In very late January I went down to our one and only actual Pro Shop and shot several bows, chose one I wanted, and told the Tech to order it. We do have a North40 and a Sportsman's Warehouse that offer "Pro shops", but you know how those go. I wanted to support this fairly new actual Pro Shop. Two months went by and I got an update, the Tech had called Bowtech and they gave him a mid April delivery guesstimate. I call around mid May, explain I know about the material shortages and employee shortages, but mainly want to let them know that I was still very interested. (No money has been exchanged). I'm told that I'm the first on their list and the first one that shows is mine. Finally, last week on July 21st I get the call that the bow has finally came in. 6 freaking months. The Tech asks what day is best for me to get in so it can be set up for me. I tell him Friday, I work half days on Friday and get off at 10 a.m. He says perfect, we open at 10. You've waited a long time and I want to get you taken care of. I end this call thinking friday is the day I walk out of the shop with a new bow all set up and ready for me to shoot. That afternoon after work I run down a set of custom strings that I'd purchased for the bow, so he can get them on and everything set to spec. I left a peep with him too. I get off work Friday and head for the shop. I have the rest of my accessories with me along with some of my arrows for tuning. I walk in and the first thing he says is "what are you doing here?" ??? I figure he's messing around so I answer "you know what I'm doing here". He says he has 4 bows in front of me that he has to get done first, around 4 hours of work. I literally think he's messing with me and say "you're joking". Nope, he's not. He'll call me when he's done with the other bows. I leave my stuff there in the back room and head home. I don't have the longest fuse, but I keep calm and show no sign that I'm a bit cranky about this. 5.5 hours goes by, no call. Now it is 4 p.m., I have plans that evening and have run out of time. In addition I have plans all that Saturday. The shop is closed on Sunday and Monday. I do not want to leave my stuff there that long, so I run down to grab my bow bag that has my sight, stabilizer, arrows, and release in it. I walk in, don't say a word, grab my bag, and walk right back out. He started to say something as I was going out the door but I just tapped my wrist indicating I had no time and kept going. The shop closes at 7 p.m., but that night at around 9:15 p.m. I get a text from him saying that he has the custom string/cable on, bow is set to specs and timed, limb driven rest has been installed, and my peep is in the string and ready to be set once I come in again. So he stayed after and got the bow set up. Probably was pretty obvious how I felt by the look on my face when I grabbed my stuff at 4 p.m. I haven't responded to him at all. I'm pretty displeased. I plan to go down, make final payment, and walk out with the bow. I've waited 6 months and I'm done waiting. If he doesn't have time to immediately set and serve the peep in I plan to just leave and go pay someone else to finish the job. I will not step foot in their place again. Honestly, if the bow wasn't now wearing my custom string/cable I'd probably just tell them to stick it where the sun don't shine. Am I being unreasonable?
in short yes the shop has no control on issues with production. Im in need of having some siding on my chimney replaced, i know the contractor, his daughter even babysits my kids, tells me 8 weeks just for materials. Delays on manufacturing cannot be put on pro shop. So now you just have to consider if the small shop that has work to do (4 bows ahead of yours, have they paid?) that wasnt good at communicating. Is that worth telling him to take off custom string, is that worth burning the bridge of that pro shop? IMO no, it is not
Idk, not really. However... having been on the receiving end of having to deal with material interruption's, shortages and missed shipping deadlines it has not been so much fun this year. Sounds like the tech is having to juggle customer expectations and his limits. Speaking from experience, this has been the most difficult part of my job as of late. I have a wood shingle project that I was supposed to have completed before July 4th and I am just now getting it scheduled for the first week of August, none of this is the fault of the company. I've been verbally berated by a true Karen and she does have a valid point and any other year I would be apologetic to a point but this year it is what it is and no amount of hissy fit no matter how justified is going to change it. You can blame Canada for not getting my material here on time, you can blame the roofing crew for taking on other jobs, hell you can blame me for not having the sense to tell them July 4th was not a reasonable expectation given the state of the world. But it will change nothing. It is what it is.
No way. If you were first in line for the bow out should be done first. You don't have to hate the guy (Shiz happens) but let him know you won't be back and the hunting community is small.
Guess I need to clarify a bit more. I in no way have done the above. We made an agreement. I said I wanted a particular bow after testing, in a particular color, that he didn't already have in stock. I offered to pay the bare bow price up front so he knew I wasn't just a nose picker wasting his time. He stated he'd rather I pay at the end after I've taken delivery. I was actually surprised at this...but I've never ordered a bow before, I've always bought one that was already in stock. Ordering one is a first time for me. At the time I don't think either one of us ever imagined it'd take 6 months. I do not fault him for this in any way. I told him I'd also be purchasing a limb driven rest from him (went with the Hamskea Trinity). I told him I'd be ordering a custom string for it, mainly so he wouldn't possibly waste time starting to set up the bow after it arrived with a factory string on it that I didn't plan to use. I told him I'd need the custom string put on, bow set to specs, and timed. Adjusted to my desired draw weight, my draw length, and set on Comfort setting. The brand new rest from him set up and timed. My sight installed and the 2nd and 3rd axis adjusted. Peep installed, adjusted to me, and tied in. Bow paper tuned with me doing the shooting. He agreed to that. It so happened that he had put in a stock order two weeks before that with the exact bow I wanted already on the order, so he simply said it would be my bow when it arrived. Gained me two weeks of order time. He told me over the phone last Wednesday, after calling and telling me the bow had arrived, that Friday at 10 a.m. "would be great" after asking what was a good day/time for me and I replied. This felt like an appointment had been made to me. He also volunteered the statement that I was the first customer of the year that had come in and ordered a bow, had waited the longest, and they wanted to get me taken care of. It was like that conversation never took place when I walked in on Friday. He is very aware that once the work is done I'll be running my card to pay in full, I'd imagine somewhere in the $1500 range. I've never given him any reason to think I won't go through with the purchase, and he has never hinted that he's worried about this happening...he turned down my offer to pay up front clear back at the beginning. It is not common place around here to walk into a Pro Shop to have work done on your bow and they make you pay up front. You pay at the end. Half the time they may not even know exactly what it's going to cost until they get into the job, so no, the 4 walk in bows were not paid up front. Heck, while I was there a lady walked in that he obviously knew and asked him to refletch some arrows for her and stated she "really needed it done today". That was done before he touched my bow as well. I don't know what is going on, or why the above happened. But I do know that I sometimes overreact, thus the reason I thought I'd ask how others would feel if this happened to them. I was really disappointed once time had ran out and I knew I wasn't going home with the bow that day, but I did not make it overly obvious and certainly didn't make a scene. I will buy the bow and pay him whatever I owe. I will be calm and will not make a scene or even bring up how I feel. I sure as heck won't give him the opportunity of my business again either though.
No, you are justified. Other delays aside, he told you that you were a priority at that date/time. He obviously forgot. That's on him as a customer service business. If he had remembered you were coming in and just been behind and called/texted you, you would have not gotten steamed, correct? Now, when you do get there and say he tries to make amends by throwing in some accessories and an apology; then that's a different story. Everybody makes mistakes. See if he owns it and bounces back before making the final decision to stop using them.
I absolutely hate that term. It's used for any woman that doesn't take any ****e from anyone and are vocal about it. So unless you have an early 2000's woman's hair cut and had a sex change, no. Your just a guy fed up with along wait.
You're right, OND. My wife, who ain't white, says that term is racist as hell since it only is used against white women.
I would say don't burn it down entirely. Yes I feel you are justified in how you feel, but I am also one to say offer forgiveness. If he does in fact come through with it, even if the wait is a bit long and communication was not 100%, what really matters is did you get what asked for and was it priced where you wanted. It is a new shop, and it may take them time to get all those hiccups ironed out, but if they do quality work at a fair price and are still friendly about everything, then the feelings of the experience is entirely in your court. 1st Time, shame on you (Pro shop in this case) 2nd Time, shame on me, but at least you gave them a 2nd chance. 3rd Time...yeah wouldn't let it get here if 2nd time were a repeat.
Sorry about the Karen term, I meant it only in the context of someone that expects unreasonable customer service. I went in last night finally. I didn't say anything about last Friday. He got everything done that I wanted. He had already set the bow to specs, timed it, installed/timed the new limb driven rest, and paper tuned the bow so it would be fairly close when I shot it through paper. As luck would have it the tune that gave him bullet holes yielded the same for me, I shot 3 arrows with all of them showing a bullet hole. I will fine tune later with bare shafts. Set and tied in the peep, set 2nd and 3rd axis on my sight. Flung several arrows at 20 yards and sighted in that pin. The string settled a bit and the peep rotated about a 1/4 turn, so he gave it 1/2 a twist to correct it again. That has me a bit nervous, my last string from the same builder never moved after it was installed. Ran through how to change between Comfort and Performance settings and how to use the Deadlock System (both are pretty self explanatory just by looking). I haven't decided if I'll go back as of yet. He does know his stuff and does good work. Probably just slammed right now and a bit stressed, and still learning how to handle scheduling when it gets like that. I still think last Friday wasn't right, but other than having to wait a few more days I am pleased with the bow setup I walked out the door with last night. The bow is sharp! It is all smoke gray with a black string with a gray pin stripe and gray serving. Pretty much the whole bow is black and gray, besides the red they use on the Deadlock. It does feel a touch long, I may have to shorten the d-loop a bit. Going to put some time in on it before deciding. I will try shortening the arm of my index release before messing with the d-loop.
No apologies needed,you actually gave me an opportunity to give my opinion on another over used foolish excepted term. Glad all went well in the end and looking forward to seeing it draped across a nice buck this season
Ain't that the truth. Coming from a Carbon Knight that weighed 3.2 lbs bare bow this new one definitely feels like a tank. But that pin sure holds a lot more steady.
I have no idea what my old Mathews Z7x weighed, but I bet my Realm is at least a full pound heavier. But oh, that back wall.
How much "heavier" is this one? BTW, looks awesome...definitely a little envy from this side of the screen HAHA!
I don't know about Mod's; but my Realm was about 8ozs heavier than advertised. Mod's right, once you come to full draw the bow just locks in and the pin doesn't get floaty on you at all like it might with a really lightweight bow. Bowtechs really are sweet shooters.
