The cue is absolutely beautiful. Eddie's cues are awesome.
Charlie said he doesn't have a camera, but I am pretty sure that the picture of me holding the cue will give you a basic idea of how it looks.
Eddie's cues hit extremely well. Charlie posted that in the thread that was eventually closed. I have shot with one of Eddie's earlier cues, and believe me, his work is awesome.
About an apology...
I don't know how to react to that.
I stuck my neck out to let people know that Eddie had shipped the cue. Did Eddie ever try to confirm that information or update it? No he didn't. That surprised me. Eddie's a friend and I had his back, but did he have mine?
A few months ago I showed up at Eddie's front door to find out for myself how Eddie is. I like Eddie, I really do. He's a very nice person, great to talk to, very motivated about pool. I am sure that anybody that knows Eddie will tell you the same thing. Of course he has issues in his life, we all do. We all have things in our past that we're not proud of. Posting Eddie's arrest history wasn't necessary - in fact it was kind of childish. I don't give a shit what the excuse was for doing that, it wasn't the right thing to do, and that's coming from someone who used to be police officer.
I would recommend Eddie to any player that is looking for a great cue.
Understand that the process is going to take a while. Getting a cue in 7 months is pretty quick - but when it is promised in 90-120 days, Eddie needs to honor that, or make provisions for when the work is delayed.
Apology? The only apology that should be made is from Eddie Wheat to Charlie Edwards. It should be done publicly.
I don't think that Eddie's promotional tactics are helping him at all. All this nonsense isn't necessary.I don't see Mason or Doug Patrick or Willie or Eric Crisp or any other cue maker having the same issues that Eddie is having.
There comes a point where you can't say that it's everybody else. Eddie enjoys the excitement generated by these threads - so I doubt he's sitting at home with his head in his hands praying for this situation to change. If you know Eddie, you know what I just said is true.
My only problem with Eddie is that he needs to provide his customers with more information than they need. I learned how to do that a long time ago. It is better for the customer to have more information about the services, changes in the progress or delays in completion, and the shipping. Give people more information than they need.
What that will do, is give the customer the impression that you value their business and their trust. Realize that the trust and satisfaction of the customer is more important than the money paid for the services. Others that do business on this forum within the billiards industry understand what I am talking about.
Also, if you do business on this forum, learn how to communicate effectively with the people you are dealing with. Lately there are more threads about bad deals and misunderstandings between buyers and sellers - and it really has gotten out of hand. It's an epidemic.
If you are selling something, beware of the traps of the rip off artists. Protect yourself no matter what end of the deal you are on. Play it smart. Of course every once in a while something will happen that is unavoidable. Most of these situations occur in the presence of poor communication.
Let it be known that Eddie is not a bad guy at all.Not everybody is going to like him. He doesn't always do the right thing or say the right thing or present himself acceptably to the masses - but he does make a great cue. He does need to learn a lot about customer service. This transaction (although it was a bumpy ride) had a happy ending and somebody somewhere is going to have a great cue.
