I'm sorry... this is long....
Okay, I suppose I need to add my 2 cents here since the table in question is sitting in my billiards room. There's so much to this story that I don't even know where to begin. Glen offered me a good piece of advice a while back when he said to stick to the facts, so that's what I'm going to do.
Here are the facts as I know them to be. I purchased my Goldenwest pool table directly from the factory in June of 2009. The factory is 10 blocks from my house. I'd only just discovered the joys of playing pool 5 weeks before I decided to buy a table, so I really did not know anything about pool tables. I assumed that all tables were created equal, and that if I spent $3000 for a pool table, then I'd get what I paid for. I decided on Goldenwest primarily because they are a local business, and I simply prefer to spend my dollars locally... it's just good to keep my hard earned dollars in the community in which I live as far as I'm concerned.
I was never really happy with my pool table, not from the beginning. Within 10 days after purchasing the table, the cloth developed holes on the edge of the side pockets.
The folks at Goldenwest were very helpful when I contacted them about this problem. Within a few days they sent out the mechanics to resolve the issue. The guys came in, pulled the cloth back and filed the edge of the slate smooth. They then proceeded to try to stretch the cloth tight enough so that they could trim the holes out of both side pockets without actually having to replace the cloth. I sat there the whole time and watched them work because I wanted to know how this could have happened, and I wanted to be very aware of how they resolved it. Eventually they gave up on trying to stretch the cloth to hide or trim the holes, and they just replaced the cloth.
There were a few other minor issues with the table that I was never happy with, but I won't go into all that. Suffic to say that as I got into league and tournament play on Brunswick Goldcrowns and Diamond tables, I learned that all tables are not created equal.
For the next year-and-a-half, I made due with the table I had. Then in December 2010 I decided that I needed the table to perform better. I met Glen (Real King Cobra) here on AZB, and he very sweetly offered to change the cloth and tune up my table since he was on his way to Portland already to deliver some Diamond tables. This is where things start to get weird.
The first thing Glen said when he walked up to my pool table is that the playing surface was not square. In other words, as we stood at the head rail looking down table to the foot rail, I'd never noticed before but the head rail was off to the right and the foot rail was off to the left so that each end of the table had one pocket that was slightly bigger than the other and the side rails did not run straight from one end to the other. As Glen walked around the table and knocked a few balls around, he pointed out that most of the rails were loose, which was causing the rails to absorb the impact from the balls, thus creating the effect of dead rails with minimal bounce.
When Glen got under the table to pull the rails off, then he got angry! He showed me on the end rails that the bolt holes on the rails did not match the holes in the slate, so only 2 of the 3 bolts were in the end rails. So on the head rail, the 2 right bolts were in place which caused that rail to be off center to the right, and on the foot rail the 2 left bolts were in place, which caused that rail to be off center to the left. As he moved to the side rails, Glen just got angrier and angrier. He found that none of the bolt holes in the rails matched up with the holes in the slate, so instead of using the heavy duty rail bolts to hold the rails in place, the Goldenwest factory mechanics who installed my $3000 pool table had used SLATE SCREWS with stacks of washers to hold the rails on!!!! Slate screws are basically very long wood screws.... they just screwed those self tapping wood screws right into my rails and (I guess) pocketed the rail bolts. And they did this not once, but twice!!! Remember, when they came out to change the cloth 2 weeks after installing the table, they took the rails off, and put them back on a second time using those slate screws!
(Screwed right into my rails!)
Once he realized that the rails had essentially been rigged, Glen asked to see the receipt for the purchase of my table. He called Goldenwest and asked them if they, as a matter of policy, use slate screws to hold rails in place. The man that Glen had on the phone told Glen that they do not put tables together with slate screws to hold the rails on, and the Goldenwest representative told Glen that if we had a table with slate screws holding on the rails that, "...they didn't get that table from us." Glen informed the man that he was looking at the receipt for the purchase of the table directly from the factory 19 months prior, and that there was a $200 charge on the reciept for delivery and setup. Glen let the man know that we were on our way over with pictures and proof.
(The difference between rail bolts and slate screws)
Glen met directly with Rob, who identified himself as the owner of Goldenwest Billiards. Rob did acknowledge that it was messed up that the table we purchased was set up with the wrong slate and that rather than to make it right, the factory mechanics had rigged it. Rob agreed to send over a new slate. However.... when the new slate arrived, no sooner had the Goldenwest employees who delivered the slate left than Glen noticed that the bolt pattern on the rails was off by half an inch, which meant that the rails were still not going to work.
Glen called Rob at Goldenwest and asked him what the measurement should be on the rail bolt pattern. Glen confirmed that the measurement that Rob told him on the phone was half an inch off from what our rails actually were. Glen showed me by putting the rail on the new slate and putting the rail bolts in. The rail bolts barely fit because the bolt holes in the rails were set too far apart, and with the bolts in place, there was no space at all to adjust the rails on the slate... the rails (which are suppose to be adjustable so that the rails can all be lined up properly) were locked in place because the bolt pattern on the rails were off just enough that there was absolutely no room to move the rails around at all.
Now, at this point, I would have hoped that the owner of Goldenwest would have jumped in his car and traveled the 10 blocks from the factory to my house to see for himself; instead, he argued with Glen, basically told Glen that he was crazy, but agreed to rebuild the rails if we brought them over. Rob measured the bolt patterns on the rails when we arrived at the factory with all 6 rails in hand; he would not acknowledge that they were off, but he agreed to build us new rails with bolt holes correctly spaced. He told us that we would have to wait 2 days. This is just my opinion, but I thought that Rob was extremely rude to Glen, he basically told Glen to get out of his shop after we dropped off the rails, and no one else who works there would look at or talk to me. I've been doing business with Goldenwest for a year-and-a-half, they have always been my first choice for billiards supplies because I like to keep it local, but I felt like I was being shunned.... but again, that's just my opinion.
So, during the 2 days that we waited for the new rails, Glen began the process of leveling the new slate. He quickly realized that the new slate that Goldenwest had brought over was warped. The slate had a "W" shaped warp on the head rail end.
(Yeah, that's how flat the slate WASN'T)
So, after our 2 day wait, we sat around all morning that Friday waiting to hear from Goldenwest, assuming that they would call us when the new rails were ready. At noon, Glen suggested that I call. When I got a Goldenwest employee on the phone, I asked about our rails, whether they were ready or not, and this is what she told me: "Yes, the rails are ready; you have to pick them up by 4:30 today, otherwise you won't be able to get them until next Tuesday." I don't know how long they had been ready, and I don't know if anyone over there was planing to call us to come get them.
So, we drove over to pick up the new rails. Glen measured the bolt holes; the measurements were perfect. Glen told Rob about the warped slate, and Rob told Glen that he was not willing to send another slate to our house, but that if Glen wanted to bring the slate the 10 blocks back to the factory that Rob would let Glen pick out the slate he wanted. So, yes, Glen went back to my house, disconnected the trailer full of pool tables from his very large truck, loaded the slate into his truck by himself, and brought it over to the Goldenwest factory. Rob kept tossing insults at Glen while we were there, telling Glen that he didn't believe that Glen knew how to change table cloth and stuff like that. Glen didn't take the bait, but rather stayed very professional and kept his focus on getting what he needed to make my table right.
I know this is getting very long, I'm almost done, and I'm leaving a lot out of the story for the sake of brevity.
Glen got the new, new slate on my table by himself, he got it leveled, he got the new rails covered. When he went to bolt the new rails to the slate, he discovered that the bolt holes on the new rails were not deep enough to accomodate the replacement rail bolts that Goldenwest had given us. So when he tried to tighten the first rail bolt, the bolt broke the bottom of the rail, actually split the wood. There was no way to avoid it. Glen used a caliper to determine that the bolt holes were simply not deep enough for the bolts! (Fortunately we had lots of washers left over from all the washers that were used on the slate screws that Goldenwest used to hold the rails on at first installation.) Lucky for me, I had a GREAT pool table mechanic on my side... Glen was able to repair the rail, and with stacks of washers on the rail bolts he avoided breaking anymore rails.
Thanks to Glen, I now have a perfectly level, beautifully playing pool table. The side pockets are really, really small because the rails were drilled strangely. In fact, one side pocket is substantially smaller than the other side pocket... I can barely get my hand into the smaller side pocket, and I have to pull balls out of it one at a time because it's so damn small, but other than that, the table is finally playing like a $3000 pool table... thanks to Glen.
I did finally receive a letter of apology from Goldenwest in the mail today, 1 month after all this took place. It was nice to receive a formal apology, short and to the point, but to be honest, it does not change the way I feel about the poor workmanship and crappy treatment we received from Goldenwest. After a month of silence (and after the hostile way that Rob treated Glen, who was only trying to help us get the pool table that we paid for), this letter of apology feels more like damage control than sincere regret. Still, I do appreciate the gesture.
Glen originally came to my home to change the cloth on my Goldenwest pool table. You'd think that changing the cloth on a pool table should take a day. By the time we finished dealing with (and correcting) all the problems with my Goldenwest table, Glen was at my home for SIX DAYS! I took an unplanned week off from work to be here with him while he worked. (My employer was not happy!) The whole situation was crazy in the extreme.
I don't know what else to say. I have no intention of doing business with Goldenwest ever again... not for anything. I would never recommend a Goldenwest pool table to anyone who I like. I look forward to the day that I can move this pool table out of my home and get myself a real pool table. But I am grateful, all the same, to Glen, Real King Cobra, for all he did to get me the table I paid for a year-and-a-half ago, and for making that table play as sweetly as it possible could.
That's my story. I apologize for the length.
:grin: I then showed him how FLAT the slate was with my 2' machinist straight edge...and the 1/16" dip in the slate in a 1 foot section of the slate....but he was quick to inform me...that HE could level that slate...I told him...no doubt...but I still wanted the slate replaced....sooo...I guess someone else will end up with that slate I had replaced...on THEIR pool table next...LOL
