KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A wobbly basketball goal that a Kansas City man bought for his three children is making him cry foul.
Dad Nathan Winkelbauer has spent the last year trying to get the subcontractor that installed the goal to fix the wobble, but every month there are new promises, but no action.
He knew something wasn’t right as soon as he started using this nearly $800 basketball goal.
“Immediately I had concerns,” Winkelbauer said.
That’s because this 10-foot goal wobbles every time a ball comes anywhere near it.
Winklebauer figured all he had to do to fix the problem was contact Dick’s Sporting Goods because the goal had come with a warranty.
In fact, Winkelbauer had paid $300 extra so that the store could have the goal professionally installed, something that was required to keep the warranty in effect.
Confident the problem would be solved, Winklebauer called Dick’s Sporting Goods in Lenexa. But Dick’s said there was nothing it could do and that Winklebauer would have to contact the company Dick’s had hired to install the goal.
So Winkelbauer called Go Configure Inc., the company that had installed his goal. Someone from Go Configure paid a visit, but never fixed the wobble.
“He got on a ladder and took a big mallet or sledge hammer and hit the top of it,” Winklebauer recalled.
When that didn’t work, the Go Configure employee told Winklebauer he would report the problem and someone would contact him.
That was nearly a year ago and despite regular phone calls to both Dick’s Sporting Goods and Go Configure the problem has never been solved.
FOX 4 Problem Solvers was surprised that a major national retailer such as Dick’s would force a customer to deal with a contractor Dicks had hired, instead of handling the problem itself and making sure the customer was happy.
Afterall, Winklebauer had no financial relationship with Go Configure. He was a solely a customer of Dick’s.
So we called Dick’s corporate office and got a message that someone would call us back in two days. Two days have passed and we have yet to hear from anyone at Dick’s. We now understand how Mr. Winkelbauer feels.
Update: Shortly before this story went to air some workmen visited Mr. Winkelbauer’s home and removed his old basketball goal and began installing a new one. So this problem is on its way to being solved.
