Merchandise and kit sale

Gavevs88

Active Member
Thread starter #1
Advertised to open at 10am, we got there for half 9 and people were already walking out with stuff and all the best stuff was already gone. Seemed a bit strange to advertise a time then open early?! Bit of a wasted trip really!
 

Temme

Well-Known Member
#2
Advertised to open at 10am, we got there for half 9 and people were already walking out with stuff and all the best stuff was already gone. Seemed a bit strange to advertise a time then open early?! Bit of a wasted trip really!
The sticks were also advertised as £50 (used) but they were charging £70 :(

We got there for 10am when it opened and it was barren with all the usable equipment gone already, such a shame!!!
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#4
If this sale is done through the shop doesn't surprise me.
I went to arena especially to pick up a shirt I'd paid for, got there 9.50, shop opens at 10, no one there at 10. Asked reception when is it opening, they called corky and he told them be at arena in 15-20 minutes, that was 10.05, so would have opened about 10.30. Had to leave without shirt as needed to be in lisvane for 11.
Not a very professional way to run a business.
Starting sale early also isn't fair on people who made the trek down there especially and to up the prices, again very unprofessional.
 
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Swarley

Well-Known Member
#5
I went over for specific items, arrived at 9:15 with a coffee so I could be one of the first few in at 10am, I went in and it looked like a ran sacked jumblesale not really much of anything worth getting, plenty of O'connor and valdix jerseys left over but most unwanted items they had lol
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#6
The sale was rather disappointing. We rocked up just before 10 and people were already inside. The Dressing room was rammed full of people inside sifting through the very limited selection of gear that was there. Not the end of the world but if a sale is advertised as 10am start please stick to it.

Granted you can only sell off what you've got but this years sale was not a patch on last time round. Last time it was all conveniently laid out to view and there was loads of stuff on sale. This time the selection was pretty poor if I hadn't been in the area anyway it would have been a wasted journey for me as I found nothing worth buying but that's not my real issue.

On a positive note:

Murdy was very helpful showing my sister the various skates that would fit her feet size and was polite and friendly. That was a good example of customer service.

My main complaint was probably the professionalism and lack thereof.

Certain prices seemed to be random, which is not the way to treat customers in my view.

A lot of items weren't priced.

When my sister asked the guy selling the gear how much the skates were on sale for as none were priced he said £70 which seemed decent but after she'd queued up he then charged her £100 because the particular skates she picked had protective padding on the sides.

I know nothing about skates but it's poor customer service to tell customers skates are on sale for a certain price when some are considerably higher than that.

I'm sure someone will point out that such padding is an expensive extra on skates so you should expect to pay more but a lot of folks a majority even probably know next to nothing about ice hockey gear that's why all the kit needs to have clear pricing.

Since my sister spent time queuing up she kinda felt obliged to buy that pair- had she known initially she'd have gone for a different set.

If my sister hadn't pointed out the blades weren't fitted he'd have let her walk out the store without them. & he was rather gruff in manner throughout the whole thing. Thats not a welcoming attitude when someone is buying £100 in gear.

Just to confirm the pricing issue wasn't an isolated case another customer buying a stick was also met with a price made up on the spot.

I didn't buy anything as there simply wasn't anything but my sister won't be back to the shop in a hurry.

I don't believe this is the first time Devils fans have raised issued with the service at the Devils shop.

Edit: my sister had the impression (whether this is true or not I cannot say) that the guy selling the gear was basing some prices on who was in front of him.

Even if that wasn't true the fact that impression was being given does not project a good image on the Devils organisation.
 
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Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
#8
The ”other“ part of running the business has always been a shambles, sorry it has. They may know Ice Hockey, the rest like selling tickets, merch, bar, wifi, Mega Mondays, payment processing etc etc etc has always had issues & many paying fans just accept as it’s better than nothing.
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#9
Update: I emailed Todd to let him know what happened and he responded very quickly. Todd apologised for what happened and told me that staff were instructed to open at precisely 10 am & they were instructed to make sure all items had the price labelled. Todd will speak with the staff to make sure it doesn't happen again.
 

Lloyd

Active Member
#10
Myself and a friend got down there for about 9:20 to get in line early and was surprised to see no cue and people walking out of the dressing rooms with kit in hand.

It was fortunately fairly quiet inside when we got in and I managed to pick up a few sticks and pieces of kit I was after.

But while I benefitted from the decision to open early, I do completely agree it isn't fair on those who travelled down for a 10am start. As we were leaving, many more turned up and as others have observed, much of the usable kit had been snapped up.

These sales are always somewhat awkward as you have a mix of devils fans who want to purchase the kit of their favourite player vs local hockey players who are looking for kit to genuinely use.

I do agree with comments on pricing, it wasn't totally clear and it seems the price was just whatever Corky fancied selling it to you for at the till. If some fans were paying more than others, that's frankly disgusting and a poor reflection on the devils. Murdy was helpful as ever but previously Katrina has been running the till and I can't recall any such issues back then...

I can imagine Todd will be having firm words with someone
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#11
Myself and a friend got down there for about 9:20 to get in line early and was surprised to see no cue and people walking out of the dressing rooms with kit in hand.

It was fortunately fairly quiet inside when we got in and I managed to pick up a few sticks and pieces of kit I was after.

But while I benefitted from the decision to open early, I do completely agree it isn't fair on those who travelled down for a 10am start. As we were leaving, many more turned up and as others have observed, much of the usable kit had been snapped up.

These sales are always somewhat awkward as you have a mix of devils fans who want to purchase the kit of their favourite player vs local hockey players who are looking for kit to genuinely use.

I do agree with comments on pricing, it wasn't totally clear and it seems the price was just whatever Corky fancied selling it to you for at the till. If some fans were paying more than others, that's frankly disgusting and a poor reflection on the devils. Murdy was helpful as ever but previously Katrina has been running the till and I can't recall any such issues back then...

I can imagine Todd will be having firm words with someone
Todd said he'd deal with the matter internally- opening up the sale early is one thing but for me making up prices on the spot - not cool, not cool at all. For me that's taking advantage of customers and it is absolutely not how customers should be treated.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#14
As far as I'm aware if the money is going through the shop be it second hand or not it should go through the till or at least a book receipt like if it was a charity shop say oxfam which sell second hand goods but receipts are given.
It wasn't like it was a car boot sale.

This guidance is for England, Scotland and Wales
Where goods are offered for sale to consumers they must have their price clearly indicated and be inclusive of VAT. This is controlled by the Price Marking Order 2004,

There is a requirement under the CPRs to make sure pricing information is given clearly if it would affect a consumer's decision to buy. The CPRs also prohibit giving misleading information to consumers about prices.

Only auction items do not need to be displayed with prices.
 
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MA18

Well-Known Member
#16
Agree. Complete of a waste of time.
50mile round trip, got there at 9:40, doors already open and no much left worth having.

Bit of a let down compared to last year really. Probably can’t justify another 50 mile drive on Monday for the Q&A.
 

Temme

Well-Known Member
#18
To be fair the prices were advertised above the items, there was no disputing that. And Murds was happy to check out the back if you needed something that wasn't put out.

The early opening was the shame, we were there for 10am and the only gloves left by that point had holes in the palm or were 15", so no good sadly!

And the sticks situation, https://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/merchandise-sale-next-weekend/

They advertised them at £50 or £100, but the used twigs were all £70 on the day, and not £50. I should imagine that was more due to the insane demand - the sticks that were selling for £70 have been sat in the shop all year for £50, but I completely understand people want memorabilia.

The sticks themselves are generally £200-£260 retail, so there's no complaints about the cost.

We were more disappointed that we travelled the 60 mile round trip to stock up kit for the club (gloves, sticks, helmets etc) and even by 10am there was very little usable left :(.

No real complaints from me though, it was only gloves I needed so will buy a pair online as my old Asselin gloves have given up the ghost!


To be honest it's a great thing that they do allowing the public to buy top end equipment, so although it may not have been the smoothest this year, long may it continue.
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#19
To be fair the prices were advertised above the items, there was no disputing that. And Murds was happy to check out the back if you needed something that wasn't put out.

The early opening was the shame, we were there for 10am and the only gloves left by that point had holes in the palm or were 15", so no good sadly!

And the sticks situation, https://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/merchandise-sale-next-weekend/

They advertised them at £50 or £100, but the used twigs were all £70 on the day, and not £50. I should imagine that was more due to the insane demand - the sticks that were selling for £70 have been sat in the shop all year for £50, but I completely understand people want memorabilia.

The sticks themselves are generally £200-£260 retail, so there's no complaints about the cost.

We were more disappointed that we travelled the 60 mile round trip to stock up kit for the club (gloves, sticks, helmets etc) and even by 10am there was very little usable left :(.

No real complaints from me though, it was only gloves I needed so will buy a pair online as my old Asselin gloves have given up the ghost!


To be honest it's a great thing that they do allowing the public to buy top end equipment, so although it may not have been the smoothest this year, long may it continue.
Not everything was priced, we looked everywhere for the skates pricing and eventually had to ask & there were other things that had no pricing.
 

Swarley

Well-Known Member
#20
Went back over today just out of curiosity, it was like a ghost town when I went in, still a few bits left like skates, sticks gloves and socks, oh and loads of O'connor and Valdix jerseys lol

I did mention about the place being open before 10 yesterday and it's being looked into.
 
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