WTH happened to +POS?

[sdix00]

My favorite plate shirt in the whole world is this +POS shirt I bought in August 2011. It is broad in the shoulder, 2" longer in the tail, heavy enough to hang straight, yet very cool. It has a wider pocket that fits more lineup cards. In short, an extremely high-quality garment.

I was still buying one of every brand shirt so I could decide what brand I would invest in. After looking at everything, I decided to order more +POS in different colors.

But it went bad yesterday. . .

THIS IS THE *%$*# CRAP he sent to me.

This is a blue burlap sack. I ordered two blue shirts and, as you can see, one of them has an extremely dark collar which does not match the shirt color. The fabric literally feels like a burlap sack. No stretch, not sized up. There is no 'weight' to the shirt, so it does not hang straight, instead sticking to every imperfection on my undershirt and less than trim tummy. An absolute ripoff.

The navy shirt on TOP has the same 'XXL' label as the black shirt on the bottom, however not even close to the same size.

The new old shirt disgraces the brand by displaying it on the back of the neck.

This is the tag that comes with the new shirt. "Micro-Mesh", "Pro-Formance", "Intelligent Fabric", you can think up a thousand names for this stuff, but it will always feel like a burlap sack.

Just so there is no confusion between old and new, here is the new old label.

I emailed Dan twice last week. No response.

Left a message a few days ago because my shirts were 5 days late and he never provided a tracking number in the confirmation email. When he finally called me back a day later, he says Paypal program handles tracking numbers so he doesn't know why I didnt get one. Who cares? I got the order confirmation, never got a tracking number.

When I finally received the shirts, I left messages on the answering machine for Daniel to call me back and he has yet to respond. I called the order entry line and just get the answering machine. I want to cancel my other orders and get a permit to burn the hazardous materials in these shirts.

I cannot believe that a business owner would even think he could get away with swapping out specs and material to save a few bucks. I would have paid $30-35 for the original style shirt, but I guess there is more short term money in bastardizing an established brand.

Unbelievable.

P.S. I owe a big apology to KFinn and others who warned me of the quality in the new shirts. Since I bought mine in 2011, I figured I was getting the new shirt. I was at an absolute loss as to why anyone would think the black shirt that I had was poor quality. Obviously, we were talking about different shirts entirely. I see that now.

[JaxRolo]

Sorry to hear that!

Dispute your Credit Card!

[Kevin Finnerty]

Apology readily and willingly accepted.

When Dan got done reading my e-mail, which contained many of your sentiments, he credited my PayPal account before I even mailed the shirts back. He even included the cost of shipping them back, which I demanded.

The +POS black jacket you have is the best quarter-zip umpire pullover I have ever seen. That was truly a once-proud brand. Profiteering on crap that bears a once-proud brand is the modern American business model. It's sad, but too many businesses get caught up in that trend, rather than operate with a conscience. As it has with so many others who model their practices that way, it is obviously backfiring on Parsons Officials Supply.

[sdix00]

I just got off a long phone call with Dan. I spent most of my energy channeling my frustration in to a long list of suggestions.

I found out that the navy shirts are, in fact, the older style shirt, and the Black shirt is the new style he is having made. He has the new style in Black but is stuck with many, many navy shirts. He is also manufacturing other colors in the new material, but doesn't expect delivery for several weeks.

He eagerly accepted my return of the navy shirts, and promised to let me know when the new shirts would be available in other colors.

I gave him some feedback:

1. Get rid of the old style shirt. Best to burn them, but obviously a closeout price makes more business sense. I let him know that $25 was absolutely inappropriate and when he asked for a price I suggested $10, but re-emphasized that it was a tragedy that "+POS" would be adorned on these shirts.

2. Be more responsive on email and on the phone. Customers inquiries should be answered almost immediately.

3. Make a BIG DEAL when the new style shirts come in. I assured him that they are an outstanding product and would sell once the brand was again associated with quality and value.

4. He asked about sizing of the new shirt and I told him I appreciated the broad shoulders on a plate shirt, but that the shirt was larger than most others of the same label size. Some folks may ding a shirt for that.

[Nate]

I bought a mask from them and it took over a month to receive it.. they blamed it on UPS. And then promised me some type of compensation which I never received.

[Umpire in Chief]

The Old +POS suffered for issues like this. I haven't ordered from them since the revival, but service issues appear to remain.

I happen to know a guy, Jim Kirk, who runs a Umpire Equipment company who always delivers the best customer service.

[Welpe]

You've got that right, Warren. Even if I pay a bit more, I enjoy being able to support a great company like Ump Attire. I am also sure to recommend them to all of my colleagues as well.

[BT_Blue]

I do the same with Ump-Attire... as a matter of fact they are the only company (not Honigs, not Gerry Davis, not Lester's, no one) that was willing to work out a discount with our umpire association. Makes me happy I knew about them before this and can provide examples of their great products and services.

[Kevin Finnerty]

There's a much-discussed thrill-of-the-hunt aspect when it comes to obtaining gear and uniforms. Whether it's ebay or the distributor with the best price on this jacket or that equipment bag. And I enjoy the hunt as much as anyone, believe me. But when it comes time to buy a big-ticket gear item, I always go through Ump-attire.com.

Through Ump-Attire, I have bought three Wilson titanium masks, a Wilson Platinum CP, a Wilson Gold CP, a Majestic Therma Base jacket, and of course the side stuff that we almost always add to an order. If I didn't get such a steal on my Gold shins on ebay, I would have bought those from UA, also. Ump-Attire is always the best for service, and every transaction is risk-free.