Don't hold your breath guys
No, Dan has not tried to contact me to make this right, and I would be utterly shocked if he did. After the way he talked to me on the phone, I sure as hell am not going to call him. He has my phone number, he knows how to reach me via email, and he knows how to use a computer too. I bet he would recognize this cue right away when he saw it.
And I can assure you without a shred of doubt that both Dan and Stephen had this cue in their hands. I think the following email excerpt proves that. This was sent to me the day the cue was shipped:
I was in the process of picking out a new killer piece of wood for your new (replacement) cue.
My son who is much smarter than me asked me "Dad what are you looking for"? I told him I had to find a new piece of wood for a custom cue.
He said that he had some really great wood hid off to the side and what order was it for?
I said that I had to replace a custom cue because the first one wasn't up to standards.
He said "What a shame who's cue was it"? When I told him yours he looked confused. "Why"? he asked.
I told him I had looked the cue over and the abalone was dull and didn't have any real sparkle.
Well long story short he hadn't polished it yet when I had looked at it.
Steve does all the finish work and all the polishing (He can still see). I think I confirmed his thought that I am getting old and senile. Hes just a kid only fifty-two.
After he polished the cue the difference is amazing ... as you will see about May 2nd.
Your cue is great looking and on the way. The ivory diamonds have plenty of grain in them so they look like ivory and the abalone is above and beyond. You don't know how relieved I am that I was wrong (hard word for me to say).
I got a tracking number and a link to the UPS web site to track the shipment. He closed the email with "Let me know what you think after you have had time to look at your cue." After reading this email I was excited and under the impression that everything was going to be perfect.
Making this thread was no impulse reaction, and my only intent is to forewarn others. Many pairs of eyes have seen this cue in person, including at least one other cuemaker, and everyone has given it the crooked eye. I think the vast majority of customers who would order a high-end custom cue like this would have responded in a much more abrasive manner than I did. I literally blew it off and did not let it bother me for a second. It still does not bother me. He won't get any more of my money, it is that simple. But I do feel that others should know about this because not everyone is as relaxed as I am. Also keep in mind that this was my first ever custom cue order and $1,800 is a lot of money for a self-sufficient guy in his 20s. I hand-picked Joss to make my dream cue because I thought with such a reputation and history I would be guaranteed a high quality result. Whoops.
The conclusion I made six months ago is that Dan is either legally blind or he just doesn't care what comes out of the shop any more. I learned one thing from all of this: Being nice comes with a price tag. I honestly believe if I was an insensitive unsympathetic jerk to Dan on the phone, and told him the cue was a complete useless piece of amateur garbage, I would have gotten my money back or a replacement no questions asked. But I was nice about it because the cue wasn't useless, it played very well, it just didn't meet my standards in terms of workmanship. I don't know what it is like to work on something for several months and have it turn out bad and have to start over from scratch, and I was trying to be considerate of that. Part of me actually felt bad for complaining! But I won't let that happen again. Next time I will put my foot down and it will stay down. Thanks again to all of you that have spoken up.
