Schmelke Cues..... Again

Very cool of the Schmelke to replace the cue. The only response I got from a cue maker when I asked about the warp mine developed was "buy a new one". I followed his advice and bought one from McDermott :wink:

I like it alot,
And I know it was a great price as well,

It's people like the Schmelke family restore our faith in "customer service" and standing behind their products. Going to the extreme to be customer friendly. I ordered a few cues...some mistakes were made on their end...and on one of the cues I did not like the wood. They said to send whatever I was not happy with back for exchange or refund. I ended up keeping everything. I appreciated the positive/immediate recourse. I hope they are busy and extremely successful...they deserve it.

Schmelke is excellent. Dave made me 2 shafts last summer and they both play excellent.

I had a warped butt on a well known production steel jointed cue that cost about $700. It was a month old and severely warped butt. I sent it back and they told me "too bad, so sad, no warranty." I called the owner and he said "Go commit a sexual act upon yourself." only he used just two words and hung up.

Not everybody handles a warp problem well, but Schmelke stands behind their work 100%.

Nice story and glad it worked out for you. Wood looks good!I recommended a teammate to go through them and she loved. Price was good to have a custom cue if your not looking for a name cue maker to make it. They treated her fair as i saw the email interaction they had with each other and told of the phone conversations. I wonder if cue makers don't want to deal with our warpage issues because they thing we may have mishandled the cue?.?.?.

I didn't have good luck with Schemelke, I happy you did.

THIS is what you call customer service, above and beyond. If everyone did business like this, there would be a lot fewer "grip" threads

jack 195 said:

I didn't have good luck with Schemelke, I happy you did.

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+1. Maybe I caught them during a bad year.

Cracktherack said:

Schmelke is excellent. Dave made me 2 shafts last summer and they both play excellent.

I had a warped butt on a well known production steel jointed cue that cost about $700. It was a month old and severely warped butt. I sent it back and they told me "too bad, so sad, no warranty." I called the owner and he said "Go commit a sexual act upon yourself." only he used just two words and hung up.

Not everybody handles a warp problem well, but Schmelke stands behind their work 100%.

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I wonder if the owner you talk about was at Joss? Dan Janes is a well respected man with a great history but I've heard very similar stories about terrible customer service from him and I have my own horror story as well.

I just found out recently the cue I play with was made with a Schmelke blank, and from hearing all these good things about them I am glad it was.

Based on the many positive things I've heard about Schmelke on this website I just ordered a R065 sneaky pete with cocobolo butt and points. Had it customized with a 3/8x10 joint and a black collar and it was still a total of $174.07 including shipping charges. I wouldn't even have known about Schmelke if it weren't for these forums, and I love sending some business to a small American cue company. I'll do a review when it arrives and I've played with it some.

ddg45 said:

I wonder if the owner you talk about was at Joss? Dan Janes is a well respected man with a great history but I've heard very similar stories about terrible customer service from him and I have my own horror story as well.

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Two people here in this thread said they had such an experience with Schmelke.


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Glad to hear good news about Schmelke.

They are a great US cue producer.

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ddg45 said:

Based on the many positive things I've heard about Schmelke on this website I just ordered a R065 sneaky pete with cocobolo butt and points. Had it customized with a 3/8x10 joint and a black collar and it was still a total of $174.07 including shipping charges. I wouldn't even have known about Schmelke if it weren't for these forums, and I love sending some business to a small American cue company. I'll do a review when it arrives and I've played with it some.

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Can't beat those prices, and many many reviews in how well they play

I been pondering one myself just cause I love sneakies

I know for a fact Schmelke stands behind their product even after use. I do recall reading on this forum, that Joss warranty is no longer good the moment you chalk the cue. Is that true or false? A one word response will suffice!

I took a trip to Schmelke's store/shop with Reuben Fisher a couple weeks ago. David gave a tour and while walking through there I saw a blank that looked really cool. I ended up buying it...
Met a few of the guys working there. They do about 200 cues a month now. Back in the late 80's they did 16,000 in one year if I remember correctly..
They have some cool old equipment that they still use and a ton of old wood in storage.

While we were there a couple guys stopped in. One had a cue he bought a few weeks ago that the finish was cracked near the bumper. You could tell he had hit the floor or something pretty hard with it, but they said they'd re-finish it for him anyway. the other guy said his shaft wasn't straight. Looked like it had a very slight taper roll. It was a year old. David took the cue into the shop and found a shaft that matched and gave it to him.

Both guys looked like the type that would leave the cues in the car or truck year round to cook in the summer and freeze in the winter. Both cues looked to be well less than $100 new, but David took care of both of them without hesitation.

I have 4 or 5 of their cues now and wouldn't hesitate to buy another. :thumbup:

Couple years back I ordered a cue with very specific specs that just didn’t come out as requested. Couple big misses in meeting my requested specs. They were very nice and refunded my money when I decided I didn’t want to try the build again.

Fast forward to a month ago and I decided to give them another try when I wanted an inexpensive cue to keep in my car. Ordered a basic sneaky and a soft case for $128 delivered. Cue is great, very good quality for that price and really can’t be beat IMO. Amazing that you can get a quality US made cue at this price and I’m very happy I tried Schmelke again.

Johnny Rosato said:

I know for a fact Schmelke stands behind their product even after use. I do recall reading on this forum, that Joss warranty is no longer good the moment you chalk the cue. Is that true or false? A one word response will suffice!

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You know for a fact, huh? I have two cues I keep around as a reminder that they don’t. They have had their share of horror stories as well. Anyone who wants to see the “quality workmanship” that can come out of the Schmelke plant can have a look at the two custom cues I ordered from them back in 2008.

As another data point, I am thoroughly impressed with what Schmelke produces at an affordable price. They will make custom modifications to shaft diameter, taper, ferrule, etc on their production cues for prices which do not gouge the customer. I've ordered a a cue, three shafts, and an extension from them and have been happy.