Stringbox tennis stringing service review
UPDATE : I received this sad email from the company Jan 30,2018
Good afternoon,
We regret to inform you that Stringbox is closing its doors. Despite our best efforts and hopes for this platform, a combination of weak demand and high costs made offering the service unsustainable. We want to thank you for giving us a try, and we sincerely hope you enjoyed the convenience and quality of our service.
If you have an outstanding order in process, it will be fulfilled and completed. If you were recently billed a membership fee (in the past couple of weeks), you will be refunded. And of course, if you have any questions, please reply to this email.
Thanks again for your business and support.
— The Stringbox Team
Stringing your racquet is a necessary evil to the game of tennis. Usually, it involves driving over to your nearest stringer and waiting an hour for the process to finish or possibly making a return trip to pick up when completed. The process is bothersome at best. Depending on your arrangement with a stringer, the stringing service can cost anywhere between $20 – $40 dollars, not including gas and time.
A new service has emerged that looks to disrupt the old ways of getting your racquet strung. Stringbox describes itself as “the only door-to-door, on-demand racquet stringing service. We save our members time and money, and provide a wide-range of valuable features you won’t see anywhere else.”
Could the possibility of a door to door stringing service be a reality? Is it cost effective? How is the customer service? LoveSetMatch puts Stringbox service to the test!
The first step to being a Stringbox customer is visiting their website online and registering for an account. There you can set your racquet and string preferences and even list multiple racquets if that is how you enjoy tennis. Once registered you can place an order. Stringbox sent me 3 boxes in advance of an order so I was set to go. The annual cost of yearly subscription is $99 which allows you to receive stringing at $19 per racquet when you provide your own strings. Stringbox was kind enough to comp this annual membership charge for me in exchange for an unbiased review. If you choose not to subscribe you can still use the service at $59 per racquet. My strings snapped during a recent practice session and so I was excited to test out their new system.
I folded the box to fit the racquet and then inserted my racquet. I felt it might be a little too loose so I stuffed the box with old newspapers to make sure it didn’t bang around. I included a set of my preferred strings Genesis Xpolsion which I had already added to my online profile along with my string tension. Stringbox gives you the option of stringing with Gosen OG-Sheep Micro included with the $19 price. You can also upgrade your string choice for $10 -$15 from their list of suppliers. Should I have wanted a custom string to be added to my order the cost would increase by $15 as well. I needed to tape the ends of the box as there was no self-adhesive on the box like a Federal Express box might have. Once packaged I went into my account and simply printed out the shipping label for the order. In order to actually have Door to your front Door you will pay a premium of $10 on top of the $19 stringing charge. This allows you to order a Fed Ex pickup direct from your front door. Since I have a FedEx office in my building it was not necessary for me. Turn around time is listed as 8-9 days (including weekend days) after placing your order. There is an expedited shipping option of $5 to get the racquet within 5-6 days. There is no option for overnight shipping or faster turn around yet. Obviously, this works well for people like myself who have multiple racquets in play and don’t have to depend on only one racquet.
Their website is really well designed and runs smooth. While your order is in process there is a direct link to the FedEx shipping site where you can track your racquet’s journey in real time. The shipping link is also emailed to your inbox.
For my demo racquet, I placed the order on Dec 20th and it was shipped back to me from Boca Raton, FL on Wed Dec 27th. I actually received it on Friday, Dec 29th as it was shipped with 2-day delivery. That is really impressive considering it was also over the Christmas holiday break! My racquet arrived in 7 days and I was very happy to see it again. As far as I can tell the stringing job was done professionally and time will tell if there are any problems with workmanship. They even added a cool ATP racquet sleeve (which I think is arbitrary from the contract stringer)
For my demo racquet I dropped off the order to FedEx on Dec 20th and it was shipped back to me from Boca Raton, FL on Wed Dec 27th. I actually received it on Friday, Dec 29th as it was shipped with 2-day delivery. That is really impressive considering it was also over the Christmas holiday break!
The only added costs from those quoted on the website however minor were tape, printing ink, gas to FedEx or concierge service if you choose home pickup. The Stringbox website is great to track your racquet and get exact delivery information. I did notice that after the order was complete I did not have have the shipping links available to me online which makes sense since you received your racquet and the job is done. I did have the email confirmations in my inbox with the fedex links still if I wanted to take the extra step to check dates and shipping information for future use.
I can easily say that this is a great service for people who want to rid themselves of the inconvenience of time lost in the old restringing process. It’s is probably not less expensive than your current stringing workflow but that may depend on how many times a year you string your racquet, how far you have to travel to a tennis shop, and how much your current stringer charges you.
Stringbox is an elegant online option to restring your racquet and I can see how it may disrupt the older business model of racquet stringing. With proper planning, you can always have a fresh bed of strings loaded and waiting to hit without ever missing a match or driving to a tennis shop.
