Funny Samsara story

[hang-the-9]

A friend that is not very into cues told me this story about a cue that he had that the guys at Samsara look at. I don't remember the names of the people involved at Samsara unfortunately.

He bought an cue from somewhere and wanted to get it cleaned out. Seems Samsara was near him and someone said to have them check it and refinish it maybe. So while there he gets it looked at and was told "those inlays look great for the age" and to leave it there to get it worked on, come back in a week. He calls in a week, said cue won't be done till next week. Next week he comes by and is told the tale of his cue.

It seems that when they went to take a bit off the cue to refinish it, the "inlays" disappeared :grin-square:. Yep, it was a decal cue, and the guys at Samsara for some reason missed that! Imagine the guy at the lathe looking at this thing that is now blank LOL

So for the next few days, from memory of what the decals looked like, a cue maker at Samsara re-created the cue using real inlays. Then the cue was given back to my friend as compete, at a price of a refinish. He said he did a calculation based on their prices, and they did about $600 worth of work on the cue to "fix" the decals LOL Now that is customer service.

I am trying to get him to bring the cue to me so I can post some pics along with the story here.

 

[Ched]

Wow - lucky guy. The cue is likely worth 3 times what it was when he took it in? more?

 

[hang-the-9]

Wow - lucky guy. The cue is likely worth 3 times what it was when he took it in? more?

Probably 4-5 times now LOL. No clue what he had or what it looks like now but I have not seen a decal cue worth more than $100 used.

He told me about this when he was showing me his "lost" Predator P3 he dug up from his closet.

 

[pt109]

I've officially given up trying to spot decal cues on the Web....
...if the guys at Samsara can't tell when it's in their hands, what chance do I have on a screen?

 

[hang-the-9]

I said I don't remember the names of the people, looks like from this news story it may have been Jim Stadum or Dave Doucette (I think both are or were from Samsara) and there is talk about them meeting in a New Hampshire pool room.



vJim Stadum just wanted to get his pool cue fixed.

That simple desire led the former New Hampshire carpenter on a journey from the pool halls of New England to this small community near the geographical center of North America.

It also led him to a new job: These days, he fixes his own pool cues.

Stadum crafts cues from exotic woods, often with a touch of silver, gold, elephant tusks or sparkling gems. He counts royalty among his customers and one cue is in the Smithsonian Institution.

“I was just your average avid pool player who really loved the game and kind of got intrigued by cues,” he said in the shop and office of Samsara Cues, where four people work, sometimes seven days a week.

Stadum got the idea of starting a custom cue brand about 12 years ago, after meeting Dave Doucette in a New Hampshire pool room. Stadum’s cue needed repairs, and he had heard Doucette might be able to fix it.

 

[j_zippel]

Wow - lucky guy. The cue is likely worth 3 times what it was when he took it in? more?

Hearing a story like this makes me want to buy a samsara.

My only question is..

What would Meucci do in the situation? Probably the polar opposite

 

[slide13]

Haha, that is awesome! Talk about service!

 

[Dead Money]

Hearing a story like this makes me want to buy a samsara.

My only question is..

What would Meucci do in the situation? Probably the polar opposite

They would have started by putting it in the lathe crooked so when they are done it would have that famous Meucci warp.

 

[franko]

Think

I think it was Jim Stadum who was the spokesperson for Samsara , he would always be at SBE . He was the nicest guy you would ever want to meet, I can see them doing this .

 

[gregnice37]

I apologize ahead of time, but someone had to say it........

Is your friends name Justin by any chance

 

[PRED]

I've heard this tale many times involving various makers.

 

[hang-the-9]

I've heard this tale many times involving various makers.

I have heard of someone messing up a cue by accident and getting or making them a new one, but not with someone taking stickers off when they thought it was inlays.

A friend of mine brought his Joss cue to a well known cue maker, as they were talking my friend saw the bit get closer and closer to the cue but figured the guy knows what he was doing. Then zzzipppp, there was a gouge cut through the cue LOL.

The cuemaker called Joss, got my friend another cue shipped over :smile:

 

[PRED]

I have heard of someone messing up a cue by accident and getting or making them a new one, but not with someone taking stickers off when they thought it was inlays.

A friend of mine brought his Joss cue to a well known cue maker, as they were talking my friend saw the bit get closer and closer to the cue but figured the guy knows what he was doing. Then zzzipppp, there was a gouge cut through the cue LOL.

The cuemaker called Joss, got my friend another cue shipped over :smile:

I don't know how many times I heard it about TAD cues, many stickered knock offs.

 

[hang-the-9]

I don't know how many times I heard it about TAD cues, many stickered knock offs.

Just to clarify, this was not a cue my friend got thinking it was a Samsara, he just brought it to them because someone told him they were a good company to work on cues.

 

[9andout]

I just bought my first LD a Samsara True Shaft. I never even tried one.
After reading this story I'm glad I did.

My cue has a brass ring at the joint.
They don't offer that on the site.
Jim had me text him a picture of mine so he could match the brass ring.
Seemed like a great guy.

 

[mikepage]

[...] a cue maker at Samsara re-created the cue using real inlays. [...]

I have another great Samsara story that is the Yin to your Yang.

One midnight a bunch of us wandered from a nearby tournament to the Samsara shop with Jim Stadum, where there was a tight Diamond table. Two guys (Rory Hendrickson and Jamie Pluta) were barking at each other and time was passing.... Jim REALLY wanted to sweat something, and he was getting frustrated. So he pulled an $800 cue butt off the wall--this shop is huge and amazing by the way--and said race to 4--one pocket--winner gets this cue.

Rory and Jamie were both playing slowly, tanking on every shot and dinking balls around. Jim started losing patience with the game with the score at 1 to 1, and it went downhill from there. The pace didn't change. What seems like an eternity later, Jim said, "What's the score?"
"Three to two Rory" was the answer.

After that we could hear a saw fired up in the shop behind us. Jim came back in with that nice cue butt cut into two pieces, one a bit longer than the other. He handed the longer one to Rory, and the shorter one to Jamie, and said, "Here, this is about right."

 

[Ched]

I have another great Samsara story that is the Yin to your Yang.

One midnight a bunch of us wandered from a nearby tournament to the Samsara shop with Jim Stadum, where there was a tight Diamond table. Two guys (Rory Hendrickson and Jamie Pluta) were barking at each other and time was passing.... Jim REALLY wanted to sweat something, and he was getting frustrated. So he pulled an $800 cue butt off the wall--this shop is huge and amazing by the way--and said race to 4--one pocket--winner gets this cue.

Rory and Jamie were both playing slowly, tanking on every shot and dinking balls around. Jim started losing patience with the game with the score at 1 to 1, and it went downhill from there. The pace didn't change. What seems like an eternity later, Jim said, "What's the score?"
"Three to two Rory" was the answer.

After that we could hear a saw fired up in the shop behind us. Jim came back in with that nice cue butt cut into two pieces, one a bit longer than the other. He handed the longer one to Rory, and the shorter one to Jamie, and said, "Here, this is about right."

things like that bring a tear to my eye.

 

[galipeau]

Pics before and after, or it didn't happen...

 

[9andout]

I have another great Samsara story that is the Yin to your Yang.

One midnight a bunch of us wandered from a nearby tournament to the Samsara shop with Jim Stadum, where there was a tight Diamond table. Two guys (Rory Hendrickson and Jamie Pluta) were barking at each other and time was passing.... Jim REALLY wanted to sweat something, and he was getting frustrated. So he pulled an $800 cue butt off the wall--this shop is huge and amazing by the way--and said race to 4--one pocket--winner gets this cue.

Rory and Jamie were both playing slowly, tanking on every shot and dinking balls around. Jim started losing patience with the game with the score at 1 to 1, and it went downhill from there. The pace didn't change. What seems like an eternity later, Jim said, "What's the score?"
"Three to two Rory" was the answer.

After that we could hear a saw fired up in the shop behind us. Jim came back in with that nice cue butt cut into two pieces, one a bit longer than the other. He handed the longer one to Rory, and the shorter one to Jamie, and said, "Here, this is about right."

........ One pocket is so slow....... It will make you cut the butt of your cue in half!!
Haha couldn't resist.

 

[qfans]

Decal defraud

Were they authorized to do this work, the horror of trying to upvalue this cue. It was made to be a cheap player, now with a story like this to go with the cue it's value is priceless rendering it useless as a player. Haha too funny! I loved the the sawed in half story too, these are gems !!!