As a cuemaker how would you handle this situation...

jlrowe

jlrowe

Billiards,Boxing & Babes
Silver Member
Got the idea from posting in another thread. Okay here is the scenerio, I did have this to happen once and found it to be an awkward situation. I let it go and never said anything. I ordered a custom cue to my specs. I wasnt unreasonable i thought. I wanted a cocobolo full splice sneaky .850 joint diameter so i could use my Tiger X on it, long pro taper at least 16" at 12.75, weight 18 to 18.6, balance pt of 19.5 or more. The cuemaker says it no problem. Get the cue well my woods and materials were right. shaft diameter was right but definitely not the taper i requested. balance point was about 19 and the weight came in at about 19.2. I thought well i can taper the shaft and the weight is a little heavy but i can deal with it. But didnt think about it started to put my Tiger X on it and the joint was about .840. How do you think this should be handled from both sides.
 
Was it made to your specs and satisfaction? No on two counts.
The deal is not done until Both parties involved are satisfied, IMHO.
 
howiesatwork said:
Was it made to your specs and satisfaction? No on two counts.
The deal is not done until Both parties involved are satisfied, IMHO.
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I agree. You provided all the info but the product wasn't the right one delivered. You had no involvement with the product not being finished to spec so its not your problem.
 
jlrowe said:
Got the idea from posting in another thread. Okay here is the scenerio, I did have this to happen once and found it to be an awkward situation. I let it go and never said anything. I ordered a custom cue to my specs. I wasnt unreasonable i thought. I wanted a cocobolo full splice sneaky .850 joint diameter so i could use my Tiger X on it, long pro taper at least 16" at 12.75, weight 18 to 18.6, balance pt of 19.5 or more. The cuemaker says it no problem. Get the cue well my woods and materials were right. shaft diameter was right but definitely not the taper i requested. balance point was about 19 and the weight came in at about 19.2. I thought well i can taper the shaft and the weight is a little heavy but i can deal with it. But didnt think about it started to put my Tiger X on it and the joint was about .840. How do you think this should be handled from both sides.
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Well the easiest solution would be to have the shaft fitted to the cue..
 
JBCustomCues said:
Well the easiest solution would be to have the shaft fitted to the cue..
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I agree with Joe here. Have the shaft matched up to the cue. You can't have your cake and eat it too as they say. If the cue maker made the joint at .850" then it would be heavier. He could take some weight out of the back but then change the balance point. If he is using a taper bar like most cue makers then adjusting the joint would make the butt larger and again heavier. By the way I believe that most aftermarket shafts are .845" or less. Also wondering did you give the cue maker your Tiger shaft so that he could try and match up?

Jim.
 
jlrowe said:
Got the idea from posting in another thread. Okay here is the scenerio, I did have this to happen once and found it to be an awkward situation. I let it go and never said anything. I ordered a custom cue to my specs. I wasnt unreasonable i thought. I wanted a cocobolo full splice sneaky .850 joint diameter so i could use my Tiger X on it, long pro taper at least 16" at 12.75, weight 18 to 18.6, balance pt of 19.5 or more. The cuemaker says it no problem. Get the cue well my woods and materials were right. shaft diameter was right but definitely not the taper i requested. balance point was about 19 and the weight came in at about 19.2. I thought well i can taper the shaft and the weight is a little heavy but i can deal with it. But didnt think about it started to put my Tiger X on it and the joint was about .840. How do you think this should be handled from both sides.
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you could do either send it back and have it rebuilt or send it back and ask for a refund. i'd go the refund route. you gave pretty decent specs and he showed that you weren't important enough to listen to, he didn't care what you had to say, or just couldn't do it. none of those are good imo.

unless he says he accidently sent you a cue meant for someone else i'd go ahead and ask for you dough back
 
I had a situation where I asked a particular cuemaker (big name) to make me a cue, after 3 times remaking the cue that was never right either on weight, shaft diamaters and woods I got my money back. I would give him another chance at least.
 
jlrowe said:
Got the idea from posting in another thread. Okay here is the scenerio, I did have this to happen once and found it to be an awkward situation. I let it go and never said anything. I ordered a custom cue to my specs. I wasnt unreasonable i thought. I wanted a cocobolo full splice sneaky .850 joint diameter so i could use my Tiger X on it, long pro taper at least 16" at 12.75, weight 18 to 18.6, balance pt of 19.5 or more. The cuemaker says it no problem. Get the cue well my woods and materials were right. shaft diameter was right but definitely not the taper i requested. balance point was about 19 and the weight came in at about 19.2. I thought well i can taper the shaft and the weight is a little heavy but i can deal with it. But didnt think about it started to put my Tiger X on it and the joint was about .840. How do you think this should be handled from both sides.
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Hi,

Requesting a balance point and exact weights on sneakys can be problematic. Each bank has it's own characteristic and since there is no A-Joint bolt for adjustment the cue maker is limited as the blank creates it's own balance point. Of corse you can put in a rear weight but that will bring the balance point aft. When building a cue you have a lot of things you can do because you can select the wood before you assemble.

.840 joint when you ordered .850 is not acceptable. He can sand the cue, re-epoxy several coats and re-clear several coat to make up the .010 with no problem.

Good Luck,

Rick G
 
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Ok the best thing that you can do is get on the phone and call the CM. I still say that the best solution is the have the shaft matched up with the cue.
 
Have the shaft turned down to 840. Then have him take weight out of the back of the butt by drilling the butt out. This should make the cue the right weight and bring the balance point forward to 19.5.
 
Well, The shaft is a Tiger X and it fits my other custom like a glove so i wouldnt want to mess with it. The .850 is the diameter of joint on my other custom. I actually did drill out the butt and it helped a lot. For the record it is not anyone on az as i know of. It was a person that had a nice looking custom he made. The reserve was set really low for such a nice cue. So i contacted him about just building me a full splice cocobolo with my specs to experiment a little. I will just chalk it up as a mistake on my part. I was going for least expensive way and thats what i got.
 
jlrowe said:
Well, The shaft is a Tiger X and it fits my other custom like a glove so i wouldnt want to mess with it. The .850 is the diameter of joint on my other custom. I actually did drill out the butt and it helped a lot. For the record it is not anyone on az as i know of. It was a person that had a nice looking custom he made. The reserve was set really low for such a nice cue. So i contacted him about just building me a full splice cocobolo with my specs to experiment a little. I will just chalk it up as a mistake on my part. I was going for least expensive way and thats what i got.
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Well, my take on this is that he accepted the order as such so he should have done as was contracted for. I build cues completely to the customers specs, but, with stipulations. I try to steer people into the direction of my favorite parameters but the customer has the last word. I like to use a radial pin and that is what I'm set up for. I have two sets of carbide masters that I use for my joints. If I need to use a different pin, I will, but I charge an additional 50.00 to do it as it adds probably 2 hours to the time it takes to build the cue. The same with the joint size. I'll do what you want but expect to pay more for that option.

Dick
 
Dick is right. If he couldn't/wouldn't do what you wanted, he should have made that clear in the beginning.
If you spec .850 and get .840, I feel the cue maker is obligated to make it right.
Using finish to build it up is unacceptable. In my opinion, the cue needs to be rebuilt.
If you order a CUSTOM cue, it should be very close to what you specified, especially on something as basic as a joint diameter.
It sounds like you were probably dealing with someone without a lot of experience. If the price was right, perhaps you can simply sell the cue, and chalk it up to experience.
 
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