Complain about a product or service

Sportogo Soccer Balls

Stephen of Karume, Fukuoka, Japan (9/7/02):
Out of 15 oversized SPORTOGO soccerballs that I've purchased, 3 of them have burst within 1 month. After several long discussions, and after I sent them a copy of my receipt, they sent me an email stating that they would live up to their 90 day warranty and have 3 balls sent to me. This conversation was over 1 month ago. No balls have ever arrived nor will they answered any of my messages. It's a very simple matter but it seems that for some reason they are trying to avoid living up to their warranty.

Thankfully there haven't been any physical injuries by the bursting balls, emotional damage is probably difficult to measure because of all the children who were depending on them for a soccer tournament; however, I would like to have the balls replaced asap. Not to mention, I have spent quite a considerable amount of time and energy pursuing this matter.

The company responds (10/7/03):

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the alleged customer's accusations. We at Sportogo, Inc feel that you have only received half the story.

In September of 2002 I was contacted by the customer in Japan and were informed that he had bought 15 soccer balls and that 3 of them burst within a few weeks of inflation. This is not a typical problem but any ball will burst if punctured with a nail.

I then asked for him to send a copy of the receipt to verify that they were bought within our 90-day warranty; which he promptly did. Only then did I notice that he bought them from a closeout bin at a store in Japan. This presented us with a few problems as Sportogo, Inc has no distributors in Japan. Our policy has always been for all alleged faulty merchandise to be returned to the company from which it is purchased.

I emailed the customer back and informed him of the situation and suggested that he take back the faulty materials to the business he bought it from for a complete refund. He informed me that he would not go back to the store, that he didn't care what the situation was, and that he expected us to not only send him three replacement internal bladders, but that we would also send them overnight as he had a soccer tournament and he wanted to use them for props.

We then offered to replace the bladders if he sent us back the supposedly faulty ones and it was determined that they were indeed ours and they were indeed faulty. The customer also then refused to return the internal bladders as he lived in Japan and that would be too expensive for him. The customer then threatened that we would be sorry if we did not send him replacement parts.

We at Sportogo broke with our own internal rules about dealing with returns in order to help this customer with his problem and as of this time we are still not sure if the product was ours or a foreign "knockoff".

Shawn Mangrum, Operations Manager
Sportogo, Inc - Giant Soccer Balls
2459 Fruitvale Avenue #5
Bakersfield, CA 93308

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