January 2024 by Adrian Hall
We had the misfortune of using Sports248, also under the guise of Premier Sports Direct to buy several hockey related items as Christmas gifts for our daughter. Despite ordering on 12th December and what we thought was plenty of time for Christmas delivery, with delivery timescales quotes on the website as ? The majority of the orders are despatched within 24 hours and in-case we don?t have stock at hand then we will inform you the timescales involved?, on 19th December we received an email saying some items were not in stock despite showing as available when we ordered and paid for the items. Clearly this firm does not hold stock, therefore cannot commit to the delivery timescales or communications indicated on its website.As a resolution, we agreed to accept an alternative hockey stick. So all sorted?or so we thought.Whilst the replacement hockey stick was received in time for Christmas, when removing the ?protective? plastic wrap from the stick handle on Christmas morning this also peeled the grip away at the top and bottom, clearly as a result of the plastic wrap being heated too much when wrapped at the manufacturers.With our faith in the firm partially restored, we contacted them on 27th December and provided pictures of the faulty handle. Our faith proved to be misplaced as the firm stated this was not a manufacturing fault so would only be prepared to provide a replacement grip. Whilst I?m more than capable of re-wrapping a hockey stick, this clearly was not the outcome we were looking for or expected. Clearly our expectations of a replacement stick were unreasonable.The final option was for us to return the stick to the firm and to wait whilst the manufacturer was consulted about the fault.So, although our contract for this transaction was with Sports248 and not the manufacturer, we now have to wait for Sports248 to receive the stick from us, return the stick to the manufacturer (who they have the contract with) and then decide what course of action will be taken to resolve. Meanwhile, a 10 year old is without her gift and unable to play hockey and Sports248 has exceeded expectations by providing a terrible customer experience.Caveat emptor?
