16 replies to this topic

[PittShark]

I'll apologize in advance that this is extremely long winded, but I'm so irate with these guys right now I just have to vent.

First off, I've ordered from TGW many times and have never once had an issue, but this incident has brought me straight to the opinion, 'I'm never ordering from them again."  One week ago today, 6/13, I placed an order for a pair of Puma Cell Fusion's.  They're already reduced to 99.99 and TGW had the Father's Day 15% off any item deal, so after it was all added up with shipping, they only cost me 92 bucks, which I thought was a good deal.  I should also mention that after I completed my order, the invoice showed the shoes as 'in stock' with an availability date of the same day.  So I checked the order status that night (I placed the order late morning) and showed 'pending.'  Didn't think much of it, figured they were really busy with dad's day and it would take a day to ship.  Checked the next day....'pending' still.  Checked the next day (Friday)....'pending.'  At this point I'm not too happy and call them up to see what's going on.   The person looks up my order, says there was no problem with the payment, it's already been charged, then says they need to check to see what's going on with the item.  She says her system shows that there was at least one pair of what I ordered in stock, and furthermore, that it appears that it's been picked from the warehouse and she expects it will be shipping sometime that day.  Ok, didn't really explain why it's taking so long, but still sounded like good news so I was fine with that.  Checked the status again the next day expecting to see the shipping info, instead I was greeted by a new status.....'BACK ORDERED.'  Now I'm getting really upset, so I call them again.  I explain the whole situation to this lady, and after a couple minutes of silence while she apparently tried to look up the status, her reply was simply, 'well, I'm not sure what's going on with this order, sir.  I believe we have the item somewhere, but I'd have to speak with one of the warehouse managers to get a better answer, which I can't do till Monday.'  Now I'm getting a little more mad, and sensing this, the lady assures me that we will get this straightened out on Monday, and that she made herself a note to personally call me on Monday with some kind of an answer.

Flash forward to Monday.  Whole day goes by....no call from the lady or anyone from TGW, order status still showing 'back ordered.'  I decide to wait till Tuesday morning to call again, and when I did, I immediately requested to speak with a supervisor.  Took forever, but eventually a supervisor got on the phone.  I once again had to explain the entire situation to her.  After a lenghty and annoying conversation, I was told that she'd personally look into the situation and call me back before they close at 630 (central time), and that she'd 'deal' with the person who promised me a call back but failed to do so.  Later that day, just for the hell of it, I checked the order status one more time....changed back to 'pending.'  I foolishly take this as good news, thinking that the order is finally getting taken care of, which is why I wasn't even bothered by the fact that I didn't receive the call back from the supervisor till about 10 minutes before they closed.  She proceeds to tell me that they literally 'can't find' the shoes and that they can leave the order open and if they eventually find them they'll ship them out right away....oh, and that they'll graciously refund the 7 bucks in shipping.  I angrily tell her no, cancel the order right away, I'm not dealing with this anymore.  She says OK and that she'll put it in right away and get my refund sent out.

Today I check and find out that no refund has been received, and also my order status has not changed from 'pending.'  Ready to kill someone, I call them yet again only to find out that because the order was still considered 'processing for shipping' on their end, it will be an additional 3-5 days for the refund because the warehouse has to confirm that the item is not to be shipped even if they find it.  It took every ounce of me not to go off on this person, but I made it known to them that I will never order from them again.  'Ok sir,' she says in a tone that just screams, 'we're the biggest online golf retailer on the web, you think it makes any difference to us to lose one person's business?'

This experience has been the single most frustrating process I've ever endured since I began making purchases of any kind online many years ago.  At the bottom of their emails it says '100% satisfaction guranteed.'  I think if after all this they told me that they found the shoes and are finally shipping them, I might consider myself 50% satisfied and consider ordering from them again, but this whole fiasco has left me 0% satisfied and therefore I'm done with them.  I've learned my lesson, from now on I do my best stick with the sponsors of this site, which are mostly all great places.

Edited by PittShark, 20 June 2012 - 10:41 AM.

[blink3665]

Wow, sounds like a bad experience.  I commend you on your self restraint.  Normally the whole honey instead of vinegar thing works...  They didn't offer you anything more than free shipping?  I really don't like alot of the big online retailers.  It seems like this is happening more and more often.

Yet another reason to work with one of the sponsors on this site.  I have nothing but great things to say about our sponsors, and if they mess something up...  You can always fill their PM mailbox

[PittShark]

blink3665, on 20 June 2012 - 11:00 AM, said:

Wow, sounds like a bad experience.  I commend you on your self restraint.  Normally the whole honey instead of vinegar thing works...  They didn't offer you anything more than free shipping?  I really don't like alot of the big online retailers.  It seems like this is happening more and more often.

Yet another reason to work with one of the sponsors on this site.  I have nothing but great things to say about our sponsors, and if they mess something up...  You can always fill their PM mailbox

Haha, yeah....good point.

Here's oh-so-generous offer I received from the supervisor:  She said if I wanted to pick another pair of shoes she could 'probably' discount them.  I asked how much of a discount, to which she replied, 'well it would depend on the shoe, but I could probably do up to 15% percent off for you.'  Oh, so let me get this straight, you POSSIBLY can give me the same deal that was available to everyone when I ordered the shoes?  Yeah, no thanks.

[Noyes26]

haha been there man with a few companys. mistakes happen and when you get mad about it the smallest things become so much more frustrating. you would not have been happy unless they said we found them and they will be shipped right now. its tough. just breathe, its over now. your refund is coming im sure, it takes a few days for the CC company to process it. luckily for us there are so many online retails for us to go thru that when these experiences happen we can just move on. hope this all works out quickly for u man.

[PittShark]

Noyes26, on 20 June 2012 - 11:32 AM, said:

haha been there man with a few companys. mistakes happen and when you get mad about it the smallest things become so much more frustrating. you would not have been happy unless they said we found them and they will be shipped right now. its tough. just breathe, its over now. your refund is coming im sure, it takes a few days for the CC company to process it. luckily for us there are so many online retails for us to go thru that when these experiences happen we can just move on. hope this all works out quickly for u man.

Thanks for the lighter perspective, haha

[Tenkies]

You're not the only one having issues with TGW lately.

http://www.golfwrx.c...uying-from-tgw/

Too many recent incidents to call this a coincidence.  Wonder what is going on with TGW.  New management or software issues?  Whatever it is, it's hurting thier business.

[PittShark]

Tenkies, on 20 June 2012 - 12:10 PM, said:

You're not the only one having issues with TGW lately.

http://www.golfwrx.c...uying-from-tgw/

Too many recent incidents to call this a coincidence.  Wonder what is going on with TGW.  New management or software issues?  Whatever it is, it's hurting thier business.

Wow, definitely didn't read that.  Not surprised at all now having gone through what I just did.  It just blows my mind that such a large and (i thought) reputable retailer has so little handle on their logistics, why BTW is 75% of their operation.  When you have a supervisor literally saying, "Sorry, we can't seem to find them, but if you want to wait, we'll keep looking," you know things are bad.  I'm not asking you to find me something in your basement that's been stored away for years.

[shootermcgavin2]

weird. i've personally never bought from them, although coincidentally i just made a purchase from their sister company soccersavings (which i didn't even realize were related to them until i was exchanging something with them and saw the return address as tgw) and had a great experience.

[walts00]

TGW.com is brutal.  It was a couple years ago now but I bought a new driver from them and received what appeared to be a defect/return.  I took it out of the box and it had mud all over it and was fractured on the top of the club at the base of the hosel.  I called their customer service within 5 minutes of the club being dropped off by UPS and they accused me of abusing the club and would not accept a return.  It was 2-3 weeks before they initiated a return and refunded my $.  It was insane.

[thevaporz]

This retailer just keeps on getting bad review after bad review. Sorry for your troubles but this gives me more of a reason to avoid TGW. Yesterday, they had CG14 Black Pearl wedges for $60 but I'm glad I restrained the urge to pick up a couple.

[freed0m]

I've ordered from TGW for years, never any problems w/ orders or customer service at all (knock on wood!)...

[PZero]

I've purchased from them for years, but recently I've been having nothing but problems with them. IMO they just arent what they use to be. BudgetGolf gets my business now and they are cheaper.

[Greenie]

PittShark, on 20 June 2012 - 12:17 PM, said:

Tenkies, on 20 June 2012 - 12:10 PM, said:

You're not the only one having issues with TGW lately.

http://www.golfwrx.c...uying-from-tgw/

Too many recent incidents to call this a coincidence.  Wonder what is going on with TGW.  New management or software issues?  Whatever it is, it's hurting thier business.

Wow, definitely didn't read that.  Not surprised at all now having gone through what I just did.  It just blows my mind that such a large and (i thought) reputable retailer has so little handle on their logistics, why BTW is 75% of their operation.  When you have a supervisor literally saying, "Sorry, we can't seem to find them, but if you want to wait, we'll keep looking," you know things are bad.  I'm not asking you to find me something in your basement that's been stored away for years.

I'm not defendting TGW but you have no idea what goes on in a warehouse and the volume that ships through a warehouse. In the warehouse I work in we ship over 175,000 cases a day. Our bigger warehouse ships over 1million cases a day. We are receiving items on one side of the warehouse and shipping them out the other side at the same time. Considering alot of these items are received, put away, and selected by people you have alot of mis-selects and missing inventory on a daily basis. Our inventory is updated nightly and is still off. In a perfect world if no one would mess up then you wouldn't have these issues but you do. Being off one pair of shoes is nothing. We look for missing pallets of items all the time. Sometimes we can't find drop trailers full of merchandise out on the lot.

I don't  agree with they way TGW handled the situation. I think every customer should be important to a business but at the same time I think at some point there was no way they were going to make you happy no matter what they did.

[parparbirdie]

I've also had trouble with their order tracking system.  My order has been "In Warehouse" since 6/6 (today is 6/20) and everytime I call they tell me it will ship out in 24-48 hrs.  I get that their stock is impossible to keep track of, but I would appreciate honesty, if they told me it will ship out in a week I would be ok with that, but calling every other day and being told it will ship in the next day is frustrating.

[Bandy1080]

Greenie, on 20 June 2012 - 03:39 PM, said:

PittShark, on 20 June 2012 - 12:17 PM, said:

Tenkies, on 20 June 2012 - 12:10 PM, said:

You're not the only one having issues with TGW lately.

http://www.golfwrx.c...uying-from-tgw/

Too many recent incidents to call this a coincidence.  Wonder what is going on with TGW.  New management or software issues?  Whatever it is, it's hurting thier business.

Wow, definitely didn't read that.  Not surprised at all now having gone through what I just did.  It just blows my mind that such a large and (i thought) reputable retailer has so little handle on their logistics, why BTW is 75% of their operation.  When you have a supervisor literally saying, "Sorry, we can't seem to find them, but if you want to wait, we'll keep looking," you know things are bad.  I'm not asking you to find me something in your basement that's been stored away for years.

I'm not defendting TGW but you have no idea what goes on in a warehouse and the volume that ships through a warehouse. In the warehouse I work in we ship over 175,000 cases a day. Our bigger warehouse ships over 1million cases a day. We are receiving items on one side of the warehouse and shipping them out the other side at the same time. Considering alot of these items are received, put away, and selected by people you have alot of mis-selects and missing inventory on a daily basis. Our inventory is updated nightly and is still off. In a perfect world if no one would mess up then you wouldn't have these issues but you do. Being off one pair of shoes is nothing. We look for missing pallets of items all the time. Sometimes we can't find drop trailers full of merchandise out on the lot.

I don't  agree with they way TGW handled the situation. I think every customer should be important to a business but at the same time I think at some point there was no way they were going to make you happy no matter what they did.

I fully agree with this.  Your product was backordered.  It happens.  I run a multi-million dollar apparel website and we have an entire team devoted to making sure products are in stock.  But sometimes things happen and a product slips under the radar.  The customer service agents did what they were supposed to do and try to find the product for you, but there is nothing they can do if it is sold out.  And standard refund time is 3-5 days, that is industry standard.  

While customer service is at the utmost importance to us, too many times I have to hear about a customer complaining because they want a product and they want it right now.  And if they don't get it the way and as fast as they expect it, they come onto a site like this and complain about the retailer.  There are more factors at play than you can ever imagine and until you run a very popular eCommerce website you will not understand.

That said, I have ordered from TGW for years now and while their shipping may be a bit too slow for some people (it takes them at least a day to process the order and pull product from their million square foot warehouse), I have been very happy with every experience from them.  That said, they have been advertising a lot more and generating lots more traffic and they could be getting too large for their own good.  But you should at least cut them some slack before becoming so short tempered.

[MPacif]

PittShark, on 20 June 2012 - 10:40 AM, said:

I'll apologize in advance that this is extremely long winded, but I'm so irate with these guys right now I just have to vent.

First off, I've ordered from TGW many times and have never once had an issue, but this incident has brought me straight to the opinion, 'I'm never ordering from them again."  One week ago today, 6/13, I placed an order for a pair of Puma Cell Fusion's.  They're already reduced to 99.99 and TGW had the Father's Day 15% off any item deal, so after it was all added up with shipping, they only cost me 92 bucks, which I thought was a good deal.  I should also mention that after I completed my order, the invoice showed the shoes as 'in stock' with an availability date of the same day.  So I checked the order status that night (I placed the order late morning) and showed 'pending.'  Didn't think much of it, figured they were really busy with dad's day and it would take a day to ship.  Checked the next day....'pending' still.  Checked the next day (Friday)....'pending.'  At this point I'm not too happy and call them up to see what's going on.   The person looks up my order, says there was no problem with the payment, it's already been charged, then says they need to check to see what's going on with the item.  She says her system shows that there was at least one pair of what I ordered in stock, and furthermore, that it appears that it's been picked from the warehouse and she expects it will be shipping sometime that day.  Ok, didn't really explain why it's taking so long, but still sounded like good news so I was fine with that.  Checked the status again the next day expecting to see the shipping info, instead I was greeted by a new status.....'BACK ORDERED.'  Now I'm getting really upset, so I call them again.  I explain the whole situation to this lady, and after a couple minutes of silence while she apparently tried to look up the status, her reply was simply, 'well, I'm not sure what's going on with this order, sir.  I believe we have the item somewhere, but I'd have to speak with one of the warehouse managers to get a better answer, which I can't do till Monday.'  Now I'm getting a little more mad, and sensing this, the lady assures me that we will get this straightened out on Monday, and that she made herself a note to personally call me on Monday with some kind of an answer.

Flash forward to Monday.  Whole day goes by....no call from the lady or anyone from TGW, order status still showing 'back ordered.'  I decide to wait till Tuesday morning to call again, and when I did, I immediately requested to speak with a supervisor.  Took forever, but eventually a supervisor got on the phone.  I once again had to explain the entire situation to her.  After a lenghty and annoying conversation, I was told that she'd personally look into the situation and call me back before they close at 630 (central time), and that she'd 'deal' with the person who promised me a call back but failed to do so.  Later that day, just for the hell of it, I checked the order status one more time....changed back to 'pending.'  I foolishly take this as good news, thinking that the order is finally getting taken care of, which is why I wasn't even bothered by the fact that I didn't receive the call back from the supervisor till about 10 minutes before they closed.  She proceeds to tell me that they literally 'can't find' the shoes and that they can leave the order open and if they eventually find them they'll ship them out right away....oh, and that they'll graciously refund the 7 bucks in shipping.  I angrily tell her no, cancel the order right away, I'm not dealing with this anymore.  She says OK and that she'll put it in right away and get my refund sent out.

Today I check and find out that no refund has been received, and also my order status has not changed from 'pending.'  Ready to kill someone, I call them yet again only to find out that because the order was still considered 'processing for shipping' on their end, it will be an additional 3-5 days for the refund because the warehouse has to confirm that the item is not to be shipped even if they find it.  It took every ounce of me not to go off on this person, but I made it known to them that I will never order from them again.  'Ok sir,' she says in a tone that just screams, 'we're the biggest online golf retailer on the web, you think it makes any difference to us to lose one person's business?'

This experience has been the single most frustrating process I've ever endured since I began making purchases of any kind online many years ago.  At the bottom of their emails it says '100% satisfaction guranteed.'  I think if after all this they told me that they found the shoes and are finally shipping them, I might consider myself 50% satisfied and consider ordering from them again, but this whole fiasco has left me 0% satisfied and therefore I'm done with them.  I've learned my lesson, from now on I do my best stick with the sponsors of this site, which are mostly all great places.

[MPacif]

I am a first and last time buyer from TGW. I ordered a Taylor made Rocket Balz driver. It was expected to be delivered on a Monday. It was actually delivered on the previous Friday after 6 PM. I never knew it came because I usually go out the garage. Someone came to the front door on Saturday morning and I noticed the box there. I immediately opened the box and took it out of the plastic and I detrmined it was used. I immediately called TGW they were very sympathetic and I asked for a total refund. I was doing a trade in and told the person on the phone that I would not accept another club and wanted a complete refund. He told me he understood and would make comments in the log on the computer. He sent me a return label and I immediately took it to the UPS store and now I am in limbo. The inventory situation has been a rediculous excuse. My club actually sat at UPS for 5 days  on hold by TGW due to the inventory issue. It was then received and I was told it would be 3-5 days before I see my refund. That was a week ago. I called today and they told me not before Monday of next week. This is the most insensitive company I have ever dealt with and am not really sure I will ever get my refund. I'll never buy from TGW>>>>BEWARE!!!!!!