Just want to let the community be award of it, as I posted a review but it never shows up on their website. If you have similar experience, or any positive about rootskendama please share as well. Here is the review that I sent to them: There are ton of thing need to be improve, as a business, it is essential; as a part of kendama community, promoting a positive image also important. First, late shipping, label was created next morning after i placed the order but only shipped six days later, it is unexpectable, if it is kind of preorder, COMMUNITCATE. I bought kendama from different kendama business, ALL shipped within two days, if you can't do that, COMMUNICATE. It was a present for my friend, and it got to his hand after teo days of his bday. Thanks Second, weight control, ken is 69.67g, tama 81.35g. This is a joke, even though the main selling point is the hand-painted tama, doesn't mean you dont need to care about the weight, right? Third, quality control. I knew that it is on the website that mentioned "**These kendamas are hand-painted, and due to the complexity of our painting process, each kendama is unique. Slight imperfections in appearance may occur but will not affect playability.", Unfortunately, the string hole is not well centered, not affect playability? But I have to say, you guys did a great job on hand painting. Last, the most important part: COMMUNITCATION. Before I got my order I was asking for some details info, zero respond, my friend's bday was coming, so I just bought it a week before anyway just in case I get it in time, and it was not shipped until the day of my friend's bday. While that period of time, I sent three email, message on Ig, message on Facebook, I saw all the promotion on your Instagram story about 20%off sale, and the nice damage bag, but zero respond to my messages and emails.
I had a similar experience with Roots as well, and I know of at least one other person who did too. I would like to say first that the first (and currently only) Roots tama I have I got in a trade and was amazed by the playability of it (it was already really beat it when I got it) so I can attest to the quality of their work. Ordered a custom painted kendama when they offered the make your own custom option. Waited 3, nearly 4 weeks until I actually got it in the mail (the first 2 weeks assuming they were working on other custom painted orders) and when I did email and finally got a reply back they said my order got 'lost' and they worked on it and sent it out. After finally getting it that 3-4 weeks after first ordering it, it wasn't what I had specified in my order description. Wanted a red to blue 70/30 FADE split, ended up with a SOLID split. Kind of a little thing maybe, but after waiting so long and paying what I had paid I expected to get exactly what I had specified. Contacted them about it and they offered to either let me keep the 1st one and send a 2nd out exactly the way I specified the first time, or have me send back the dama for a refund. Went with the first option, figured I'd give the 1st dama away. Wait 3 weeks again and still no dama. Finally got in contact with them again and they tell me that their painter had been out of town (don't know who goes out of town for nearly a full month doing whatever), so I opted to return the dama since by this time I had been absolutely turned off. They offered a partial refund which I begrudgingly had to accept, but they ended up refunding nearly the entire purchase price instead after seeing the dama hadn't suffered any wear and tear since I never played it (think I was short around 50 cents or so). They even offered me a special code for I think 20% off my next purchase but again, by this time I had been turned off to them and just gave it away. While they're work is definitely of a high quality, what really sells me on continuously buying from a kendama company is the promptness of finishing and filling out an order in as short a time it would normally take and especially the customer service side (Sol, KUSA, Sweets all have FANTASTIC customer service), they're always on point when it comes to communicating with their customers either on the website or through personal emails and I have received a couple bonuses from being a return customer. Weight matched setups from KUSA (props to Ryan Plourd!) or extra strings from Sol (Thanks Chad!). As for the string hole position you mentioned, I do not think they turn their own kens and tamas so that would be a manufacturing problem, but I will say I have had tamas from Sweets and probably from KUSA and Sol as well that have had slightly offset string holes on the top of the tamas so something like that isn't necessarily subject to smaller companies. If it's on the ken underneath the sarado where it isn't centered to the brand logo on the base cup, I've had the same happen too on a couple of my Sol and Sweets kens. Neither of these have really affected playability in my experience.
Thanks for your information! Hope this will help for the community when they are looking for the freshie.
Man I don't think that it is something that a brand has to do. My sweets prime is 74g ken, 89g tama. You mean sarado string hole, or tama string hole? If you mean sarado string hole, ask anyone who has sweets purple spike and it is also not centered, and they dont say anything in its description. I can only say that after reading your post I think that only a customer service is bad.
Yeah, same. I personally like the tama heavier. If you don’t you should probably say something in your order, but I guess you tried talking to them so nvm about that.
I got a maple ken and a SUPER light ash tama (I think 59-56 maybe?). The ken was somewhat light, but the tama was even lighter than that, so I'm not really sure what to do from here.
I feel like you absolutely shouldn't give them a break. ESPECIALLY because they are "OG" and are competing with other companies. This is exactly what turns me off from buying kendamas from said comapny. and you should never give excuses are force people to wait that long on something they are paying you good money for. Also, so what if they have other jobs. this is there business. and if these two guys cant put the time and effort forth to respect their customers, they don't deserve any. All that being said, I know one of the guys from their team and he is a super good guy. also there tamas are sick.
Thanks for your feedback, and think I am a bit too picky after I read your post But I do see some other brand keep the standard high and make sure that the ken and dama weights difference are within 6g or so. probably I am a bit spoiled by that. for more clarity, it is the tama string hole that's off, it did brother me when I do string tricks and the tama is spinning, it feels a bit wonky, am I too sensitive on this? and Yes, my main concern about roots kendama is the communication with customer, more than the issues about the kendama itself, I was just pointed out every aspect that they might able to improve.
As a community that is growing rapidly, I belief it is important for everyone to keep the standard high, and not giving room for slacking, improvement is one of the core value about playing kendama, isn't it? It is ok to ship out late, IF THEY DID COMMUNICATE WELL WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS.(sorry about the all cap). Just like LunaTac's giveadama, they give you pre-order, so we all know that "I pay, and I need to WAIT"
Yeaaaaaaaah welcome to my world guys, I rep for them as a team member and have a hard time communicating with them. When I get product it's great! But just like you I was supposed to receive a package like a month ago. Good product but yeah communicating is not a strong suit. I was handling it for awhile but they are now.
Yeah, their product really is very good. I have a keyaki custom (think it's the Jade) from like 2+ years ago I got in a trade with Mikey Schelling. Was already beat in and super tacky, helped me learn lunars when I was first chasing them. But like I said in my above post, customer service really sells me as a return buyer. It's understandable if they have other priorities beyond Roots, but like @Brandon Jensen said, this is their business. Other smaller companies run by 1 or 2 people have similar/same responsibilities outside of their brand but are still able to produce a customer service standard.