It's 35 for outside drill, 10 for a pair of grips, and 10 for a slug. And that's only because his prices are so low to begin with, otherwise he couldn't compete with online purchases. He includes drilling in the price of all the balls, and the most expensive balls we sell are the high performance stuff, like Icon 300's, X-Factors, and C/2 Buzzsaws, and they run 199.99. We have gone to making people pay up front, although it seems a little impersonal. Anything less than that drilling cost really doesn't make it worth the effort. If it was just our time, the price would be lower, but the people we deal with just takes the life right out of us most of the time. There is simply no way to make these people happy.
Take last night for example. The day was pretty decent for us, nothing special, but being that it's still summer, it was alright. It got really quiet around 6. The boss went to see a movie and said I could close 10 or 15 minutes early if nobody was around. So at 10 til 7, I get ready to finish things up, and a 30-ish couple almost runs through the door. A league had started at the high end of the house (we're situated right behind 7 and
at about 6:30 that night, and these people were bowling it. So I started talking to them, and this guy's wife had to have a ball RIGHT NOW. They start looking for it, and she's one of these whiny people that has no clue about bowling period. Her husband was fairly knowledgable, which made it a lot easier because he was agreeing with nearly everything I said, just tailoring my reponses to her style. But before they get a ball picked out, they're up way down on lane 29, so they leave and say they'll be right back.
5 minutes later, they return and finally pick out a ball. She's only used house balls before, so I have to fit her. So as soon as she takes forever picking out her finger sizes, guess what? Yep, time to bowl again. Another 5 minutes. She comes back, and picks the thumb out. We get the span about halfway adjusted, and of course, it's time to bowl some more. She comes back and I finally get the measurements. I say it'll be about 15 minutes, and that's working moderately fast to layout and drill a conventional grip. So of course she's back in 10 wondering where her ball is. Luckily, I was done with everything but beveling.
Of course the fingers are a little snug, so she's upset. I'm EXTREMELY glad her husband was there to remind her that we all agreed on drilling them a little snug because of it being summertime as well as not wanting to get the holes too big. So I finally got it done, and they were out of my hair. I stayed 45 minutes past closing time, and did it very nicely I might add. I closed the door at 7 just so nobody else would come in, and that received a question from her (this was just before I started fitting her), to which I answered that we closed at 7. So she says "Oh. Well I came in here before 7, and I want the ball drilled now." Very cordially I said I had planned on drilling it, I just said it would go quicker if I had no interruptions from people that didn't know we were closed. Her husband was more than appreciative when he was in there, so that helped, but she was being evil. And by the way, I didn't charge her any extra for staying late to drill it.
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Forget Kung Fu, I know Ron Bahr!!!
The only difference between youth and adult leagues are that the big boys are allowed to whine. They're more entertaining anyway.
