foot upholstery machine, and I know I don’t have to pay too much if I look hard. I have missed out on two ?

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