Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Edwin Watts, never again
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Old 11-23-2014, 10:34 AM
Dr Winston O Boogie jr's Avatar
Dr Winston O Boogie jr Dr Winston O Boogie jr is offline
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The clerks in all of those big box golf stores are all on commission. They don't want to talk to anyone that they don't think they're going to make any money from.
There is also an attitude of we need to make money right now and the heel with the future that permeates these kind of operations today. Most decent PGA professionals will try to spend time with you to build a relationship. These stores don't care about that. At the end of each day all they look at is how much did this salesman sell and how much profit was there from it. I know, I worked for a couple of them and I witnessed this first hand. They'll say one thing and do another.

I would only go to a PGA professional at a golf course or a small one owner shop for any golf equipment. Of course you won't see the selection there, or you might pay a few dollars more, but you will get what you need and you will be treated right.

The deal with the grips is a bit murky. If someone came into my shop with their own grips, I would have put them on and then let him know that I can provide grips at a lower price. I would also let him know that when he needs grips in the future, I would be happy to measure him and make sure that he has the right size and model grip for his hands. I would maybe charge him a bit more than I would for my labor than I would if he had gotten the grips from me. After all, if he comes and gets grips from me, I would charge him for the installation and the price of the grips on which I would make a small profit.

The customer doesn't see the price broken down like this, but there is the cost of the grip, my time and my expertise in addition to any equipment that I own and materials that I use.

In other words I would take care of the customer and hope to build a relationship with him in the future. Big corporations don't think like that. They only want to know how much money they made today. They aren't interested in building a relationship. They depend on having a great selection and lower prices to keep their customers from coming back. That's why I couldn't work for them any more. I didn't like them and they didn't like the way I operated.

Unfortunately, a lot of customers see only lower prices. That's why these companies are so successful.

So, do yourself a favor. Find a good PGA professional that you like and get a long with. spend some time building a relationship with him or her. The support that person that you can trust to always do the right thing by paying a bit more for the peace of mind.
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