Ping "no charge" repairs

First topic message reminder :

Just wondering if anyone has used this service and if they know what conditions apply.

The ferrel on my G15 hybrid snapped off at impact on a shot today revealing the shaft has split at the join with the head. The club is outside its 1 year retail return - its about 3 years old I think - certainly too young a club to be breaking through normal use. I would be very impressed if Ping repair or replace the club free of charge - but given its age not sure that will happen.

JAS - Don't use it in a comp before it gets fixed or you are looking at a DQ for using no conforming clubs. See CH III's recent experience.

In general is it time we saw an end to clubs where bits of plastic and all sorts can fall off.

The stuff hanging from irons these days is ghastly. Give me a simple well forge piece of metal and nothing else.

Never used it in the afternoon Mac as I didn't trust the yardage it might or might not go. I don't know if the weight port came out with my shot on the first or on the 2nd in the morning. If it was on the first then yes it should be a DQ morning round. I cant be certain and it was a missed buffer by a mile 0.1 anyway.

I agree about separate bits hanging off the back...what's the point??. If the i25s have them then its bye bye Ping. I wonder if I'll be able to blag a set of i25s if this happens with the i20s again??

Pretty sure you can repair an accidentally damaged club but not one which has been abused during a round.

Rule 4-3 confirms this.

True, but how on earth would you be able to reattach the bit jas lost mid round?

So you cannot use the club until the flange is reattached because it is not conforming without it.

Really Mac? THe ones on the back are purely cosmetic on pings. Surely it is the grooves and MOI which determine whether it was non comforming. Not a bit of plastic.

super_realist wrote:Really Mac? THe ones on the back are purely cosmetic on pings. Surely it is the grooves and MOI which determine whether it was non comforming. Not a bit of plastic.

As I said DH III was DQ'ed when a bit fell of his driver. It was something to do with the hole it left, which is apparently not conforming as spaces into the club like that should not exist.


I am not sure how you would determine if a club was still conforming mid round if something came of it. The safest thing to do would be to not use it.

Seems ridiculous considering you could add weight with metal tape if you like (though not during a round) without affecting whether it was conforming or not.

What if a ferrule came off?

Strangely I don't know the in's and outs of what makes a club conforming. I am sure if you kept it quiet you would be ok.

barragan wrote:

barragan wrote:well this tale appears to have a happy ending. my local pro kindly sent the club down for me and I've just collected it, reshafted and straight back in the bag for saturdays game. big thumbs up to ping as i only appear to have been charged for post and delivery (less than a tenner). very pleased customer.

Not so fast...
After two rounds back, a wee while ago now, the plastic hosel developed a wee crack...three months down the line (on Saturday morning) it split at impact on a tee shot revealing the shaft has split once again. My gut feeling is that there must be an issue with the clubhead at the point where the shaft is connected. Apparently ping are going to reshaft it again under warranty, but I can't help feeling that a few months down the line I'll be back in the same position again.

Forgot to update this.

No further breakages to report - however - I was disappointed to discover that on returning the shaft, Ping had simply lopped off the bottom half inch of the original replacement shaft and re-fixed it. On receiving it back, I couldn't put my finger on why it felt so different. I felt I had to swing harder to get the same results, and it didn't feel like it had the same whip as before - much stiffer. I put this down to my own idiosyncracies at the time, but my drop in confidence with the club meant that it was demoted from being my go-to club, very disappointing. It wasn't until some time after getting it back that I let my regular doubles partner have a go to see if he could see much difference. He has exactly the same club in his bag. He immediately said - 'it feels shorter', having just hit a few shots with his own. We compared and discovered the truth of the matter - it had indeed lost half an inch. I've since read a little on the subject and 'tipping', as it seems to be referred to, does indeed stiffen up the shaft confirming the feedback i'd put down to myself was spot on. gutted at the result and am disappointed that despite the fact i absolutely loved the results i previously got with the club, i'll now more than likely take my custom elsewhere.

McLaren wrote:Strangely I don't know the in's and outs of what makes a club conforming.  I am sure if you kept it quiet you would be ok.

Probably the tour pro's have it harder due to some busybody peevish armchair pedant phoning in.

barragan wrote:

barragan wrote:

barragan wrote:well this tale appears to have a happy ending. my local pro kindly sent the club down for me and I've just collected it, reshafted and straight back in the bag for saturdays game. big thumbs up to ping as i only appear to have been charged for post and delivery (less than a tenner). very pleased customer.

Not so fast...
After two rounds back, a wee while ago now, the plastic hosel developed a wee crack...three months down the line (on Saturday morning) it split at impact on a tee shot revealing the shaft has split once again. My gut feeling is that there must be an issue with the clubhead at the point where the shaft is connected. Apparently ping are going to reshaft it again under warranty, but I can't help feeling that a few months down the line I'll be back in the same position again.

Forgot to update this.

No further breakages to report - however - I was disappointed to discover that on returning the shaft, Ping had simply lopped off the bottom half inch of the original replacement shaft and re-fixed it. On receiving it back, I couldn't put my finger on why it felt so different. I felt I had to swing harder to get the same results, and it didn't feel like it had the same whip as before - much stiffer. I put this down to my own idiosyncracies at the time, but my drop in confidence with the club meant that it was demoted from being my go-to club, very disappointing. It wasn't until some time after getting it back that I let my regular doubles partner have a go to see if he could see much difference. He has exactly the same club in his bag. He immediately said - 'it feels shorter', having just hit a few shots with his own. We compared and discovered the truth of the matter - it had indeed lost half an inch. I've since read a little on the subject and 'tipping', as it seems to be referred to, does indeed stiffen up the shaft confirming the feedback i'd put down to myself was spot on. gutted at the result and am disappointed that despite the fact i absolutely loved the results i previously got with the club, i'll now more than likely take my custom elsewhere.

What a bunch of bankers! Are your shafts taper-tips? If so, you can't tip them at all - unless you seriously know what you're doing - they aren't designed to be tip-trimmed. If they're parallels, you can soft- or hard-step (what you say the Ping people did without telling you) them - it won't make the shaft overall stiffer if they're hard-stepped (that's a bit of a fallacy) but it'll definitely affect launch and the feel a lot, to say nothing of swingweight.

It's not been repaired, it's been altered. Back to them again expressing your displeasure in no uncertain terms together with your intent to look elsewhere following this unprofessional and inadequate treatment.

Shaft broke off from the hosel of my 2 year old i15 5 iron under fair playing conditions, just a 180 yard shot so not overextending the club, no sizeable divot etc. Contacted ping to ask about it, charged me 65 pounds for a reshaft. Everyone I play with knows I have used PING products all my life, and I tell every single one of then who asks exactly why. As PING's rival companies know, you cant buy that quality of publicity. Went to a set of TM irons, woods, and driver, never graced PING with my custom again. As far as I am concerned, this 'second to none' attitude is marketing drivel.

£65?????? That's an outrage.

Iron shafts are about 25 quid max retail to punters like you and me,so probably about £10 when bought in bulk by Ping, so they're charging a fortune to pull it and reshaft. Something that takes about 5 minutes flat.

I'm not really sure why you think you've got a bargain there. Your pro would do it for less I'm sure if you couldn't be arsed doing it for yourself.

I got ripped off in a similar way and now do them all myself these days. Easy peasy.

Heh, what i meant by my post was that PING's rivals cant buy that quality of BAD publicity. I told everyone who refers to my not using PING irons about my bad experience with them. I now use Taylormade irons, and am strangely more confident in using them aggressively if I need to because i know it wont break the bank should something happen (which it hasn't)

oh, and 65 quid was for a graphite reshaft, not steel. Either way, pound for pound that's basically the retail cost of the club.

Hmm, strangely enough I am having a fight with Taylormade right now. The face of my 7 iron caved in last week. The club is 30 months old, so 6 months out of warranty. The pro reckons it's a manufacturing fault, TM is claiming fair wear and tear.

I'll keep you posted.

Can you post a picture george?

My i20's are starting to get rust spots on the shafts. Thinking about taking them back tbh, but may try and get the winters use out of them first. They are 14 months old.

McLaren wrote:Can you post a picture george?

Yes, will do when I get it back.

George1507 wrote:

McLaren wrote:Can you post a picture george?

Yes, will do when I get it back.

Thanks, interested to see what it looks like.

The only club I have had thats face caved in was a putter. It happened after I decided to hit the putter off the tee. Teed up and full swing.

Pretty much straight in the bin.

I had problems with Ping of the face bulging and blistering. Shame, they were nice clubs.

George1507 wrote:Hmm, strangely enough I am having a fight with Taylormade right now. The face of my 7 iron caved in last week. The club is 30 months old, so 6 months out of warranty. The pro reckons it's a manufacturing fault, TM is claiming fair wear and tear.

I'll keep you posted.

I'm intrigued... that sounds so bizarre on an iron! What clubs are they?

When I got my irons, the 8 had a 7 iron shaft and vice versa. Took me a few rounds to work out why my 8 iron flew further than the 7. Taylormade swiftly swapped the shafts around without any fuss.

Well well well...the saga of my i20s (weights falling out the back) continued.... after the 6 iron going again in March, Ping took the whole set back and "repaired" them and assured me it wouldn't happen again. I then had my PW have the same problem again 2 weeks ago.

The wedge has been repaired again and after a bit of negotiation between my Pro and his Ping rep, I will be receiving free of charge a brand new set of Ping i25s in early Jan. Finally happy as looking at the design of the i25's the same fault just won't happen.

what a pain - not a bad result though. why do they take so long to arrive?! - one of my work colleagues just ordered a custom set and they arrived 4-5 days later.

navyblueshorts wrote:

barragan wrote:

barragan wrote:

barragan wrote:well this tale appears to have a happy ending. my local pro kindly sent the club down for me and I've just collected it, reshafted and straight back in the bag for saturdays game. big thumbs up to ping as i only appear to have been charged for post and delivery (less than a tenner). very pleased customer.

Not so fast...
After two rounds back, a wee while ago now, the plastic hosel developed a wee crack...three months down the line (on Saturday morning) it split at impact on a tee shot revealing the shaft has split once again. My gut feeling is that there must be an issue with the clubhead at the point where the shaft is connected. Apparently ping are going to reshaft it again under warranty, but I can't help feeling that a few months down the line I'll be back in the same position again.

Forgot to update this.

No further breakages to report - however - I was disappointed to discover that on returning the shaft, Ping had simply lopped off the bottom half inch of the original replacement shaft and re-fixed it. On receiving it back, I couldn't put my finger on why it felt so different. I felt I had to swing harder to get the same results, and it didn't feel like it had the same whip as before - much stiffer. I put this down to my own idiosyncracies at the time, but my drop in confidence with the club meant that it was demoted from being my go-to club, very disappointing. It wasn't until some time after getting it back that I let my regular doubles partner have a go to see if he could see much difference. He has exactly the same club in his bag. He immediately said - 'it feels shorter', having just hit a few shots with his own. We compared and discovered the truth of the matter - it had indeed lost half an inch. I've since read a little on the subject and 'tipping', as it seems to be referred to, does indeed stiffen up the shaft confirming the feedback i'd put down to myself was spot on. gutted at the result and am disappointed that despite the fact i absolutely loved the results i previously got with the club, i'll now more than likely take my custom elsewhere.

What a bunch of bankers! Are your shafts taper-tips? If so, you can't tip them at all - unless you seriously know what you're doing - they aren't designed to be tip-trimmed. If they're parallels, you can soft- or hard-step (what you say the Ping people did without telling you) them - it won't make the shaft overall stiffer if they're hard-stepped (that's a bit of a fallacy) but it'll definitely affect launch and the feel a lot, to say nothing of swingweight.

no idea
tbh, having ordered a titleist hybrid last winter the ping hybrid is now permanently back in the bag. surprisingly just cannot get on with the titleist hybrid. it feels fantastic and I've hit some great shots with it, but i have too many occasional costly lapses with it to really trust it. i've sort of got used to the ping. it does not perform as well for me as it used to in terms of launch and distance, but still very solid control wise - much more forgiving. it slots in quite nicely between my 4iron and 3wood. just carrying 13 clubs for now.

barragan wrote:what a pain - not a bad result though. why do they take so long to arrive?! - one of my work colleagues just ordered a custom set and they arrived 4-5 days later.

It's a great result Barra, my i20s will be 3 years old this year. The problem started with them when they were less than a year old though, so I've soldiered on for 2 years with them (and done well with them - I think I might have been off 7 when I got them). Trouble is I've lost confidence in them staying intact.

Ping said last week they would repair not replace (because of their age) but my pro and the Ping rep (who knows the history of them) have struck some kind of deal and the reason I have to wait until Jan is because both their new budgets start then. My Pro's been really good to be fair and to me that's the reason to go to a Pro for clubs rather than ebay. The timing is fine by me as the new set wasn't going to arrive by Tuesday anyway and I'm off to warmer climes on Weds for Xmas/New Year.

I had a problem with a few sets of Ping S57 when the faces of all the irons bubbled up. Ping replaced the set twice, but the damage was done. I don't want another set of Pings.