Online purchasing

[robbie]

In your opinions, which online companies have the better products?

[latenight]

i go Blade all the way. No problem, fast, and the have alot of stuff online for sale and an easy to use purchase system.

[Dennis Crews]

I'm also fond of Blade. I goofed an order recently, and ended up with the wrong size jacket (my fault...I typo'd the size :/) They were very friendly, and easy to work with on getting it replaced.

DC

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Tell me again what the pointy end is for...

[Fencing DilberT]

I used Tripplette to order a starter set. I called after they had packed my order but not shipped it and asked if I could change the size of the jacket and they were very friendly and polite about it. Good quality stuff

[flik]

Triplette has a good range of stuff at reasonable prices and I've had good luck with them in the past. They've always been extremely helpful when there's been a mix up in the order and quite frequently send us extra stuff (my club does A LOT of business through them) My one complaint with them is the electric weapons they put together don't seem to last... I'd only buy compenents from them.
I've also had good luck with the Fencing Post. Again, easy to work with and friendly, and if you mention their website you get 20% off your order. They also frequently have sales on good quality stuff.
If you're looking for inexpensive lames, Blue Gauntlet has a whole mess of 'em (ie a sabre lame for around $85 or so) I'm not sure of the quality of the stuff or the service, though I've heard some sketchy things about them. Anyone have any info regarding this company? My club needs new lames and if these are any good you can't beat the price.

[neevel]

Most of the new clothing items that Blue Gauntlet has introduced in the last couple of years (Jackets, knickers, their 'Olympic' Foil/Epee and Elec. Sabre masks, etc.) have been pretty good for the money. Their lames in particular are IMO the best inexpensive lames on the US market-- vastly superior to the Russian-made lames that some other vendors sell at the low end. They use copper-based metal, so you do need to make sure you wash them regularly with ammonia to keep patina from building up (same thing with cheap east-euro lames), but the density of metal threads is very high, and the metal threads themselves are robust. The backing fabric will turn a bit green under the collar if you sweat alot, but the metal itself doesn't build up patina too quickly. As long as you wash them with some regularity to get rid of salts and corrosion build-up, they will be pretty durable.

In comparison, many of the east-euro cheapie lames have widely spaced and thin metal threads-- they break easily, and when they do start breaking there's little redundancy to keep the area of the break conducting. One particularly 'sneaky' thing I saw in Austin were some lames with the backing fabric colored grey so it looked like an Infinity lame (which hold their conductivity for just about forever, but can snag and rip)-- when you looked closely it was still the same Russian lame material. I hope nobody got taken in thinking that they were getting something using the Infinity material.

Keep in mind that most vendors' 'house' brands are low-to-mid range gear. When you start looking at better quality gear, vendors are usually just reselling stuff from one of the major manufacturers (Uhlmann/Allstar, Prieur, France-Lames, PBT, Blaise, etc.), so the deciding point will become mainly one of who gives the best price on the item you want.

-Dave Neevel

[Gavin.com]

From an overseas perspective, I used Blade exclusively over a year ago & they didn't miss a beat. Then, all of a sudden, I started having problems placing international orders with them . When I e-mailed them to let them know, I never received a response . So I began trying out a few more.

I've now ordered from Blade, The Fencing Post, Blue Gauntlet & Physical Chess. The experience to date has been that Physical Chess has had great international customer service

The only problem with these is the cost of shipping the gear!

Cheers


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Fortune favours the brave!

[robbie]

Wow! All of this feedback is great! This is exactly the information I've been looking for! Buying directly from my club is getting way too expensive!

[Crash55]

Both myself and my club buy a lot of stuff from Blue Gauntlet. They are usually quick with shipping, usually sending it by the next day and we have never had any problems with returns / exchanges.

[latenight]

Just dont bother using their email. ive been waiting two weeks on a reply to a question. they shouldnt use email if they dont intend to check it. i mean, yes i could call, but that sorta defeats the purpose of an email address

[Fencing DilberT]

I emailed Tripplette last week and got a response in less than an hour. Very nice.