Catalyst Athletics Forums - Troy Bumper/USA Sport update-you decide

Troy/USA Sports just replaced 28 of our broken 25lb bumpers. Well,, wait, they replaced 14 of them and and our vendor replaced 14 so Troy wouldn’t even replace all 28 of the VTX’s that were broken and three months into a year warranty.

The reason they decided to replace any? I was told they were doing it so I would quit posting on the forums about them….Not to fix the problem or honor a warranty, just to shut me up(?)

Heres a brief review of when all this started back in 2011-12 and videos of the bumpers and us “abusing” them. You can decide for yourself but this is the way I’ve been strength coaching for 22 years and have never ran into this with a company for ANY kind of equipment:

5-31-12 this video was sent to Ken Mohle of Troy BB/USA Sports showing them
our bumpers:

http://youtu.be/fC5kevwgZfM

Troy wouldn’t do anything as they said we were over the one year warranty, we still believed we were in the one year warranty and our Vendor and his company replaced all our bumpers at his cost because Troy wouldn’t fix it….

We received the replacement VTX bumpers the week of July 30th 2012 and have
had them about three months before the 25lb bumpers starting cracking
in the middle-we also have 35's and 45's that are splitting apart.
The metal inserts were sharp enough that one girls VB player, on boys
BB, and one FB player have cut their fingers on the edges of the
exposed metal. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bl829j6C6Q

When I contacted Tim Marshal again and said these plates weren't any
better this is what he said Troy's response was:

"The way that we use them we need to buy competition bumpers because
no plate other than that would hold up to what we do"

Here is Troy Barbell's website and their "Commintment"

The Commitment
At Troy Barbell our warranties set the industry standard yet we
understand that the strength of any warranty is only as good as the
people who stand behind them; That’s why Troy, VTX & USA Brand
equipment is only sold through a network of committed dealer partners
and backed by a team of passionate free-weight enthusiasts.

If you ever have a question, comment or concern, we’re eager to
provide an answer. Please feel free to contact us directly at (800)
872-7767

http://www.troybarbell.com/index.aspx

Product Description: Our VTX black, Solid Rubber Bumper plate with
solid steel insert is a high quality, branded bumper plate, engineered
to our demanding standards. It routinely outperforms other, more
expensive models of its kind, making it the perfect value solution for
gym and institutional use. We are so confident in its structural
soundness; we offer a 1 year warranty against breakage.

Finally got 14 of the 28 replcements on 1-3-13, here’s the video and what we do with them:

http://youtu.be/LS7zWIUh7Fs

Here’s one of our younger freshman doing a snatch and “abusing” these plates. I teach them all to do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=HARjWaUrgjA

The other 14 finally showed up, here’s the video and an update on some of the ones we got two weeks ago:

http://youtu.be/p4y4pFmVuJo

I'm a Senior Level Coach with USAW and passed the CSCS strength coach
cert in 1995. I was a college strength coach for ten years
(1990-2000) at Nebraska, Vanderbilt, Tenn State, UAlbany NY, and SMU.
I have been a coach/teacher/HS strength coach for the past ten years
at Grand Prairie ISD, HEB ISD, and now in Lonvgiew.

John Janecek
Head Strength Coach
Longview HS
Longview, Texas