> At a tournament this past weekend in Memphis,I had my first bad experience in a LONG time. I do all my own repairs normally,unless I'm at a tournament and don't have my equipment available. My favorite shaft had a tip on it that was 2 years old and had never had any problems with it,until it started making noise and would not grab the ball regardless of how I scuffed or chalked it. I knew something had to be done,because I was waiting to play a match. I looked at it very carefully and KNEW it wasn't loose,the tip wasn't coming apart,and still have no clue what caused it. I had the guy that was working the tournament install a new Sumo,same thing I installed on it 2 years ago with great results. I stood and watched him,just like I normally do. This guy has been pretty free with helpful info and ideas,and had no problems until now. He finishes the tip,and just hands the shaft back to me and says it will be 15 bucks,without even removing the excess glue,scratches,and reddish coating from the tip from my ivory ferrule,not to mention the deep dents caused by his collet. I asked him if he was going to clean it up,and he said that will be another 10 bucks. I made damn sure he saw me roll my eyes and told him to go ahead,since the shaft was unplayable as it was,at this point I was getting REALLY hot. His method of cleaning the shaft was a sopping wet green Scotch-Brite pad,along with what looked like 1/2 CUP of water,he dried it with a leather burnisher,hit it with 400,and without sanding it out any further,applies a really heavy coat of horribly thick,sticky sealer. While the sealer is drying,he takes a fresh razor blade,and proceeds to dig into the tip until it looked like it had been burnished with those crappy Ultimate Tip Tools or those plastic burnishers that look like a joint protector. I can clearly hear the chatter of the blade on the ivory,and start looking for something to break over his head,I am 100% serious when I say I wanted to fight him at this point. He barely sands the ferrule with 400,burnishes the tip with the leather again,and asks me if I want to use my wax on the shaft or his,I said neither until you thin this sealer out some. Out comes the 400 again,still ignoring the clearly visible glue on the ferrule,and at this point I decided this was the time to cut my losses and accept it as is,before it got worse. My previously pristine ivory ferrule will SURELY have to be replaced,after looking at it under a jewelers loupe,the chatter marks and gouges cannot be fixed except with radical sanding,the shaft feels like you spilled Coke on it,and I'm 25 bucks stuck for the effort. I feel RAPED,and still want to fight him. I made it a point to bring this to him privately,as he seems like the type to get ignorant if his methods,workmanship or ethics are questioned with other people within earshot. I pulled him off to the side and said "look,maybe this is just a case of you being tired or something,but this shaft you worked on for me is unaccpetable,how do you want to handle it?" He said "it's already been handled,the work is done,I can't be expected to please everyone". I walked off rather than pursue it any further,I only told about 50 people over the remainder of the weekend about it,most of which said this was NOT the first time they had heard about marginal work from him,and made sure everyone I told saw exactly what I meant. I also showed everyone who's opinions mattered the ivory ferrule I installed on vivalaraza's shaft,100% of the people polled said it was FLAWLESS. Even this professional repairman,who's opinion I previously respected said it looked like it was installed by Schon,so I KNOW my workmanship is on par with his. By the way,this was only my 2nd ivory ferrule. The majority of the people that saw the ones I've done have urged me to make every effort to work this particular tournament next year,their support will be rewarded by me trying to do exactly that. Tommy D.
