MC Sports made me a Raving Fan
Written: Jul 18 '04 (Updated Jul 19 '04)
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As a business owner and long time manager, I set pretty high standards for myself and my businesses. I think the most important bit that I ever read on customer service was in a book called Raving Fans. The gist of Raving Fans was that in customer service, the satisfied customer simply isn’t enough. In order to be truly successful, businesses need to have raving fans.
Obviously if the people at MC Sport didn’t read this book, they wrote it. Not only did I have an awesome and surprisingly good experience, but of the six reviewers before me, only one of them awarded less than full marks.
▪ Selection
Generally sports stores don’t impress me. I’m a hockey player and it’s a pretty specialized sport. I wouldn’t dream of going to a local sporting goods store to buy gear. The sport is just too specialized for the average sporting goods store to have what I need. Most things that I buy come from a hockey specialty shop.
I checked out MC Sports because of the discounts that I get due to a business partnership with my company. I had low expectations when I was looking for a new hockey shaft. The hockey selection is not on par with that of a good hockey store, but it is well above the typical sporting goods store.
For a forward, MC sports has a pretty good selection. They carry Mission, Nike/Bauer and CCM skates. They have a good selection of sticks, protective gear and accessories. For goalies, the selection is sparse. In al honesty, most hockey specialty stores have a sparse selection in the goalie department too. MC Sports hockey selection compares to to the average hockey store and is better than many I’ve been in.
▪ Interface
The interface is a tad bit clunky. It isn’t as cleverly laid out as some of the other sports shops on-line, but it isn’t horrible by any stretch of the imagination. It might take a couple of extra clicks, but generally it is intuitive enough to find what you are looking for without frustration.
One nice thing that MC Sport has is buyer’s guides that cover many of the common questions and mistakes that people have. The hockey guides are somewhat comprehensive. These would be very helpful to the new player. The guides are available for most categories in MC Sports as well.
▪ My Purchase
I broke my shaft on a Thursday and went a week before ordering a new one. The shaft that I ordered is an Easton Z-Bubble. The typical price for a Z-Bubble locally is $115. MC Sports sells them for $84.97 (I got mine for $79.99 with my discount). Either price is a pretty nice improvement over full retail. Also I should mention that this is the current model of the Z-Bubble, not some left over two-year-old clearance item.
▪ Shipping and Payment
MC Sports accepts Master Card, Visa, AMEX, and Discover as well as online gift certificates. (I opted to pay them in cases of Canadian beer, a widely accepted currency among hockey players). There is sales tax applied to orders in Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
I opted for the regular ground shipping hoping to get the item in time for my game the following Thursday game. The $5.95 shipping price for this bulky item seemed to be quite reasonable. MC Sports also offers 3 day and overnight shipping on most items. Shipping on orders of $99 or more is free. They do ship to AFO/PFO addresses and United States territories including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
The website indicated that it was in stock and would ship in a day or two. My order went in after they had closed for the day. On Friday I checked my email at about noon and there was an email indicating that my order had been shipped. It informed me that it should arrive in 7 to 10 days. At noon on Saturday my shaft arrived on my doorstep via U.S. Priority Mail . . . I was surprised and pretty happy.
Now even if my shaft had arrived by Thursday afternoon I would have been happy. But according to the MC Sports website, it might have been 1 to 2 days before the item was even shipped. Instead it was in my hand in two days. All I have to say is, “WOW!”
The shaft was well packaged despite being a nearly unbreakable item in a normal (or semi-abnormal) package-handling environment. Inside the cardboard box there were about a dozen inflatable packs to keep the box from being crushed and to keep the shaft in place. The packing slip was inside, rather than in one of those dang plastic envelopes that hides it just until you throw the box away.
▪ Your account
Item tracking is provided on their own website via the customer log-in that you create when processing your first order. This seems a much simpler system than the typical providing of a tracking number to cut and paste after another half dozen clicks.
There is also an email center where you can set up the alerts that you receive regarding your order status and emails about advanced sales specials, clearance items, and new products.
Now this might not be everyone’s cup of tea since, if you only play golf, reading about a new bowling ball wouldn’t be that interesting. But there is a section where you can set up the alerts to only inform you of specials in the sports you are interested. Further, they have a spot to indicate all of your favorite pro teams so they can contact you with deals on fan wear.
▪ Other
MC Sports offers Gift Services, including gift-wrapping, personalized messages, and gift certificates for use in their online or physical store location.
You can search the site by item name, brand or the online item number if you know MC Sport’s number code. I suppose this might be handy if you ordered a couple boxes of the same golf balls from them monthly.
▪ Return Policy
MC Sports offers a no hassle return policy. Simply enclose the original packing slip and send the item back to them, no need to call for a RMA. If the reason for the return was a mistake on their end or a defective product, they refund the shipping. This policy stands for 30 days. Any item can be returned without explanation. The buyer need only pay return shipping costs.
There are a few items to which this policy doesn’t reply. Some items need to be returned to the manufacturers, others such as software and perishables are non-returnable for obvious reasons.
▪ Summary
MC Sports has a great selection for a general sports store. My expectations of a few old models of sticks and skates were far exceeded by the good selection of new, top of the line gear.
Their pricing is very competitive at the least. Perusing other items I find that almost all are below the typical prices that I would find locally, many are lower than, or equal to their online competition as well.
The most impressive thing to me was how quickly my stuff arrived. I’ve had more than one experience with the endless, “Where is my order?” phenomenon with other companies. I much prefer the “Holy Cow! My order is already here!” version.
I for one am a Raving Fan of MC Sports and will continue to shop there in the future.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Easton Z-Bubble Hockey Shaft
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puckmugger
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