Budget Beater: Don’t Fall For “Great Deals” That Come In Those Fancy Emails

So, I’m going on a bit of a personal rant here, but I think everyone needs to know about a deceptive marketing campaign that a manufacturer is using to basically milk people out of $15 a month, whether you use them or not. It usually comes in the form of an email so tempting that even I clicked on it to get the lowdown on this fantastic deal. What I read on the page that appeared when I clicked it made me wonder how a company like Warrior Custom Golf can even stay in business, let alone turn a profit, but I guess that’s why they have their trial program where the “free items” that they ship carry a $30-50 handling fee. But enough of that, let’s take a gander at the ‘Warrior Golf VIP Program” so you can judge this deal for yourself.

First up, in the tantalizing email, you get a free round of golf through the Golf18Network, which is payable in the form of a $25 credit (which is what everyone who signs up for Golf18Network gets anyways). You then get 3 additional credits throughout the year as long as your membership stays active. Total bonus – $75.

Then there is the $200 credit that can be used at the Warrior Golf Online Discount Pro Shop. This can be used for any items in the online store, which can range from $9.95 towels to $169.00 drivers. Again, this is all ‘stuff’ that can be found in their ‘free trial’ program where you just pay those over inflated shipping and handling rates to get them.



From there, you are given a $1000 value “Platinum Membership” to play at all Warrior Affiliate golf courses nationwide. Now, nationwide makes this sound like someone from say, Michigan could partake of this great membership, but unless you live in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Iowa, Florida, Colorado, Alabama, Texas, Georgia or California, you’re going to need to travel to take advantage of this great membership. Now is when it gets good though, you can only play these courses if you agree to pay for the standard cart fee. Of course, when visiting a few of the courses online, there was no cart fee located on any of the rates pages. This could mean your “free round” of golf that you can only use Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, could cost whatever they feel like charging you. Now a mystery to this one, which in all honesty could make it an OK deal, is the free set of irons and fairway woods that is listed as a benefit on the Platinum Membership page. I’m sure there’s a chunky S/H fee that will be tacked on to these guys, but if they included a set of clubs in what you pay, it’s not a terrible thing, right?

Now, I’m going to fly through a few more benefits quickly here to get my point across before I get to the really bad part about what I see in Warrior Custom Golf’s practices. On top of the benefits above, you will get 2 boxes a year of test equipment. These may include, clubs, balls, accessories, apparel and even training aids. Based on their store prices, I would estimate the value of each box $200 box at about $50 each. This would even include a Wilson Harmonized wedge or low cost titanium driver, towel, and a dozen balls from sites like Amazon. $200 just sounds like a fabricated number based on some crazy retail prices. From there, VIP access to their online store, a USGA membership, a stay and play package valued at up to $600 and free online training videos. Overall, it sounds impressive, but 90% of the discounts that you find here can be found online through other channels for no charge at all.



Just to see what a set of irons cost for that “premium deal” above, I jumped into the Warrior Custom store to see their pricing. Low and behold, they didn’t have any. So, I hit the irons section and tried to order a set. After submitting my name, email, phone number and shipping address, I was taken to the above page where I was told that a customer club fitter would call me within the next 24 hours. So, Warrior is so top secret that they can’t even sell me a set of clubs online – they need an operator to call me back and try to upsell me on other items or something? This has red flags written all over it. So finally, I hit up yelp for the low down and ratings on Warrior. With the exception of a few that actually called to order the freebie, then wanted to get more, regardless of the price, the reviews all said virtually the same thing. That WCG would ‘trick’ people into getting into clubs that were demos that needed to be returned after the trial period. Otherwise you were stuck paying for them.

For me, and I hope for you as well, this serves as a great reminder for ANYTHING that if it seems too good to be true, do some homework on it. Search online for reviews, especially at the customer service level. When you see anything mentioned like scam, racket or garbage, just delete the email and move along. If you fall victim to something like this, contact the BBB and your credit card company to dispute the charges that you paid. It will take a bit of your time, but at least you won’t make it easy for them to scam the next person in line. Remember, you can do very well buying used or new merchandise at local stores or online for far less than the ‘custom’ items will actually cost you. Plus, knowing the quality of the merchandise you purchase are backed up by a local store, you should feel very comfortable spending money on them.