Supporter's report of Castore meeting

[rbr 1,247]

Ive taken this from FF from someone at the meeting . The guys user name is Budd sidewinder just incase anyone knows him and to give him credit for a very good summary .

 

I was at the meeting tonight and I am just home. The meeting was attended by James Bisgrove, Marketing and Commercial Director, Natalie Nairn from the Marketing Team, Greg Marshall SLO and Andy Cole, Head of Partnerships from Castore.

There were 10 supporters there all with a variety of positive and negative experiences and everyone was given the opportunity for an open and frank discussion.

No one from the club briefed us beforehand on what we could and couldnt say and all questions were open on the table to anyone attending.

We went around the room giving different accounts of what has happened both in a positive and negative light, and Andy from Castore answered every question.

Andy was very open and frank about some of the mistakes they have made and did not shy away from them. The two main issues related to quality control and also the School Jumpers issue. Customer service was a key element of the discussion and they way that they handled issues found with some of the products and what they have learned from this.

One gentleman who had a faulty kit was offered to keep the faulty kit and a 25% discount of the purchase of another one from the store, and Andy proclaimed that this absolutely should not have happened. He rightly confirmed this is not the level of customer service that is expected and they have ensure that will never happen again. Any issues whether bought online or instore can be swapped for another in store immediately or arranged online or a refund offered if required.

They did acknowledge that there were quality control issues on some of the kit and they confirmed over 100,000 sales with a 3% return figure. The majority of these were actually related to sizing issues with an alternative size replacing the kit instead of an actual fault. They have seen and reviewed the faults that have been reported and have confirmed they now have in place 100% quality control checks at each of the production lines going forward.

While they predicted there would be a significant response from the supporters, they didnt estimate quite how much it would explode and they admit that they were caught out by it on occasion. They have recruited a 400% increase in customer service staff to respond to fans and as of tonight they are now responding to emails sent yesterday so have caught up on the backlog.

The School Jumpers issue is something they deeply regret and was a product they didnt oversee the manufacture of but outsourced. Once the quality issues were reported they were immediately withdrawn from sale. All unsold product has been donated to charity, everyone who bought one were fully refunded and were offered to keep it if they required. Despite the media reports and furore there were only 20 of this item actually sold and all have been refunded.

Castore are submitting design ideas to Rangers tomorrow for the 150th anniversary kits and planning to prepare for this begins now to make sure they are ready for it. There will be three kits and discussions on colours and fabrics etc are ongoing. Rangers are keen to bring something completely new to the table that we havent seen before, weighing on previous fans favourite kits from the past. Things are at an early stage but it has started already.

Castore were at advanced stages on opening Rangers stores elsewhere including a Glasgow City Centre store, and Edinburgh store, a store up north and are trying there best to find a suitable Belfast location (which they admitted is causing them a few issues due to COVID).

There will be a new line of products out in time for christmas which will be more affordable including t -shirts and rubber ducks (seemingly they have been inundated with requests), pens, and James mentioned they are in discussions with golf manufacturers and whisky brands to name but a few.

Discussions continued after Castore left the meeting and James assured us that they are holding them to task on the issues. However, the launch three kits and training line in three months in a pandemic and to have over 95% of supporters happy with their kits is encouraging. They have confirmed that this will happen again in 12 months time to ensure the same issues are not being repeated going forward and how key it is for the 150th that they get this right.

Stock levels are back up again in both the store and online and they continue to work hard to backfill these.

Edminston House plans are continuing at pace and the club are very excited about what this will bring for the match day experience including generating revenue for the club.

Brands are recognising Rangers again in high esteem and on the back of the recent number of sponsors coming in to the club there are a few more still to come and we are looking at selling out our full marketing opportunities for the club this year.

Plans to expand the stadium have been discussed and early surveys have been done about lowering the pitch, however this has brought further challenges. It's something on the table though as there is demand.

On the whole it was a positive experience. Castore didnt get away lightly with the issues seen, but also it was refreshing to see that while individual cases have caused people issues, they have faced unprecedented demand, logistics issues around COVID and this being there first experience with such a huge demand. They seemed genuinely apologetic for the issues some folks have seen but are keen for everyone to ensure they have learned from individual issues and are keen to make it right. They stressed many times that they are not trying to fleece anyone or take advantage of our loyal fan base and hope that they can iron out the initial three month issues going forward.

Edited September 9, 2020 by rbr

[craig 5,195]

“As of tonight they are responding to emails sent yesterday so are caught up on the backlog”....

 

Well, from personal experience, that’s a lie.  I still haven’t had a response from my email on August 5th.

 

Not making it a big deal but if they’re going to make bold statements perhaps make sure that they’re true.

 

Unless the email we were told to use to email about non/delivery of pre-orders isnt Castore anyway.....

[Franc Ergs 1,343]

"One gentleman who had a faulty kit was offered to keep the faulty kit and a 25% discount of the purchase of another one from the store"

 

25% discount ? their generosity knows no bounds .

[Malangsob 1,181]

3 hours ago, rbr said:

While they predicted there would be a significant response from the supporters, they didnt estimate quite how much it would explode and they admit that they were caught out by it on occasion.

How many times have you read that same line?

"We just had no idea how HUUUUGE you were...it's not like we could have done a market assessment or anything....huh huh huh...sorrrry...believe you, me...we got those Indonesian kids working round the clock"

 

Repentin like a drunk on Sunday.

One of these days Veronica, someone will  get it right.

 

[ranger_syntax 3,746]

3 hours ago, Malangsob said:

How many times have you read that same line?

"We just had no idea how HUUUUGE you were...it's not like we could have done a market assessment or anything....huh huh huh...sorrrry...believe you, me...we got those Indonesian kids working round the clock"

 

Repentin like a drunk on Sunday.

One of these days Veronica, someone will  get it right.

 

Can you tell us what the market for Rangers strips has been like over the past few years?

[Rousseau 9,278]

No Rubber Duck, no sale.

 

#RubberDuckLoyal 

[Gonzo79 13,535]

9 hours ago, rbr said:

Castore are submitting design ideas to Rangers tomorrow for the 150th anniversary kits and planning to prepare for this begins now to make sure they are ready for it.

I'm hoping the home strip resembles the 1960 one - plain blue with a white v-neck collar (I prefer the 70s shirt but we replicated that fairly recently with Umbro).  A white away shirt, with a grandad collar and the six pointed star would be good and a red third shirt would be my other preference. 

 

Castore need to stop lying about errors they've made and they need to learn quicky.  Christmas is coming and lots of sales could be lost if they don't sort quality and delivery issues pronto (I was thinking about getting the wee man a shirt but I'm unsure, as things stand).

[stewarty 1,876]

Good customer service can make up for a number of sins, and it feels like a serious misjudgement not to have more staff in place at the outset.   However, some encouraging feedback that they're taking things seriously and starting to get on top of things but there is a lot of work to be done yet.   

[compo 6,058]

Might have been better just to negotiate a deal in the clubs best interests with Adidas. 

[RANGERRAB 3,248]

11 minutes ago, compo said:

Might have been better just to negotiate a deal in the clubs best interests with Adidas. 

Was Puma who were bidding against Castore IIRC. 

we rejected the 3rd largest sportswear manufacturer in the world to go with a company who’d never supplied any football club with merchandise let alone one the size of Rangers