Cushion rubber can be bad right from the start.I purchased new covered rails direct from Valley last summer and one of the end rails was dead right out of the box,how dead ?I can hit the cue ball hard and it won't make it back to the opposite end.
Called Valley tech support several times and all I got was the run around as they said they never heard of a new cushion being bad.
Also Valley won't even sell me just one cushion at my expense but they would be happy to sell me another full set.LOL