Hockey Giant: Apparently they do a great job or completely suck
Written: Nov 22 '05 (Updated Dec 13 '05)
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Why be the 95th reviewer?
It’s a good question . . . but I don’t have to answer it if I don’t want to! Nonetheless, I will humor you and reply since it really isn’t my style to waste time reviewing things that have been so extensively covered. Besides, you miscounted—I am the 82nd reviewer.
Still, there is a lot of confusion about Hockey Giant. Apparently they either do a great job or they screw up royally if you look through some of the existing reviews. I’d guess if the existing reviews were ebay feedback scores, Hockey Giant would be changing their name on ebay.
Nonetheless, I ordered from them a couple years ago and all went well. I figured I’d give them another try last month when I needed new pants and a bag. Not only did they have the best prices, but it gave me the opportunity to be the 82nd person to review the site. What more distinction could I ask for?
The site
Hockey Giant has a decent layout. I’d give them an above average score here. The top of the site has buttons for the some major brands making it easy to shop by brand. I guess they are pushing Bauer, CCM, Mission and Gear since these are the four choices. Along the left side menu items are organized in a fairly straightforward manner by item type.
What do they sell?
Hockey Giant has pretty much everything that you need for a good recreational hockey game short of the sheet of ice and case of beer. Some of you might think that the beer is optional . . . I suppose there are two sides to every coin, whatever.
Hockey Giant carries most of the major brands. These include RBK/CCM, Bauer/Nike, Easton, Itech, and Mission products. Notably absent from the player’s lineup is Graf but no one is perfect I guess. In goalie gear they carry the aforementioned brands as well as Louisville Gear and Tour (cough, cough . . . er something in my throat there). Again there are a few major brands missing for goalies including, Vaughn, Brians, Eagle and Sher-wood. They do of course carry Koho and as it is under the RBK/CCM umbrella.
In all the selection is pretty good from a player perspective. From a goalie perspective, the selection is fair. Certainly it will be much better than your typical local shop, but there are better selections available from other shops on the net.
Prices
Hockey Giant has competitive pricing. Some of their items are a little cheaper than competitors, others aren’t quite as good. Typically I always include Hockey Giant in my search for prices when I do order something on the net. In this case, the price on the pants was actually about $10 higher than the best price that I could find elsewhere, but the price of the bag (which I couldn’t find on other sites) was reasonable enough to offset it.
Hockey Giant also has a weekly sale page with a good number of decent items in it. Not only do they typically have about 50 items on this page, but much of it is stuff that you might actually want to buy. Often hockey internet retailers put a lot of leftovers on their sale pages. Feel free to buy me the table-top hockey game for Christmas. It’s on sale for $69. That’s $20 off the regular price.
Most of the older stuff finds its way to Hockey Giant’s clearance section. Even this is stuff that is only a season or two old for the most part. Again there are about 50 items on clearance. And again some of this stuff is pretty decent and well priced. I’ve never heard of Crow brand holders and runners, but you can pick up a pair here for under a two bucks instead of the normal $70. That seems like a heck of a deal even if they completely suck.
“How do you like those Crow holders?”
“They suck, but I saved $72 on them!”
My order
I placed the order on a Sunday afternoon. By late Monday morning I had an email telling me that my order was in stock and would be shipped from their warehouse later that day. Hockey Giant also sent me tracking number that works through their website or FedEx.
My order qualified for free FedEx ground shipping which I of course took advantage of (hey being a goalie is expensive enough without paying extra for shipping!) My order was scheduled to arrive on Friday and actually came on Thursday. (Isn’t it interesting how sometimes FedEx comes early and UPS always comes right when they promise?)
The order was well packaged, but I was dismayed to find that only one of the two items I ordered was in the box. I called the toll free number on the Hockey Giant website to inquire on the status of my missing item. Even as I was doing this it dawned on me that my order was actually in two boxes. Nonetheless, the representative was very polite and helpful on the phone.
He informed me that they had shipped my order from separate warehouses and the second box would likely arrive later that day or sometime on Friday as originally promised. Instead of calling me a moron for not realizing such a detail, he incited me to call back if I had any other questions. He was helpful enough that I call back all the time now. Live help is available on the phone or online from 6 to 6 Monday thru Friday and 9 to 6 on Saturday.
The second box arrived the next day, equally well packaged in a stunning brown cardboard box.
Random Company Information
Hockey Giant operates several retail locations in California and Minnesota. In this case, several would be equal to five locations. They also operate a distribution center in Carlsbad, CA which is where most of the internet orders ship from. The parent company is actually Sports Giant. Sports giant serves other specialty sports including lacrosse but hockey is certainly their bread and butter.
Forms of Payment
Hockey Giant accepts major credit cards and Pay Pal. They also take personal checks and money orders.
Policies
One very nice advantage that Hockey Giant has over many of their competitors is that they don’t charge a restocking fee for returns. If they make an error they will send you a packing slip so that you can return the item free of shipping charges. That’s how things should be done . . . don’t you love getting charged shipping on mistakes that an e-tailer made?
If the mistake was on you, Hockey Giant will still take returns of items in new (unused) condition. However, since you screwed up, the return shipping is on you.
Parting thoughts
Hockey Giant is probably not the biggest internet hockey retailer in terms of item selection. However, they have a very strong presence on the net and apparently have captured the largest share of the market. While there has been some inconsistency in the reviews of their service, I personally take these with a grain of salt. It seems like more people would be interested in writing a bad review than a good one. (Personally I would rather write good reviews, bad ones seem too vindictive at times). But hey, it’s human nature to complain more loudly than we praise I guess.
My personal experiences have both been without incident. Perhaps they are a little less effective in solving problems when they occur. This I cannot say as I haven’t really had any. But I was impressed by the quality of service I did receive from their phone representative when I had a question about my order.
With a little better selection, Hockey Giant could become my primary source of hockey gear on the net. The only reason that I awarded less than five stars is the simple lack of what I feel are some major brands. The overall rating of four stars with 83 reviews seems pretty solid to me.
Now if they just carried sheets of ice and beer . . .
A few of my other reviews which you might find helpful:
1800faceoff.com
Battram Custom Goalie Equipment
Hockey Monkey
© 2005 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Pants and Bag
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puckmugger
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Location: wandering the fringes of the goal crease
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