Lifetime Basketball | Double Shot Arcade Basketball Game

Lifetime Basketball Double Shot Arcade Basketball Game Review.

I recently purchased the Lifetime Basketball Double Shot Arcade Basketball Game and figured I would write a quick review of the product and the assembly. It was kind of a fun little Christmas present idea for the family, which turned into a problem putting it together, and then turned to relief when we figured out the problem. Hopefully these tips will help you in the assembly process of your own system.

Read the Double Shot instructions carefully!

This may sound like no-brainer, but I am serious when I say "carefully." First of all, there are many poles used in the construction of this unit; these poles must be used in the absolute correct position shown in the instructions to set up the unit properly. To Lifetime Products' credit, you cannot set up the unit in any other way than is shown in the instructions as the holes for the bolts and nuts will not line up properly. Second of all, the instructions say very nonchalantly that you should not over tighten the cap nuts (on page 18 of the instructions). The note at the bottom says to only tighten the nuts until they are "fingertight", meaning, use only your fingers to tighten until you cannot tighten any more. In any other instructions I have dealt with, this typically means that by overtightening you might bend the parts you are bolting together; or, you might strip the threads on the bolts. So, in accordance with these instructions, the moment we felt resistance on the bolt and nut we stopped tightening. Going through the instructions in this way, we flew through the steps and should have had the unit set up within an hour or so; but, we ran into a problem. When we got to the step that had us attach the parts lableled BMF and BLY (according to my instructions) - which are two poles connected together that come down diagonally from the back pole frame of the unit - we found that the holes did not line up to bolt this diagonal pole to the unit. At this point we went through a frenzy of reviewing all past steps, trying to force the unit into position, checking all parts, considering calling Lifetime Customer Service to complain (this would not have worked since they were closed, it just felt good to think we could have yelled and complained), and finally sitting down on the ground in defeat. At this point, just as we were about to box the whole thing up to return it to Lifetime as defective, I noticed the picture of the unit on the front of the box. The picture showed a portion of the system that did not look like what we had set up. There were a couple of poles that extended out from the back frame to which the poles mentioned above connected to on the bottom. The picture showed these poles angled down slightly, whereas ours extended out from the back pole frame perpendicularly. We then remembered the instruction from page 18 to not overtighten the nuts and we began loosening all surrounding nuts on the poles. To our overjoyment, the poles that had previously not lined up properly with the BMF/BLY poles now matched up perfectly as we could now angle them down. So the take home message is when Lifetime tells you to not overtighten the nuts and bolts, they actually mean they ought to be pretty loose so the poles can be moved into the right positions. After the construction was completed, we tightened the nuts so the unit had no wiggle.

Review of Play on the Lifetime Basketball Double Shot Arcade Basketball Game.

After the angst buildup of putting the unit together, it was a great stress reliever to find that play on the unit was very nice. The overall construction of the unit is very solid and somewhat heavy, so there is not as much movement in this Double Shot as there has been in other previous Double Shot models. There is also not very much movement and an overall better design when compared with Sportcraft and Huffy arcade basketball games. Before we decided to get this unit, we went to Sports Authority to see what else was out there. We found a cheaper Sportcraft model, about $100, and played on it for a while. While for us any Arcade Basketball game is fun, we did not like the design of the system. In particular, we found the poles to be weak in design and the overall feel of the system to be all together too much plastic. Though at that point we had not seen the updated Double Shot game yet, we had read a lot about the unit and knew of the claims of it to be a better, stronger overall construction than comparable models. Now that we have seen both, I can definitely say that the claims are true. Another neat feature Lifetime Products has added to this arcade game is the use of infrared motion sensors for scoring. Previous Double Shot models, as well as all current competing Arcade Basketball models, used a plastic clicker to keep score. The use of plastic clickers typically results in two problems: one, the plastic clickers break and must be replaced; and two, during play, there is a possibility of faulty scorekeeping when the plastic clicker moves too much, resulting in missed scores and double-counted scores. From our expierence thus far, the score keeping with the infrared sensors is superior and incredibly accurate.

Overall, I would reccomend the Double Shot system to anyone; but, I would also caution users to read the instructions carefully and take heed of my advice above.

Lifetime Folding Chairs | Office Furniture

Can Lifetime folding chairs be used for something other than large group meetings?

For the most part, customers that purchase Lifetime folding chairs are looking for something light, mobile, and sturdy to use as seating for their meetings. These groupls range from schools to churches to municipalities. Using folding chairs for this purpose is probably the most obvious use, but there is one relatively untapped use. Any guesses? How about as office furniture?

Traditional Office Furniture:

For most office, you would probably suspect that people would often use fabric seating for most chairs, and leather seating for their executives. This is understandable because a lot of these chairs are designed for good body support during long work days. They also cost upwards of several hundred dollars per chair, and don't your employees and executives deserve the best? Well, expensive does not necessarily mean the best. Allow me us to explain.

Lifetime Chairs as Office Furniture:

One of our employees has gone through about 4 different office chairs in his quest for comfort while working. These office chairs all seem to come up short when it comes to longevity. One day, after getting rid of his last office chair, he got the idea to use a Lifetime Chair. The exact model he used was the 22804. It was a novel idea, but he did not expect much out of it since it was just a folding chair. As he sat down, however, he found that it provided great back support, and the contour of the seat brought real comfort to his butt and lower lumbar areas. He sat in it all day and never got tired of the feel. He has used this chair ever since.

Lifetime Chairs May or May Not Be a Fit For Everyone.

With all of that said, comfort is definitely a personal thing. Our employee had gone through several office chairs, including some of our OFM furniture line, before ending on Lifetime Chairs. In some cases, you might have to do the same thing and try several chairs before you find one that works. If, however, you have come to your wits end, searching for some comfort, you might consider Lifetime Folding Chairs as a suitable alternative to traditional office furniture.

Lifetime Chairs | Office Furniture Related Posts:

Office Furniture | OFM.
Lifetime Chairs | Product Review.
Lifetime Chairs.

Office Chairs | OFM Office Equipment

Who should you trust when information conflicts about office chairs or other products on the internet?

We recently had a customer call in about our 122-dk office chairs. He had read on another internet site that the seat adustments for the height were from 23" - 27" or 27" - 31". On our site, the description read 'Seat Height: 18"-22"'. He was confused about which one was right. So he called in and I was able to find from the manfuacturer that our site was wrong. With that said, we get our descriptions directly from the manufacturer. If there are parts of the listing that are missing, we get those missing bits of information from our account reps. In this case, we likely did not have those seat heights listed, someone contacted OFM, and likely misunderstood what the specs they were given were referring to. In any case, Competitive Edge will always try to get you the most accurate information about the products we sale. If something ever looks confusing, please call or email us and we will be happy to find a resolution to your questions.

Please leave your comments here if there are any other listings that are confusin and we will be happy to do the research for you.

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Competitive Edge | Product Comparison Guide.
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Competitive Edge | Website Upgrade

Competitive Edge Products has officially updated their website with many new features:

We want to officially announce the updates to our website in hopes to get some feedback from our customers. The updates have been a long time in coming and are likely overdue. A quick summary of the changes is below. We would like any feedback we can get through commenting on this post, or emailing us, on how you like the changes. We would be most interested in the ease of navigation, the helpfulness of the product reviews, the cleaness of the pages, and the overall look of the site.

Competitive Edge Now Supports Customer Feedback:

The product reviews are probably the most standard thing on the web any more, and we have now joined the conversation. We have moved the reviews we had previously posted from our eBay customers onto their respective products in hopes to help future customers make a better buying decision. We have now also had many new product review submissions from our current customers. We invite any customer who has purchased one of our product to leave their review on the appropriate product page.

Competitive Edge has Cleaned Up the Top Banner:

This update was to help customers understand the main ideas of our website better by getting rid of the clutter at the top of the page. We hope this not only makes it easier to look at, but easier to find all of the relevant information you need as you read through the page.

Competitive Edge has Updated the Navigation Buttons:

Sometimes navigating a website is difficult when all the colors match. To help remedy this, we have changed the main navigation buttons to a sharp red color to help
you find your way around the site with greater ease.

We hope these changes help you in making your buying decisions as well as getting the information you need for your purchase.

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Competitive Edge | Local Pickup Option

How does the local pickup option work at Competitive Edge?

Let me start off this post with this disclaimer- not all products at Competitive Edge qualify for the local pickup option. With our suppliers shipping from all over the country, it often happens that we do not have the product someone wants to local pickup in their area.

I will try to elaborate on this option a bit, and then list which suppliers accept local pickups and which ones do not.

The local pickup option allows the customer to avoid all shipping charges, except the fixed local pickup fee of $10.00, and pickup the item themselves from any of our warehouses. This option is often used by customers who live near the point of shipment and do not want to wait for delivery. This option requires the customer to go to the warehouse, put the product into their vehicle of choice, drive it back to their address, and unload the product themselves. Common products that are picked up locally are Lifetime picnic tables, mammoth basketball hoops, Lifetime tables, Lifetime chairs, and Kodiak Canvas Tents. These products all are pretty easy to load up as they are typically boxed up. If you have any questions on whether or not a local pickup will be a good option for you, please call us before placing your order.

List of Suppliers and Local Pickups:

Spalding: No local pickups.
Lifetime Products: Local pickup available in Clearfield, Utah.
Kodiak Canvas Tents: Local pickup available in Salt Lake City, Utah (subject to product availability) and Logan, Utah (subject to product availability).
OFM Office Furniture: Local pickup available in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
DMI Sports Game Tables: Local pickup available in Fort Washington, PA.
National Public Seating: Local pickup available in Clifton, New Jersey.

We have a number of other suppliers for our products, but their volume of sales is very minor. If you do not see the supplier listed you are looking for here, please call us and we will let you know if a local pickup is available.

Competitive Edge Local Pickup Related Links:

Competitive Edge | New Products.
Competitive Edge | Free Shipping Offer.
Competitive Edge | Website Upgrade.

Lifetime Basketball 71526 | Basketball Backboards

"Your basketball backboards look funny when you get them out of the box. What is up with that?"

We get this question from time to time and so let me just cut to the chase and say our basketball backboards and rim combos look exactly how they are pictured on our website. With that said, certain packaging precautions are taken to help prevent damage. Allow me to illustrate the confusion with a paraphrased version of a conversation I recently had with a customer who had ordered the 71526 Basketball Backboards.

Basketball Backboards Complaint:

The customer complaint went something look this:

"I received your Lifetime 71526 backboard and rim combo, but the backboard does not look a thing like it is shown on your website. The website picture looks very professional and nice and see through, but this one looks faded and you can barely see through the material. Your site describes this unit has clear; clear to me means glass, but this looks more like a heavily tinted window. Also, there are a bunch of scratches all over the unit. Wasn't this product supposed to be brand new like it says on your website?"

At first I did not know what to say. I had never heard such a complaint before and so I referred it to a coworker who had been working here longer. He started off by telling me that this was a common misconception with Lifetime Basketball Backboards and that the fix was easy. My coworker than told me what to advise.

Basketball Backboards Solution:

Here is what I advised the customer:

"Sir, your system is most likely completely fine. Please go to your system and feel along the edges for what will feel like a bump; this is a plastic covering. If you will peel that covering away you fill likely find the unit to become 'clearer' and that the 'scratches' will disappear."

I waited on hold for bit while he did this. Momements later he returned to the phone and confirmed what my coworker had suspected. When Lifetime Products packages their basketball backboards they put a plastic covering of the unit to help avoid scratches, scuffs, and puncture damage while it is in transit. As soon as you remove the covering everything will look picture perfect.

Basketball Backboards Related Links:

Portable Basketball Hoops.
Lifetime Basketball Hoops.
Basketball Backboards.
Lifetime Basketball | Spalding Basketball.

$1500 Free Shipping Offer and Select Items

What does this cheaping offer mean at Competitive Edge Products?

This is an offer we have had in place since the beginning of our site as an incentive to have more high volume buyers. The wording, in the past, has apparently caused some confusion as to what qualifies for this offer. It essentially means that if you meet 1 of 2 criteria your order will receive free shipping:

1. Your order must exceed $1500 in product; i.e. if your order totals $1499.99 you will still be responsible for shipping charges, if any.

2. The select items on the site that have the free shipping offer are either pallet loads, where we are offered shipping discounts by the shipping comapny, or MAP (minimum advertised price) priced and there exists a sufficiently large margin that we can offer to pay the shipping costs.

In both cases we are offered discounts with shipping that we wish to pass on. In overwhelming majority of instances if either of these criteria are not met we are not getting any kind of price break for shipping that we can pass onto you. In the rare occassions we are able to get a shipping discount, there is no real way to foresee it otherwise we would offer the discount in those instances. We at Competitive Edge wish to be as competitive as we can in our pricing and will continue these same offers to help keep prices low for our customers.

If you have any questions about this offer or any other policies of Competitive Edge Products, Inc., please leave your questions in the comments section.

Lifetime Folding Chairs | 2804 Review

How well do Lifetime Folding Chairs hold up in a church setting?

This was submitted by a working associate of Competitive Edge Products, Inc.

"Lifetime chairs have been around for quite some time, but it was not until a few months ago I finally saw some in a church setting. Previous to this, my church had only had flat, cold, metal folding chairs and I never would have suspected a change would ever happen. It was a pleasant surprise however, because I had sat in one before at a friend's home a few years back and found them to be fairly comfortable.

If you have not seen a Lifetime Chair before they might look a little weird than what you are used to. The 2804 model, the folding chair my church had purchased, is very bulky. Both the seat and the back thickness must have been a little over 2 inches, probably triple that which the metal chairs I had previously used measured. They are, however, very attractive in both color and appearance. When we sat down to start the meeting, we would remain seated for 2 hours.

Some people, I am sure, would expect a plastic folding chair to begin to hurt your butt and back after a few minutes, but it was not the case with these chairs. In the metal folding chairs the church had previously used you would have to shift positions in your chair the entire meeting long so as to keep your legs and butt from going to sleep. Once again, this was not the case with Lifetime Chairs. I believe this is because both the seat and back are contoured to fit around the parts that are supposed to be round on your body, and support the parts of your body that are supposed to be supported. The opposite of this would be the metal folding chairs, which I would compare to sitting on a the bleachers at a football stadium. The chairs were sufficiently comfortable that several of the congregation fell asleep, much to the dismay of the preacher, which I of course had seen before but not to the extent I saw with these chairs.

When the meeting was done, I got up from my chair and expected that feeling you get from sitting for long periods of time where your lower back feels tight and your legs wish you would have stood up an hour ago, but the feeling never came. It was very refreshing. The chairs were very easy for everyone to pickup and put away since Lifetime has also designed a folding chair cart built to the specifications of the folding chairs. It was by far the most physically comfortable church experience I had ever had."

Related Lifetime Folding Chairs Posts:

Lifetime Chairs.

Please also view our website for product details on Lifetime Folding Chairs.

Portable Basketball Hoops

How well do Lifetime Portable Basketball Hoops stack up with the Lifetime Products name on them?

Having grown up with a Lifetime Portable basketball hoop I feel I have at least some expertise in this area. We had a 44" polycarbonate backboard that is now about 13 years old. Living in Utah, our basketball hoop has been through a lot, anything from blazing hot 100+ degree days in the summer to sub-zero temperatures during the winter. It has been blown over 3 different times, snowed on, hailed on, and rained on during countless days. We have played basketball on it for thousands of hours, dunked it, and raised and lowered the hoop. Through all of this, we still have no problem with it and is fully functional. The only rust that has formed on it is on the screws that attach the backboard frame pad to the backboard, and a little between the bottom pole piece and the middle pole piece. Now that is durability.

Portable Basketball Hoops Maintenance Tips

Portable basketball hoops from Lifetime Products are warrantied 5 years through the factory, but as you can see from our experience, there is plenty of life to be had out of the system beyond that warranty period. While we did not do anything overly special to maintain the system, we did take precautions to help keep it from being damaged. For instance, the 3 times it was blown over we were caught off guard, the many other times we had high winds, we knew the winds were coming and we could go out and lower the backboard down using the sliding mechanism Lifetime Products has installed on their units. When we played, we never hung on the rim, especially since Lifetime Products will not honor a warranty claim if there is evidence of damage due to hanging on the rim or other unnecessary abuse of the unit.

All and all hopefully this has given you some better understanding of what portable basketball hoops can offer. If you take even the most basic precautions, you can see many years of life out of your system.

Related Posts:
Portable Basketball Hoops.
Lifetime Basketball Product Comparison.
Portable Basketball System Review.

Lifetime Chairs

Lifetime Chairs Product Review for Full-Size, Costco, and Accent Models

We often receive questions about folding chairs we carry about their quality, durability, and other concerns. We regularly refer them to our Lifetime chairs as a solution to their needs. Lifetime folding chairs feature contoured seating and back rest. By contouring the seat, as opposed to the flat seat and somewhat rounded back of traditional folding chairs, your back and buttocks rest more comfortably and experience better support. This qualities make Lifetime Chairs great for churches, schools, and other situations where people must sit for extended periods of time. We also carry a new Costco model of Lifetime Products folding chair that we are looking for reviews. Please leave your comments below if you have purchased this model, or any other model of Lifetime folding chair for others to see.

Related Postings:
Lifetime Folding Chairs.
Lifetime Tables.

Lifetime Picnic Tables

Lifetime Picnic Tables - Outdoor Pation Furniture

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, Lifetime Products had an 8 ft. folding Picnic table. This table fit 8 people comfortably and was the premier product for many campgrounds and church groups. For some reason, this Lifetime Picnic Table product was discontinued and was nowhere to be found unless you were looking for the 400 lbs. enormous, industrial style picnic table. For most people, that is probably not the case. Then about 2 months ago Lifetime Products suddenly brought it back. In the past, this has been a great selling product for us, and with this new model Lifetime appears to have made some improvements, which has allowed them to extend their factory warranty on this model to 10 years, instead of the 2 year warranty offered on the 6 ft. models. The new model number is 80123.

What we are looking for now is for customers to submit reviews on this model when the purchase it. We want to see what people think of this model compared to the original 8 ft. model, the current 6 ft. models, and / or what people think of it overall. Please submit your reviews in the comments section of this post.

Related Links:
Lifetime Picnic Table.
Kids Picnic Table.

Lifetime Table Fold in Half Information

Lifetime Table - Fold in Half Tables from Lifetime Products

Lifetime Products designs many new and very original products. One of those is their fold in half Lifetime Table. This table creates a whole new convenience that never has been seen in a Lifetime Table and not yet really duplicated in the folding table market. The idea with the fold in half table is to make the table even more mobile and easy to store than a traditional folding leg table. This is done by placing some hinges along the center and creating a seam so the unit can fold in half. By doing this, the folding width is doubled, but you also lose the other half of the table top surface area jutting out in case it needs to be fit in a smaller area like a closet or in the back of a vehicle.

With this new design also comes some set backs. Some customers have mentioned to us that the fold in half Lifetime Table is uneven long the seam. We asked Lifetime Products about this and they did acknowledge that this is possible, but only when the legs are on uneven surfaces. If you are experiencing this, you should attempt to even up the ground it is placed on so that the table top is as level as possible, and that should eliminate the problem.

The other concern we have heard about from customers is that on the round 60 inch fold in half units, the legs stick out when it is folded in half, thus you do not have just the half moon table top shape, but the legs sticking out about a foot on either side. This is not a design flaw. We have been told by Lifetime Products that this is because the size of the unit that the legs must stick out in the folded position. The old round 48 inch fold in half table allowed the legs to fold into the table top, but this was just because of the smaller size. A customer that had brought this to our attention also asked about this 48 inch model, as she has not been able to find it at either Sam's Club or Costco. We inquired about that to Lifetime as well, and we will be able to offer the 48 round fold in half Lifetime table again in about 2 months. We will keep you posted.

Lifetime Table Related Links:
4428 Adjustable Tables.
2123 Lifetime Picnic Table.

Maintaining a Competitive Edge

Competitive Edge Products, Inc. Customer Service Statement

It has been a long time since we have posted to this blog, so we figured this would be as good a time as any to give our customers an update on the happenings at Competitive Edge. In the past year, and very recently, through continuing to provide excellent service, we have exceeded 15,000 positive feedbacks on eBay. This was a great accomplishment, as eBay has continued to incorporate more and more changes to their seller accounts making it more and more difficult and competitive to maintain high seller status. By having as much support from out customer base as we have, we have been able to maintain high seller status, which minimizes our fees, and thus allows us to sell our product lines at a cheaper price to you, our valued customers.

Beyond the eBay changes, Competitive Edge Products, Inc. continues to simplify the ordering process and automate the outcomes so you are provided with the same service every time in a timely manner. We welcome any feedback and input from our customers that would better enhance your shopping experience with us. Thank you.

Competitive Edge Related Links
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