Well this is a damn shame. I would like to offer my perspective on this. First, let
me say that I have not met Jeff in person but I have spoken with him over the phone a
few times. I have a good friend who knows Jeff and used to live in Ames and he has
visited the shop and owned several Olneys. He is very proud of his Olney cues and
speaks very highly of Jeff, but he will admit that Jeff is meticulously slow, but the
result is always worth the wait. After I shot with my friends Olney for the first
time, I wanted one. I talked to Jeff and exchanged some emails about design specs and
stuff. I wanted to put in an order and make a down payment. He did not want a down
payment. I even offered to drive to Boone with my friend to check out his shop and
dish him cash. He was not interested and he said he was way behind and needed to get
caught up, and did not need added pressure of holding on to my money. He told me to
call him the next summer. Fair enough. I felt uneasy with this, and knowing that it
could be several years before I got a cue, I decided to have the cue made by someone
else who could guarantee a quicker turnaround. So that is my experience with Jeff. He
was always nice to me and I do not have a single bad thing to say about him. Here is
my take on this unfortunate situation:
Luck1st: Jeff wanted you to pick up the cue on Thursday. You were busy and decided to
come "on the weekend sometime". On Saturday afternoon you said you would be over the
next evening. Then suddenly on Sunday night after 8pm you want to put it off until
tomorrow again. I am sorry this happened but I think you really dropped the ball on
this one. You have the greatest excuse in the world - your family. Your sons birthday
is clearly much more important than a silly pool cue. But birthdays are static, you
know when your son was born, and you know when you were going to celebrate the
occasion. So why would you tell Jeff that you are going to pick up the cue during an
obviously busy weekend? It probably took Jeff a while to make this pool cue but I can
guarantee he never gave you a specific date/time and then failed to deliver (which is
exactly what you did, more than once). If your life is so ungodly busy that it takes
more time to make a 45 minute drive than to have the cue mailed, then the obvious
choice is to have Jeff ship the cue; saying you are "only 45 minutes away" is not a
reason to avoid shipping and it does not help your cause at all. I wouldn't be
surprised if Jeff never sold the cue at all, maybe he just wants to prove a point that
when he says the cue is done you need to get it and pay up and not continuously give
him the runaround. It doesn't matter if it takes Jeff ten years to build the cue, the
bottom line is that he never scheduled something finite and then reneged multiple
times.
Jeff Olney: Whether you sold the cue or not (it is a beauty by the way), it may have
been worth an extra phone call to inform the customer that you will sell the cue to
another interested party if he does not come and get it TODAY. That would have
probably got the job done and avoided this mess, and although he may have been insulted
with the surprising demand, I doubt it would piss him off to the point of starting a
tarnishing thread like this one. I understand that money talks and it is hard to turn
down, but from an ethical standpoint the guy deserved to get his cue. The main thing
here is that you did not take his money, so you are not a thief and from a legal
standpoint you don't owe him anything. He kept lying about when he was coming to get
the cue, so maybe you thought he was never coming to get it. Why have a perfectly good
cue brand new and shiny sitting there collecting dust? I believe you already offered to
make him another one, which is mildly fair but probably too late for that, I doubt he
is interested any more. The cue is gone now, you have money for it, so onto the next
one. I know damn well you are not feeling good about this.
I am on the fence here, but I think it is a lesson that the customer is not always
right; this isn't the restaurant industry. Things get "sold out" from under people all
the time. It is usually done for a bigger profit or some other kind of financial
concern, but there's also favoritism. It is human nature and Jeff nor any other
cuemaker is perfect. Some are better at projecting estimates than most. Some are more
committed to setting deadlines and pushing themself to stay on top of them. I think
overall Jeff makes a nice cue for a super fair price, but he reserves the right to work
at his own pace, charge what he wants, and refuse a down payment if he feels it would
implicate drama. When you own your own business you earn these rights, and to expect
and demand him to do things your way is impractical. What I think happened here was
Jeff being irritated and tired of waiting for a customer who was establishing a pattern
of delays, combined with the fact that he had someone in the shop who adored the cue
and was ready and eager to pay cash for it. I can't help but wonder if there was any
animosity between these two prior to this happening. I have to assume there is.
I hope you guys can figure out a way to get this resolved, but I am not sure how. Both
parties are equally "out" of something, which is oddly a good thing. Luck1st is out a
nice cue, and Jeff is out at least one repeat customer. The good news is both can move
on with their lives, and so can we!
