Quote from: itsallaboutme on June 29, 2017, 06:25:25 PM

Huh, bradl had nothing but praise for Caleb the last time Sacramento was brought up. 

Become a regular and you can just call and have the ball waiting for you.

AGain, nothing wrong with Caleb and his work at Fireside. In fact, I was there yesterday, having him work on the thumb hole of my Mission Unknown.

Again, the problem isn't the availability of quality pro shops in the area, but rather the business model the pro shops in this area hare stuck having to follow. Nearly ... No, I'll call it out. With the exception of Bowler's Paradise, every shop in town has to order from Steve Cook's supply. That means that a PSO that punches up a ball has to wait until the customer pays them, then they order the ball from Cook (the distributor), wait for the ball to get in, then punch it up. There really hasn't been a shop here in the 15 years that I've been here that keeps their stock of gear in house to where a customer can walk in, buy the ball, get fitted, and in 45 minutes can walk out the door with a new ball.

Everywhere else I have lived, a customer can do that. Crazily enough, I could go up to Gold Dust West in Carson City, and walk out with a ball, let alone Reno. I am not sure as to why this area is against the norm on that.

Again, I go to places that I trust. Caleb and his shop is one of them. Availability of product is the bigger issue.

BL.

 
What I bolded is what I don't get. I'm almost certain my main PSO used Cook as his distributor. When I want a new ball, my PSO places the order with the specs I've requested and it's almost always delivered the same week. And I never pay for the ball until after it's punched up. 
 
It's the same with a secondary PSO I've used in Las Vegas. Cook is his distributor, and it's the same process I've described above. Maybe other PSO's have credit issues (or customer issues) and they have to handle business differently. I'm not privy to that. But I'm suspicious about any PSO that demands payment up front unless there is something else in play.

Sweet.  Just another black eye for the pro shop industry.  Just what bowling needs, another  "pro shop" out there that has no idea how to run a business. 

Only thing is that if someone backs out or changes their mind, it could be difficult, a hassle, or cost to ship the ball back, or you just end up with something sitting on inventory until you can get rid of it.  That happens a few times and then it has nothing to do with credit and everything to do with it being more of a guarantee that they're actually going to buy what they told you to order.  That only happened to me about 10% of the time, but that's still a pretty big number if you're doing decent business. 

Quote from: bradl on June 30, 2017, 03:11:44 PM

Quote from: itsallaboutme on June 29, 2017, 06:25:25 PM

Huh, bradl had nothing but praise for Caleb the last time Sacramento was brought up. 

Become a regular and you can just call and have the ball waiting for you.

AGain, nothing wrong with Caleb and his work at Fireside. In fact, I was there yesterday, having him work on the thumb hole of my Mission Unknown.

Again, the problem isn't the availability of quality pro shops in the area, but rather the business model the pro shops in this area hare stuck having to follow. Nearly ... No, I'll call it out. With the exception of Bowler's Paradise, every shop in town has to order from Steve Cook's supply. That means that a PSO that punches up a ball has to wait until the customer pays them, then they order the ball from Cook (the distributor), wait for the ball to get in, then punch it up. There really hasn't been a shop here in the 15 years that I've been here that keeps their stock of gear in house to where a customer can walk in, buy the ball, get fitted, and in 45 minutes can walk out the door with a new ball.

Everywhere else I have lived, a customer can do that. Crazily enough, I could go up to Gold Dust West in Carson City, and walk out with a ball, let alone Reno. I am not sure as to why this area is against the norm on that.

Again, I go to places that I trust. Caleb and his shop is one of them. Availability of product is the bigger issue.

BL.

 
What I bolded is what I don't get. I'm almost certain my main PSO used Cook as his distributor. When I want a new ball, my PSO places the order with the specs I've requested and it's almost always delivered the same week. And I never pay for the ball until after it's punched up. 
 
It's the same with a secondary PSO I've used in Las Vegas. Cook is his distributor, and it's the same process I've described above. Maybe other PSO's have credit issues (or customer issues) and they have to handle business differently. I'm not privy to that. But I'm suspicious about any PSO that demands payment up front unless there is something else in play.