Really disappointed in XSF/TT11

I play table tennis almost every day, and have been searching for a decently priced plastic ball. I've tried the Tibhar 40+ SL, Tibhar SYNTT, Xiom and XSF. A few months ago I ordered around 6 x Xiom 6pc and 5 x XSF 6pc packs. It seemed like both brands had approximately the same percentage of excellent round balls (2-3 out of each pack of 6) and the remaining balls were mostly playable. Out of the total of 66 balls, I think I had maybe 5-6 balls that were so bad that they were totally unplayable.

Since XSF was cheaper, this time I placed an order for 10 x XSF 6pc. This has to be the most disappointing table tennis purchase I have ever made. I have opened 4 boxes so far, and out of those 24 balls I have found only 3 that are actually round. I have had to throw away 7 balls because they wobble so badly it's impossible to even practice with them.

I don't know if XSF has ridiculously poor quality control, or TT11 is damaging the balls during storage or transport, but this is just unacceptable, and I'm posting this to warn people that the 5 star reviews on the XSF 3 star balls might apply to previous batches but I have definitely not had a 5 star experience with this purchase.

XSF is by far the best ball on the market! I have broken only 3 after 2 months of 4 days 3 hours per week training sessions.

Rhainur ,check the four letters somewhere on the box, that will indicate the manufacturing date and post it to see when the balls where made, although they must fairly recent

All the new 40+ plastic have it stamped, but shouldn't be that bad unless TT11 is getting the lower quality balls, but imo it's unlikely

I don't see the point to blame TT11 unless they did not pack the balls well. 

I had this issue before, they were defected according to TT11. Refunded with no issues.

Lestat wrote: I've noticed that too, the last couple times I went for XuShaoFa I could barely pick 2 balls in a set of 6. Exact same story for Tibhar 40+ seamless, which is the same ball. I swore I wouldn't touch anything else other than Nittaku premium, but ran into another problem. Nittaku is so good that it makes it hard to switch to another (seamless) ball at the drop of a hat and, as it stands, seamless is far more popular in league play and tournaments. I always knew this was going to happen, but I'm done buying eggs. Best I can do is keep one or two good seamless ones in the bag and bring them out only before a match. p.s. I got them from a local distributor myself, no connection to tabletennis11.

DreiZ wrote: Lestat wrote: I've noticed that too, the last couple times I went for XuShaoFa I could barely pick 2 balls in a set of 6. Exact same story for Tibhar 40+ seamless, which is the same ball. I swore I wouldn't touch anything else other than Nittaku premium, but ran into another problem. Nittaku is so good that it makes it hard to switch to another (seamless) ball at the drop of a hat and, as it stands, seamless is far more popular in league play and tournaments. I always knew this was going to happen, but I'm done buying eggs. Best I can do is keep one or two good seamless ones in the bag and bring them out only before a match. p.s. I got them from a local distributor myself, no connection to tabletennis11. Ive recently played with the new Joola p-ball and its great, very similar to NP40+, if want to try something other than the NP40+. . BTY G40+ is good quality also.

Rhainur wrote: I play table tennis almost every day, and have been searching for a decently priced plastic ball. I've tried the Tibhar 40+ SL, Tibhar SYNTT, Xiom and XSF. A few months ago I ordered around 6 x Xiom 6pc and 5 x XSF 6pc packs. It seemed like both brands had approximately the same percentage of excellent round balls (2-3 out of each pack of 6) and the remaining balls were mostly playable. Out of the total of 66 balls, I think I had maybe 5-6 balls that were so bad that they were totally unplayable. Since XSF was cheaper, this time I placed an order for 10 x XSF 6pc. This has to be the most disappointing table tennis purchase I have ever made. I have opened 4 boxes so far, and out of those 24 balls I have found only 3 that are actually round. I have had to throw away 7 balls because they wobble so badly it's impossible to even practice with them. I don't know if XSF has ridiculously poor quality control, or TT11 is damaging the balls during storage or transport, but this is just unacceptable, and I'm posting this to warn people that the 5 star reviews on the XSF 3 star balls might apply to previous batches but I have definitely not had a 5 star experience with this purchase.

Take it the other way alround ,now that u have those eggs may actually help

Since their bounce would be more unpredictable they would keep u on ur toes and force u to be ready to hit/play them

So in the long run u may benefit and help develop faster reaction time

Or not !!!!

In my club we use exclusively XSF. There are hardly two balls per box which are perfectly round......apart from the shape they seemed to be the most durable and BTY G40+ the most fragile

achoomai wrote: Any information about lot number on the box ?

The only number I can find on the box is below the barcode and the number that they all have is

6 924474 728298

AcudaDave wrote: I spoke with Tom at Zeropong a while back and he said it makes a big difference at which time the balls are shipped. If they are stored/shipped in a hot climate this can cause them to warp.

I live in the UAE, which means the balls are going to be stored/shipped in a hot climate for 2/3 of the year. Am I doomed to warped balls for the rest of my life here?

Wow Rhainur!

That is terrible!  Basically he is saying that sorry dude, our balls may be utter crap, not much we can do (we are only the manufacturer), you are on your own mother#$%^.

Of course there are standards and procedures to check the roundness!  They just don't want to do it.

By the way Rhainur, I live in Houston and have kept seamless balls in the trunk of my car in summer without them going out of round.  It is not quite as hot here as Dubai, but it is still very hot.  I think the temperature thing is BS.  I think that XSF just don't want to have to throw away bad balls when they can get away with selling them instead!

I recommend buying seamless balls from someone else (like Xiom or Nexy) or better yet, just pay more and play with Nittaku Premium.  Now the seamless balls may come from the same factory, but those companies decide which ones to sell or not sell.  They can set their own QC standards.

Piligrim, yes I think you're right, reading again. 

All the same, XSF can certainly test their balls and I am not buying into the temperature from shipping idea.  I have some concerns about their quality control these days (meaning the balls that they choose to put their label on and ship out as 3*).

I like seamless balls, but I'm not buying them from XSF any more.

BRS wrote: I don't know if he could ship to dubai, but the best quality and value in seamless plastic balls is yinhe blue 3* from colestt.com. they are round, last forever unless stepped on and <$1/ball. Preferable to xsf, which is weird since xsf is the manufacturer selling to yinhe.

I thought the Red ones were the better of the 2 new Yinhe versions?

Rich215 wrote: BRS wrote: I don't know if he could ship to dubai, but the best quality and value in seamless plastic balls is yinhe blue 3* from colestt.com. they are round, last forever unless stepped on and <$1/ball. Preferable to xsf, which is weird since xsf is the manufacturer selling to yinhe. I thought the Red ones were the better of the 2 new Yinhe versions?

They are the same.