I’ve been known to be critical, both in my personal relationships and when it comes to youth baseball. In most of my posts, I’m complaining about something. In the baseball consumer space, so often the new trendy gadget promising to fix your son’s swing or help his fielding doesn’t work as advertised and is discarded to my basement within weeks. As an aside, why does baseball as a sport seem to attract way more “quick fix” training gadgets than the other sports?
Anyway, amidst my general dissatisfaction, I wanted to shout out two companies that I love because of their amazing customer service.
Franklin Sports
This company is just a sweetheart. As I stated in a prior post, my older son is hard on his batting gloves and they tend to fray. Well, with Franklin, you just click on this link to make a warranty claim, fill out a simple form and send a picture of the issue, and the nicest person writes you back saying “they’re on it.” The guy even gave me useful tips on how to measure my son’s hand for the right size gloves. Then I got an email that my replacement gloves had been shipped. And it arrived in about a week. I couldn’t have been happier.
JustBats
I love this site for buying bats. They have everything. I once bought a Mizuno wood bat from JustBats and when it cracked early on I reached out to them for my replacement options. The person got back to me right away and let me sign up for their wood bat warranty program retroactively. They shipped out a replacement, and my son loves that bat and practices with it all the time.
In sum, when buying baseball stuff, you should be always be aware of their customer service and return options in case something goes wrong. I know people who buy exclusively from Amazon, because of their return policy. But companies like Franklin and JustBats offer just as good a return policy and your interactions with them are more personalized.
Kudos to them!
WHAT RETAILERS DO YOU LIKE? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.
For information about the emotional side of baseball, see:
- I Spent 30K on Youth Baseball Last Year; Here’s How
- Anger Management and Youth Baseball: How to Calm Down
- How to Manage Your Kid’s Baseball Tantrums and Meltdowns
- 4 Ways to Respond to a Coach Playing Favorites
- How to Stop Being a Crazy Baseball Dad
- How to Be a Good Baseball Dad in the Backyard
- Is It Now Fashionable to Hate On Baseball Dads?
- Are Local Little Leagues Bad for Baseball?
For information on hitting, see:
- How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump
- 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free)
- 4 Hitting Drills You Need to Do Before Every Game
- 4 Old School Baseball Drills You Need to Be Using
- 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Baseball Bat
For information on pitching, see:
- What You Need to Know About Little League Elbow
- 4 Ways To Increase Your Kid’s Pitching Velocity
- Is the Circle Change Dangerous for Youth Pitchers?
- Why I Don’t Let My Son Pitch in Little League
- How to Make Sure Your Kid Isn’t Overpitched in Basebal
For ways to get faster, see: