OEM and Hockeytron

[Justin Liedloff 13]

This is going to get interesting . . .

[BucksAway 16]

That would never exist ... ever lol

well it does, come buy some hockey gear in Australia and you will see

[deej 19]

That would never exist ... ever lol

Skates aren't too bad here in the UK, but I just had a look at my LHS and the most expensive stick there (happens to be an Easton S17) is US$355.

Yoiks!

[AIREAYE 248]

well it does, come buy some hockey gear in Australia and you will see

But the cost of getting them to Australia would also be high too so the profit margins still wouldn't be that much. Just guessing though, I have no numbers.

Skates aren't too bad here in the UK, but I just had a look at my LHS and the most expensive stick there (happens to be an Easton S17) is US$355.

Yoiks!

Yet I very much doubt that it costs the LHS $105 per unit of the S17 stick. Again, no numbers, just an educated guess.

[hockeymass 11]

Instructions for converting US prices to GBP or EUR.

1. Remove dollar sign.

2. Add weird squiggly L or C with lines through it.

3. Change the decimal point to a comma.

4. ???

5. Profit!

[adam14 182]

But the cost of getting them to Australia would also be high too so the profit margins still wouldn't be that much. Just guessing though, I have no numbers.

not if it gets shipped directly from China or where it was made. Obviously I agree if they're from Mexico or Canada

[AIREAYE 248]

I have no idea how they do it, but definitely something interesting to think about.

Let's get back on topic.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

So let's have a chat about HockeyTron...

I recently emailed them looking to place a team order (I really like their DJ200 jerseys, and for $17/ea including jersey, numbers and 1-color screen printing, it's hard to beat!)

I sent an email to chrisj@hockeytron.com on Jan 19 detailing what I was looking for. I got no answer, so a couple days later I posted on their Facebook about wanting to place an order. They asked if I had emailed Sales@hockeytron.com and I replied "No, I emailed chrisj@ because that's what your team order page says to do". So I went ahead and forwarded the original email on Jan 24 to sales@ hoping to get an answer. Three days later, still nothing. I forwarded it once again to sales@ with the message "PING!" on Jan 27. (Please keep in mind each time I forwarded the email, it included the previous message in the body).

So I went back to Facebook and asked if they actually wanted my money or not. No reply.

Fast forward a few weeks to February 8th. I get this in my email (via their newsletter):

Now, naturally I had to laugh a bit that I was getting this after my experience with their team sales. So I replied. This is how the conversation went:

ME:

interesting... ive been trying to get a hold of you guys to place a team order for weeks now...

HOCKEYTRON:

Chris, That is an absolute lie! We have not received one phone call from you so stop the nonsense! Chris

Call me right now if you are real!

ME:

Seriously? I've sent you numerous emails. Both to chrisj@ and sales@... No reply from either.

Now you're calling me a liar?

HOCKEYTRON:

Yes I am show me that you have sent numerous emails to either email addresses? you have sent one to Chrisj that was threatening we have a great group of guys here who really take great care of our customers there is no one here that would have disrespect anyone we take offense to what you have typed

ME:

January 19th was the first email to chrisj. I forwarded it to sales on the 24th. And sent another on the 27th. Not to mention the numerous queries on Facebook. Why don't you guys want my money???

I have sent nothing threatening. I'm not sure why you'd be offended...

HOCKEYTRON:

Facebook is not run by us. Whenever you asked facebook a question they told you to call or email us. We only show one email from you that Jarvis answered. So putting stuff on facebook that we don’t respond to you is totally wrong and it is not us. So please don’t exaggerate.

Now, please tell me what you need and I will gladly take care of you.

Thanks

Chris Malki

ME:

So HockeyTron doesnt run the HockeyTron Facebook page? Weird.

Yes, they told to call or email... I emailed a few times. Chris Jarvis never replied to me.

So putting stuff on Facebook that you don't respond is completely correct. There is no exaggeration here, I'm simply telling it how it is. If you would have said "hmm, we did reply. Sorry you didn't get it. What can we do to help?" instead of arguing with me and talking as though I've done something wrong, I might still want to be your customer. You've lost my business by being rude. It's that simple.

Thanks anyway.

HOCKEYTRON:

Ok you can’t prove you called or emailed “numerous times” so all I can type is good luck to you!

ME:

I CAN prove it, actually. [linked him to a copy of the three emails sent]

If you guys had any integrity whatsoever you wouldn't be questioning a customer like this. It's unbelievable, quite honestly.

HOCKEYTRON:

That’s one email where are the numerous emails you claim you sent?? And he did respond to the one email you sent !

We are straight up here facts are facts. We make great product at great prices and provide great customer service. We are growing very fast. We have incredible product coming at half the prices of the bigger brands.

When someone attacks our integrity we don’t take it lightly.

Go pick on a company that doesn’t care!!!!

ME:

If you'd actually READ it, you'd see that there were three.

He did not respond. What was the date and time of his response? I'd be happy to admit being wrong, unlike you.

I'm not PICKING ON anybody. You're providing absolutely horrid customer service, and believe me, I'll be letting people know about it.

I have your 405 stick, and love it. But I'm starting to question whether I'll ever be using it again.

HOCKEYTRON:

Have fun I am sure you will have someone buy the new 405 skate we have coming out for you if you don’t want your stick I will gladly take it back and give you a full refund

ME:

Pro customer service right there.

At this point, I assume the guy went home for the day or something because the emails stopped. Figuring it was over, I compiled the emails and posted them on their Facebook page and also posted a Yelp Review. The next morning, I woke up to this:

HOCKEYTRON:

You are a fuckin retard Come over here so we can kick your fuckin ass you low life we will find you you fuckin liar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait… what? Did I just seriously get threatened by a company's customer service??

ME:

Now you're just being funny.

HOCKEYTRON:

Come here I am serious or we will find you

ME:

Oh really? And then what? For telling the truth? You really should be careful here, this could really hurt your business.

HOCKEYTRON:

You will be sorry

ME:

You're hilarious. You don't actually work for HockeyTron do you... You're just one of the employees dumb kids, right? Better make sure mommy and daddy don't find out!

HOCKEYTRON:

Idiot it’s the product and the service we have had a couple of idiots like you in the past who have nothing better to do than pass lies around have fun and this will be the last you here from us other than a lawsuit once we find you

HOCKEYTRON:

I am the owner retard

ME:

You're funny. You can't sue somebody for telling the truth!

Sigh... All this because your employees were too lazy to answer their email. Sad...

HOCKEYTRON:

No but you can for defamation

ME:

But it's not defamation if it's the truth :) Have a fantastic day!

HOCKEYTRON:

It’s not the truth you emailed ONCE not “numerous” I offered to help you you did not accept watch yourself!

ME:

I emailed three times, as I already proved to you.

You offered to help at one point yes, but by that time you'd already lost me as a customer due to your rudeness.

And now you're threatening me? Man, that's some exceptional customer service right there!

And that is the last I heard from them. I was absolutely blown away by what just happened. How are these guys still in business with service like this? All it would have taken was a "sorry, looks like we didn't get your email. What can we help you with?" and it would have been a complete non-issue.

It sucks, because I honestly really truly do like their jerseys (not to mention the price). I wear my Tron jersey every week for our games, and I have scored in every game I have used my Tron 405 stick in. I almost don't want to even use it anymore.

I understand that I'm partially at fault for simply not calling them in the first place, but to me it seems so much easier to describe a team order in an email so they have everything in one place, and won't miss/forget something or take something down on paper wrong. (This is my general outlook on email vs phone, being in IT, it's SO much easier to do things via email because of the paper trail it creates).

But regardless of all of that, there is NO REASON for a company to EVER get abusive or threatening like that. It's simply unacceptable. They would have been better off simply not replying at all, honestly.

Oh well, I guess I'll have to spend a ton extra for a team order of jerseys. I'd love to get some Junkyard stuff, but I'm not sure Marcelo deals with the ultra-low end of a "practice jersey with a number slapped on it and a simple logo", but I've emailed him anyway.

tl;dr: HockeyTron is crap.

[Monty22 831]

I would have gone elsewhere after the first email response, but wow- not a good way to interact with your customer base.

[AIREAYE 248]

Optimus, if you were a new member, I would probably think that this was some sort of defamation scheme. That being said, I still find this very hard to believe. Not saying that you're lying, but from what I've read here... that's pretty crazy. JW, do you have a link to the facebook exchange? I can't seem to find it on their page.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Optimus, if you were a new member, I would probably think that this was some sort of defamation scheme. That being said, I still find this very hard to believe. Not saying that you're lying, but from what I've read here... that's pretty crazy. JW, do you have a link to the facebook exchange? I can't seem to find it on their page.

Heh, they've long deleted it. They also booted me off their FB page.

[gerbe3:16 19]

WOW!

And seriously, their facebook page is run by someone else? WTF.

[krwwc6 0]

I emailed them a while ago about the orange socks I was asking about earlier in this thread. . . whether they were bright orange or burnt orange. I got no response. I didn't try again. Now I know I won't be going to that company. That's absolutely crazy that they treated a customer like that!

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I know, and it sucks, because they had easily the best deal on low-end team jerseys out there. I had cash in hand, if only they had responded! I even had my vector version of the logo worked out, ready to send.

[krwwc6 0]

It seems like you can never find the best of both worlds. . . . low prices and great customer service. Ridiculously low prices usually means they don't have to offer customer service, because there will always be those that pay the cheaper price

[goblue9280 33]

Well, that was eye opening. I've bought three of their "tron" brand items. The hockey bag has held up well... and the junior inline skates and senior 8090 gloves have been all right. I contemplated returning the gloves because the construction was pretty poor and didn't match the item description (they were $40 though, so they are what they are)... glad I didn't go that route now as I hate dealing with customer service to begin with, let alone customer service with an F you attitude. Every now and then I'll order something from another site... but I always end up back at icewarehouse.

[Tailboard Jockey 25]

That e-mail exchange is amazing! After my own experience with them, and reading that, they won't be getting any more of my business.

[team50 20]

Did Chris edit some of your email responses? Sounds like he got under your skin and you used some strong and offensive words.

[hockeymass 11]

I'm stunned by the unprofessional nature of the original exchange and also the above post. Why would someone lie about trying to contact you guys? That makes no sense at all. And then instead of acknowledging you made a mistake and correcting the situation, you made it worse. And then you continued to make it worse by coming on here and trashtalking the prospective customer. Why would he have to "prove" to you that he tried to contact you? Who gives a shit? Deal with it and make a sale.

Edit: Just noting that the post I was referring to was deleted.

[Chadd 916]

Chris, feel free to repost your comments regarding the situation without using it as an opportunity to promote your products/pricing. We have never allowed that.

[TeamHonda401 54]

I've worked in retail for over 5 years and I've never seen an exchange get that personal and insulting. I've dealt with numerous customers that would insult me, insult my family, insult the company over something that we have no control over (such as our return policy mainly). At no point has anything gotten half as bad as the emails above, but there's no way that any company (if they did in fact write the above emails) should deal with anything with that kind of language. We've gotten threats to watch our backs when we walk to our cars after work, but for a COMPANY to say that they will find you and say "come over here so we can kick your fuckin ass", that's incredible.

This whole scenario is incredible

[Hockeycrazy 1]

He may have been hired by a manufacturer or another internet company to post. I may pursue court action but then again I may not waste my time.

We have a lot to accomplish and will harm many retailers and manufacturers when we are done. The manufacturing and retail hockey industry is trying to stop us. I am just surprised that one or two consumers are also. They may have hidden agendas. When someone bashes an employee/friend unjustly who I know very well it is not right.

If Chris Jones wants to keep paying 4 times the price for his hockey equipment he can. He emailed us once and never called! Posts lies! etc

I prefer to deal with good, honest people which all our other customers are. We have serviced them to a point that is unimagineable.

They are all cheering for us and so should you!

We have 133,000 + customers that love what we are doing and 1 that doesn't! so far!

As far as posting prices. I apologize that was my first post and I don't know the rules yet. Thanks

[hehatemefrisbee 0]

This is incredible.

[hockeymass 11]

He may have been hired by a manufacturer or another internet company to post. I may pursue court action but then again I may not waste my time.

We have a lot to accomplish and will harm many retailers and manufacturers when we are done. The manufacturing and retail hockey industry is trying to stop us. I am just surprised that one or two consumers are also. They may have hidden agendas. When someone bashes an employee/friend unjustly who I know very well it is not right.

If Chris Jones wants to keep paying 4 times the price for his hockey equipment he can. He emailed us once and never called! Posts lies! etc

I prefer to deal with good, honest people which all our other customers are. We have serviced them to a point that is unimagineable.

They are all cheering for us and so should you!

We have 133,000 + customers that love what we are doing and 1 that doesn't! so far!

As far as posting prices. I apologize that was my first post and I don't know the rules yet. Thanks

Throwing your customers under the bus or accusing them of being plants isn't going to get you very far. You guys missed his emails, and instead of rectifying the situation, you just made it worse, and continue to do so.

[Law Goalie 147]

I think it's more likely that someone malicious gained access to Hockeytron's email accounts and created a fake account here to dig the hole even deeper. It's that crazy.

Read from a certain perspective (please note that qualification) there could be a faintly accusatory tone drawn from Optimus' early emails, but a more reasonable reading registers incredulity rather than anything else. If Hockeytron has dealt with shills in the past (and I take them at their word there) they *might* be a little more sensitive to that sort of tone, and that *might* help to explain their initial (over)reaction.

On the other hand, what follows is so bizarre that, increasingly, I can only conclude that someone is trying to smear them from within rather than from without. This could be the result of rampant paranoia, but that seems even less likely, since at *some* point someone would need to realise that they were doing their business more harm than good. It just doesn't make sense.