Why does this happen?

[Shroud]

Gave a buddy a racquet that was strung at 86lbs with kev/mosquitobite. He lived in another state and eventually took it to a local stringer at a reputable club.

I moved to where he lives and recently restrung his racquet. The club told him it was strung with kevlar/poly. It wasnt strung with kevlar. It was a black string with a clear outer coatinf and the crosses were Prince recoil. I have it in my head that string is like 10+ years. Clearly they lied.

When I restrung it, i saw that the “starting knot” was a double half hitch and had pulled through the grommet. How does this even happen at a reputable shop?

 

[Wes]

I'll tell you how...

Many people are unscrupulous... and lazy as well.

 

[Irvin]

You’re asking the wrong group of people.

 

[Rabbit]

Gave a buddy a racquet that was strung at 86lbs with kev/mosquitobite. He lived in another state and eventually took it to a local stringer at a reputable club.

I moved to where he lives and recently restrung his racquet. The club told him it was strung with kevlar/poly. It wasnt strung with kevlar. It was a black string with a clear outer coatinf and the crosses were Prince recoil. I have it in my head that string is like 10+ years. Clearly they lied.

When I restrung it, i saw that the “starting knot” was a double half hitch and had pulled through the grommet. How does this even happen at a reputable shop?

From the Bay Area to the Panhandle. Welcome to the place where humidity is King! You'll lose those warm ups! Prepare to sweat. Are you in Pensacola or further down?

 

[Shroud]

From the Bay Area to the Panhandle. Welcome to the place where humidity is King! You'll lose those warm ups! Prepare to sweat. Are you in Pensacola or further down?

Pcola. Only wore shorts once. Still in long sleeves. Hoodie for the warm up and 1st set. Probably the only guy who gets in the car after tennis and turns on the heat. Grew up here so the heat is no consequence. But with the overuse of ac its freezing here.

 

[Rabbit]

Pcola. Only wore shorts once. Still in long sleeves. Hoodie for the warm up and 1st set. Probably the only guy who gets in the car after tennis and turns on the heat. Grew up here so the heat is no consequence. But with the overuse of ac its freezing here.

Welcome home!

 

[1HBHfanatic]

Gave a buddy a racquet.....
When I restrung it, i saw that the “starting knot” was a double half hitch and had pulled through the grommet. How does this even happen at a reputable shop?

Yes!.. some wanna be stringers dont bother to learn better options,, they go with what theyve been tought by some other wanna be stringer, and never venture into better options, for themselves and much less for clients
what buggs me the most,, is that they charge the same ammount as I do, and getvaway with it because the client does not know any better

 

[Irvin]

Yes!.. some wanna be stringers dont bother to learn better options

True that, they are only interested in 2 things, $peed.

 

[jhupper]

True that, they are only interested in 2 things, $peed.

And we all know there's no place for methamphetamine in the world of stringing.

 

[Irvin]

And we all know there's no place for methamphetamine in the world of stringing.

No place what so ever.

American tennis legend Andre Agassi has admitted using crystal methamphetamine a year before he won the French Open in 1998, and that he lied to the sport's governing bodies in the same period about a positive drugs test to avoid a ban.

 

[am1899]

Why? Greed and incompetence for starters.

 

[Shroud]

Yes!.. some wanna be stringers dont bother to learn better options,, they go with what theyve been tought by some other wanna be stringer, and never venture into better options, for themselves and much less for clients
what buggs me the most,, is that they charge the same ammount as I do, and getvaway with it because the client does not know any better

Well this was at a club, so its surprising to me at least

 

[am1899]

Well this was at a club, so its surprising to me at least

Sadly, it’s been my experience that shops within clubs are not necessarily immune to the same pitfalls that plague big box stores that sell and service racquets - front line employees and management who are incompetent, just don’t care enough, and/or are not adequately incentivized to provide the necessary level of care and service. Often the pay structure contributes in a big way - if stringers are paid poorly and/or by the racquet (flat rate), then that only encourages racing through string jobs.

 

[siata94]

one of my buddy belongs to a pretty exclusive club with a high end machine, he restrings fairly frequently and leaves a roll of his string for them
to use. He often complains about the consistency. One time he showed me 2 newly strung rackets (same rackets, same string, same tension) and tapped them against each other, one went "ping ping" the other went "thud thud". I told him to buy a machine.

 

[SavvyStringer]

Gave a buddy a racquet that was strung at 86lbs with kev/mosquitobite. He lived in another state and eventually took it to a local stringer at a reputable club.

I moved to where he lives and recently restrung his racquet. The club told him it was strung with kevlar/poly. It wasnt strung with kevlar. It was a black string with a clear outer coatinf and the crosses were Prince recoil. I have it in my head that string is like 10+ years. Clearly they lied.

When I restrung it, i saw that the “starting knot” was a double half hitch and had pulled through the grommet. How does this even happen at a reputable shop?

Reputable shop doesn’t mean they have decent stringers or a staff with knowledge it means they have a boss/owner with money to have nice things. I’ve worked with many teaching pros that no nothing about string. Most are humble enough to ask but I’ve also seen others that only push whatever string they can make the biggest margin on or whatever string they prefer.

 

[PBODY99]

@Shroud
The black clear string sounds like Prince Warrior Response. Crossed with Prince Recoil, the string bed has to be a far cry from what you used.
Keeping a set or so of Kevlar blend string around will not get a fast inventory turn but it is not that big of an investment.

 

[Irvin]

Reputable shop doesn’t mean they have decent stringers or a staff with knowledge it means they have a boss/owner with money to have nice things.

Reputable means you have a good reputation not nice things.

 

[SavvyStringer]

I understand the definition. But you don’t be come a reputable shop without nice things. If your selection is small, you don’t carry new product, and you don’t have a pro quality machine in your shop it’s likely you’re not considered reputable. A good quality stringer can be reputable on junk equipment with technical knowledge but clearly the person that can’t identify strings and is still using double half hitches isn’t that guy.

 

[jwocky]

The interplay of cognitive and social psychology that is integral to building a reputation is likely to be a better thread on a different forum outside of TTW.

However, given that a reputation is built upon layers of perception. In any shop, “nice things” along with the quality of the in-shop interaction (even though superficial) significantly influence the casual shopper who walks in regardless of the real content served up.

In a tennis shop, those nice things are fancy string machine, latest products, displays, etc. and the location of the shop at a club adds to the aura and serves to add another layer (good, bad, indifferent) to that reputation as @SavvyStringer has noted above in posts #15, 18.

 

[Irvin]

Pcola. Only wore shorts once. Still in long sleeves. Hoodie for the warm up and 1st set. Probably the only guy who gets in the car after tennis and turns on the heat. Grew up here so the heat is no consequence. But with the overuse of ac its freezing here.

LOL

Well this was at a club, so its surprising to me at least

I've seen posts where some who have never strung before have bought stringing machines to string for a club.

 

[Wes]

Yes!.. some wanna be stringers dont bother to learn better options,, they go with what theyve been tought by some other wanna be stringer, and never venture into better options, for themselves and much less for clients
what bugs me the most,, is that they charge the same amount as I do, and get away with it because the client does not know any better

Hallelujah!!

Sadly, it’s been my experience that shops within clubs are not necessarily immune to the same pitfalls that plague big box stores that sell and service racquets - front line employees and management who are incompetent, just don’t care enough, and/or are not adequately incentivized to provide the necessary level of care and service. Often the pay structure contributes in a big way - if stringers are paid poorly and/or by the racquet (flat rate), then that only encourages racing through string jobs.

Amen!

 

[AndI]

"Reputable" means a well known in town place which looks nice and where all people who do not know much about how stringers are different go, just because it is the most convenient place to go and if other people go there, it cannot be that bad.

Don't get me started on what "licensed contractors" frequently do and how crappy their jobs oftentimes are. After I remodeled my home and opened up and replaced many, many things, I concluded that ignorance is bliss. The less you know, the better you are off. This is the same across all areas of trade which does not require extensive training.

 

[graycrait]

I'm glad I don't have to put up with incompetent stringers at clubs or pro shops. Nearest would be about 60 miles away. I happily endure my own incompetence and sloth stringing my personal rackets and those of friends for free or at string cost.

I know one guy who travels that far to have his rackets strung. Last time he came back I asked him how much it cost? He said he was ashamed to tell me. The next time he let me string his racket.

With the short life of poly and its widespread use I can't fathom why anyone would pay someone to string poly every 2-12 hrs. I get Bill Gates not stringing his own. Without poly I suspect there would be fewer "professional" stringers and possibly fewer poor stringing jobs. I remember growing up in northern Iowa. There was one place in town you could get your racket strung and you had 3 options: blue spiral, gold spiral and natural gut. Us riff raff settled for blue spiral, the wealthy kids got gold spiral (there must have been a price difference or maybe it was a "cultural" thing) and I never knew anyone back then who had natural gut in their racket. Same thing with rackets back then as well. Those of us who had to work to buy a racket "settled" for Kramer, Gonzales or Trabert labeled rackets. The upper crust opted for Davis Classic or some similarly gilded "hot rod" racket. If I recall correctly that pretty Davis Classic cost nearly twice what a JK Autograph did.

 

[Irvin]

I had a customer bring me two frames he bought from a friend. The friend paid $25 extra per frame to have them matched but never liked both. My customer said they didn’t feel matched to him. One weighed 372 g the other weighed 356 g. Maybe my scales are broke.

 

[AndI]

Irvin, they picked two racquets which looked most similar in shine, color, and grip size. Isn't it what racquet matching is about?

 

[Irvin]

@andl they matched the two rackets he brought in to them, and charged him $50.