UPDATED February 23 with more information.
The 33-inch model of the 2011 Marucci Cat 5 Adult Baseball Bat has been decertified by both the NCAA and NFHS, and it will not be legal this season in college or high school baseball.
The NCAA announced the decertification on Friday. The NFHS, the national governing body of high school sports, followed suit on Tuesday in an e-mail memo to state association athletic directors.
As a result, the 33-inch Marucci Cat 5 is considered a non-compliant bat in both leagues and leagues that follow NCAA or NFHS rules.
The decertification affects only the 33-inch model; all other Marucci bats, including the Marucci Black and other Cat 5 sizes are still legal.
The decertification is part of the NCAA’s ongoing process of field testing game-used bats. The 33-inch Marucci Cat 5 baseball bat was found to exceed the allowed exit speeds under the BBCOR performance standard.
Marucci has set up a process for customers to return their decertified baseball bats. You can find more information, including instructions on how to complete a return here. You can also contact Marucci at 1-888-768-8118.
Bats must be returned to Marucci by March 31, 2012 to receive a replacement.
Marucci has released a FAQ, which we’ve re-posted below. If you have any other questions, feel free to post them in the comments.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Will Marucci replace my 33×30 Cat52 BBCOR?
A: Yes. We stand behind our products and will replace your 33×30 Cat52 BBCOR with another Marucci bat.
Q: What are my options in replacing my bat?
A: You can find out more details on Marucci’s return program for the 33-inch CAT52 BBCOR bat at www.maruccisports.com/returns.
PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR BATS TO OUR STORES – THEY MUST BE RETURNED TO MARUCCI ACCORDING TO THE INSTRUCTIONS FOUND AT www.maruccisports.com/returns.
Q: When can I expect to receive my replacement bat?
A: Marucci will process returns in the order that they are received and anticipates sending out the first replacement bats in March. For those opting to upgrade to the Marucci Black or choosing the Professional-Cut Wood bats, Marucci will begin fulfilling returns immediately.
John,
I too cannot believe the audacity Marucci has to charge their customers for return shipping on a defective product!
I have been dealing with Marucci for about three months now and have to say their customer service is piss poor at best. I purchased 6 bats and a lot of other baseball gear through their team buying program at the beginning of January. They still have yet to fulfill my order. I had to constantly email, call, and contact their team buying representative (Kyle Achord), just to get basic information about my order. They gave me firm ship dates, then changed them. After numerous emails and calls, they finally told me the order had shipped. When I received the package it was only half the order! Do you think they ever bothered to tell me they didn’t ship it all? Not once.
After more calls and emails, they said the rest of the order had shipped. When the package came, guess what? Still missing bats. Of course, after more calls and emails, I was told that the bats were backordered until the end of February. And of course during all this, I look like a fool, because I’m telling everyone who I recommended buying Marucci to on my teams, that their items would be here by a certain date, only to be screwed again by Marucci. I can’t even get an invoice of my order, which was well over $1000, so I can send the bad bats back! They still haven’t shipped all my bats so I don’t even have an invoice. Can you believe that? Do you think they have even bothered to reply back to my many calls and emails asking for an invoice so I can send the stupid bats back? Nope, and I don’t expect that they will, anytime soon anyway.
Now, half the bats I purchased have to be sent back now that they are no longer good and I have to pay the shipping! UNBELIEVABLE!
I should have known by their customer service, or lack there of, that I would end up being sorry that I dealt with them. Don’t get me wrong, their bats are great and I love them, but who can stand to deal with a company such as this? And now I have to apologize to everyone that I got involved in buying Marucci bats in the first place. Not very many people had even heard of their aluminum bats when I got them interested. Essentially, I vouched for them and put my name on the line.
I’m disgusted by their attitude toward this fiasco. The other people I purchased bats for are even willing to upgrade to the Marucci BLACK and pay the difference! Although for us it is less than the $100 to upgrade, people are willing to spend more money with these morons and they cannot even get it together enough to collect more money!
By the way, thank you for your service, I too am a former Devil Dog. Semper Fidelis
Marucci Customer Service called me yesterday because I didn’t check a replacement option when I return the 33″. I suggested 4 options of my own that would have put a Marucci bat in my son’s hands sooner then over 30 days from now. Two of them were to pay them more money too. This is what Marucci doesn’t get, customers with warranty claims have to work with Marcucci’s timeline to save them money -not to satisfy the warranty claim. We want a bat in a timely manner with better conditions then paying more then full price + shipping costs (only option to get one within what I consider a timely replacement). Of course they said no to all options. My question to the rep before I gave them my answer on what to do was “when would the new replacements be available?”. The company line is mid-March. This answer is like a customer saying to them -the check in the mail. After pressed the rep for a date the rep said “Marucci will have them in on March 17th” (a saturday?) and will begin to ship the following week. I asked if that was a guarantee date. The rep said no because there could be other delays. So our claim to Marucci is they are not living up to their replacement guarantee with a timely replacement. February 17th bat is decertified by NCAA and maybe March 30th we get a replacement. Thats 42 days and I pay all shipping costs. For this reason I am now a X-customer. Failure to replace bat in a timely manner. Bad business bad company.
PS: My son had a 2008 Easton metal bat which began to rattle in February of 2009. It was under warranty and Easton replace it with a 2009 model with me paying shipping cost to the return only. Had a replacement bat in 14 days. Thats timely!
I completely agree with the previous comments regarding the poor customer service. We were the unfortunate purchasers of the 33″ CAT5. Even though I was erked by having to spend money to send back a defective bat and spend more money for another bat it seemed like the best option rather than going down to the local shop and paying $300-400 for a different bat.
We elected to plunk down another $100 plus expedited shipping to get the 33″ black…hopefully its not just a cat5 painted black. After all that and even personally discussing expedited shipping and paying for it…I get a message from UPS later that day that the bat was shipped UPS ground..GGRRRRRR!!!!
Oh but the good news, they will refund the extra $25 bucks since they did not expedite the shipping…WOW WAY TO STEP UP!!!! If this bat is not the smokingest hot bat my son has ever played with it will be the last Marucci I buy!!!!
I heard that Easton is planning to submit the 32″ and 34″ for re-testing to WSU because those bats are also illegal. I was told not to buy them because that they will be banned.
We will never buy another Marucci product again, I understand that situations happen, but their poor attempt at customer service is what we will remember from this. I don’t care who they have endorsing their product. Junk is junk, when it comes to companies and the way the company handles defective products.