Occasionally I come across the website, but very LITTLE information about its whereabouts. Apparently it operates out of a small residence and workshop outbuilding, which is fine, but I want to know their reputation. Has anyone ever bought from "Pro Winds" in Richmond, Wisconsin?
Has anyone ever bought from "Pro Winds" in Richmond, Wisconsin?
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I have on two occasions, both of which were negative experiences. Both transactions were online purchases, and on both occasions neither items were delivered nor were the refund requests honored. Both transactions required charge backs on the credit card. I gave them a second chance because everyone makes mistakes. I won't give them a third chance.
S: R&C Half-curved, EM Curvy; A: YAS875EXIIS, PM 67R; T: Eastman 52nd St, Triumpf; B: Nova Bronze
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Hey Erik, in this subsection of the forum there are tons of posts on this topic, some positive some negative. Search for them for more info. Here is one:
https://forum.saxontheweb.net/#/topics/45067?page=3
https://forum.saxontheweb.net/#/topics/45067?page=3
Thank you, Currawong.
Yes, JMoen, I did a search for 'pro winds" and nothing came up, and this is why I started the new thread. Maybe I should have omitted the space and made it one word.
Anyway, I am now content with the responses from Allen Mouthpieces and Currawong, however, as I just needed a little confirmation, either way, and now I've got it. I won't bother to order from Pro Winds, just to save $15 on a certain mouthpiece, now that I know what sort of negative experience some users have had.
Thanks again, everyone. Consider my problem solved!
Yes, JMoen, I did a search for 'pro winds" and nothing came up, and this is why I started the new thread. Maybe I should have omitted the space and made it one word.
Anyway, I am now content with the responses from Allen Mouthpieces and Currawong, however, as I just needed a little confirmation, either way, and now I've got it. I won't bother to order from Pro Winds, just to save $15 on a certain mouthpiece, now that I know what sort of negative experience some users have had.
Thanks again, everyone. Consider my problem solved!
S: R&C Half-curved, EM Curvy; A: YAS875EXIIS, PM 67R; T: Eastman 52nd St, Triumpf; B: Nova Bronze
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The Google search function (top of the page by the logo in desktop mode) is much better than the forum search.
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I believe that this is the same company that was located in Indiana at one time. The mailing address is New Richmond, WI which is just over the Mississippi in Wisconsin near Minneapolis. The website that I had for the Indiana company takes me to this new location. The toll free numbers are the same for the Indiana store and the New Richmond, WI store. Further tracing puts the warehouse in Stillwater, Minnesota, which is on the other side of the Mississippi from New Richmond. I do believe that this is bring run out of someone's home since there are not many businesses in New Richmond, WI. I hope this helps.
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I would like to share my recent purchase with Prowinds which is very pleasant. I was looking for a Theo Wanne NY BROS 2 and was trying to search for some deal since Theo website does not offer promotion right now. Prowinds is one of few that carry this mouthpiece. They don't charge tax for the state I am living in so this can be some kind of saving for me. Also they offer 10% for new account, which I also planned to take advantage of. Reading some negative reviews, I was quite reluctant to order from them, but could not find better deal other than theirs. So I dropped an email to the shop owner asking for if the MP is available first, and he replied yes within a few hours. Then I placed the order plus some reeds. After I placed the order, I sent an email to the owner again asking if they can ship them within one week, and the owner said they will get them shipped very soon. Yes, they were all shipped within 1~2 business days (Theo MP shipped directly from the Theo factory rather than from Prowinds ware house). And I received them just one week after I placed the order.
Overall very happy experience. To me the owner is very responsive to email (faster than several big name retailers). Honestly I don't know what happen for those years when they received many negative reviews. But I'd suggest that you give them a try if you can find a good deal like what I did (I found that some of their prices are hard to beat). You may send an email to the owner asking if the item is available or not to avoid any delay if it is a back-order.
Overall very happy experience. To me the owner is very responsive to email (faster than several big name retailers). Honestly I don't know what happen for those years when they received many negative reviews. But I'd suggest that you give them a try if you can find a good deal like what I did (I found that some of their prices are hard to beat). You may send an email to the owner asking if the item is available or not to avoid any delay if it is a back-order.
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The last two experiences were similar to medieval torture...
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Caveat emptor.
Your (fortunate) experience does not match my experience from a couple of years ago. Maybe you got lucky. In the past, the owners have been completely unresponsive to any attempts to contact them or follow up on a purchase.
I had hoped that their business practices had perhaps changed recently, but a quick look at recent complaints lodged with the BBB confirms that they still seem to be hewing to their previous (poor) business practices.
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Exactly as what you said, it is case by case (or customer by customer). That's why I chose to reply to one relevant thread about this topic rather than posting a new thread (which will sound like a shill). I did find that some of their items (mainly mouthpieces) have the best price on the web. If they can make significant improvement (like my recent order experience) and keep it consistent in the future, I think that they may get a chance to win those customers (previously disappointed) over back to order again.
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Interesting. I just put "pro winds" in the "search community" bar and got 23 pages of results: 447 individual, and a lot of yhem are customer accounts…and that's not even using the Google search that, as Jared mentions, works better.
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