Had it up to here with custom cue orders!

PistolPat

PistolPat

Flip Strokin' since 91
Silver Member
OK almost 2 1/2 years ago I placed an order with a well known curmaker...not the best but makes a very nice cue of which his cues are used by MANY top pros...anyways..I placed this order with cad drawings of exactly what I wanted INCLUDING script that detailed exactly what was to be done to certain areas of the cue such as inlays and ringwork etc etc...Along the way I also request ( which this person and his associate agreed to do ) them to contact me FIRST before proceeding to work on those said areas so that I can establish to them via phone or email EXACTLY what is to be done and so that we BOTH are on the same page. In addition speciafically towards the ringwork I requested pictures of the ringwork before ANY glue is to be apllied so that I can make sure it is exactly as I wanted. So here comes the kick in the nuts....The cue was supposed to be done in a period of 18 months..so I call check the status every month after the said completion date and he and his associate state they had problems with machinery..no problem....I call again months later to check the status again...they say we'll get styarted on it asap...I wait more months..long story short I get a call about 2 weeks ago ( 2 1/2 years later form start date ) stating that they are clsoe to being done and that they just have to do the ringwork and voila it's done. So I said great, but before you glue any ringwork onto my cue PLEASE contact me first and also take pics of the rings so that I can approve before you permanently place them on the cue..what do they do instead?? Oh they decided to just go on without my approval..Fist of all not only did they not do as I had requested, that which we BOTH agreed BUT they didnt even get it close to what I had drawn for them as well provided all the sample pics to show what I needed done. So I call the cuemaker and state the issue..and what do they suggest?? A F'n refund! Thats fine and dandy but WOW WTF! YOU f up my order I explain to you what you did wrong, you read and check my order and realize oh shit we did, well we'll just refund you and that'll be the end of it cuz the cue is basically done and you dont want it. DUH! If it aint what I ordered then it aint what I'm payin for is it! OMG! This is soooooo disappointing.
 
So you lent them your money for a couple plus years. Ask for interest.
Only a couple of simple requests.
Seems to me that you were more than patient and this is how you're rewarded?
 
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Thats exactly what they did

U know this cuemaker has really disappointed me. Very unprofessional in the way they took care of this matter. A refund....wow nothing like...We can fix it but it will take time et etc just a straight up refund and its THEIR fault! WOW! It's like you said blue..they held on to my money and thats about all they did. Not ever gonna buy a cue even made by this person...
 
Given your side of things I would certainly take the refund and "not" the cue. You clearly wanted something very specific and made it abundantly clear to them that this was the case and that you wanted it to be done very specifically.

It really sucks to tie up that money for that long but there is no question, I would be taking the money back, not the cue.

I will give the cuemaker credit for offering the refund (as long as they follow through with it quickly), but I just don't see why they would not contact you and do what you stated you wanted.

The cue in my avatar is my own personal cue and I was in contact with the cue maker, the goldsmith that hand carved the silver rings, and the goldsmith that cast the gold crosses. I actually personally hand painted the green in the area where the silver rings were then inlaid. The cuesmith who built my cue would NEVER do what you say happend to you, he likes people to be in constant contact with him during the building process and the more elaborate the project the more he will update you and make sure the style and design is what you want.

Your experience sucks, if the cue was that personal I can imagine you were very excited about getting it and now you are back to square one. I hope the refund goes off without a hitch at least...
 
And if they did fix the ring work, you'd be waiting for another year.

On your end, its the principle, you could have invested your money and also time and have been playing with another cue makers cue long before this.
 
I don't even know what to say anymore about it...

I can't even describe the disappointment. This WAS a personal cue, totally designed head to toe. All that patience I had with them for every excuse they had ( legit or not ) and I still waited. Unbelieveable.... Shoulda just ordered one of his catalog cues..maybe then he wouldnt get ANY of it wrong..lol Geez. Im just gonna laugh at this whole thing.
 
PistolPat said:
I can't even describe the disappointment. This WAS a personal cue, totally designed head to toe. All that patience I had with them for every excuse they had ( legit or not ) and I still waited. Unbelieveable.... Shoulda just ordered one of his catalog cues..maybe then he wouldnt get ANY of it wrong..lol Geez. Im just gonna laugh at this whole thing.
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My experience is that far too often it is nearly impossible to get exactly what you want in a cue. For example last year I ordered a full splice cue ebony into "highly figured birdseye maple" Both the Cuemaker and I agreed on this. When I received my cue I had straight grain maple used in the forearm of the cue. The cuemaker acknowledged the mistake with the response, "I didn't have any BEM for the full-splice and I still don't." I would have hoped he would have told me this before he built the cue. Needless to say, I won't be buying another cue from him.

The other thing that bothers me about custom cues is when you ask for a specific design, draw pictures and virtually every cue maker out there wants to change the wood choice or the design of the inlays, the number of points or something. It's your design but many must put their own design into it. I've even had them change veneer color or build the cue with a huge difference in the weight that was ordered, Like 18.7 oz when a 20.5 cue was ordered.

It's sort of a crap shoot. If I didn't play with 60" cues I'd just go to the cue shows and pick out what I like instead of trying to design something myself.

I've got a custom cue ordered right now, It's from a very reputable master cue maker and so far he's been great to work with. I hope I am completely satisfied this time.

Life's a gamble and sometimes you lose, ordering cues seems like that all too often but if you get one the way you want it. It's a treasure. Here's hoping there's a lot of treasure out there for those who like to collect.
 
I have ordered two custom cues and waited 2.5 years total, and was VERY VERY disappointed. Doesn't count the Philippe cue I ordered and was disappointed with. I must say that all my orders were fracked up.

Never, oh never, will I order a custom cue again. I got my Predator 21 ounce sneaky pete and I am very satisfied.

I can only suggest that if you do order a custom cue, you set the conditions where you get to show up with a gun to their head and they have 3 days to make the fracking cue LOL.
 
PistolPat said:
I can't even describe the disappointment. This WAS a personal cue, totally designed head to toe. All that patience I had with them for every excuse they had ( legit or not ) and I still waited. Unbelieveable.... Shoulda just ordered one of his catalog cues..maybe then he wouldnt get ANY of it wrong..lol Geez. Im just gonna laugh at this whole thing.
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It might get worse.
He took your design and made a one-of-a kind cue.
j/k bud.
 
PistolPat said:
I can't even describe the disappointment. This WAS a personal cue, totally designed head to toe.
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I think you have every right to be disappointed (although we've only heard one side of the story). That's 2 1/2 years of your time and expectation down the drain, beside having some of your money tied down.

I'm glad you got the refund, at least. I guess even getting a refund is a *challenge* from some cue makers. Running business or customer service are different skill sets and not all cuemakers excel at both.
 
when it comes to this particular incident.......

there is no other side of the story. they just didnt follow suit to what was requested and asked of them that was agreed upon. WHICH was written in emails from both sides and dictated in a cad order drawing. It is what it is now and Im just going to use part of that refund to buy me that Mezz JM404 if someone can help me find it damnit lol.
 
You should post the name of the cuebuilder, so no one else has to go through that BS.
 
It's really a shame there isn't better communication between cuemakers and their customers. The biggest excuse is they make is they can either talk or work, implying that discussing your cue with you is detrimental to getting the job done. What a joke, like it's your fault...it's just a shame, and it eventually catches up with them unless they are in the "golden dozen" who can do whatever they want with anybody they come in contact with and the flocks still bow to them. And offering a refund just gets you off their back so they can continue to do the same to the next guy. Why can't they just be honest about what's going on? Word of mouth spreads like the flu, and decent cuemakers know that.
 
naming the cue builder.........

Well I am a reasonable guy and naming him to the masses wouldnt do anybody any good becaue I havent heard of this happening to anyone else by this cuemaker. All I know is that this singular incident has put me off of this cue builder and I wont even buy one of his cues even if the price was a steal. I just couldnt believe that the first thing out of their mouth was refund instead of i apologize for our mistake, we should have done as you requested, we can fix this, might take time..instead it was heres your money I know we messed up bye bye. way to show customer service for a guy who waited patiently for a cue that was supposed to be done in 18 months but I waited 30 months and then you get the order wrong due to the lack of following direction that was written in detail and stated over and over again. Just straight up disappointing
 
dr9ball said:
For example last year I ordered a full splice cue ebony into "highly figured birdseye maple" Both the Cuemaker and I agreed on this. When I received my cue I had straight grain maple used in the forearm of the cue. The cuemaker acknowledged the mistake with the response, "I didn't have any BEM for the full-splice and I still don't." I would have hoped he would have told me this before he built the cue. Needless to say, I won't be buying another cue from him.
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You should not have bought "that" cue from him. Highly figured birds eye maple is worth alot more money then a straight grain maple piece and you had ordered a cue with the former and paid the price for the former.

In effect you went and bought a porche for $80,000, the dealer got in a Toyota worth $40,000 and told you that is all he could get and you can deal with it, and you accepted the Toyota and drove away.

It is crap, pure and simple, and people who accept garbage like this in business make the people who do crap like this continue to think they can get away with it until someone like me says "no" and they then end up trying to fight and argue it, wasting my time.
 
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Are you angry? Would you like to have been warned about this cuemaker before you wasted your hard earned time and money? THEN POST THE NAME OF THE CUEMAKER.

You say that you've never heard of anyone having issues with this person but maybe the last 20 orders have been messed up yet nobody said anything so the vicious cycle continues. Cuemakers are notorious for missing deadlines, not following designs, copying designs that are supposed to be 1 of 1 and we keep letting them do it............why?

Why post this at all if not to warn people that this certain cuemaker might screw your cue up even if you hold their hand from day 1, did you post just to ***** and moan? Please make your thread meaningful by informing the general public of who it is so they can make their own decision on whether or not to order a cue from them, obviously their reputation was solid enough previously since you had faith in them previously and never heard any bad stories right?
 
PistolPat said:
there is no other side of the story. they just didnt follow suit to what was requested and asked of them that was agreed upon. WHICH was written in emails from both sides and dictated in a cad order drawing. It is what it is now and Im just going to use part of that refund to buy me that Mezz JM404 if someone can help me find it damnit lol.
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Sure there's another side of the story. There's always another side. Go ahead and post the cue maker's name and I'm sure he'll be glad to come on here and tell us his side. ;)

Roger
 
Fuji-whopper said:
Are you angry? Would you like to have been warned about this cuemaker before you wasted your hard earned time and money? THEN POST THE NAME OF THE CUEMAKER.

You say that you've never heard of anyone having issues with this person but maybe the last 20 orders have been messed up yet nobody said anything so the vicious cycle continues. Cuemakers are notorious for missing deadlines, not following designs, copying designs that are supposed to be 1 of 1 and we keep letting them do it............why?

Why post this at all if not to warn people that this certain cuemaker might screw your cue up even if you hold their hand from day 1, did you post just to ***** and moan? Please make your thread meaningful by informing the general public of who it is so they can make their own decision on whether or not to order a cue from them, obviously their reputation was solid enough previously since you had faith in them previously and never heard any bad stories right?
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Nice spin.
 
Fuji-whopper said:
Are you angry? Would you like to have been warned about this cuemaker before you wasted your hard earned time and money? THEN POST THE NAME OF THE CUEMAKER.

You say that you've never heard of anyone having issues with this person but maybe the last 20 orders have been messed up yet nobody said anything so the vicious cycle continues. Cuemakers are notorious for missing deadlines, not following designs, copying designs that are supposed to be 1 of 1 and we keep letting them do it............why?

Why post this at all if not to warn people that this certain cuemaker might screw your cue up even if you hold their hand from day 1, did you post just to ***** and moan? Please make your thread meaningful by informing the general public of who it is so they can make their own decision on whether or not to order a cue from them, obviously their reputation was solid enough previously since you had faith in them previously and never heard any bad stories right?
Click to expand...

Agreed. I got absolutely nothing out of this OP's rant. Sorry it happened, but how does this help the community ? :confused:
 
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