Castore – Thoughts So Far & Online Availability V Rangers Store Exclusives

Gramps1 said:
Do you not think there very busy and you’ll eventually get your £25 or are you in a desperate need for it?
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hahahahah, I don't get the constant defence or putting it back to the disgruntled consumer as I am somehow in the wrong here. I made an order for £150 which "would be out for delivery on the 1st of August" which I didn't receive any word of until 06/08 and finally arriving 10/08.

Am I desperate for it, well no as I have no confidence to order online with them at the moment. I am very busy with my job but one thing I do is manage expectations and never over commit as I wouldn't be in it for long if I did. Their performance so far has been mediocre. I hope they learn from it and improve but quite frankly they well and truly messed this up.

FWIW I just received it, 8 days later. It is valid for a month with a minimum £50 spend.
 
Shongo said:
hahahahah, I don't get the constant defence or putting it back to the disgruntled consumer as I am somehow in the wrong here.
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It is amazing, some of the fanboys fawning over Castore has been laughable. Lapping up everything they were told and in no way apportioning any blame on them.

As long as they got their stuff, to hell with the thousands of others Rangers fans.
 
I think there are a few things at play. Firstly, lead time on manufacturing means that they would have been limited in the volume of stock they could put in place. We're talking (effectively) about two weeks of sales so far. The pandemic won't have helped in that, but getting slots at your manufacturers isn't just a case of saying 'can you make me another 10K strips tomorrow'. They would have had to guess to some extent the numbers of each size as well.

Hopefully they will have now learned that strip launches mean that you need to have additional Customer service resource available compared to normal times. They should have outsourced some of that to meet demand (Ironically Dave King would have been the very man to talk to them about that!) and could then scale back once normal levels of trading return.

I'm slightly surprised at people wanting to cancel after 2 weeks of non delivery - have we really become that impatient? Is it so important to get your top on launch week?
 
Porto Loyal said:
I'm slightly surprised at people wanting to cancel after 2 weeks of non delivery - have we really become that impatient? Is it so important to get your top on launch week?
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I think it is more for the people who have had no delivery update or contact. They have also contacted them and had nothing back on email etc. That is just shoddy.
 
One thing I would like to see is a lower priced range of (unbranded?) Rangers clothing. I've never been a label freak and am never going to spend £60 on a t-shirt or £150 on a hoody, but I would happily pay lower amounts for a range of Rangers gear without the Castore logo on it. OK, I could get some of that elsewhere, but I'd rather give Rangers the money.
 
Ulster Loyal said:
It is amazing, some of the fanboys fawning over Castore has been laughable. Lapping up everything they were told and in no way apportioning any blame on them.

As long as they got their stuff, to hell with the thousands of others Rangers fans.
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Some of it is unreal. If any other company botched up a delivery with next to no communication having taken money a month prior with the order still outstanding 2 weeks from promised delivery they would rightly be slated.

I said it before, if they even had a live chat function it would help with some of the queries. I hope they do learn.
 
Shongo said:
Exactly this, I got my email last week and £25 voucher (no idea when this will be sent digitally) however my mate who ordered the same time as me on 01/07 has had nothing.

They have really messed up from a communication perspective.
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I just got my voucher through.
 
Another thing that’s annoyed me is the infant kits carry on. Can’t get a 1-2 year old jersey, smallest on pre order was 2-3 year old. Also they don’t even look anything like the home kit apart from being blue. Hummel managed a carbon copy of the kits in infant sizes (minus sponsor) - why couldn't Castore?

Still no sign of them being available either.
 
Empire said:
Another thing that’s annoyed me is the infant kits carry on. Can’t get a 1-2 year old jersey, smallest on pre order was 2-3 year old. Also they don’t even look anything like the home kit apart from being blue. Hummel managed a carbon copy of the kits in infant sizes (minus sponsor) - why couldn't Castore?

Still no sign of them being available either.
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Frustrated with this also. Castore have probably never had to produce any infants clothing before and have just not though about the huge demand there would be for Rangers infant kits. It probably wasn’t even a thought for them until some fans started asking questions of it when the home kit was made available to pre order. There is an absolute fortune to be made from them. The Hummel infant kits were excellent. The home kits castore had available for older infants looked like a rushed job, probably because that’s exactly what they are
 
Homelander said:
Their customer service (if you can even call it that) is an absolute disgrace
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My daughter paid them a lot of money on the 1st July and has still not received the goods. She has emailed many times and although they say someone will get back to you within 48 hours they have not! Total shambles. Young grandson sitting disappointed that he's not got his strip yet. And his and his Dad's season books/My Gers all paid. Disgraceful way to treat loyal fans!
 
I would love an explanation as how the orders were fulfilled.

Punters that pre-ordered with order numbers in the low thousands still waiting whilst others with orders numbers 15,000+ got their orders.
 
Taytos said:
Frustrated with this also. Castore have probably never had to produce any infants clothing before and have just not though about the huge demand there would be for Rangers infant kits. It probably wasn’t even a thought for them until some fans started asking questions of it when the home kit was made available to pre order. There is an absolute fortune to be made from them. The Hummel infant kits were excellent.
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It’s really amateur it doesn’t even have the red and white strip on back of neck. That’s the stand out point of new home kit.
 
My brother in law bought a load of the navy training gear. He’s still waiting on parts of it and some of it have been refunded to his bank account? We both bought the rain jacket and mine came no bother.
 
They've done too much too soon. They should've concentrated on the home and away kits first, then move on to the training gear. Then, maybe next month do a proper launch of the third kit. It's as if they've gotten 90% of the home and away kits supplied properly, if they'd focused on this first they'd have done a better job. Everything else looks to have been a rush job, not with quality, but with the supply and production levels.
 
Empire said:
Another thing that’s annoyed me is the infant kits carry on. Can’t get a 1-2 year old jersey, smallest on pre order was 2-3 year old. Also they don’t even look anything like the home kit apart from being blue. Hummel managed a carbon copy of the kits in infant sizes (minus sponsor) - why couldn't Castore?

Still no sign of them being available either.
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I have mates as well with 5 & 6 year olds who cant get kits as they jump from 3-4 to Junior Small which is a good fit on my 8 year old but would be far too big for a primary 1
 
Fudgie1973 said:
They've done too much too soon. They should've concentrated on the home and away kits first, then move on to the training gear. Then, maybe next month do a proper launch of the third kit. It's as if they've gotten 90% of the home and away kits supplied properly, if they'd focused on this first they'd have done a better job. Everything else looks to have been a rush job, not with quality, but with the supply and production levels.
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This 100%. I understand they are trying to offer a diverse range but it seems too much all at once. The kits will always be the priority.
 
Shongo said:
This 100%. I understand they are trying to offer a diverse range but it seems too much all at once. The kits will always be the priority.
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Especially during the current circumstances. I get the in store only thing, punters might buy something else that takes their eye, but if there is nothing left in stock this doesn't work. And they've also pissed off a percentage of their potential customers by mucking up orders, potentially making the same people think twice before ordering anything else.
 
Shongo said:
I have mates as well with 5 & 6 year olds who cant get kits as they jump from 3-4 to Junior Small which is a good fit on my 8 year old but would be far too big for a primary 1
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I'm in the same boat mate, my wee boy is 4. I got his sister the home strip but couldn't get anything for him.
 
Gramps1 said:
Waking up to what?
The unlucky ones are getting a £25 voucher what else do you want?
The vast majority are very happy with castore so al leave it there.
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It’s not as black & white as that though is it, hence the troll comment.
Only some people have got a voucher & lots of folk in a similar position haven’t. Loads of people have waited weeks before being told their order is cancelled without explanation. Loads of people have been ignored for weeks without a reply to several emails yet you think that is acceptable & a voucher to some fans makes up for that?
If you are happy though that’s good but if Castore don’t get their house in order immediately the way they conduct business will lose us a fortunate in lost merchandise revenue. That’s the bit need to wake up to.
I know loads of people wanting to spend good money but can’t as either spooked by previous experiences or unable to get what they want as they’re taking on too many lines at once & not meeting demand rather than heavily stocking a smaller more manageable number of lines. That would be quite a basic business strategy.
 
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I am very impressed with the quality and range.

I would go as far as saying it's the best we have had in my lifetime (better that Addidas, Nike, Umbro, Puma).

They clearly need to work at their customer service though.

I just got a voucher for 25 quid through as I had problems getting the pre order tops through.

It's a nice gesture but a wee bit cheeky as you have to spend a minimum of 50 quid and it runs out in a month.

I was wanting to put it towards a training top and they are all under 50 quid....meaning I would have to buy something else with it.
 
The store exclusives is pretty poor considering a vast majority of our fanbase, even our ST holders, aren't in the local area of Ibrox with hundreds, if not thousands, travelling a fair bit to Ibrox for games. These exclusives should have been held back for when we can get back to Ibrox.

The fact they're still firing out the exclusives while you can't order the home top online is poor. Focus on the bread and butter stuff and then launch the exclusives when footfall at the stadium is increased.

I've not ordered anything as I didn't have the money at the time, now everything I would buy appears to be sold out with no indication of when stock levels will return.

For all the shite we dealt with, with Elite and that online store, I do remember being able to give my email for when certain sold out items would be back in stock on it and used this for the items I would want. I do remember a lot of the Hummel training gear, when it sold out, it never did come back into stock.

I do think the gear looks great and no doubt that it is a high quality but the club, and Castore, are clearly losing money by the gaps in the stock.

A lot of initial peoples fear of them being too niche and small for what is essentially a worldwide demand look to be playing out.

I do have some sympathy as I'm not sure if Covid-19 is playing any part in manufacture, supply etc but the lack of noise from Castore currently doesn't look great.
 
Just to add to the debate, I agree with most of the points, but people do realise there's a pandemic going on, production of kits is extremely impacted, even look at EPL clubs etc and you'll find they're having issues with stock too, its not an issue solely for Castore and Rangers.

I love my home shirt, I was lucky enough to get it the Monday of launch. These issues will all iron out over the coming weeks to months but people talking of Rangers fans buying from SD out of "desperation" need to have a word with themselves. Desperation? It's a football shirt not your last crumb of food. There's no excuse for buying from Ashley after all he's done to us, whether we get a cut or not!
 
My sons top has just turned up minus the printing we paid for. So now need to try and get a refund which will be fun as they've not responded to an email I sent two weeks ago now. Was never offered a £25 voucher, so doubt that's coming our way either.

As I've said I hate to complain but my son is disappointed he paid for a Hagi top and didn't get it and can't even get it done in store. But I understand there are bigger problems in the world right now.
 
Just received an email with a £25 voucher which was nice.

Frustrating that I still dont have an update on my home top, as would have liked an update on that.

Once they iron out these issues, I think it will be a good service, its just frustrating when you are on the end of the delays.
 
Gramps1 said:
Ah think they’ve done a cracking job in the middle of a pandemic.
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You wouldn't if (for example) you'd pre-ordered the home top at the beginning of July & received literally nothing no email, no voucher, no replies to emails & no goods as plenty haven't.

I've not ordered anything BTW but you can see why folk aren't best chuffed.

They were coming out & saying all the right things when the deal was announced & the pandemic was already in full swing so that is irrelevant.
 
Despite the OP,

Purchased:

RFC COTTON LS TEE - NAVY/WHITE
RFC COTTON SWEATER - NAVY/WHITE
RFC COTTON HOODY - NAVY/WHITE

£160 for that lot.
 
JW1988 said:
Just to add to the debate, I agree with most of the points, but people do realise there's a pandemic going on, production of kits is extremely impacted, even look at EPL clubs etc and you'll find they're having issues with stock too, its not an issue solely for Castore and Rangers.

I love my home shirt, I was lucky enough to get it the Monday of launch. These issues will all iron out over the coming weeks to months but people talking of Rangers fans buying from SD out of "desperation" need to have a word with themselves. Desperation? It's a football shirt not your last crumb of food. There's no excuse for buying from Ashley after all he's done to us, whether we get a cut or not!
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Don't think the Castore people have heard of under promise over deliver. Their PR department have been blowing smoke up our arses for months..

They should have concentrated on home shirts in adult sizes only and told us kids will be available later on.

Tell the truth and people can't greet and moan.
 
Blaew said:
We keep hearing this though year on year though. This is what frustrates me the most.
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We haven’t really had a stable and committed kit partner year on year though have we, since Ashley got involved. We now know Hummel were protecting themselves not to have hundreds of thousands of excess kit they couldn’t shift, as they sort of have now with the elite store.

Castore have the same amount of time as any other manufacturer to design and produce next years kit. It might be one of the drawbacks of working with a smaller company that they can’t produce as much kit as an Adidas or Nike but I’ll always remember that those two companies did %^*& all to help us when we needed it most, whereas Castore did.
 
I ordered the grey leggings from the training kit. I ordered the large even though most running leggings I am normally a medium/large depending on who makes them.
As my home jersey was a tad tight (XL) I ordered the large for the trousers.
However a bit too long and loose at the waist.

They were ordered from the Rangers store online but it seems as though you don’t return items to them.
It seems to be sent back to the Seko/Castore address.
I sent it back 5/6 days and I have had no word they have received it and no refund yet.
I have no phone number to contact or e mail address to contact them.

That is very poor customer relations.
 
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