Monster Knee Blocks

[TheGoalNet]

It's not my intention to rip on Monster here, but I have an obligation to be honest and transparent with the crowd. That means sharing good experiences and bad. My goal is to not to scare people away from Monster, but enable you to make your own well educated decisions. I haven't had a great experience with Monster in general, but I absolutely respect the performance of the product and that they are enabling easy at home customization of gear. I think the biggest knock on Monster that I've heard, and also physically experienced myself, is lacking communication, overlooking order details, and not hitting lead times. Again, the purpose of this post is not to bash or bully Monster... just share what's going on with my gear. 

Being completely honest, I can say my knee blocks work extremely well and improved the performance of my aging pads. My bacon straps also work extremely well and have held up longer than than the initial factory elastic straps. I have no issues with the performance of the product. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the Velcro on my knee blocks is holding up well after year, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I haven't heard or seen other complaints like mine, so I'll hope that it's an weird isolated innocent or a bad batch of Velcro. . .

With that said, when I took off my pads yesterday, I noticed a bunch of fraying on my brand new pants. When I looked down, I saw Velcro poking through the top of my knee blocks and I was bit confused. When I un-Velcro-ed the blocks, I noticed the Monster knee wing Velcro was completely disintegrating  and causing the factory Velcro from my pads to slip around and rub against my pants. This caused the fraying. 

I am extremely dissapointed, but this is kind of a spilt milk situation and I'll work around it.

 

PS - For any younger members out there...  I know the risks when I start playing Dr with my gear and I want to make sure you do too. Please think twice before you start dismantling the $2000 worth of gear your parents just got you! 

[bunnyman666]

Jeff is trying to heal some of the damage that was done in the last year. I am not speaking for him, nor am I an apologist or a defender. I was lucky to have never had the experiences that have been chronicled in many places; I had good experiences with Jeff. If I would have had an experience similar to the ones reported, I would have HOWLED in every place I could think of. However, again- too many bad experiences have been reported to just be grumblings from unreasonable customers who can't be made happy. 

I suppose I am a bit sympathetic because I got to know him a bit. It's not like we ever met in person or had our Bar Mitzpah together or anything like that. He held my hand through installing parts of the products correctly (as I had trouble in the beginning and felt that the enhancements were detriments at one point and told him so) and was quick to mail new parts that worked better. So at first, it was hard to believe the stories that I was hearing! But hearing the same story from many different people made me know there was validity to the stories, which bummed me out.  

I do hope that Jeff can get his complaint level to be much lower. As a small business owner myself, I can attest to how long it takes a bad rep to get fixed. It CAN be done, but it takes a LOT of work. Sometimes it can overtake you and make you throw in the towel. I never had to do that, thank G'd; but I have personally witnessed it and in the case of friends, it was heartbreaking to watch. 

Think Jeff would fix the problem if asked to do so. But I also understand why you would be slow to complain. 

[TheGoalNet]

12 hours ago, bunnyman666 said:

Jeff is trying to heal some of the damage that was done in the last year. I am not speaking for him, nor am I an apologist or a defender. I was lucky to have never had the experiences that have been chronicled in many places; I had good experiences with Jeff. If I would have had an experience similar to the ones reported, I would have HOWLED in every place I could think of. However, again- too many bad experiences have been reported to just be grumblings from unreasonable customers who can't be made happy. 

I suppose I am a bit sympathetic because I got to know him a bit. It's not like we ever met in person or had our Bar Mitzpah together or anything like that. He held my hand through installing parts of the products correctly (as I had trouble in the beginning and felt that the enhancements were detriments at one point and told him so) and was quick to mail new parts that worked better. So at first, it was hard to believe the stories that I was hearing! But hearing the same story from many different people made me know there was validity to the stories, which bummed me out.  

I do hope that Jeff can get his complaint level to be much lower. As a small business owner myself, I can attest to how long it takes a bad rep to get fixed. It CAN be done, but it takes a LOT of work. Sometimes it can overtake you and make you throw in the towel. I never had to do that, thank G'd; but I have personally witnessed it and in the case of friends, it was heartbreaking to watch. 

Think Jeff would fix the problem if asked to do so. But I also understand why you would be slow to complain. 

I don't want to chronicle it here. He had many opportunities to fix my situation and treated me callously at best. That's my last comment on the subject. 

At this point in time, I respect what he's doing. He's allowing people to upgrade or enhance their gear at home without having to buy new pads to get the latest strapping or knee blocks. As stated above in my intial post, his products perform very well on the ice and I respect that. I just don't know that he's earned repeat business from me. 

I truly hope he has figured out how to run his business ethically and efficiently because he should be an asset to the goalie community. I hope the negative feedback, that was deserved at the time and hopefully is not anymore, was taken to heart and used as a learning opportunity as his business continues to grow. His products are a great way to help a lot of people out and I'd rather see him succeed than fail. 

[bunnyman666]

10 hours ago, TheGoalNet said:

I don't want to chronicle it here. He had many opportunities to fix my situation and treated me callously at best. That's my last comment on the subject. 

At this point in time, I respect what he's doing. He's allowing people to upgrade or enhance their gear at home without having to buy new pads to get the latest strapping or knee blocks. As stated above in my intial post, his products perform very well on the ice and I respect that. I just don't know that he's earned repeat business from me. 

I truly hope he has figured out how to run his business ethically and efficiently because he should be an asset to the goalie community. I hope the negative feedback, that was deserved at the time and hopefully is not anymore, was taken to heart and used as a learning opportunity as his business continues to grow. His products are a great way to help a lot of people out and I'd rather see him succeed than fail. 

Again- I am neither an apologist or defender of Monster.

That is a shame that you were treated in a callous manner. It is gravely disappointing, but again- not out of line of what I have heard. I respect that you don't want to go into further detail. 

I have run into similar problems with other custom makers, particularly the "minimum quantity: one" types. Personally- small custom orders is probably not a good business model because you can get mired down with tiny orders and when a big outfit dangles big money, you make certain to take care of them FIRST. These were not limited to the hockey industry, either. The irony was that one had enough satisfied customers with over the top reviews (that were mainly team orders) that nobody would believe you if you gave them a poor review! The worst part was that I was told my item was nearly done, but then it did not pass quality control. But I wasn't given a time line of when it was going to get done and when I had asked, I was told that I was being impatient! Basically, I was pushed to the back of the queue for something that they did! And yes- while my order was being delayed, I saw pro orders rolling out. I heard every excuse in the book, especially using the sacred cow excuses (meaning that you are an a**hole if you question the excuse). And because this company gave me 100% of my money back, I promised to not publicly tell anyone who it was. That was our agreement, and I hope this company has amended their practises, but I don't know or care enough to check it out.

You are being very even-handed here. That is a quality that I, unfortunately do NOT posess. 

[SaveByRichter35]

39 minutes ago, bunnyman666 said:

Again- I am neither an apologist or defender of Monster.

That is a shame that you were treated in a callous manner. It is gravely disappointing, but again- not out of line of what I have heard. I respect that you don't want to go into further detail. 

I have run into similar problems with other custom makers, particularly the "minimum quantity: one" types. Personally- small custom orders is probably not a good business model because you can get mired down with tiny orders and when a big outfit dangles big money, you make certain to take care of them FIRST. These were not limited to the hockey industry, either. And the worst part was that one had enough satisfied customers with over the top reviews (that were mainly team orders) that nobody would believe you if you gave them a poor review! The worst part was that I was told my item was nearly done, but then it did not pass quality control. But I wasn't given a time line of when it was going to get done and when I had asked, I was told that I was being impatient! Basically, I was pushed to the back of the queue for something that they did! And yes- while my order was being delayed, I saw pro orders rolling out. I heard every excuse in the book, especially using the sacred cow excuses (meaning that you are an a**hole if you question the excuse). And because this company gave me 100% of my money back, I promised to not publicly tell anyone who it was. That was our agreement, and I hope this company has amended their practises, but I don't know or care enough to check it out.

You are being very even-handed here. That is a quality that I, unfortunately do NOT posess. 

A company actually bribed you with a full refund if you didn't disclose who they were?  Are you fucking kidding me?

[bunnyman666]

Yes. 

I figure karma will catch up with that individual.

[jayluv54]

39 minutes ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

A company actually bribed you with a full refund if you didn't disclose who they were?  Are you fucking kidding me?

Ebay works the same way.  I recently had a bad experience purchasing a pro return chesty from a certain hockey repair company in the bay area....needless to say once I received my refund, all negative feedback was removed.  I would have had no problem disclosing in my feedback that I was EVENTUALLY fully refunded my money including shipping, however potential customers might be interested in knowing what transpired before that.

[bunnyman666]

1 minute ago, jayluv54 said:

Ebay works the same way.  I recently had a bad experience purchasing a pro return chesty from a certain hockey repair company in the bay area....needless to say once I received my refund, all negative feedback was removed.  I would have had no problem disclosing in my feedback that I was EVENTUALLY fully refunded my money including shipping, however potential customers might be interested in knowing what transpired before that.

Since I was out over $350 and well into a month over time and not even offered an apology, just the offer of a refund in exchange for us going our separate ways and never mentioning each other again. I would have been happy with some sort of discount. I was treated like it was my fault for their screw up.  In the end, I just wanted my money back. 

I understand wanting to broadcast what has happened, but in the end, they will keep doing business the way they did to you and the reputation will grow well outside of ebay. 

[Hills]

1 hour ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

A company actually bribed you with a full refund if you didn't disclose who they were?  Are you fucking kidding me?

That is kind of what happened with a big YouTube goalie reviewer last year as well.

[SaveByRichter35]

F that man, these guys are just going to keep ripping off other people.  I am all about keeping my word in an agreement but obviously they're making these deals with more than just 2 customers.  I guess so long as the full amount is being refunded the worst thing that is happening is wasting people's time.  I still think they should be called out on their shady business practice though.

[bunnyman666]

1 hour ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

F that man, these guys are just going to keep ripping off other people.  I am all about keeping my word in an agreement but obviously they're making these deals with more than just 2 customers.  I guess so long as the full amount is being refunded the worst thing that is happening is wasting people's time.  I still think they should be called out on their shady business practice though.

I think that these types of businesses keep enough high profile customers happy (and a couple of small potatoes people, as well) that they can get away with what they are doing. This begs the question: Why not just stop offering "minimum quantity: one"-type orders and stop acting like they are hands-on owners? 

Also- I have stopped doing business with companies that want 100% of my money for any purchase of over $200 if there is a wait time. The exception was Protechsport, but he has such a good reputation and will refund your money up to four weeks from your appointed time. I have just found that more often than not, they have you the second they have your money. 

Nobody needs 100% of your money to make your product unless there is a cash flow problem.

[TheGoalNet]

On 4/3/2017 at 9:19 AM, SaveByRichter35 said:

F that man, these guys are just going to keep ripping off other people.  I am all about keeping my word in an agreement but obviously they're making these deals with more than just 2 customers.  I guess so long as the full amount is being refunded the worst thing that is happening is wasting people's time.  I still think they should be called out on their shady business practice though.

If there is a way to generate money here, which I am not sure there is, I'd love to buy equipment and have 2-3 people test it and review it. If we purchase and have multiple opinions, that would be the most neutral "consumer reports" like setting. Hopefully we can get there someday.  

[SaveByRichter35]

14 hours ago, TheGoalNet said:

If there is a way to generate money here, which I am not sure there is, I'd love to buy equipment and have 2-3 people test it and review it. If we purchase and have multiple opinions, that would be the most neutral "consumer reports" like setting. Hopefully we can get there someday.  

I'd love to try that out and get to use all kinds of new gear but I'm weary of experimenting during league play and the open hockey around here is awful.  Not to mention I use fairly small pads that would be hard to sell again.  Not many grown men wear a 33+1 lol.

[Ghostender]

4 minutes ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

... Not many grown men wear a 33+1 lol.

Well, "grown men",  no, but there are those of us, of vintage age, that they'd still be too big for...

[SaveByRichter35]

2 minutes ago, Ghostender said:

Well, "grown men",  no, but there are those of us, of vintage age, that they'd still be too big for...

Shrinking men? 

[TheGoalNet]

From bad to worse 

 

Velcro now coming unstitched 

[bunnyman666]

1 hour ago, TheGoalNet said:

From bad to worse 

 

Velcro now coming unstitched 

Damn!

[longboarderj]

Jeff played goalie for my team when he was getting out of the Marines here in California.  The guy is a really nice guy and awesome goalie, but I have sent several emails about one of his products and got no response.  Oh well, I can get shock cord and make toe ties myself.

[TheGoalNet]

Gear is in route to Factory Mad today...

based on the photos, he think my knee guards were hand sewn and that caused the issues. I'll be curious for his feedback once he gets his hands on these 

[bunnyman666]

Dennis is lightning quick with repairs. I don't know how he does it, frankly.

[TheGoalNet]

9 minutes ago, bunnyman666 said:

Dennis is lightning quick with repairs. I don't know how he does it, frankly.

Doesn't sleep. Literally, that's it

[bunnyman666]

He claims to sleep, but like you- I don't believe him! 

lol

[TheGoalNet]

[bunnyman666]

WTF is going on here?!?

[TheGoalNet]

7 minutes ago, bunnyman666 said:

WTF is going on here?!?

Had to take the pad apart to properly sew in my knee block