Pete, Those cues are breathtaking! :clapping:
has any one else had pete tonkin
- Thread starter cornerstone
- Start date
Pete, Those cues are breathtaking! :clapping:
Thank you Pete I'm glad that I'm finally getting a response out of you I am sorry that I had to take it this far but many years of non-responsive Q making irritates people I am glad that you finally stepped up and responded to me.
Fairness
Dave .. Since you have chosen to call out Bill for his grammar I think its only fair that you also check out post #13 and mention the grammar errors in Pete's post.
Dave .. Since you have chosen to call out Bill for his grammar I think its only fair that you also check out post #13 and mention the grammar errors in Pete's post.
You guys defending the cuemaker i really don,t understand. He admits he thought he had sent bill grassley his wood in the past but then admits he found it hidden away in a box. Hes had it for 5 years. I dont think its unreasonable to expect a phone call or something during that time to give a progress report of some kind.im not saying bill should comment on his cues secondary value but when people don,t respond to you in 5 years what are you supposed to do,just sit there and take it.
The whole thing is confusing....
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I am not a cue collector and I have always thought paying so much for a Cue was a waste of money. Then I was fortunate enough to spend time with Richard Black at his home and shop and see some of his Private collection and also spent time with Pete Tonkin at his shop an pool room and saw some of his work finished and in progress and I am in awe of what these guys do. unfortunatley can't afford what I saw but Pete and Richard made me a believer.
Your conclusion might make sense if you don't read between the lines. Let me break it down for you:
Bill is butthurt because Pete won't make him a cue. He's so butthurt that he would throw in that line about secondary market value because while Pete has made monster cues for other dealers, Bill's left out to dry (for whatever reason).
It was never about the piece of wood per se. Bill was holding out hope for a big cue from Pete and as soon as he understood that wasn't going to happen, he posted this BS thread on azb.
5 years ago i had a deal made, pete sent me drawings, prices negotatided,I sent wood paid shipping. told it woud be about 6 months….8months go by and people that i know orderd after me started getting cues--talked with pete again after about 20 plus cues later i gave up 2years ago i had the same blow out with pete telling him i did not want to be blown off any more send me my stuff back.. he let me know that he would send my stuff back.. i waited 2 years for that to happen and when i did not get a response i took it to the forum… as far as his secondary market the cue that i just had on my site was supposed to be a 4900 cue i put it up at 3990 no bites so i blew it out at 3400
Attachments
My personal comments after reading through this thread. In my opinion your excuse noted above is lame and almost laughable. You are basically saying that you haven't delivered because you worked hard for 4 days straight and drank some Red Bull! Seriously! What about the other 1821 days you have had the wood in your possession. Did you actually commit to making a cue for Bill as he suggested, with a design and estimated timeline worked out? If so, you have a big apology to make. You can't muster up enough time in 5 years to call a customer to let him know YOU aren't going to live up to your end of the deal? I have only backed out of one cue deal in the past, and it is with someone who posted in this thread. There may be hard feelings on his part, and I fully understand, but I did communicate with him and will still try to make it up. You may have the best hitting, most beautiful cues out there, but it sounds like you are your own worst enemy if you go south. And don't be surprised if your phone rings a little less than it used to. Your business is as much about customer service and satisfaction as it is about your product. I have seen nothing unrealistic in Bill's expectations. Good luck to you in your business without at least three of us in this thread on your future customer list.
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There are many possible reasons Pete refused to make you --- Bill Grassly --- a cue, but I won't speculate. Looks to me he completely forgot about your piece of wood (since he was never going to make you a cue), which is regrettable...do let us know when you receive it.
As for the secondary market value of Tonkin's cues, other dealers seem to do just fine. If you really believe that you're going to lose money on a Tonkin, not getting a cue from him is probably for the best, don't you think?
Anyway Bill, stay classy.
I'm quite sure the effect to Tonkin's business as a result of this thread is Zero.
Context is everything. If another customer/dealer started this thread, things might look different.
Why would who started this thread make a difference in how a customer is treated? As I stated, if Pete made the deal and forgot about the wood and cue deal he made, he should still man up to it and apologize. That didn't seem to happen years ago when he "thought" he had sent it back to Bill. Now that he found it "tucked away", I think he owes him an apology. If the deal was formal enough to have drawings of the cue and wood being shipped to and received by Pete, I think at the very least he isn't running a good business from a customer service standpoint and that is what his apology should be about. If they later were at odds because of it, they may part ways and agree-to-disagree, but in that case I would be on the customer's side (whether it was Bill or anyone else). Bad customer service = bad business no matter how you slice it. Forgot this, worked hard for 4 days and drank to much energy drink, blah, blah, blah. Why did he even commit to making a cue for Bill from the beginning? Something had to have happened between their deal and now. Try not doing what you committed to at work for 5 years and see where that gets you. Seems cuemakers get a pass way too often just because they make a nice hitting and good looking cue. Just my opinion. Thanks for yours. Our differences are what makes the world go round!
I really like this one. If anyone had used the excuse of red bull drinks and a lot of work to not respond to emails, calls, etc., they would get dragged through the coals around here. Being that he is a cue maker that some of you own his product, you feel the need to stand up for the guy.
How about you just try to be honest and unbiased. The overall story just doesn't match up and it looks poor. I'm glad 4 years later (or whatever) he found the wood shipped to him. LOL...WTF....
By the way, as far as reasons not to build a cue for someone (as you stated), why not just refuse the order??? There we go, problem solved! No wood shipped, no "forgetting" about it, no emails, no phone calls, no PM's (years later), no thread, no posts, no anything. How about that for a novel idea?
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I would think (OD on energy drink) would make the top 5 of Best Excuse. Priceless!
My thoughts exactly!!!! What a joke.
Confusing
Let me see if I understand you.
You have a conversation with Bill about a cue he would like to have made by you.
Bill ships you the piece of wood that he would like to be used in the cue.
You draw up a design, negotiate a price, set a time line for completion of cue.
And then for some reason ( i suspect a shortage of energy drinks on your part) you fail to complete the job.
Then as a final stab at Bill you say "But I never build one cue for you, hUh I wonder why that is !!!
I wonder also. Why not build the cue. Seems to me that your lack of communication was not the factor here. You had a deal made.
Here is your chance to let us know what really went wrong with the deal.
Don
Let me see if I understand you.
You have a conversation with Bill about a cue he would like to have made by you.
Bill ships you the piece of wood that he would like to be used in the cue.
You draw up a design, negotiate a price, set a time line for completion of cue.
And then for some reason ( i suspect a shortage of energy drinks on your part) you fail to complete the job.
Then as a final stab at Bill you say "But I never build one cue for you, hUh I wonder why that is !!!
I wonder also. Why not build the cue. Seems to me that your lack of communication was not the factor here. You had a deal made.
Here is your chance to let us know what really went wrong with the deal.
Don
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buddah let it be done, its not your flame fest
buddah you make it sound like because it was me, I had to be the aggressor and if it was somone else it would be differant ? what if he was the one to approach me?? would that make a diff in your eyes.. and the reason for this post was for years of trynig to get my stuff back and in 5 years newer cuemakers either thrive or dive--and I watch buisness practices to help determine that-- so before he had orders from any of these people and numerous cues later and the best excuse I got was, "I was making him cues first, because he has a big collection". So I get put aside.. Iam sorry I did not respond to you because I was hyped up on red bull and thought i would start a bunch of projects.. All i wanted was a response and my stuff back is that too much to ask?? only fair! If a new body shop opens and approaches you about your car ,because it would be good promotion for them and you take your car(my Wood) to the paint shop (cue maker), and they complete everyones car but yours, then after 3 years you get frustrated and said just give me my car back no harm no foul.. then the stop resopnding! Thats not acceptable …well a few months ago .A Incredibley nice man approached me about rose wood burl and I told him I would look in our inventory. I had none left but I knew that one of my best pieces about $750.00 value was being hyjacked,with no response so i took it to the azers! And i got a response so 5 years later,well , job done I wish pete the very best! I was going to let this end at, Thanks pete for responding but buddah you keep dragging it out trying to make me out to be the bad guy!
buddah you make it sound like because it was me, I had to be the aggressor and if it was somone else it would be differant ? what if he was the one to approach me?? would that make a diff in your eyes.. and the reason for this post was for years of trynig to get my stuff back and in 5 years newer cuemakers either thrive or dive--and I watch buisness practices to help determine that-- so before he had orders from any of these people and numerous cues later and the best excuse I got was, "I was making him cues first, because he has a big collection". So I get put aside.. Iam sorry I did not respond to you because I was hyped up on red bull and thought i would start a bunch of projects.. All i wanted was a response and my stuff back is that too much to ask?? only fair! If a new body shop opens and approaches you about your car ,because it would be good promotion for them and you take your car(my Wood) to the paint shop (cue maker), and they complete everyones car but yours, then after 3 years you get frustrated and said just give me my car back no harm no foul.. then the stop resopnding! Thats not acceptable …well a few months ago .A Incredibley nice man approached me about rose wood burl and I told him I would look in our inventory. I had none left but I knew that one of my best pieces about $750.00 value was being hyjacked,with no response so i took it to the azers! And i got a response so 5 years later,well , job done I wish pete the very best! I was going to let this end at, Thanks pete for responding but buddah you keep dragging it out trying to make me out to be the bad guy!
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I can't comment on your personal issues with Pete only my experience. I have known Pete personally for maybe 10 years and I play with a Tonkin as a matter of fact I have 3 of them and they are a great cue but more important to me is Pete is a great person and very easy to deal with. I had a cue that made a noise and he replaced the whole cue. I wanted smaller shafts and he turned down my shafts no charge. I want laminated shafts he makes them. I have been around pool for 40 years playing pool for money, I have met a lot of cue makers and in my view Pete is one of the good guys. I hope this all works out for everyone. I never comment on these forums but I had to make an exception in this case.
New Book
"Communication for Dummies" should be sent to all Cue Builders. It wouldn't take long to read and they could get back to doing what they do best.
Maybe one page at the most.
Communicate with customer(s) by either phone, email, face to face or carrier pigeon.
That should do it. I am not suggesting that all cue builders need to read the book. But it does appear that a lot of them should.
Don
"Communication for Dummies" should be sent to all Cue Builders. It wouldn't take long to read and they could get back to doing what they do best.
Maybe one page at the most.
Communicate with customer(s) by either phone, email, face to face or carrier pigeon.
That should do it. I am not suggesting that all cue builders need to read the book. But it does appear that a lot of them should.
Don
My FIRST and LAST words on the subject.
Bill is an outstanding member of our community with a flawless rep. Bill
is not some dope trying to run with the big boys! He's the real deal. He is
a dealer, a collector, and a man of God! You sir, are a
jack@ss! A real jack@ss.
He knows more about cues than you do and more than most others here too. He
knows what cues are worth because that's his business. He's not some knows-
nothing idiot. If he says resale is low he's probably basing that on experience. Nothing
about you knows high end cues and their resale value. This man knows all about
cues and his collection is incredible. Drool-worthy cues.
He didn't deserve to be treated this. I mean, if you think he
sucks for what he's doing here, you're just wrong. What happened to him sucks.
Bill is an outstanding member of our community with a flawless rep. Bill
is not some dope trying to run with the big boys! He's the real deal. He is
a dealer, a collector, and a man of God! You sir, are a
jack@ss! A real jack@ss.
He knows more about cues than you do and more than most others here too. He
knows what cues are worth because that's his business. He's not some knows-
nothing idiot. If he says resale is low he's probably basing that on experience. Nothing
about you knows high end cues and their resale value. This man knows all about
cues and his collection is incredible. Drool-worthy cues.
He didn't deserve to be treated this. I mean, if you think he
sucks for what he's doing here, you're just wrong. What happened to him sucks.
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