Here is a link that got sent to me from a fellow az member and I think it is warranted to know who you are spending your money with since you have a choice in this world and since your hard earned money also is an investment and the product should be something that you should be proud to own.I have spents 100s of thousands of dollars buying cues and cases and it stopped me right in my tracks from ever buying from Mr.Barton.For the record I wasnt involved with any of these posts and if all these threads and statements are wrong than I will personally apologize to everyone whos names are mentioned in it.I also have been personally attacked from a keyboard and emails from Mr.Barton several times unprovoked.Just saying.....
Mr. Chamberlain,
You are not being truthful with the readers. Not at all. In our private conversations you have told me that you are only upset that I have been mean to Mr. Justis and if I were not then you would have bought cases from me. You have not been attacked unprovoked Mr. Chamberlain. You have tried to slander my person and my business in many ways these past few years and that was the provocation for the communicating with you privately. And privately we had many conversations where you responded also in harsh ways. I was mean to you and I address that below.
Now, you are heavily invested in Justis cases. You resell them, you use them to trade for cues. You have every reason, actually thousands $ of them, to dislike me for speaking ill of Mr. Justis' cases. I understand that and I understand that in our exchanges I have also been mean to you, calling into question your self-proclaimed professional player status and the high runs you claim to have. If I were you I'd hate me with every fiber of my being.
But I don't hate you. I understand the economic impetus you have to protect your investment. I also understand your prejudice against anything not made in the USA. I don't agree with it but I do understand that it colors how you choose to respond when giving advice on products.
It's ok, we all have our biases and preferences. Those are formed by our experiences, friendships, loyalties, investments and the like. It's disingenuous though to pretend to be motivated by something other than our own biases. For example I am motivated by my own philosophy on cue protection. Fanatically so to the point that I have made people very uncomfortable with my confrontational and mean comments in the past. It doesn't matter if I was completely right or not when I get pissy with someone and shred them sarcastically it changes the tone to one that is hard to deal with for all sides.
I apologize for being a jerk to you in the past. I should have realized that you are only speaking from your own perspective. Now I do completely understand that this apology means nothing to you and that you will continue to needle and slander me wherever you can. It's alright, I am reaping what I have sown in that regard.
Still though I cannot allow you to state untruths without challenge so I hope that you will understand that every time you speak out against my person or my business then I will answer it with the facts.
And the fact is that this group you posted a link to is a place where the people I have been "mean" to have gathered to voice their displeasure without fear of being banned on this forum. The only person who has the bravery to speak under his own name is Eric Hu. And I have answered him in kind in that space.
I don't really want to continue this sort of dialog with anyone but I do understand that I have made many "enemies" over the years due to my low tolerance for bullies and my low tolerance for bigots and racists and willfully ignorant remarks. I have also always been aggressively defensive in the face of outright lies about my products and my business.
So while I have said a lot of things I am not proud of I have not said anything that I feel was untrue. I am not afraid for people to read the posts at the group you posted a link to. That's the John Barton you get when you attack me in a cowardly and anonymous way.
If you want to attempt to cause me harm, cause my business harm, cause my family harm then I will probably be a jerk about it. And when given the opportunity to say it in more forceful ways as I did on the google group I will. I am not a coward and I do not back down from telling my side of things. I am also not a hypocrite and I state clearly what my biases are for all the readers to see.
If someone doesn't want to buy a case from us because they don't like who I am then that is their choice. I also don't consider buying anything from certain people because of how they have treated me. Nor will I sell to some people because of how they treated me. But one thing I won't do and have never done is pander to this group or anyone in order to get their business. I reserve the right to be true to myself first. And of course I CAN and SHOULD be able to do that while being nice about it which is where I am at now.
If I have one regret over these past 15 years it's been that I didn't learn how to be extremely nice while still firmly asserting my point. I am trying to change that now.
- Let end it though with a testimonial that speaks to the investment aspect of your statement. - I don't build cases to be anything but an insurance investment. As I tell people you can have the best protection I can build for $50 and I will wrap as much decoration around that as you are willing to pay for.
My Lifetime Case
…. I have had many leather cases over the years – I can’t even remember them all – and was never really happy with any of them except for a little 1×2 case made by Marc Turcasso. Yeah, I’m pretty picky. But I recently received a 3×4 case John built to my specs – lots of design freedom with John – and I am extremely happy with it in all respects. It’s a relief to finally have my “lifetime case” to go along with my 28 year old “lifetime cue”. To those who think “built in China” means lower quality, I have no comment except to say that it’s not true with JB Cases.
Rich Klein
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Rich's case -
http://jbcases.com/rich.html