This will piss you off to no end. (For the golfers of AO)

[GT]

I just started playing in golf in July. Love the game and I was thinking of buying a set of nice clubs and ping irons were at the top of the list. Ping has decieded to cancel retail accounts for offering discounts to military personel, which breaks Pings price policy.

Article: http://www.shottalk.com/?gclid=CLm77...FTuZGgodgTaF-g

[PyRo]

And what's the problem? Military discounts arn't a God given right.

[Steelrat]

And what's the problem? Military discounts arn't a God given right.

Neither is your freedom. Military personnel put their life on the line to protect us, for less pay than they deserve. Ping should GIVE them the damn golf clubs.

My favorite line.

"It's something we put in place to protect our brand," said Bill Gates, Ping's director of distribution and associate general counsel.

Yeah, well the US Military is something that was put in place to protect your brand...AND your butt. Loser.

[MicroMiniMe]

I should dig around for the article.
The Canadiam forces over in Afghanistan decided they wanted some better cheer for the men. The men wanted some Moosehead beer, so the division supply officer or whatnot contacted Moosehead for a large governmental order and to see what it would cost. Moosehead basically said, if the men wanted Moosehead, we'd be proud to send over as much as you need, forget about the bill.

How do you think SPAM meat product is so widely known. The Phillipines us a ton of the stuff, and they had it during/after WWII. I think it was part of rations for Korean war too.

[PyRo]

Neither is your freedom. Military personnel put their life on the line to protect us, for less pay than they deserve. Ping should GIVE them the damn golf clubs.

Ping has a policy that many companies have in place to protect their retailers. They have a minimum price retailers are allowed to sell a product at. This is to prevent wholesale stores or online retailers from chargeing prices so low an actual store has no chance of competeing and looses it's buisness. The company in my opinion has a right to do this. I don't believe they ever came out and said military discounts are wrong. THe retailers were free to give discounts down to the minimum agreed upon price. The products were pulled because the retailers were selling them below the minimum price. AGD (the owner of this forum) has a similar minimum price in effect to protect paintball shops from being completly undercut by online stores, as do many other companies even if people aren't generally aware of it. It doesn't matter if they were selling the clubs to the president, they violated their agreement and it was terminated. I don't see a problem.

I fully agree with was said about out freedom and that military personal do put their life on the line to protect us. I do not agree however that Ping or for that matter any company, or person has an obligation to give anything to military personal. I am not saying it is wrong to do so, that they don't deserve it, or that it isn't a great thing to do so. I am saying that no one is obligated to do so and no one should be thought less or for not doing so.

No one came out here and did or said anything dis-supportive of the military. Ping in my opinion did nothing wrong. Go after the companies that activly try to take advantage of people in the military.

[Lohman446]

There is a vast difference between minimum advertised price - you may not "advertise" cheaper than this, and price fixing.

These discounts are probably still available, they are just not offered in advertisement.

[Steelrat]

Ping has a policy that many companies have in place to protect their retailers. They have a minimum price retailers are allowed to sell a product at. This is to prevent wholesale stores or online retailers from chargeing prices so low an actual store has no chance of competeing and looses it's buisness. The company in my opinion has a right to do this. I don't believe they ever came out and said military discounts are wrong. THe retailers were free to give discounts down to the minimum agreed upon price. The products were pulled because the retailers were selling them below the minimum price. AGD (the owner of this forum) has a similar minimum price in effect to protect paintball shops from being completly undercut by online stores, as do many other companies even if people aren't generally aware of it. It doesn't matter if they were selling the clubs to the president, they violated their agreement and it was terminated. I don't see a problem.

I fully agree with was said about out freedom and that military personal do put their life on the line to protect us. I do not agree however that Ping or for that matter any company, or person has an obligation to give anything to military personal. I am not saying it is wrong to do so, that they don't deserve it, or that it isn't a great thing to do so. I am saying that no one is obligated to do so and no one should be thought less or for not doing so.

No one came out here and did or said anything dis-supportive of the military. Ping in my opinion did nothing wrong. Go after the companies that activly try to take advantage of people in the military.

Ping's argument is crap. The retailers buy the Ping product, then resell it, so Ping's bottom line isn't affected in any way. No one TOLD Ping to give a discount. It was the RETAILERS giving the discount, and eating the cost. Ping was making the exact same amount they were in the past. This was not a MAP issue, as the products weren't advertised. And Ping wasn't trying to protect the other retailers, it was trying to protect it's "premium" status.

Here is another way to tell that Ping was in the wrong. They have, essentially, come out with a cash back program that amounts to a 10% discount for military personnel. Guess when they came out with it? Thats right, after catching a ton of crap for dropping the retailers. One of which had been selling Ping products since the company first started. If their position was so justifiable, why the backtrack? Good going Ping. Now, instead of the retailers eating the cost, the company is eating it. Thats great business sense

[Steelrat]

There is a vast difference between minimum advertised price - you may not "advertise" cheaper than this, and price fixing.

These discounts are probably still available, they are just not offered in advertisement.

It wasn't a MAP issue, it WAS price fixing. Ping has a rule concerning what prices it's products can be sold at. The way they "caught" the retailers was that they got a hold of a receipt from a purchase made at the stores. Ping sells the product to the retailers, so they really don't notice any discounting, as they retailers eat the cost of the discounts.

If you research it a bit, you'll find that ping dumped over half of the stores affiliated with military bases.

You'd also see where Ping told the stores they'd review their status in a year, and the stores essentially told Ping to cram it.

[Steelrat]

Whoever the person is at Ping who started this whole mess, they should be canned. It's doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that crapping on retailers giving a military discount, when our soldiers are fighting and dying (by the thousands), is a bad, bad idea. It just makes them look greedy, and has already been a PR disaster. Check the golf forums, and you'll see all the backlash.

Seems pretty funny that this whole mess started because Ping was worried about "erosion of the brand."

[Cyberious]

I just started playing in golf in July. Love the game and I was thinking of buying a set of nice clubs and ping irons were at the top of the list. Ping has decieded to cancel retail accounts for offering discounts to military personel, which breaks Pings price policy.

Article: http://www.shottalk.com/?gclid=CLm77...FTuZGgodgTaF-g

Don't tell me they let YOU on Shottalk ;-) I actually left Paintball for a while and got back in to golf. Ping has really taken a bath over this and are scrambling to make up their image hence the 10% program. Never liked their stuff. Now the only thing I'd do with a Ping club is... oops that would get me banned here if I actually described it.

[kosmo]

Military discounts are a crutch to make people feel less guilty about so many military families living off of food stamps.

[benzy2]

hasnt ping been in price fixing debates before? From everything I remember they always hit the comapnies that couldnt afford the fight. A few people who sold Ping equipment have described it as not just MAP but minimum sales price. It is totally illegal but again if you are just a small local shop and you try to fight ping you wont have the cash to win. Im not a huge golfer but i can promise for the rest of my life I will never buy another Ping product. They can have the right to pull whoever they want, sometimes illegally, but as customers we all the the same right to tell ping to (insert phrase about some object and a body part of ping). I have no problem with a bit of a price discount for the military. Im willing to share the slight extra cost to make their life that little bit easier. They pay a huge cost to make my life so much better it cant be put into words. I think the trade off is still a little in my favor. If some company wants to be pricks about it then I dont want to support that company.

[master_alexander]

i loooove ping clubs... my dad has a set... i grew and now they dont fit me, so he gets them all to himself. lol.