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Wilson K Six One 95 Issues

After researching on the issues and problems with the Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 and writing to both Wilson and Royal Sporting House about my findings, I finally received a response from Wilson Asia Pacific via Royal Sporting House. I am surprised about the casualness in their response (see below). From the email I received the Wilson Asia Pacific representative clearly admits that the:


1. Handle size of my Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 is on the upper limit.

2. Weight of my Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 is on the lower limit.
3. Customer will experience different playability as well as grip handling issues due to issues (1) and (2).

The Wilson Asia Pacific representative then goes on to say that besides all these problems, the racquet which I returned was still in Wilson's acceptable production range! The tolerance level for the Wilson K Six One 95 tennis racquet ranges between:

Prestrung weight : 325 +/- 7.5 grams Prestrung balance : 32.5 +/- 1 cm

While I am fine with the prestrung balance of plus minus one 1 cm. I am absolutely shocked and appalled by the fact that Wilson has an approved quality control rating of plus minus 7.5 grams for all their K Six One 95 racquets. So basically if I were to play with two exact identical K Six One 95 racquets they will have a either a tolerance weight of plus minus 7.5 grams heavier or lighter and this weight difference is deemed acceptable by Wilson's quality control and research & development standards. If this is the case, I don't understand why Wilson would want to proudly print the specification of the racquet at the throat of their racquets when each of their specification might vary considerably. Their ending statement was basically saying that with all these problems stated above, everything is still within Wilson's production range and therefore is not considered a defective frame and the customer has to please understand this. I don't know whether I should laugh or cry when I actually tried to comprehend the explanation I was given. Here we are presented with all the facts in plain black and white and still after all that is said, Wilson is basically saying that we as paying customers should understand this and take ALL these inconsistencies as within production specs and denying outrightly that there are problems with the K Six One 95.


Personally I don't buy into this and I cannot and will not accept this explanation given by the Wilson representatives. I fully accept the fact that we are social tennis players and not touring professional tennis players but we are paying for a product expecting it to perform according to its specifications. I also accept the fact that most touring professional players racquets are individually customized racquets and not identical off the shelf factory models. But consistency and quality control levels are an absolute must be it for a touring tennis professional, a social player or a club level tennis player. Think about it, Roger Federer doesn't personally buy Wilson racquets. He merely endorses them, we as the paying customer are actually the ones who purchases them and most of the revenue that tennis racquet manufacturers get are from paying customers such as ourselves. Wilson should be the ones who should listen to the customer's feedback and make them happy with their products not the players. But so much emphasis has been put into a player to endorse their products. You can see from these two articles below the emphasis place on Roger Federer's K Six One Tour 90 which took 2 years to research and millions of pounds in investment. The Wilson Pro room article also emphasizes the need for consistent racquets suited to each individual player. If touring pros want consistency, shouldn't we as paying customers want to have the same customization and feeling to the products we purchase? Again we are not professionals and make a living playing on the atp circuit, but wouldn't we want the best in our equipment similar to that of a touring professional? Wouldn't we want to aspire to play like our favorite player on tour? I just hope Wilson will be able to address these issues and try to understand the needs of their customers and not only their touring professionals. We are the paying customers and are the ones that make the most revenue for them in terms of racquet sales.

On parting note. I want to Thank Royal Sporting House for thoroughly investigating this matter and coordinating with Wilson Asia pacific to investigate this issue. Royal Sporting House was not obliged to help me, but they did. Their customer relations were fantastic and I could have not asked for more in terms of the service level and commitment they provide to their customers.

Thank you for investigating this.

Quality control is becoming a bigger issue for players around the world with the explosion of manufacturing in China. Nothing wrong with that. It's just consumers now also have the internet to compare facts!

As I have the kSix-One 95 (16 x 18) myself I found it interesting that my racquet was a little light.

Luckily so for me as it's about all the weight I can handle!

I followed what you did with shaving the foam handle a little and found also the black paint very fragile too. I trimmed the bumper too.

Overall thank you for an informative blog, and I will keep reading as you keep posting.

Rrr, Sydney Australia

This comment has been removed by the author.

Thank you for investing the energy and time to get at least a statement from the manifacturer about their quality standards.
Personally I discovered these discrepancies some years ago but then Wilson never replied with a real answer. Well, for me that was the reason why I never bought one of their raquets again. I tried several other brands and found at least one that gives me much more playing comfort and superior quality. At the moment I play the seventh raquet of this company. Balance was never an issue. I donĀ“t want to mention the name here. Simply my point is that there are other brands that are of high quality even if they might not have he same popularity in the tennis community.

I bought a Wilson K Six One 95 18*20. But the racquet is actually 16*18, However, on the throat of the racquet 18*20 is marked. I have emailed wilson and awaiting a response. But, How can they actually print 18*20 on 16*18 racquet.

I would like to know if anyone has bought the "Tennis Racket Wilson K Factor KSix-One Tour 90 Asian Edition" from this web site: http://carbonbike.en.made-in-china.com/product/iMlxmEFovuWJ/China-Tennis-Racket-Wilson-K-Factor-KSix-One-Tour-90-Asian-Edition.html
And what is the difference between the real and the fake of KSix-One Tour 90 Asian.
Thanks

hi,

i chanced upon your blog and i'm really impressed by your love for tennis! I was aghast by the QC standard of Wilson, and it seems that your case was not the only one reported in the Net.

I'm currently thinking of buying Wilson K Pro Tour from Royal Sporting House, but am giving it some thoughts due to QC issue. I took some swings in the shop using all 3 current models of K Pro, as well as K Six One and found that weight and HL of K Pro Tour suits me best.

I guess the alternative now is to explore Babolat Aero ProDrive Cortex which I saw at Sports Report @ OUB centre. Did not have a chance to swing out though. Any comments on this racket and the general QC of Babolat and this model?

Thanks!

Harry
S'pore

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  • I'm Nawin from regentville
  • Residing in Hougang Singapore
  • Racquets: X2 Prince EXO3 Graphite 100 (Main) X3 Wilson K Blade Tour 93 (Backup) Strings: Toalson Ultimate 115 Strung @ 48-50 pounds. Plays: Right Handed (Single Backhand). Shoes: mi Adidas Barricade V Apparel: Lacoste & Adidas Favourite Players: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic

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