straussblades
03-08-2007, 09:39 AM
Dear All,
I just thought I would put up an account of my experience at The London Skate Centre www.lonskate.com on the 24/2/2007. As I happened to be in London I thought I would drop in on Alex Taylor, ‘gold medallist ice skater and coach’ (according to his web site) and enquire why I had had no response to my earlier email of 27/1/2007 in which I requested an explanation of why he’d sold me a pair of completely unsatisfactory skates with the wrong size blades a few years before. The object of the post is that it should be educational and entertaining and hopefully enable someone else to avoid being treated like this.
A professional skate fitter at Basingstoke who looked at the skates last year, described what had been done as ‘very naughty’ and others have used the word ‘nightmare’ and ‘nasty piece of work’ in connection with him. It was certainly my experience that a customer service course would be in order and everyone knows that naughty boys should be punished: only when they deserve it, of course.
When I arrived in The London Skate Centre at 4.30 on the Saturday afternoon, I was carrying the offending items in a red canvas skate bag with the embarrassing legend ‘Disco skater’ on it which I had bought in Queensway in about 1983.
Taylor was standing behind his counter with a very glamorous picture of Sonja Henje behind him. I explained that I had sent him an email which I intended to publish on the internet.
He immediately became aggressive, ’I don’t recognise this!’
I reminded him of the contents of the email which I have reproduced below as promised.
He started shouting, ‘Can you prove it? Where’s your evidence?.’
If you have seen Danny Devito’s excellent film of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, there is a scene in which Miss Honey suggests to Mr Wormwood, Matilda’s father, that if he were to be sued for selling a dodgy car then he would need an educated professional to defend him. He immediately assumes he is about to be sued and starts shouting, ‘who what where’. Taylor’s reaction to my request for an explanation was powerfully reminiscent of this scene.
He came running round the counter and started shouting, ‘I don’t know who you are! Who are you?’
I said, ‘I am Kate Middleton and I am one of your former customers and I feel I have been cheated.’
(I am not Prince William’s girlfriend- we just share the same name. And this was my point, people really should know their customers. Then he would have know how much I like skating)
He became very excited and leant over towards me in a rather threatening manner. He is very tall. His face approached mine, ’Are you on drugs?’
I said, ‘No, I am a former customer of yours and I fell that I have been cheated.’
He then started stabbing his right index finger towards the door lintel and shouting, ‘Out! Out!’
Since we had reached an agreement, although unsatisfactory, I decided it was time to leave. He was rather scary with a wild look in his eyes.
It was not clear whether he thought I was possessed, like the girl in The Exorcist, and was trying to drive the evil spirits out of me or whether he agreed with my feeling that he was behaving like a drama queen and was asking to be publicly ‘outed’.
Perhaps the second explanation is more plausible as, when you exorcise someone, I think the standard procedure, as represented in The Exorcist, involves throwing yourself out of the window to your death: There was no suitable window.
I would been quite happy if he had offered to have a look at the skates and come up with some kind of plausible explanation but it was not to be. In this way he could have talked me out of following up my intentions.
After this, I went and had a nice skate at Queensway. A very pretty eight year old girl suggested that I was ‘very good’. I informed her that I’m not really but it was nice of her to say so. I asked here how times she had been skating and she said twice. I said that in that case she was doing excellently (she looked like a natural to me) and she looked suitably encouraged. I don’t like to think of a kid like that saving up for some skates and then being sold something that doesn’t fit and giving up. After all, I don’t know who she was: she might be a champion in ten years time.
I shall be selling some barely used 11” Coronation Ace blades soon if anyone is interested as I cannot sell them with the skates in good faith.
There is quite enough evidence that I am telling the truth so if he would like to sue me I would be delighted. In the meantime, I have found Les Westaway on this forum with happy customers recommending him. Why not sell people what they want in the first place?
Here’s the original email I sent:
:)
Dear Alex Taylor,
I discovered your website whilst researching new skates on the internet. As a former customer of yours, it was most interesting to read that: 'it is very important to have your feet correctly measured and to buy skates suitable for your skating requirements'.
I started skating in 1974 and since then have had a succession of boots; including Fagans, Hotspurs, Stubberts, Stanziones ( as worn by Dorothy Hamill)none of which were ideal. Quite a few years ago, I decided to buy some modern boots so that I would enjoy skating more. I bought some Risport Lasers from you which you also fitted. You urged me to buy size nine to 'give yourself some room' and to have at least enough room to be able to put a finger down the back of the boot.
Years later, these skates were stolen from a friend's car and she insisted on replacing them so we came to see you and I replaced them with a size eight in spite of being urged to buy the larger size. I enquired about upgrading the blades and you suggested a Coronation Ace which my friend kindly insisted on paying for as well.
I was surprised when I picked up the skates that the 11inch blades that had been fitted were slightly longer than the length of the sole and the holes of the originals were actually exposed but assumed that as they had been professionally fitted it must be acceptable.
As these skates have been a continual source of trouble, I took them to the skate shop at Basingstoke last year, where the owner very kindly realligned one of the blades which had been put on in a severely twisted manner. This helped somewhat.
However, having had my feet measured and discussed the matter with a couple of fitters, as well as trying on other boots, It has become apparent that the boots are couple of sizes too big. This means that the originals were absurdly oversize.
I really don't see the point in having enough room to put one's finger behind one's heel in a skating boot except possibly for children who are growing and the consensus appears to be that the toes should brush the end of the boot; I have at least 1/2 inch spare in the end of them.
Added to that, of course, the blades are 1/2 inch longer than Risport recommend for for those boots. They recommend 10 1/2 inch blades for 280 boots on their website and 11 inch for 290 - 295 boots. Indeed I note that the blade on my old Stanziones are this length on a larger boot.
Unfortunately, at this stage, no well fitting skate will turn me into Katerina Witt but having ill fitting equipment like this has certainly not helped my skating.
It is interesting to note from your website that you are a former professional coach, gold medallist and author of a couple of skating books.With all this experience, I am sure that you appreciate the importance of properly fitted equipment.
I am now left with a set of Risport Lasers the wrong size with the wrong size blades and when I replace them I am informed that I am likely to need a blade 3/4 inch shorter. This means that I can't even transfer the hardly sharpened blades over and will need to start again.
The amount of money spent on boots and blades would have gone a long way to getting some boots which actually fitted and therefore met my needs. The whole incident has not left me favourably impressed or happy. I might have just as well carried on wearing my custom- made Gustav Stanziones (as worn by Peggy Fleming and Sonja Henje) it was unfortunate that they were custom made for some else so didn't fit either but at least they had style.
I look forward to hearing from you with some explanation of why the service you are advertising on your website is so different to what I actually experienced and would welcome any suggestions about what I am to do with the Risport lasers/coronation ace blades.
yours sincerely
Kate Middleton.
I just thought I would put up an account of my experience at The London Skate Centre www.lonskate.com on the 24/2/2007. As I happened to be in London I thought I would drop in on Alex Taylor, ‘gold medallist ice skater and coach’ (according to his web site) and enquire why I had had no response to my earlier email of 27/1/2007 in which I requested an explanation of why he’d sold me a pair of completely unsatisfactory skates with the wrong size blades a few years before. The object of the post is that it should be educational and entertaining and hopefully enable someone else to avoid being treated like this.
A professional skate fitter at Basingstoke who looked at the skates last year, described what had been done as ‘very naughty’ and others have used the word ‘nightmare’ and ‘nasty piece of work’ in connection with him. It was certainly my experience that a customer service course would be in order and everyone knows that naughty boys should be punished: only when they deserve it, of course.
When I arrived in The London Skate Centre at 4.30 on the Saturday afternoon, I was carrying the offending items in a red canvas skate bag with the embarrassing legend ‘Disco skater’ on it which I had bought in Queensway in about 1983.
Taylor was standing behind his counter with a very glamorous picture of Sonja Henje behind him. I explained that I had sent him an email which I intended to publish on the internet.
He immediately became aggressive, ’I don’t recognise this!’
I reminded him of the contents of the email which I have reproduced below as promised.
He started shouting, ‘Can you prove it? Where’s your evidence?.’
If you have seen Danny Devito’s excellent film of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, there is a scene in which Miss Honey suggests to Mr Wormwood, Matilda’s father, that if he were to be sued for selling a dodgy car then he would need an educated professional to defend him. He immediately assumes he is about to be sued and starts shouting, ‘who what where’. Taylor’s reaction to my request for an explanation was powerfully reminiscent of this scene.
He came running round the counter and started shouting, ‘I don’t know who you are! Who are you?’
I said, ‘I am Kate Middleton and I am one of your former customers and I feel I have been cheated.’
(I am not Prince William’s girlfriend- we just share the same name. And this was my point, people really should know their customers. Then he would have know how much I like skating)
He became very excited and leant over towards me in a rather threatening manner. He is very tall. His face approached mine, ’Are you on drugs?’
I said, ‘No, I am a former customer of yours and I fell that I have been cheated.’
He then started stabbing his right index finger towards the door lintel and shouting, ‘Out! Out!’
Since we had reached an agreement, although unsatisfactory, I decided it was time to leave. He was rather scary with a wild look in his eyes.
It was not clear whether he thought I was possessed, like the girl in The Exorcist, and was trying to drive the evil spirits out of me or whether he agreed with my feeling that he was behaving like a drama queen and was asking to be publicly ‘outed’.
Perhaps the second explanation is more plausible as, when you exorcise someone, I think the standard procedure, as represented in The Exorcist, involves throwing yourself out of the window to your death: There was no suitable window.
I would been quite happy if he had offered to have a look at the skates and come up with some kind of plausible explanation but it was not to be. In this way he could have talked me out of following up my intentions.
After this, I went and had a nice skate at Queensway. A very pretty eight year old girl suggested that I was ‘very good’. I informed her that I’m not really but it was nice of her to say so. I asked here how times she had been skating and she said twice. I said that in that case she was doing excellently (she looked like a natural to me) and she looked suitably encouraged. I don’t like to think of a kid like that saving up for some skates and then being sold something that doesn’t fit and giving up. After all, I don’t know who she was: she might be a champion in ten years time.
I shall be selling some barely used 11” Coronation Ace blades soon if anyone is interested as I cannot sell them with the skates in good faith.
There is quite enough evidence that I am telling the truth so if he would like to sue me I would be delighted. In the meantime, I have found Les Westaway on this forum with happy customers recommending him. Why not sell people what they want in the first place?
Here’s the original email I sent:
:)
Dear Alex Taylor,
I discovered your website whilst researching new skates on the internet. As a former customer of yours, it was most interesting to read that: 'it is very important to have your feet correctly measured and to buy skates suitable for your skating requirements'.
I started skating in 1974 and since then have had a succession of boots; including Fagans, Hotspurs, Stubberts, Stanziones ( as worn by Dorothy Hamill)none of which were ideal. Quite a few years ago, I decided to buy some modern boots so that I would enjoy skating more. I bought some Risport Lasers from you which you also fitted. You urged me to buy size nine to 'give yourself some room' and to have at least enough room to be able to put a finger down the back of the boot.
Years later, these skates were stolen from a friend's car and she insisted on replacing them so we came to see you and I replaced them with a size eight in spite of being urged to buy the larger size. I enquired about upgrading the blades and you suggested a Coronation Ace which my friend kindly insisted on paying for as well.
I was surprised when I picked up the skates that the 11inch blades that had been fitted were slightly longer than the length of the sole and the holes of the originals were actually exposed but assumed that as they had been professionally fitted it must be acceptable.
As these skates have been a continual source of trouble, I took them to the skate shop at Basingstoke last year, where the owner very kindly realligned one of the blades which had been put on in a severely twisted manner. This helped somewhat.
However, having had my feet measured and discussed the matter with a couple of fitters, as well as trying on other boots, It has become apparent that the boots are couple of sizes too big. This means that the originals were absurdly oversize.
I really don't see the point in having enough room to put one's finger behind one's heel in a skating boot except possibly for children who are growing and the consensus appears to be that the toes should brush the end of the boot; I have at least 1/2 inch spare in the end of them.
Added to that, of course, the blades are 1/2 inch longer than Risport recommend for for those boots. They recommend 10 1/2 inch blades for 280 boots on their website and 11 inch for 290 - 295 boots. Indeed I note that the blade on my old Stanziones are this length on a larger boot.
Unfortunately, at this stage, no well fitting skate will turn me into Katerina Witt but having ill fitting equipment like this has certainly not helped my skating.
It is interesting to note from your website that you are a former professional coach, gold medallist and author of a couple of skating books.With all this experience, I am sure that you appreciate the importance of properly fitted equipment.
I am now left with a set of Risport Lasers the wrong size with the wrong size blades and when I replace them I am informed that I am likely to need a blade 3/4 inch shorter. This means that I can't even transfer the hardly sharpened blades over and will need to start again.
The amount of money spent on boots and blades would have gone a long way to getting some boots which actually fitted and therefore met my needs. The whole incident has not left me favourably impressed or happy. I might have just as well carried on wearing my custom- made Gustav Stanziones (as worn by Peggy Fleming and Sonja Henje) it was unfortunate that they were custom made for some else so didn't fit either but at least they had style.
I look forward to hearing from you with some explanation of why the service you are advertising on your website is so different to what I actually experienced and would welcome any suggestions about what I am to do with the Risport lasers/coronation ace blades.
yours sincerely
Kate Middleton.