Kevin has been coming on this site for a few years now posting how his cues are the best damn thing out there. And the truth is, if they lived up to his hype, he'd have a Searing or SW style waitlist. His prices would be throught the roof. People would understand that there are delays every now and then. And people would be more willing to forgive the lapses in delivery because, lets face it: people will wait for greatness.
But then you take a look at Kevin's product and, well, they're plain. And while his cues play decently, they do not leave customers with the feeling that they just found the next Dennis Searing. They're mediocre. Middle of the road.
So now you have a mediocre cue made by a guy who hypes both himself and his product as the greatest thing since sliced bread. As a result, he leaves himself open to a great deal of scrutiny. Then, when he is scrutinized by the general public, he lashes out in an often obnoxious and abrassive manner ...which leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. In fact recently, he took FULL PAYMENT for a cue ahead of time, delivered the cue MONTHS late, and when the buyer decided to sell, he publicly bad-mouthed the guy in his 'For Sale' thread!!!
Basically, what we have is a middle-of-the-road product made by a man who claims to be the greatest thing out there. He makes outlandish claims like he is the "choice of champions" and he "does ALL THE REPAIR WORK" for certain top tier pros. MUCH of this has been brought into question. And some of it has been proven to be just plain false.
Still, people order the cues. People pay for the cues. People get nothing but delays and suspicious stories as to why. People get attitudes. Some people get little to no communication. Others get ridiculous stories like "I have an overseas buyer who buys HUGE quantities but if you send me the money right away, I can send you one of his!!!" This is A) likely nothing more than bulls***; and B) an example of terrible business as he is willing to bypass a good customer for a random new order. Kinda strange no? And all of this on one condition... "You have to go on AZ and tell everybody how great I am and how awesome the cue is".
I've been a critic of Kevin's for some time now. We've gone at it many a time on these forums. I have criticized him until I was blue in the face. And often, I get the usuals (cajunbarboxplayer, ericdraven, etc.) jumping down my throat and telling me that I'm an a**. So, one day I decided to put my money where my mouth was. I bought a Varney directly from Kevin himself. I played with it and I gave it a review.
Now you might think that being a harsh critic of Kevin's (and seeing as how this was Kevin's idea) perhaps he would send me the best he had to offer. In fact, he did NOT. What he sent me was an old, pre-owned j/b with some mileage on it.
The cue itself played alright. While it was the heaviest thing I have ever picked up, the shaft had a great deal of blue on it, the jump joint didn't line up 100%, and the finish was dull and downright sticky, I have to say it broke ok and jumped ok as well. Keep in mind folks: the choice of words here is 'OK'. NOT excellent. NOT "the best thing ever". I have played with worse, but I have also played with better. So I gave it a review. It was mediocre and I stated such. It wasn't awful. It was decent at best. But perhaps overpriced. Still, I took heat. Still the loyalists jumped down my throat.
Kevin's antics have NEVER changed. He has been the same person for the past couple of years. Hawking the same middle-of-the-road product at low (though some might dispute that) prices. Hyping his product up to points that neither the product NOR the cuemaker can live up to. Giving attitude to critics. Promising "deals" to people if they, in turn, promise to give him a positive review. Taking FULL payments for a cue ahead of time and delivering the cue MONTHS late with little or no contact!!!
Now this what amazes me:
Despite ALL of this, you people are still buying from him?!?!?!?!
