Terrible customer service - OB Cues

floppybear

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It's coming close to two months since OB has my shaft for warranty repair. They continuously state that they will ship it out in two weeks, but come up with excuse after excuse for not having it fixed. Their ferrule has a design flaw and for this fact I would guess their warranty service department is working overtime. I was going to buy one of their high end cues on Black Friday but decided against it due to their bad customer service. I would NOT by their product ever again.
 

localredhead

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I had issues with the first OB cue I ordered and also a thinner OB shaft that I ordered.

OB made good on both issues immediately - however I was a bit disappointed because the shaft I purchased was the 6+ construction while the new shafts are only 4+ I think.

I feel like the 6+ was a better shaft with a better hit to be honest. I think for a short time they were even making 5+ before the new 4+ construction. Haven't tried one though.
 

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I had issues with the first OB cue I ordered and also a thinner OB shaft that I ordered.

OB made good on both issues immediately - however I was a bit disappointed because the shaft I purchased was the 6+ construction while the new shafts are only 4+ I think.

I feel like the 6+ was a better shaft with a better hit to be honest. I think for a short time they were even making 5+ before the new 4+ construction. Haven't tried one though.
What is the 4,5,6 you refer to? I know when they went to the plus series they went from laminated strips to solid but i've never heard of the 4-5-6. Is it the number of individual strips in a shaft? Curious as to this. Thanx.
 
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bbb

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
i bought an ob 1+ in october
came with the ferrule chipped
i sent pics to kristy
was promised a replacement
long story short still no replacement
i was supposed to have a shaft shipped last week after talking to kristy
got a ups tracking on dec 10
only thing posted was label made
called yesterday since there was no update to the ups tracking
was told the shaft didnt pass inspection so they did not ship it
now the story is they have a new person who is going o fix the production problems and i should have an update by friday
i am not holding my breath
i have been using ob shafts for many years
have never had this kind of problems with quality or service
 

easy-e

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
That sucks! I bought an OB Cue a few months ago and can’t wait to get rid of it. Anyone want to buy it?
 

floppybear

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have called them numerously on Friday, Monday, and Today.... they are NOT answering their phone goes straight to voice mail. I am so glad I didn't by the OB-172 cue from them. Customer service is equally as important as the product itself...in both aspects they both fail.


It's coming close to two months since OB has my shaft for warranty repair. They continuously state that they will ship it out in two weeks, but come up with excuse after excuse for not having it fixed. Their ferrule has a design flaw and for this fact I would guess their warranty service department is working overtime. I was going to buy one of their high end cues on Black Friday but decided against it due to their bad customer service. I would NOT by their product ever again.
 

jokrswylde

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
:mad:They can't answer their phones because they're too dang busy sending the SPAM emails I get from them multiple times per day.:mad:
 

localredhead

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What is the 4,5,6 you refer to? I know when they went to the plus series they went from laminated strips to solid but i've never heard of the 4-5-6. Is it the number of individual strips in a shaft? Curious as to this. Thanx.

AFAIK it is the number of laminated pieces in the shaft.
 

localredhead

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
i bought an ob 1+ in october
came with the ferrule chipped
i sent pics to kristy
was promised a replacement
long story short still no replacement
i was supposed to have a shaft shipped last week after talking to kristy
got a ups tracking on dec 10
only thing posted was label made
called yesterday since there was no update to the ups tracking
was told the shaft didnt pass inspection so they did not ship it
now the story is they have a new person who is going o fix the production problems and i should have an update by friday
i am not holding my breath
i have been using ob shafts for many years
have never had this kind of problems with quality or service

Yeah the new shafts seem to have some "production issues" - I fear they aren't the same construction as they once were.

OB used to be awesome and it seems I purchased my cue at the turn of many changes.

The cue's balance/construction was unique - as well as the shaft's.

Right before I purchased my cue the construction changed. The website still advertised the old construction at the time (probably still does somewhere). I feel I was sold a bait and switch. None the less I loved the balance of the cue and purchased another more expensive model for myself and my GF only to have multiple issues with those - however as I stated OB made good on everything....

I guess my point is now it seems they are slowly morphing into common construction techniques that don't provide that extra special uniqueness to the build that probably save a ton of time but also deliver a mediocre everything.

The only thing that seems to have been retained is the balance... but otherwise these are not the same OB cues of even a few years ago - based on what information I can glean from the internet.

I've sinced moved on to other mistakes.... ::cough:: Meucci ::Cough:: :thumbup: I kid - meucci made everything good too...

I'm jaded that the industry as a whole sucks.

The positive thing I will say is that I had *great* customer service with OB and Meucci. They took care of me.
 
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Sedog

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Ordered a shaft towards the end of November that was listed as “In Stock”. Upgraded the shipping to receive it sooner since I was leaving town the following week. On the 1st I checked the website for a tracking number, but it still showed “awaiting shipment”. I called to check on it and the lady told me “The shaft isn’t where I thought it was. I’ll check one more place. If it isn’t there we’ll have to build you another one and that’ll take a week”. She said my status online would be updated the following day if they found the shaft, or I’d get a call letting me know they were building it.

I was leaving in a few days for Disney World so I figured it’ll just be there when I get back. Well my trip is now over. My online status still shows “awaiting shipment”, and I never received a call. I called customer service back and was told they were waiting on my joint work. No apology for the delay, no apology for not calling, no remorse whatsoever. I cancelled my order. This pisses me off because all I wanted was an OB Classic Pro. I’m sure I can find it elsewhere, but who knows how long that’ll take me.

I know... first world problems. I still wanted to share my experience in case customer service is important to anyone else.


Saw this post and have been following closely as I order a Blem cue at a great price from OB and was concerned after reading this thread. I called last Thursday and was told that they would have a better idea of when it would ship by today ( Tuesday). Today I received this memo from OB and wanted to share it.

My name is Shane Sinnott and I am the President of OB Cues. I am emailing you today regarding your order with us and to make sure that you are kept up to date as to where it stands.

We have experienced a significant increase in the number of orders received over the last couple of months and it has been something that we did not properly prepare for from both a production and a customer service standpoint. OB Cues has always been known for a very high standard of customer service, but over the last few months it has fallen well below where it should be. I take 100% responsibility for this. As President, I am responsible for making sure that everyone on the OB Team has the tools and the training that they need, so that they can do an awesome job and that has not been the case.

There have been significant delays in both production and also in communication with customers. This is changing and it is changing now.

I made a decision last week to hire a new Production manager and he started yesterday. His name is Jesse Garcia and he worked for OB Cues from 2005 to 2013 and is the absolute best person for the job. Jesse is fully immersed in production right now and is reviewing every process and every product on order. His goal is to provide me with accurate eta’s for every order by the end of the day on Friday. We will then start contacting every customer to give them an updated and accurate eta for their order starting Monday with the goal of reaching every customer next week.

I would like to apologize for any delay you have experienced and I would also like to thank you for being a fan of OB Cues. Yesterday was the beginning of a new chapter for our company and I can promise you that the quality of our products will improve, the wait times for any back ordered products will start to come down and the overall experience of dealing with our company will be better than it has ever been before (Including a new and easier to navigate website expected to go live in the next few weeks)!

I understand that you are excited to receive your order from us and I can assure you that we are doing everything in our power to get it to you as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. All I ask is that you continue to be patient with us so that the next time you hear from us, we will be able to let you know when your order is shipping.

We will be in touch again soon.

Regards,
Shane Sinnott
President
www.obcues.com
Toll Free: 877.399.9901
International: 972.578.9100
Fax: 972.426.6980
Skype ID: shanesinnott
Please like our page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/obcues
 

AtLarge

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Kudos to Mr. Sinnott for acknowledging the problems and committing to fixing them. I certainly hope he succeeds.
 

easy-e

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Kudos to Mr. Sinnott for acknowledging the problems and committing to fixing them. I certainly hope he succeeds.

I was promised a return phone call. I wouldn’t hold my breath on their promises.
 

floppybear

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I really don't care what Shane wrote in his email... simply put actions speak louder than words. If this problem with his production manager's inefficiency happened under his watch he should burden the blame. I definitely will not be buying another OB cue in my lifetime. My friend already sold (dumped off) his remaining 4 OB cues vowing not to buy another cue from them again.

• Not answering phone calls
• Multiple shafts returned with the exact same problematic symptom
• Nearly 2 months have passed since the shaft was returned for warranty

As I repeated before...customer service is equally as important as their product. So far they have failed in both aspects
 

tonyboy59

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Saw this post and have been following closely as I order a Blem cue at a great price from OB and was concerned after reading this thread. I called last Thursday and was told that they would have a better idea of when it would ship by today ( Tuesday). Today I received this memo from OB and wanted to share it.

My name is Shane Sinnott and I am the President of OB Cues. I am emailing you today regarding your order with us and to make sure that you are kept up to date as to where it stands.

We have experienced a significant increase in the number of orders received over the last couple of months and it has been something that we did not properly prepare for from both a production and a customer service standpoint. OB Cues has always been known for a very high standard of customer service, but over the last few months it has fallen well below where it should be. I take 100% responsibility for this. As President, I am responsible for making sure that everyone on the OB Team has the tools and the training that they need, so that they can do an awesome job and that has not been the case.

There have been significant delays in both production and also in communication with customers. This is changing and it is changing now.

I made a decision last week to hire a new Production manager and he started yesterday. His name is Jesse Garcia and he worked for OB Cues from 2005 to 2013 and is the absolute best person for the job. Jesse is fully immersed in production right now and is reviewing every process and every product on order. His goal is to provide me with accurate eta’s for every order by the end of the day on Friday. We will then start contacting every customer to give them an updated and accurate eta for their order starting Monday with the goal of reaching every customer next week.

I would like to apologize for any delay you have experienced and I would also like to thank you for being a fan of OB Cues. Yesterday was the beginning of a new chapter for our company and I can promise you that the quality of our products will improve, the wait times for any back ordered products will start to come down and the overall experience of dealing with our company will be better than it has ever been before (Including a new and easier to navigate website expected to go live in the next few weeks)!

I understand that you are excited to receive your order from us and I can assure you that we are doing everything in our power to get it to you as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. All I ask is that you continue to be patient with us so that the next time you hear from us, we will be able to let you know when your order is shipping.

We will be in touch again soon.

Regards,
Shane Sinnott
President
www.obcues.com
Toll Free: 877.399.9901
International: 972.578.9100
Fax: 972.426.6980
Skype ID: shanesinnott
Please like our page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/obcues


Too little too late? If the company would have taken a little time to perform a "trend analysis" they would've been able to get in front of this problem sometime ago. Apathy would appear to be the problem along with resting on your laurels. Most major companies would have canned Shane by now; so it appears that he is trying to right a ship that has lost its direction.

BTW...I've tried OB shafts on my cues and even purchased an OB cue from Seyberts; never understood the excitement. They were just...OK.
 

slach

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm no expert in the cue business. But if OB doesn't get into carbon fiber shafts they may be left in the dustbin of history. Goodbye to all the lathes and curing shaft wood (assuming they do)... someone at OB (and a number of other traditional cue companies) got their work cut out for them. Are they up to it? Or will laminated LD wood continue to have it's place? I personally love my old school solid maple I've been using forever, but these carbon fibers are very intriguing. I'd tried out a friend's OB a few times (don't remember the exact model) and it was just too 'mushy' for me, tried a Predator carbon fiber at the last Derby and it was nice and crisp, like what I'm used to.
 
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TAPCAT

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm no expert in the cue business. But if OB doesn't get into carbon fiber shafts they may be left in the dustbin of history. Goodbye to all the lathes and curing shaft wood (assuming they do)... someone at OB (and a number of other traditional cue companies) got their work cut out for them. Are they up to it? Or will laminated LD wood continue to have it's place? I personally love my old school solid maple I've been using forever, but these carbon fibers are very intriguing.

Wood shafts will always have there place and the majority of the market. The average pool player is not going to plunk down $400-$500 for just a shaft. CF shafts have there place though and OB is one of a few cue companies that should throw there hat in the ring.
 

slach

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Wood shafts will always have there place and the majority of the market. The average pool player is not going to plunk down $400-$500 for just a shaft. CF shafts have there place though and OB is one of a few cue companies that should throw there hat in the ring.

I must be older than I think, but I remember (barely) wood golf shafts and persimmon driver heads. Don't see that around anymore... Seriously, with a few more cue makers in the market a $30 piece of carbon fiber tube is gonna cost a lot less than $400-$500.
 
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