Hypothetical situation

I think if I was the customer I would have already of outed the repair man. I'm not a cuemaker, and I still can't see how you can blame a 1/2 mil screw up on a ferrule. Common sense says put a new ferrule on the shaft if you find something wrong.

People saying you don't do your own work when you do is nothing to sneeze at. It is a direct insult and an attempt to discredit your reputation.
 
I also believe you should have a talk, at the very least, with the person saying things about your work. I lost a sale of a $3000.00 cue because someone told my buyer that I did not make my own cues, that someone else made the whole thing. Instead of coming to me the buyer stopped making payments after the initial downpayment. It was not for some months that I learned what had transpired. How many other sales have been lost because of this? Even after explaining thing to the buyer and inviting him to my shop there was no payment and I have since found another buyer for the cue. And now I have lost the name of the person saying things about my work and have to try and get it again, because I too need to talk to the person saying things about my work and straighten their a$$ out.
To think that this will take care of itself is naive. There will always be people that think the worst of you and the best of someone else for whatever reason. To allow the other repairman, or cue seller in my case, to keep saying things about your work is not good business. Yes, your work does speak for itself but people love to listen to gossip and spread things around at others expense.
Bob Danielson
www.bdcuesandcomix.com
 
bdcues said:
I also believe you should have a talk, at the very least, with the person saying things about your work. I lost a sale of a $3000.00 cue because someone told my buyer that I did not make my own cues, that someone else made the whole thing. Instead of coming to me the buyer stopped making payments after the initial downpayment. It was not for some months that I learned what had transpired. How many other sales have been lost because of this? Even after explaining thing to the buyer and inviting him to my shop there was no payment and I have since found another buyer for the cue. And now I have lost the name of the person saying things about my work and have to try and get it again, because I too need to talk to the person saying things about my work and straighten their a$$ out.
To think that this will take care of itself is naive. There will always be people that think the worst of you and the best of someone else for whatever reason. To allow the other repairman, or cue seller in my case, to keep saying things about your work is not good business. Yes, your work does speak for itself but people love to listen to gossip and spread things around at others expense.
Bob Danielson
www.bdcuesandcomix.com
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I think a lot of this comes from so many cuemakers buying full spliced blanks and not building them themselves. They do in fact make cues that they did not entirely build. Now it puts them in the position to have to explain to the customer what they make and what they buy and finish out. For the general cue buyer who knows very little it is not so black and white. Cuemakers, even well known cuemakers, do often use other cuemaker parts.
Many cuemakers buy shafts that are in the last stages of turning. So in effect, the guy who says, "He doesn't build all his own cues" he may not be incorrect.
 
Eric,

Success breeds envy, and the only solution is to continue doing what made you succesful and forget what you cannot control. This seems to be very common and especially in your case. There's a lot of people scratching their heads as to how you've managed to be where you are in the business. Of course, hard work and implementing new ideas does not occur to them. I respect the fact that you have not reveal the guy"s name it shows
class. Here on this site we do recommend repair people as you know. If all is true then this individual needs to be told to keep his mouth shut.

Mario, who thanks you for changing the way people think about snow white shafts as being
a must have, and helping re-introduce the beauty and simplicity of good quality hitting wood. :)
 
I appreciate all of the different views & advice. To clear things up, the cue was used by one previous owner who kept it mint. The buyer & I stayed in contact from before he bought the used cue through to after he recieved it. The cue was mint.

I will not get the buyer involved because this is no longer his concern & his anonyminity is important to me. He brought the dogged job to me to correct & informed me of the attempted foul from the repairman. He didn't buy any of the BS so no harm was done, but the fact that it was attempted bothers me.

I appreciate all the views & advice. Everybody had some fair approaches. Maybe i'll speak to him personally & question his intentions as well as sources. If he's an ass or continues to lie then i'll certainly out him. It's not only my reputation he's toying with but another cuemaker as well who he says is making my parts for me. That cuemaker is totally uninvolved & has nothing to do with it. The repairman in question no doubt has read this thread & apparently doesn't feel so bold as to offer up an explanation, so I won't push the issue any further. I made my point & he knows he's been made.

BDcues, your rumor sounds very much like what I have been dealing with, almost exactly. Coincidentally, you are in the same geographic area as the repairman in question, which would make him a direct competitor for your business. As I say, might be coincidental, but maybe not. Feel free to contact me & i'll give you his name.

Again, many thanks for the words of advice from you all. I think i'll rest on it for a while before deciding how to handle it.
 
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qbilder said:
Let me classify this as a "hypothetical" situation, meaning it could happen but hasn't neccesarily happened.

A guy buys one of my cues in the secondary market. He wants a tip change & a slight diameter decrease. He entrusts the job to a local "cuemaker"/repairman who also posts on this forum. The guy gets his shaft back & it's over .5mm smaller than he asked for. He asks why & the repairman tells him there was an air pocket in the ferrule & he had to cut & sand past it, which is why the excessive diameter was removed. I use Spalding melamine, and anybody who knows this product knows that it doesn't have "air pockets". Even if there "hypothetically" could have been, the correct fix isn't removing more material. The guy hacked the job, clearly.

That's a "shit happens" moment. Hey, it happens. Ok. However, the repairman in question went on to explain to the buyer of my cue how I do not build my own pointed forearms. He said that I have another builder supply me with them and that the buyer's cue was built with a such forearm. Not only is this complete & total BS lies, it's something i'd receive as insulting to me & my reputation. Maybe i'm wrong, but a cuemaker should not be making accusations about another builder with absolutely no knowledge or proof of the accusations, especially to do so to the accused cuemaker's buyers. It is blatant slander.

So given the ciscumstances, what would you all do in this situation? "Hypothetically", the customer calls BS, is pissed with the results & sends the shaft to me so I can bare witness to the botched job and to also correct the issue by building a new shaft. But in this "hypothetical" situation, would I be wrong to be pissed off & feel as if my reputation were being wrongfully attacted & slandered? How would you all handle this? Just kinda curious. I normally let stupiud crap go, but for some reason this is eating at me. And if you can't already tell, the situation might not really be hypothetical but instead actuality. I know the buyer isn't lying because the said repairman has done & said such things before. Do I get a lawyer & file a suit? There's nothing to win. Do I publicy out him? Nothing to gain. Or do I take the high road & just let it slide, letting the idiot dig himself into his own rut? I dunno. But i'm kinda pissed. Any wisdom would be much appreciated.
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the last thing you want to do is call a lawyer the lawyer will tell you everything you want to hear and you'll spend $5,000 for nothing, i have been down that road too many times.


What you need to do, is let it go, you know its bullshit, I know its bullshit and so does 99.99% of the people who play with your cues, fix the shaft for the guy and be the bigger man. I know your strong enough to do that! Not to brag but I deal with things like this often, you know me personally very well, look where I had to park at dinner to avoid a door ding, step aside from bullshit dont get involved in it, your too good
 
I think you've done the right thing already. If you're sure the repair person has read this, I think you're done.
If there's any chance that's not the case, by all means contact them and respectfully ask them to consider what they are saying could be damaging to all parties involved. Maybe it's just stupidity on their part, and once they realize what they're doing, they'll try another way of covering up their mistakes.....
 
Never argue or try to have a discussion with an idiot, they will bring you down to their level. Take the high road.
 
Eric, Your reputation on here and in the cue building world is outstanding. Your craftsmanship and knowledge of cues is beyond what alot of cuemakers have. I would just inform the person that has the cue everything you know about the situation. The jackwad that hacked the shaft up already knows he is a hack, if he doesnt, he will soon enough. It will only take time.

People are not dumb, well, yea, there are alot of dum basses I have found out..so I take that back.....The world is full of idiots....but you know your right, and the hack knows your right....just explain to your customers when something like this arises.....I can bet my money that people will know whats going on after they talk to you.........

You build one of the better playing cues I have ever owned, ......

Shawn
 
It has come to my attention that some people may be assuming the guy in question is somebody else. Please do not make assumptions or assume that he is anybody. I'm not trying to pin anybody down. I was merely seeking some words of experience or wisdom from others who may have been in similar situations.
 
I hope

I hope that you charged for the shaft, regardless whether that person or the repair guy pays. Lesson learned and some of us have, ALWAYS send the cue to the cuemaker for any detailed work; especially retapering, refinishing, etc...I had a horrible experience myself and thank goodness it was only a finish job!
 
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