JZImmer123
Rookie
I know there probably isn't anything I can do about this anymore, but I felt like ranting aboot it and what better place to do it than here so that maybe some of you can learn from my mistakes.
I made up my mind that I was gonna get a new Roddick PD w/Cortex after hitting with a friend of mines, though he had the plus version and I didn't want the extra length but loved the way it felt. So last week I bought a new Babolat Pure Drive Roddick in a 4 1/4 grip from the place that starts with an E and ends in a bay for $120, or so I thought. I figure I'd try to save a few bucks. The pics looked kosher and seller had a 100% review rating with over 1600 reviews, including a few who bought rackets from there. I should have known better from the start to by a racket from a person who sells kids vhs tapes (username was vhs4kids).
Anyhow I get it a few days later, get it strung at the local racquet club with Luxilon Banger ALU Power 16 @ 60 lbs (which cost me a biatch to get done!), then went out to hit with it and I was like "WTF!*%$@^%$&@)(^$@^$()&%" It totally did not feel like I though it would. Any off center hit would leave a nasty vibration all up on the handle, and the balance didn't feel right. I figure maybe the guy who strung it did a crappy job or maybe it was the string or the tension. So I took it back to the club and talked with him aboot it. He was really cool about it. He hit with it for a minute and he could tell right away that something wasn't right. He let me hit with one of the Demo PD Roddicks w/Cortex that he had and the difference was like night and day! Yup, I officially got ripped off.
We compared the cosmetics with the real vs. the fake and they were almost identical. The painjob was spot on, the Cortex looked real, the butt cap was the same, as was the head guard. There were some differences though:
That's all we noticed with the cosmetics anyway. I should have taken pics! I'll go back to the club and see if that guy is cool with me taking comparison pics.
So of course after finding this out I try to go on that auction site and e-mail that person. Of course, I find out that the user is no longer registered there. I have the persons name and address from the box (Ellen Gurevich 231 174th Street apt 503 Sunny Isles, FL 33160 in case you have an encounter with this person), soI guess I could try to write a letter or get a hold of a phone number, maybe get in touch with their local authorities. I dunno.
Let this be a lesson to you boys and girls. From now on it looks like I'm only going to be buying my rackets from authorized dealers, like TW!
Oh, and if anyone has any advice on how I should procede, I sure do welcome it.
I made up my mind that I was gonna get a new Roddick PD w/Cortex after hitting with a friend of mines, though he had the plus version and I didn't want the extra length but loved the way it felt. So last week I bought a new Babolat Pure Drive Roddick in a 4 1/4 grip from the place that starts with an E and ends in a bay for $120, or so I thought. I figure I'd try to save a few bucks. The pics looked kosher and seller had a 100% review rating with over 1600 reviews, including a few who bought rackets from there. I should have known better from the start to by a racket from a person who sells kids vhs tapes (username was vhs4kids).
Anyhow I get it a few days later, get it strung at the local racquet club with Luxilon Banger ALU Power 16 @ 60 lbs (which cost me a biatch to get done!), then went out to hit with it and I was like "WTF!*%$@^%$&@)(^$@^$()&%" It totally did not feel like I though it would. Any off center hit would leave a nasty vibration all up on the handle, and the balance didn't feel right. I figure maybe the guy who strung it did a crappy job or maybe it was the string or the tension. So I took it back to the club and talked with him aboot it. He was really cool about it. He hit with it for a minute and he could tell right away that something wasn't right. He let me hit with one of the Demo PD Roddicks w/Cortex that he had and the difference was like night and day! Yup, I officially got ripped off.
We compared the cosmetics with the real vs. the fake and they were almost identical. The painjob was spot on, the Cortex looked real, the butt cap was the same, as was the head guard. There were some differences though:
- The specs on the real PD Roddick were on the inside of the frame, on the fake they were more to the outside.
- The text for the specs and cortex system logo on the real one were clear looking and defined while the fake one was kind of blurry.
- At 12 o'clock on the frame where it says Babolat in big letters and there is the trademark logo (tm) next to it. On the real deal the trademark logo (tm) is in small print while on the fake it is significantly bigger.
- The grommets! Damn this should have been the give away! On the fake one the grommets are the skinny ones all the way around the whole frame.
- On the inside part of the throat, the real racket has the Babolat sticker with a barcode on it on one side and the grip size on the other. The fake one had the barcode on one side and hologram with chinese writing in it on the other.
That's all we noticed with the cosmetics anyway. I should have taken pics! I'll go back to the club and see if that guy is cool with me taking comparison pics.
So of course after finding this out I try to go on that auction site and e-mail that person. Of course, I find out that the user is no longer registered there. I have the persons name and address from the box (Ellen Gurevich 231 174th Street apt 503 Sunny Isles, FL 33160 in case you have an encounter with this person), soI guess I could try to write a letter or get a hold of a phone number, maybe get in touch with their local authorities. I dunno.
Let this be a lesson to you boys and girls. From now on it looks like I'm only going to be buying my rackets from authorized dealers, like TW!
Oh, and if anyone has any advice on how I should procede, I sure do welcome it.
