Recently, I had to order some small trophies for my curling league and have some engraving done. I went to Globe Trophy & Engraving, the same place I went to last year, and talked to the salesperson. They pulled up my order from last year and said they would order the same items and they promised they would have them ready for pickup at noon on the 23rd, which meant I would have them in time for the awards banquet that evening. I thanked them and said I would email them the details for the engraving in a few days once I’d finished crunching the numbers. I also wanted to order some curling pins, but they didn’t have anything in their catalogue that was appropriate, so I decided to call around.

Happy that I’d placed the order for the trophies, I headed off and scouted out a supplier for the pins, SGA Signs and Trophies. I talked to them on the phone and they said they would order the pins, engrave the year on them and have them ready for pickup in a couple of days.

A couple of days passed and I picked up the pins on-schedule.

“Excellent!” thought I. “I love it when a plan comes together.”

And then I went to pick up the trophies from Globe, which is when the plan unravelled.

I walked in and said I was there to pick up my trophies. The guy looked slightly confused, but maybe that’s his normal expression. He went into the back for a while and then someone else came out and said he’d check up on the first guy. After a wait, the salesperson I dealt with originally came out with three trophy cups, which is when I got a really bad feeling.

“We can’t find your order. Are you sure you ordered them?” she said.

“Uh, yes. I’m positive. I was here and you and I talked. You said you’d order them and that they would absolutely, positively be ready for pick up on the 23rd, which is today.”

“I’ve checked the system, and I can’t find any record of an order. I do remember talking to you, though.”

“How can you not have ordered them? That’s the basis of your whole business! You order things for customers, engrave them and the customer picks them up. Now I’m left without the trophies and it’s the day of the banquet. I’m not happy about this.”

“Well, we can engrave these cups and order the trophies you wanted. Then you can pick them up next week and pay for them then.”

“And how much is that going to cost me?”

“Well…” <flipping through catalogue and pointing to the price> “…this much plus engraving.”

“On top of the cups?”

“Yes.”

It was at this point I pulled out my cellphone and called SGA Signs and Trophies and explained the situation to them.

“No problem, sir. We can help you out. If you can drop by, we’ll have them ready in a couple of hours.”

And so I left, pausing to tell them I was heading to their competition who could fulfill my order.

Upon arrival at SGA Signs and Trophies, I looked through the available trophies, selected three and give them the engraving. They said they’d be ready in a couple of hours. Excellent!

When I returned a couple of hours later, the trophies were ready. In fact, they noticed the trophy I selected for skip of the year was missing a bit so they prepared an alternative trophy, complete with the name plate. The trophy they suggested was better than the original one, so I went with it.

So, I have nothing but good things to say about SGA Signs and Trophies. If you’re looking for trophies for a sports league or you want to have something engraved or any of the other services such as having paint stencils or signs made, visit SGA Signs and Trophies. Ask for Imad and tell him Gordon sent you. 🙂