Damaged Hampton Bar -- Opinions wanted

[morebarbell]

I received this Hampton Triceps / Hammer Curl Bar and it has a few problems. I was giving the seller a second chance so it is especially disappointing. It seems that the bar was damaged and missing parts before it was shipped since the box was intact. The rubber end cap is missing on one end. The end cap was not loose in the box. The other end cap is securely attached and I don't believe it could come loose during shipping. The box was sealed with tape and there was no damage to the box so I don't see how it could have gotten out of the box. I think it must have been missing parts when it was shipped. The bar is bent and the paint is cracked around the bend. I'm not sure if the metal is cracked also or if it is just bent. On that end of the bar, two of the rivits have big scrapes as if they were dragged on rough cement. The damage is likely to have occurred prior to shipping since the box was intact without any sign of shipping abuse.

Should I ask for a replacement bar? Ask for the missing end cap? Or ask for a refund?




stock photo of the bar:

[oldskooler]

Check your PM.

Let me know if the PM didn't go through.

[KBKB]

Should I ask for a replacement bar? Ask for the missing end cap? Or ask for a refund?

Nice video illustrating the problems.

If it were only a problem with the end cap, It'd make sense to ask for that. But due to the fact that the bar is bent and is scraped up in spots, I think you should either ask for a refund or replacement. Get a refund if you're not confident that the next bar will be any better.

[jseguss]

Good afternoon.

I am the Customer Service Manager at Rock Bottom Golf / Fitness and would be happy to look into this for you & help you out! I just need some more details so I can figure out what order this is and what the whole situation is. If you would please email into Scratch@rockbottomgolf.com and in the subject line put Attn: Jaime / Bodybuilding.com that way I know the email is regarding this post. In the body of the email please include either your order number or the email address you used to place the order. I can then locate the order.

If this is defective / damaged we will cover that, absolutely! We honor manufacturers warranty of products and we also will take care of customers if a package was damaged in transit by the shipper. I really just need your info & I am sure I can get this taken care of for you.

I look forward to receiving your email & being able to assist in fixing this for you!

Sincerely,
Jamie
Rock Bottom

[jormone]

Could you get some detailed pictures of the end without the endcap? I'm curious to know how the rubber endcap fits in and what they might look like outside of the bar. (to figure out how to cleanly remove/replace them if possible)

I had a bar shipped in the same type of box with a damaged endcap from rockbottomfitness. The bar was a straight bar so the box was much too big IMHO. They were going to start a fedex claim thing when I sent pictures, but I just didn't have the patience for an endcap, nor did I know if the damage was from shipping or started out like that since the other end of the bar was perfect (which is what I think). I just wanted a replacement rubber endcap that I could hopefully replace on my own. Hampton never replied to my request on getting a single endcap either.

[morebarbell]

Good afternoon.

I am the Customer Service Manager at Rock Bottom Golf / Fitness and would be happy to look into this for you & help you out! I just need some more details so I can figure out what order this is and what the whole situation is. If you would please email into Scratch@rockbottomgolf.com and in the subject line put Attn: Jaime / Bodybuilding.com that way I know the email is regarding this post. In the body of the email please include either your order number or the email address you used to place the order. I can then locate the order.

If this is defective / damaged we will cover that, absolutely! We honor manufacturers warranty of products and we also will take care of customers if a package was damaged in transit by the shipper. I really just need your info & I am sure I can get this taken care of for you.

I look forward to receiving your email & being able to assist in fixing this for you!

Sincerely,
Jamie
Rock Bottom

It's an open case on PayPal and I have been in communication with Shaun. In his recent reply he asked if a replacement part would be OK.

Thanks for the video. Will a replacement part fix the item ?. Please email me back at the earliest convenience.

I suspect that the replacement part is a replacement end cap but I'm not sure. That wouldn't fix the bend or the wear and tear to the bar. A replacement bar that's in proper form would be the best solution. The bar is not shown on the website any longer so I'm not sure if a replacement is available. Unless you want to refund half the cost, I prefer just to send it back for a full refund or a replacement of the same model that's in good condition. I hope that you will cover the cost of return shipping for an exchange or a return given the problems with the bar.

Could you get some detailed pictures of the end without the endcap? I'm curious to know how the rubber endcap fits in and what they might look like outside of the bar. (to figure out how to cleanly remove/replace them if possible)

I had a bar shipped in the same type of box with a damaged endcap from rockbottomfitness. The bar was a straight bar so the box was much too big IMHO. They were going to start a fedex claim thing when I sent pictures, but I just didn't have the patience for an endcap, nor did I know if the damage was from shipping or started out like that since the other end of the bar was perfect (which is what I think). I just wanted a replacement rubber endcap that I could hopefully replace on my own. Hampton never replied to my request on getting a single endcap either.

Here's a photo of the end of the bar. The end cap on the other side is on real snug and I doubt you'd be able to remove it without some damage to the rubber cap or the bar. Based on the inside of the sleeve, I suspect the end cap has a ridge that expands into and locks onto the indented inner part of the sleeve (arrow). You would need to somehow pry it loose all the way around... if you use a screw driver to pry it out, I think it might gouge the sleeve. I suspect it would be best just to cut out the damaged end cap and replace it... but I'd ask Hampton to make sure.

[jormone]

Here's a photo of the end of the bar. The end cap on the other side is on real snug and I doubt you'd be able to remove it without some damage to the rubber cap or the bar. Based on the inside of the sleeve, I suspect the end cap has a ridge that expands into and locks onto the indented inner part of the sleeve (arrow). You would need to somehow pry it loose all the way around... if you use a screw driver to pry it out, I think it might gouge the sleeve. I suspect it would best just to cut out the damaged end cap and replace it... but I'd ask Hampton to make sure.

Thank you for the picture, it was purely for curiosity.
If I got a replacement cutting looks like the best way, but Hampton doesn't reply and rockbottom isn't going to have any so I've moved on.

[Jetigen]

I have the same bar from the same seller. Paint is chipped and rivets are hard scraped on mine as well. No bend or missing end cap though. I am guessing the damage has to do with warehouse storage/transport/handling and maybe the bulk shipping to the seller from Hampton. It screams Discontinued.

If I were you, I'd definitely ask for replacement.

[morebarbell]

I have the same bar from the same seller. Paint is chipped and rivets are hard scraped on mine as well. No bend or missing end cap though. I am guessing the damage has to do with warehouse storage/transport/handling and maybe the bulk shipping to the seller from Hampton. It screams Discontinued.

If I were you, I'd definitely ask for replacement.

The end cap didn't pop off and the bar didn't become bent because the bar got discontinued. It's more likely that they bought a pallet of customer returns and damaged items and they are selling them as new. I've seen pallets of returns being auctioned off. But the seller claims that they only sell "BRAND NEW TOP QUALITY". Maybe it was damaged in the warehouse. There's no way to know for sure. But I don't see how the bar could have left the warehouse without someone noticing that it only has an endcap on one end and that it wasn't in new condition.

Q. Are RockBottomFitness' products new or used? ....

A. We only sell BRAND NEW TOP QUALITY merchandise! We stand behind every item we sell and we will do everything possible to assure that you're satisfied.
We buy HUGE lots of closeout merchandise, keep our overhead as low as humanly possible, leverage technology and then pass the savings on to our customers. ....

If they send me a new Hampton Tricep bar that's "BRAND NEW TOP QUALITY" that would change my opinion. If they can't, they could at least refund the money. They should take responsibility.

Here's the cliff notes:

I contacted them about the problem on Thursday (16th). I explained the damage and said that I didn't think it was mishandled during shipping. I also opened a PayPal dispute.

On Saturday (18th), I received an email asking if I thought it could have been damaged during shipping.

I reiterated what I said previously about the damage, specifying that I didn't think the damage occurred during shipping. I also sent photos.

On Monday (20th), I was told the photos weren't received. So I put a video on Youtube and sent a link. I was then asked if a "replacement part" would fix it.

[rthawker]

Considering buying a 5' hampton bar from them so I am very interested to see how this turns out.

[Jetigen]

There's no way to know for sure. But I don't see how the bar could have left the warehouse without someone noticing that it only has an endcap on one end and that it wasn't in new condition.

I don't think the seller has a good warehousing/handling system. I bought every Hampton bar they had listed on their site. Well, they shipped me 3 identical curl bars when cartoon clearly had printed 6' and Hammer bars on two of them. One of the plastic Hampton sticker caps was missing on one of them. After contacting the seller they shipped me the correct bars.

[morebarbell]

unhappy.jpg

I received an email from PayPal notifying me that

Rock Bottom Golf & Rock Bottom Golf Balls has declined your request for a
$69.99 USD refund to settle this dispute and has posted a new message in
the Resolution Center.

The message seems to contradict their decline to refund the payment.

We will be happy to accept a return and issue a refund upon the return of the item. You must return this to our warehouse by using the RA Shaun will provide to you

I haven't received an RA yet. My reply is:

Please take responsibility for your error and pay for the return shipping costs. Please provide a PREPAID return shipping label. I have not received the RA from Shaun.

Are you paying return shipping? Do you intend to refund the full amount of the purchase price after return?

Jetigen, Did they take responsibility for the problem and pay for return shipping or did you have to pay for their mistake?

[morebarbell]

Why would they decline the refund settlement through the PayPal system and promise a refund in the message unless they intend to screw me when the bar is returned for refund? Wouldn't that mean that I would have to escalate the "dispute" to a "claim" and ask PayPal to make the decision.

[twodog]

Why would they decline the refund settlement through the PayPal system and promise a refund in the message unless they intend to screw me when the bar is returned for refund? Wouldn't that mean that I would have to escalate the "dispute" to a "claim" and ask PayPal to make the decision.

I feel your pain. Honestly, if they don't take care of the problem quickly, they will probably lose alot of customers due to this thread. If I were them I would I do the right thing, and take care of this situation immediately. I know Troy lost alot of customers, me included, by the poor handling of problems through their customer service. The bumpers were there biggest downfall and mentioned on multiple websites. Good luck.

[Huck43]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune morebarbell. I was actually considering buying the same bar, but from the looks of it, I made the right decision to hold off. Definitely looking like they will lose a potential future customer here. Thanks for keeping us informed of the situation though.

[jseguss]

Hello,

This is Jamie again. I also responded to you via PayPal Dispute Center just now. I want to be clear on our stance here for yourself & other customers. We absolutely do care & we absolutely are resolving this issue. The last thing we would ever do is purposely send a defective item or ignore a customer. We want to get this resolved. We did not deny the refund through PayPal. A dispute was opened with PayPal therefore PayPal had a HOLD on the funds till the dispute was ceased. PayPal needed more information and the standard procedure here would be for the customer to receive a RA, if the order is within 30 days they will get a pre-paid label from us to return it and once it is returned the item will be inspected then refunded. That is what the Deny message was. It was simply a standard policy response due to it being through PayPal dispute center.

As you will clearly see I took over all aspects of your case so there won’t be any confusion anymore. Since yesterday I took this over & am the only one handling your case. A FULL REFUND has already been issued as I contacted our PayPal Rep and informed them we will accept a FULL refund and due to the inconvenience we are allowing the customer to keep the item. He may discard of it as he pleases or keep it but we are not even requiring you to return this.

I want everyone to know, if you ever have an issue and you feel it isn’t being handled as it should you can always, always ask for myself (the Manager) & I will make it my top priority to get it resolved, just as I did in this case.

We value each of our customers & want everyone to be happy with their transaction! If a mistake / error happens we want the chance to fix it.

Sincerely
Jamie
Rock Bottom

[jormone]

I contacted them about the problem on Thursday (16th). I explained the damage and said that I didn't think it was mishandled during shipping. I also opened a PayPal dispute.

On Saturday (18th), I received an email asking if I thought it could have been damaged during shipping.

I reiterated what I said previously about the damage, specifying that I didn't think the damage occurred during shipping. I also sent photos.

On Monday (20th), I was told the photos weren't received. So I put a video on Youtube and sent a link. I was then asked if a "replacement part" would fix it.

Exact same process I went through, and each stage takes more than a full day to receive a reply. I sent photos and they said that account can't receive photos, even though I sent them through the website which specifically had an attachment button. It seems like a standard song and dance they do to frustrate customers enough so hopefully most go away -- like I did. I respect your persistence.

[jseguss]

Jormone,
We have to do a standard process here to verify what happened, etc. As I have already stated we do want to assist customers, we honestly dont want to "frustrate" customers so they go away. However with that said, we must follow policy and do the standard steps to ensure it is indeed defective and then take course of action.

If you would like me to review your case I would be happy too. As well as any other customers, again, if you ever feel you are not getting the service you think you should get always ask for a manager & I am more than willing and happy to assist you.

I will need your email and / or order number to be able to pull your info and assist with the issue you were having. Once I get that I will investigate the situation for you.

Sincerely,
Jamie

[morebarbell]

I received an email notification of the refund. I don't think that I understand the explanation for the initial deny of the PayPal claim but the end result is the same. Thank you for fixing the problem, Jaime. I appreciate the comments of those that replied to the thread. Also, one forum member chose to become directly involved in making sure the problem got fixed and I especially appreciate his help.

[jormone]

Jormone,
We have to do a standard process here to verify what happened, etc. As I have already stated we do want to assist customers, we honestly dont want to "frustrate" customers so they go away. However with that said, we must follow policy and do the standard steps to ensure it is indeed defective and then take course of action.

If you would like me to review your case I would be happy too. As well as any other customers, again, if you ever feel you are not getting the service you think you should get always ask for a manager & I am more than willing and happy to assist you.

I will need your email and / or order number to be able to pull your info and assist with the issue you were having. Once I get that I will investigate the situation for you.

Sincerely,
Jamie

I understand that you have a standard process to follow, but in my opinion it shouldn't be as slow as it is; please put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Continuing to have an email account that "doesn't accept photos" (when your website solicits attachments) doesn't make sense and slows down the process causing frustration. I initially sent as much information as possible including photos and lots of detail only to be asked if the damage could have happened in shipping (which I think I addressed in my initial ticket). I really don't know how to definitively answer that since I don't have perfect evidence, and after seeing the above report I really doubt that shipping is the problem since your bars can arrive with some damage that can't reasonably be explained by shipping. Perhaps quality control in the warehouse is needed. The bars are shipped loosely in 7"x7" "Rockbottomfitness" boxes so someone there has seen their condition. If they aren't in perfectly new condition that should have been identified on the website.

I've given up on getting a new rubber end cap (unless you find morebarbell's rolling around in the warehouse and it is in perfect condition!). Returning the bar 3000miles didn't make sense just for a damaged end cap. But as you can tell it does still irk me not to have been shipped a bar in perfect condition as I don't believe the damage occurred in shipping.

I'm glad morebarbell got a refund; his bar had far more damage. (There is no way an end cap came out in shipping, those things are nearly impossible to get out!)

[Jetigen]

Jetigen, Did they take responsibility for the problem and pay for return shipping or did you have to pay for their mistake?

What I did I talked to the FedEx truck driver several days later; and he took back wrongly shipped bars as "Refused to Accept on Delivery". I still had original boxes with all the shipping labels on them. He just scanned them and that was it. I didn't have to pay for the return shipping.

[Andrew_WOT]

Just for the record, Hampton sell replacement rubber caps and rubber rings, I got myself a spare pair for each bar when one the bar arrived with cap damaged.

[matrix563]

funny thing, when you pay for shipping the return shipping is also included in what you pay. no one ever really knows that, though.

talk about hitting rock bottom though

[jormone]

Just for the record, Hampton sell replacement rubber caps and rubber rings, I got myself a spare pair for each bar when one the bar arrived with cap damaged.

How much did the rubber end cap cost? Did you email info@Hamptonfit.com or call them?

And how did you remove the damaged one?

[oldskooler]

funny thing, when you pay for shipping the return shipping is also included in what you pay. no one ever really knows that, though.

Source of this? Skeptical that this is true.

[KBKB]

funny thing, when you pay for shipping the return shipping is also included in what you pay. no one ever really knows that, though.

Source of this? Skeptical that this is true.

I think it depends on the vendor. Online stores like Zappos do offer free shipping in both directions; it's not really free though as the shipping costs are built into the price that they charge for the stuff they sell. OTOH, I've always had to pay return shipping when doing a RMA for something going back to Newegg.

[morebarbell]

I've heard of free return shipping from some sellers like Zappos and Amazon but I didn't know that return shipping is free from FedEx or UPS. That would help a lot for large/heavy items like barbells, especially since regular consumer prices are much higher than the discounted prices paid by some (most?) stores.

[oldskooler]

I've heard of free return shipping from some sellers like Zappos and Amazon but I didn't know that return shipping is free from FedEx or UPS. That would help a lot for large/heavy items like barbells, especially since regular consumer prices are much higher than the discounted prices paid by some (most?) stores.

I think the only way its free is if the vendor/seller agrees to pay or you refuse delivery (which technically is refusal not return shipping). Refusing delivery could open up a whole other can of worms in dealing with returns/refunds.

[Jetigen]

I didn't know that return shipping is free from FedEx or UPS. That would help a lot for large/heavy items like barbells, especially since regular consumer prices are much higher than the discounted prices paid by some (most?) stores.

Yes, the buyer can refuse to accept the purchased item on delivery. That's why it's a good idea to check the item before the delivery truck leaves. In my case it was a little different since I had the bars for few days. I just lucked out on truck driver's good will while he was en route. Please, don't think it's a norm to keep products for several days and return them with the delivery company free of charge.

[Andrew_WOT]

How much did the rubber end cap cost? Did you email info@Hamptonfit.com or call them?

And how did you remove the damaged one?

Contact email address on their web site.
It's a rubber plug, just pry it out with something like screw driver.