[SeeRushToldU_So]

In the town of the Masters this disgrace has happened.

Y'all get some

[somniferum]

"It's something we put in place to protect our brand," said Bill Gates, Ping's director of distribution and associate general counsel."

This is what happens when you let lawyers run companies.

[Lil'freeper]

Ping

[Cagey]

They've got some .............................

[gumboyaya]

Cobra - better and cheaper.

[Phsstpok]

The agreement is unwritten because it is an obvious illegal restraint of trade.

These outlets should sue Ping big time and they'll win big time. In the meantime the US Attorney should begin a criminal investigation against Ping under the RICO statutes.

This is ENRON and WorldCom type of gamesmanship and wordplay to try and skirt the law by not having a written contract. "Well, if we don't have a contract you can't charge us." But you admit it in a letter and public statements, dufus!

[untrained skeptic]

Karsten Manufacturing (Ping) also appears to make some other products according to Yahoo Finance.

Karsten also supplies parts for the Patriot missile and to the helicopter industry.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/46/46982.html

This seems like a foolish decision by a company that supplies materials to the defense industry.

I suspect this is going to come back an bite them hard.

[MMcC]

I'm sure I'm going to get creamed for this, but Ping has every right to do this, and they have been doing it for years. It makes a nice sob story that the guy discounted to military, but the bottom line is he broke his agreement with Ping.

Whether or not you agree with their decision is one thing, but they have every right to make it and they have been VERY successful with it so far. Ping is a private company with the most loyal customers in the industry... this isn't going to hurt them at all.

[CPOSharky]

Ping putter, 30 years. Wadded it up and launched it into the back 40.

[HamiltonJay]

A traitor PING....

Gotta love it... They are free to do it, but the publicity backlash from this is going to hurt them far more than their desire to ensure that their products NEVER sell at a discount....

Gotta maintain that mythos that we are actually something more than a Golf club....

Idiots.

[kempo]

Mr. Gates is a liar. He states that Ping has maintained its operation in this country while other companies has moved over seas.

I just purchased some Ping G5 woods. I did not like the grips so I replaced them. When I pealed off the original grips there was a sticker that stated "HEAD MADE IN CHINA, SHAFT MADE IN CHINA, ASSEMBLED IN CHINA".

I love these woods and was planning on buying a set of G5 irons but this article has changed my mind.

[hoppity]

I looked on their website for an email address, but couldn't find one. Here's their customer service number. Let them know what you think.

1.800.474.6434. They're open 8-5 Monday-Friday MST

[Labyrinthos]

I hate to agree with Ping, but I understand its position. Ping has 1000's of retailers all of who have agreed to the "no discount" policy. If Ping allows some of them to offer discounts to Military or anyone else, then it opens itself up to a lawsuit from its other distributors.

[Stone Mountain]

Ping has the right to choose the retail price of the clubs it sells. Retailers can't arbitraily choose a group of people and give them special rates (well, they can, but not if they made an agreement to sell a product at a certain price). My friend worked for Panasonic and had to sanction retailers who were blowing out their products since they needed to control the retail price and having one or two retail outlets underselling everyone else wasn't fair to the other retailers who abided by the agreement.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I knew about the no discount policy ping has, as I was looking at 4 sets of clubs the last 3 weeks. I overheard the salesman tell another person that they couldn't discount Ping due to this policy.

I was strongly considering buy Ping, Titleist, and 2 different sets of Cleveland Irons. I ended up going with the Cleveland CG4 Tours. Glad I did now.

[Gone_Postal]

Pastor Norton woke up Sunday morning and realizing it was an exceptionally beautiful and sunny early spring day, decided he just had to play golf.

So... he told the Associate Pastor that he was feeling sick and persuaded him to give the sermon for him that day.

As soon as the Associate Pastor left the room, Pastor Norton headed out of town to a golf course about forty miles away.

This way he knew he wouldn't accidentally meet anyone he knew from his church. Setting up on the first tee, he was alone. After all, it was Sunday morning and everyone else was in church!

At about this time, Saint Peter leaned over to the Lord while looking down from the heavens and exclaimed, "You're not going to let him get away with this, are you?"

The Lord sighed, and said, "No, I guess not."

Just then Pastor Norton hit the ball and it shot straight towards the pin, dropping just short of it, rolled up and fell into the hole.

IT WAS A 420 YARD HOLE IN ONE!

St. Peter was astonished. He looked at the Lord and asked, "Why did you let him do that?"

The Lord smiled and replied, "Who's he going to tell?"

[kcvl]

bttt

[azhenfud]

IMO, if a shop owner BUYS the damn product from the distributor and wants to give the crap away, it's HIS OWN BUSINESS, the manufacturer and distributor got their price, they should just shut up before they ruin themselves.

Oughta go out on the fairway and break the shafts outa all my Pings - butcept I still play with Wilson Staffs.

[DaveTesla]

What a disgrace.