SouthpawTRK
11-13-2012, 11:54 AM
Last night I was bowling at a local bowling center, when I noticed something different about my ball during my first game. It was around the 7th frame, when I was wiping off my ball and noticed a rough spot on the ball. Upon closer examination, there were several rough spots on my ball; some resembling a "smile"; but definitely below the surface of the ball. I brought it to the attention to the person at the front desk and they apologized and moved me to another lane. I bowled five more games after the damage to my ball and actually shot my highest score of 178:)
I stopped by the front counter after the game to ask the employee if the damage that my ball incurred was my responsibility or would they be able to responsible for the damage. The person at the front counter said that they would have the ball resurfaced and there would be no charge to me. The person mentioned that they were having the same problem the night before during league play and the league members had their balls resurfaced. Since I'm really new to bowling, I was not sure if that was quite necessary and waited a few minutes to talk to the person that ran the pro shop. He inspected the ball and said that they were war wounds to the ball and should not affect it's performance. He mentioned that since the damage was no deeper than the factory graphic engravings that it would have no affect. To his credit, some of the damage was not as deep as the engravings, while others were deeper. He said that he would resurface the ball when I was ready to at no charge, but made mention that he would have to take off a lot for the marks not to be there.
Another employee looked at the ball after the person from the pro shop walked away and said that they have no way of which lane may be causing damage during a league game. However, he did not realize that I was told by the other employee that the particular lane that I was assigned to had done the same damage the night before. He blamed the lack of communication and that he did not know that particular lane was causing damage to bowling balls. At this point I was really frustrated and wished them a good night and left to go home.
So am I being a little too protective/crazy about the damage to my ball (it's the first ball I've ever owned)? Since I'm so new to bowling, should I just live with the "battle scars", since they are eventually going to happen to a ball (and most likely won't affect the playability of the ball). To me, the bowling center was a bit negligent since they knew of the problematic lane and did not repair it until 24 hours later. I also felt a bit frustrated because it felt like I was getting brushed off by the folks at the center. I don't even feel like going back to this bowling center moving forward; luckily there a few other centers around within a reasonable distance.
Thanks in advance for listening to my little rant.
I stopped by the front counter after the game to ask the employee if the damage that my ball incurred was my responsibility or would they be able to responsible for the damage. The person at the front counter said that they would have the ball resurfaced and there would be no charge to me. The person mentioned that they were having the same problem the night before during league play and the league members had their balls resurfaced. Since I'm really new to bowling, I was not sure if that was quite necessary and waited a few minutes to talk to the person that ran the pro shop. He inspected the ball and said that they were war wounds to the ball and should not affect it's performance. He mentioned that since the damage was no deeper than the factory graphic engravings that it would have no affect. To his credit, some of the damage was not as deep as the engravings, while others were deeper. He said that he would resurface the ball when I was ready to at no charge, but made mention that he would have to take off a lot for the marks not to be there.
Another employee looked at the ball after the person from the pro shop walked away and said that they have no way of which lane may be causing damage during a league game. However, he did not realize that I was told by the other employee that the particular lane that I was assigned to had done the same damage the night before. He blamed the lack of communication and that he did not know that particular lane was causing damage to bowling balls. At this point I was really frustrated and wished them a good night and left to go home.
So am I being a little too protective/crazy about the damage to my ball (it's the first ball I've ever owned)? Since I'm so new to bowling, should I just live with the "battle scars", since they are eventually going to happen to a ball (and most likely won't affect the playability of the ball). To me, the bowling center was a bit negligent since they knew of the problematic lane and did not repair it until 24 hours later. I also felt a bit frustrated because it felt like I was getting brushed off by the folks at the center. I don't even feel like going back to this bowling center moving forward; luckily there a few other centers around within a reasonable distance.
Thanks in advance for listening to my little rant.