I would recommend any buyers to exercise extreme caution with Trent on these forums when it comes to ordering a custom cue. He has acted very unprofessional with me and held my money hostage due to a mistake on his side.
My story is as follows.
on 11/25/12 I posted on Trent's Black Friday custom cue design thread and pm'd him.
Later that day he informed me that I was one of the two "lucky" people to get the offer and I sent all of the design specifications of a cue I wanted to have built
http://forums.azbilliards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=161865&stc=1&d=1290607837
http://forums.azbilliards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=161864&stc=1&d=1290607812
I had also included these picture in my PM.
He responded back agreeing with understanding the design (we settled on bloodwood) that I wanted and a price ($660 in two payments, $330 down and $330 when finished) and said to "please Paypal the money tonight, so we can firm this up."
Before I sent the money, I sent some buyer conditions as follows
He had agreed and I proceeded to send him the money ($330+paypal fees)
One thing that should have tipped me off is that he told me that he would not begin the cue until "after the holidays" which I understood as after thanksgiving weekend. After further PM's sent in December, he had actually meant all of the winter holidays. He required that I had send him the money over a month before he had planned to start the cue.
The expected completion date was in late April, early May.
In mid January I had to ask, and received my first update on the cue. A photo of the forearm.
As you can see, the veneers are not white-black-white paper veneers sandwiching a thicker red veneer, but rather a black, white, black, red veneers of equal thickness.
I pointed out this discrepancy with this and let him know that I was not pleased with this design change and he responded back with a rather emotional text saying that he would just stop building the cue and refund my money. I still wanted my cue, just done the right way, so I offered to pay for additional materials required to do the forearm to my design. He said that it would be too much work and that he would just send me the down payment in early February. I asked him what he would do for the ring work, since the original idea was coild, if I did let him continue building it. He did not respond to this text and recieved no other communication until I texted him in February.
On February 6th, I texted him asking when he would send my deposit back. Initially surprised, saying that he thought I still wanted the cue, he said that he would send my money in two weeks.
Very quickly he turned on this saying that he would send me only $100 of my deposit back, and then said that he would only send some of the materials of the cue, pretty much just the forearm.
At first, I thought that we had a misunderstanding as why I wanted the money back. I wanted it back because the design wasnt what I wanted or asked for and that he did not respond to my other offer. In one of my texts in our conversation I had said that I needed the money for school, which I had at that point assumed that he misunderstood. I did need money for school, but that is not why I asked my money back. I asked for it because he had not following my specifications.
It has become obvious that he will not own up to this mistake at this point and seems to believe that I am 100% at fault.
I later accepted a second deal in a bid to get my deposit back, once he finished and sold the cue he would return my deposit in full. I took this on the good will that he would continue working on the cue and attempt to find a buyer. Following a recent text from him, I realized that this was not the case and that it was very unlikely that he would ever finish the cue and I would see my money back.
I am posting this as a warning to all other AzB-ers so that they do not fall victim to Trent. I have found his morals and ethics to be questionable and too hot headed to be dealt with in a reasonable fashion.
My story is as follows.
on 11/25/12 I posted on Trent's Black Friday custom cue design thread and pm'd him.
Later that day he informed me that I was one of the two "lucky" people to get the offer and I sent all of the design specifications of a cue I wanted to have built
Having used the following cue as inspiration.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=161865&stc=1&d=1290607837
http://forums.azbilliards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=161864&stc=1&d=1290607812
I had also included these picture in my PM.
He responded back agreeing with understanding the design (we settled on bloodwood) that I wanted and a price ($660 in two payments, $330 down and $330 when finished) and said to "please Paypal the money tonight, so we can firm this up."
Before I sent the money, I sent some buyer conditions as follows
He had agreed and I proceeded to send him the money ($330+paypal fees)
One thing that should have tipped me off is that he told me that he would not begin the cue until "after the holidays" which I understood as after thanksgiving weekend. After further PM's sent in December, he had actually meant all of the winter holidays. He required that I had send him the money over a month before he had planned to start the cue.
The expected completion date was in late April, early May.
In mid January I had to ask, and received my first update on the cue. A photo of the forearm.
As you can see, the veneers are not white-black-white paper veneers sandwiching a thicker red veneer, but rather a black, white, black, red veneers of equal thickness.
I pointed out this discrepancy with this and let him know that I was not pleased with this design change and he responded back with a rather emotional text saying that he would just stop building the cue and refund my money. I still wanted my cue, just done the right way, so I offered to pay for additional materials required to do the forearm to my design. He said that it would be too much work and that he would just send me the down payment in early February. I asked him what he would do for the ring work, since the original idea was coild, if I did let him continue building it. He did not respond to this text and recieved no other communication until I texted him in February.
On February 6th, I texted him asking when he would send my deposit back. Initially surprised, saying that he thought I still wanted the cue, he said that he would send my money in two weeks.
Very quickly he turned on this saying that he would send me only $100 of my deposit back, and then said that he would only send some of the materials of the cue, pretty much just the forearm.
At first, I thought that we had a misunderstanding as why I wanted the money back. I wanted it back because the design wasnt what I wanted or asked for and that he did not respond to my other offer. In one of my texts in our conversation I had said that I needed the money for school, which I had at that point assumed that he misunderstood. I did need money for school, but that is not why I asked my money back. I asked for it because he had not following my specifications.
It has become obvious that he will not own up to this mistake at this point and seems to believe that I am 100% at fault.
I later accepted a second deal in a bid to get my deposit back, once he finished and sold the cue he would return my deposit in full. I took this on the good will that he would continue working on the cue and attempt to find a buyer. Following a recent text from him, I realized that this was not the case and that it was very unlikely that he would ever finish the cue and I would see my money back.
I am posting this as a warning to all other AzB-ers so that they do not fall victim to Trent. I have found his morals and ethics to be questionable and too hot headed to be dealt with in a reasonable fashion.
