My Dealings With Cuemakers

[1 Pocket Ghost]

Just wanted to share some cuemaker communication and/or transaction experiences, and one strong recommendation....

In the last two years I had one new cue built, discussed a second cue being built, and also had three replacement shafts built for other cues. I did a lot of research and then contacted and/or talked to several cuemakers either for the cue, or for the shafts. Now you'll have to take my word for the fact that I'm fairly knowledgable about cues, friendly and reasonable to talk/deal with, and I made sure to ask them first, if they weren't too busy and had time to talk....

...In all, I talked to about twelve cuemakers, about 8 of which are members here. Of those twelve, six were friendly and accommadating to talk to, two more were even more friendly and helpful, two were not all that easy to talk with and gave me the feeling that they would only allot me so much time to discuss things with them, one acted totally out of line and wronged me in a transaction, and one I enjoyed talking to and dealing with most of all.

I am only naming the cuemaker that I mentioned last - and he is not my brother or an old friend, lol....I only met him recently - he is, Chad Carter.

Chad did beautiful work for me, his prices are very reasonable, his shaft wood was pristine, and he was extremely polite, friendly, honest, and helpful - I cannot recommend him more highly.

- Ghost

Ps, And this is not to say that I wasn't, or wouldn't have also been happy, working with some of the other cuemakers

 

[Salamander]

Two horrible experiences. 12 very good experiences. And one super experience with Kenny Murrell.

 

[snowmon34]

Just wanted to share some cuemaker communication and/or transaction experiences, and one strong recommendation....

In the last two years I had one new cue built, discussed a second cue being built, and also had three replacement shafts built for other cues. I did a lot of research and then contacted and/or talked to several cuemakers either for the cue, or for the shafts. Now you'll have to take my word for the fact that I'm fairly knowledgable about cues, friendly and reasonable to talk/deal with, and I made sure to ask them first, if they weren't too busy and had time to talk....

...In all, I talked to about twelve cuemakers, about 8 of which are members here. Of those twelve, six were friendly and accommadating to talk to, two more were even more friendly and helpful,j two were not all that easy to talk with and gave me the feeling that they would only allot me so much time to discuss things with them, one acted totally out of line and wronged me in a transaction, and one I enoyed talking to and dealing with most of all.

I am only naming the cuemaker that I mentioned last - and he is not my brother or an old friend, lol....I only met him recently - he is, Chad Carter.

Chad did beautiful work for me, his prices are very reasonable, his shaft wood was pristine, and he was extremely polite, friendly, honest, and helpful - I cannot recommend him more highly.

- Ghost

Ps, And this is not to say that I wasn't, or wouldn't have also been happy working with eight of the other cuemakers

Is it possible that the 2 cue makers might be having a bad day, or could it be that you caught them at a busy time of the day....maybe the 2 cue builders mentioned had some cues to build...just a thought..Btw I've had some really, really, terrible experiences myself...

 

[Carter]

Thanks for the Compliments

Just wanted to share some cuemaker communication and/or transaction experiences, and one strong recommendation....

In the last two years I had one new cue built, discussed a second cue being built, and also had three replacement shafts built for other cues. I did a lot of research and then contacted and/or talked to several cuemakers either for the cue, or for the shafts. Now you'll have to take my word for the fact that I'm fairly knowledgable about cues, friendly and reasonable to talk/deal with, and I made sure to ask them first, if they weren't too busy and had time to talk....

...In all, I talked to about twelve cuemakers, about 8 of which are members here. Of those twelve, six were friendly and accommadating to talk to, two more were even more friendly and helpful, two were not all that easy to talk with and gave me the feeling that they would only allot me so much time to discuss things with them, one acted totally out of line and wronged me in a transaction, and one I enjoyed talking to and dealing with most of all.

I am only naming the cuemaker that I mentioned last - and he is not my brother or an old friend, lol....I only met him recently - he is, Chad Carter.

Chad did beautiful work for me, his prices are very reasonable, his shaft wood was pristine, and he was extremely polite, friendly, honest, and helpful - I cannot recommend him more highly.

- Ghost

Ps, And this is not to say that I wasn't, or wouldn't have also been happy working with eight of the other cuemakers

Ghost,

Very Welocome.........and THANKS for the Compliments. If I can do anything in the future please let me know..

Chad

 

[1 Pocket Ghost]

Is it possible that the 2 cue makers might be having a bad day, or could it be that you caught them at a busy time of the day....maybe the 2 cue builders mentioned had some cues to build...just a thought..Btw I've had some really, really, terrible experiences myself...

snowmon, I also posted this same thread over in the main forum, and the response that I gave to a post by Hu over in that forum is applicable over here to your questions, so here is my response to Hu >>>


Hu...........The point that you made is absolutely valid and I think that it's very good that you brought it up, and all small shop customers should keep it in mind.....It's also a point that I'm already well aware of....however, I have to add a qualification, particularly since it's posted on this thread of mine, relating my own experiences...

First of all I 100% agree with you, if you're talking about the customer who calls once a week to ask about his cue that's being built, even though it's not scheduled to be completed for 8 more months.....Or the guy who means no harm, but forgets that you have a lot of work to do and wants to talk about comparing all the tips available, or maybe fishing or baseball, lol.

But in my mentioning in my initial post of the not so good communication that I had with two cuemakers, that was not the case.....These were first or second conversations about the actual building of a cue or shaft - questions about wood, taper, joints, etc....

And also as I said in my first post, I always politely ask if they have time to talk for a few minutes....now if they say yes, and then after about 8 minutes or so, they start to give the distinct impression that 'times up', I don't think that's good interaction.......Instead, (and again, this is a new customer wanting to have a cue or shaft built), if I were this cuemaker I would say, in a friendly way, "You know what, I've got three machines running and my hands are full of sawdust, howsabout you give me your number and I'll call you back when I quit for the day, or this evening after supper, and then we can talk for a bit"

So anyway, those are my thoughts...

- Ghost

 

[1 Pocket Ghost]

I forgot to mention that there was one question that I had for Chad Carter where I was TOTALLY dissatisfied with his reply.......

I asked him to play a race to 3, One Pocket, double or nothing, for what I owed him for the shaft that he made me...and he said, "Yeah, if you give me 12 to 5"....now isn't that terrible for a cuemaker to try and rob his customer like that !....

- Ghost

 

[Carter]

The Game

I forgot to mention that there was one question that I had for Chad Carter where I was TOTALLY dissatisfied with his reply.......

I asked him to play a race to 3, One Pocket, double or nothing, for what I owed him for the shaft that he made me...and he said, "Yeah, if you give me 12 to 5"....now isn't that terrible for a cuemaker to try and rob his customer like that !....

- Ghost

Not very proud of my one pocket game.....

 

[DiamondDave]

I've had a lot of great dealings with cuemakers in the past.... and a few not so great.

I've found pretty much everyone at the Valley Forge expo to be mostly polite and courteous with only one or two exceptions.

One notable (and anonymous) cuemaker didn't even have the decency to look at me while I was talking to him. He just wanted to look around me and over me. I was pretty upfront with him when I approached the booth so he shouldn't have thought I was wasting his time.

I said hello and I got a short "hi" in response while he was looking the other way. I asked if his cues had prices on them because I was looking for something nice and that I had up to $3k to spend in my pocket. Of the 12ish cues he had there, only like 1 or 2 were out of my price range. Despite all of this he was focused on everyone walking past and pretty much ignored my presence altogether.

What frustrated me was the fact that the previous year his attitude was the same when I had about $100 in my pocket yet when I went to Tim Scruggs' booth, he took the time to talk to me and even apologized when people would interrupt us to say hi to him. Many of the other vendors were polite too regardless of whether I had money or not.

I guess Karma was on my side though because this cuemaker left with the same cues he came with, all of which were for sale!

Dave

 

[Scratch]

Two horrible experiences. 12 very good experiences. And one super experience with Kenny Murrell.

Many great experiences with Rick Howard. Two experiences now with Kenny Murrell and his attitude and personality go hand n hand with his product. He even deliverd to my work. Thanks Kenny:thumbup:

 

[lefty84]

i've had only a few dealings with cue makers and each has been a pleasure.

first was troy downey. absolute first class guy. great with communication and always willing to talk to you about your cue or answer whatever random question you may have. he put up with me asking a ton of silly questions. this was my first custom cue purchase and was very pleased by the outcome.

second was ryan theewan of RAT cues. cant say enough good things about ryan. i gave him a couple guidelines of what i wanted and he blew it out of the water. complete perfectionist. top notch work and amazingly high quality. definitely worth anybody's time looking for a custom players cue for a great price.

third is bryan fisher. cue is still being built and im anxiously awaiting its completion which should be right around my birthday!!! so far i can say his communication is great. fast replies to questions and order specifics. i cant wait to see what he has in store for me when its done.


on a different but same note...i had called scott gracio to inquire about a cue he was selling on here and ended up talking to him for close to 45 minutes about all sorts of aspects of his process and shaftwood among other things. it only took about three minutes for him to tell me that the cue had been spoken for but he took the time to discuss numerous things with me about his cues. thats what i call customer service. in fact he took the time to help me get activated on here after waiting for 6 months to be activated and that very day my account was active.

so all of my dealings have been good ones and i hope as they go they stay that way, i truly cant say enough good things about these four guys.

Reed

 

[steveinflorida]

Over the years, I have found many cue builders to be easy to talk with and willing to take the time to help.
The ones that stand out are David Jacoby, Randy Mobley, Dennis Searing, Paul Dayton and Richard Black. Oh, and of course, Mike Gulyassy. I have been lucky and have not had any really horrible experiences.