Terrible customer service - OB Cues
- Thread starter easy-e
- Start date
In August last year ( 2017 ) I ordered a totally custom cue that I designed head to toe from Meucci. I called them to order it and was handed off to Bob Meucci to discuss the particulars and the price. I spent @ 30 minutes on the phone with Bob and when we got off the phone, he had the entire thing. Weight, length, shaft size, joint, rings, wood, butt cap, forearm, sleeve, wrap, ferrule... even the tip. I was given the price, I accepted, paid by plastic when handed back to Barbara ( who was PHENOMENAL throughout! ) and I paid for it with my Mastercard. I was told 6 weeks. 8 weeks later I still did not have it. I wasn't happy. If you tell me something, especially if I've paid, deliver on it. 9 weeks, still no cue. Finally I got with Barbara and pinned them down on a date, a week away. Ok, how much more do you need to ship it USPS overnight? 20.00 more? No problem. They charged my card for it. A week later Barb called me. They sent it out that morning. Now I'm happy to at least know it's coming tomorrow.
Next day, USPS tracking tool shows it got to the PO in the town Meucci is in. Then, nothing... no updates of leaving, next stop next stop, next stop... nothing, Nada. Zippo.
Long story short ( er ), USPS lost it. A week later still no cue, USPS is "Investigating." I am PISSED. But,at who? Meucci sent it ( ok yeah, more than a month late, but... ). USPS lost it. I'm thinking, great... ANOTHER 10 weeks? I'ma just gonna cancel and get my money back and let Meucci deal with USPS. 8 days later, on a Saturday, I get a call from a superv at USPS. "Um, yeah, your package is out for deliv, be there within an hour." I'm like... srsly? You told me it was lost. Are we sure this is my package? He has no idea, just calling to say it's due in an hour. Ok. Great. Works for me.
Hour later, doorbell. USPS with my cue. I sign. I open. I am **NOT** happy. Ferrule is wrong. Rings are wrong. Butt circumference is wrong.
I call Meucci. Barbara is flabbergasted. Bob is at an industry show and won't be back for nearly a week. She wants him to talk to me to get the order correctly ( this time ). I am NOT happy. ( this is NOT a cheap cue. It's in the grand neighborhood. Not Bill Gates' neighborhood, but not cracktown either ) To their credit, Barb didn't argue, not one iota. She simply apologized profusely and said they would make the new one the instant Bob was back. @ a week later, he called me ( never apologized but... I didn't really care at that point ), I gave him the specs again, and he told me he was pushing it through as quickly as possible. It's now late November and I'm told with Xmas coming, it will take longer than normal for a "push-through". I'm not really happy with that but ok... is what it is. They said hang on to the first cue and send back once I get the corrected one. 2 weeks after New Years, I get it in the mail, sent overnight on Meucci's dime. This time it's right. Every detail. And they ended up giving me the first one for a STEEP discount. So in the end, after all of it, I was happy. Not over-joyed, mind you... but happy. Meucci's customer service was phenomenal. Had their production performance been half the level of their cust serv, there would've been no issues. But, yeah... s**t happens. But I got 2 gorgeous, custom cues for an excellent price.
Their customer service saved the day for them. Monumentally important.
My experience too. I've got a 30" OB Classic shaft from the days when Royce was still running things and it is in my case primarily as a back-up shaft.
Maniac
Typing that bad, even on purpose, makes you look kinda lame. Just sayin. Hope your wife gets you a camera for Xmas. With instructions.
This is exactly right. The costs will come down as more companies compete. This is the way the LD shaft market is going. There will probably always be some players who prefer solid maple shafts, but I think eventually wood LD shafts will be a thing of the past. If pool had more money in it as a sport, and the money for R&D was there this would have been the case years ago.
Is this a real post or are you just messing with us? If it is typing on the internet may not be for you :frown:
Surprised he’s waited this long to come to the rescue.
I believe this is the real Dean. I can't imagine him messing with us. Dean is as sober as a judge...
That said, "typing on the internet" may just not be for *anybody*. We'd probably all be better served getting out and taking a walk. Or reading a book. Or, playing pool...
Jus sayin'...
:yeah:
Take the troll out of your mouth and say that again? I have no idea what you were attempting to deliver there... was it irony? rhetorical rant? Whaaaaat?
I wonder what would make them think that.
Hmm... ok. BBB scores exists, net promoter scores exist, reputations exist all for a reason. Tangible reasons being written in this thread.
I think it's dumb to tell everyone to turn the other cheek and ignore the rumors. I did this like you would have everyone do and got burned by having almost half of what I purchased actually uphold the rumors as factual evidence not hearsay. Imagine that. Coincidence still? I'd call it more a symptom at this point.
If you placed an order with a company for 3 butts and 4 shafts and one of the butts and 2 of the shafts were defective with visible issues - make no bones about it - you'd have solid evidence of QC/production issues that are not rumors.
I posted another thread on my experience with an meucci shaft that visibly should never have left the factory... Want to see? High def photos inside: https://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=477919 and I ignored the rumors about meucci's QC as a bunch of "internet whiners" as you'd probably say.
Yeah I'm just a dumb pool pleb. That's the problem - I think most of these companies make money on pleb's not understanding the lack of quality in the product they are being handed and they bank on the fact that they will just take it and never warranty it. This is the only conclusion I can come to with how obvious some of these things have been.
I don't think anyone here wants to rake OB over the coals out of spite. I for one am an owner of 2 shafts, a break shaft, and a jump cue. I like all of them. I want to see them succeed. If they are made aware of these service issues that are cropping up they can nip them in the bud. I've never understood the idea that you can't relate your personal experiences for the purpose of constructive criticism because of what they have "done for pool". I work in risk management. My job is to identify issues and clean them up. If I just said everything was awesome all the time it wouldn't be very helpful to my company.
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I went to them because I liked the last product I bought from them. I can’t speak to the quality of their new stuff, but their customer service is garbage in my opinion. Anytime I spend hundreds on something, I at least expect them to call me when they say they will.
clickhiker
Registered
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I received exactly the same e mail about an order for a shaft placed on November 16, and they had no issue taking out the money from my CC on that date. Mine was a special order for a 3/8"x11 joint, and a Kamui tip, that was supposed to take four weeks to build. I wouldn't be so mad about the delay with more specifics, if they didn't have the gaul to hold the money. Especially when they dropped the price dramatically a week later for Black Friday! I still have not heard an expected delivery date, and am out $262.80, until OB gets off their butts. (If OB is going to be so slow, they should have offered me the Black Friday price at the very least, to mitigate the delay!) I've played with OB shafts for about ten years, own several, and like the smaller diameter of 11.75mm. If I ever get the current order, it will likely be my last purchase from them. The issues they are having sound more like cash flow problems, than "production"! Wonder why?