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.

Related Competitive Edge Products Company Posts:
Competitive Edge | Infopia.
Competitive Edge | Free Shipping.
Competitive Edge | eBay.

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.