It's a bit of a long story - I'm wondering if this is acceptable, and more importantly where to proceed from here.
I am finally collecting my set of custom made JD Cues tomorrow in Miami. (The cues are a matching father & son set, for my firstborn, due next month). I'll be flying in from overseas to grab them and the plan was to return to home with them (Jamaica). Depending on the advice of the more seasoned cue experts here, I may have to leave them and send them somewhere to have new shafts made. I will only have from Thursday to Sunday to make this decision while I am in the USA.
I did my research before choosing Joel, all of his cues looked amazing. My friends told me don't get cues made in the Philippines, but I said no worries, this guy is solid, you'll see. He began in June, I sent diagrams, with very specific instructions. He made an error on the first butts, graciously apologized when i pointed them out and started over possibly putting himself in a losing position on this job but he stressed he wanted to keep his customers happy. His customer service was beyond excellent - I really felt I was in good hands. Things stalled due to the typhoon damaging some equipment in the shop, I sent more of a deposit to keep things rolling. I was assured we'd still meet the deadline of my early Sept trip to Miami. Things still ran a little behind and I even changed my trip to late September to facilitate delays. I understand it is cue making, it's hard to be rushed. Pics of the almost completed cues were sent to me and I was asked to send the remaining balance to facilitate completion. I expressed my concerns about making payment in full before completion but sent it anyways. I pointed out some more mistakes in the ringwork on the shafts. I was a little concerned at this point because the mistakes this time were simply poor workmanship. All the rings on the four matching shafts were a different thickness/height and one of them was a different color brown than anything on the entire cue, looks like it came from a totally different piece of phenolic than the rest of the cue. All the rings on the cue were supposed to match and the rings on the either side of the joint were to be identical in size. I was thanked for pointing it out to him and was assured it would be taken care of before shipping.
I still told him how pleased I was with his service and promised paying him extra if we got the cues out on time - I didn't want him to lose on this job even though I felt the mistakes were avoidable if the instructions were followed. Shipping was included in the price, but I sent more money unsolicited for rush shipping to ensure on time delivery. I asked for high res pics to be sent to me before we shipped so I could inspect them. I got my high res pics after it shipped with tracking info. A close up below of the issues I have - all four look like this.
The rings on the shafts were still a different color, the heights weren't adjusted perfectly and there was still some odd dark brown ring in there that shouldn't even be in the ringwork. I had assumed he was going to remake the rings. He apologized and said this is the best he could do, he couldn't adjust the height anymore because of the brass insert in the joint. As for the color, he says all the brown phenolic will darken in time and if I wanted he can still send me another shaft. I let him know I was disappointed the cues were shipped like this and I'd really rather have four new shafts made properly. I stressed don't mind paying for them, just send me a fair price so I end up a happy camper and it doesn't cost him. I'm not getting any replies from him and I have to conclude he's signed off for good on this deal. I'm pretty surprised on this, he seemed like a really good guy and seems to have many happy customers. So I'm really just cutting my losses with him and have to move on. I'm already into these cues over $1000 which was my original budget. I'll have to view it as I got the two pretty nice butts for this price and have to find some $$$ for proper matching shafts.
- Anybody have any suggestions on how to proceed getting some matching shafts done? Somebody in a similar price range of these cues. No need for a Searing or Tasc.
- Are those screwy phenolic rings really going to all lighten/darken up and match the rest of the phenolic on the cue? Two people have already told me that's not going to happen...
I am finally collecting my set of custom made JD Cues tomorrow in Miami. (The cues are a matching father & son set, for my firstborn, due next month). I'll be flying in from overseas to grab them and the plan was to return to home with them (Jamaica). Depending on the advice of the more seasoned cue experts here, I may have to leave them and send them somewhere to have new shafts made. I will only have from Thursday to Sunday to make this decision while I am in the USA.
I did my research before choosing Joel, all of his cues looked amazing. My friends told me don't get cues made in the Philippines, but I said no worries, this guy is solid, you'll see. He began in June, I sent diagrams, with very specific instructions. He made an error on the first butts, graciously apologized when i pointed them out and started over possibly putting himself in a losing position on this job but he stressed he wanted to keep his customers happy. His customer service was beyond excellent - I really felt I was in good hands. Things stalled due to the typhoon damaging some equipment in the shop, I sent more of a deposit to keep things rolling. I was assured we'd still meet the deadline of my early Sept trip to Miami. Things still ran a little behind and I even changed my trip to late September to facilitate delays. I understand it is cue making, it's hard to be rushed. Pics of the almost completed cues were sent to me and I was asked to send the remaining balance to facilitate completion. I expressed my concerns about making payment in full before completion but sent it anyways. I pointed out some more mistakes in the ringwork on the shafts. I was a little concerned at this point because the mistakes this time were simply poor workmanship. All the rings on the four matching shafts were a different thickness/height and one of them was a different color brown than anything on the entire cue, looks like it came from a totally different piece of phenolic than the rest of the cue. All the rings on the cue were supposed to match and the rings on the either side of the joint were to be identical in size. I was thanked for pointing it out to him and was assured it would be taken care of before shipping.
I still told him how pleased I was with his service and promised paying him extra if we got the cues out on time - I didn't want him to lose on this job even though I felt the mistakes were avoidable if the instructions were followed. Shipping was included in the price, but I sent more money unsolicited for rush shipping to ensure on time delivery. I asked for high res pics to be sent to me before we shipped so I could inspect them. I got my high res pics after it shipped with tracking info. A close up below of the issues I have - all four look like this.
The rings on the shafts were still a different color, the heights weren't adjusted perfectly and there was still some odd dark brown ring in there that shouldn't even be in the ringwork. I had assumed he was going to remake the rings. He apologized and said this is the best he could do, he couldn't adjust the height anymore because of the brass insert in the joint. As for the color, he says all the brown phenolic will darken in time and if I wanted he can still send me another shaft. I let him know I was disappointed the cues were shipped like this and I'd really rather have four new shafts made properly. I stressed don't mind paying for them, just send me a fair price so I end up a happy camper and it doesn't cost him. I'm not getting any replies from him and I have to conclude he's signed off for good on this deal. I'm pretty surprised on this, he seemed like a really good guy and seems to have many happy customers. So I'm really just cutting my losses with him and have to move on. I'm already into these cues over $1000 which was my original budget. I'll have to view it as I got the two pretty nice butts for this price and have to find some $$$ for proper matching shafts.
- Anybody have any suggestions on how to proceed getting some matching shafts done? Somebody in a similar price range of these cues. No need for a Searing or Tasc.
- Are those screwy phenolic rings really going to all lighten/darken up and match the rest of the phenolic on the cue? Two people have already told me that's not going to happen...
