Here's one for you....
I bought a cue off a lesser-known cuemaker whose name I will not mention pending the outcome of this situation (which is still unresolved).
The cue cost me close to $600, which at the time of purchase seemed like a good deal considering: expensive woods, ivory joint, butt cap & ferrules (2 shafts), matching JPs.
When I got the cue, I was disappointed to find that some of the inlay work was WAY off. For example, there are some large inlays in the butt sleeve with smaller inlays of the same shape inside. Some of the smaller inlays are so crooked that they are almost "coming out" of the larger inlays.
There are a few other issues as well. The points look like they came from 2 dramatically different batches of the same wood...a couple of them are colored far lighter and it doesn't look right IMO. The cue has ringwork, with a metal band on either side. At the base of the forearm, the wrap area of the cue seems like it starts (was cut?) right in the middle of the metal band at the lower edge of the C ring.
I contacted the cuemaker immediately upon receiving the cue and let him know I wasn't happy with it. I was very nice about it, telling him the problems I had, but being careful not to "trash" his work.
He replied that he described how the inlays were "off" and asked everyone to contact him before bidding on the cue (yes, it was an auction). I went back and looked at the description and found it didn't go anywhere near as far as he said. In the description, he did not ask everyone to contact him prior to bidding, only to email him if they had additional questions about the cue or its specs.
The description said that he doesn't use CNC, that he uses a manual pantograph, and that the inlays "are not as accurate as CNC." I didn't read this to mean that the inlays were "crooked," just that it was a "handmade" cue. I own quite a few non-CNC cues, and while you can pick out very minor descrepencies in some of the inlay work, nothing is close to as far off as this cue.
In his response to me, he went on to say that his pantograph is a "handmade model" and is of "poor quality." He further stated that it "has never been accurate" and that as time goes on "it gets more slop everywhere." This obviously explains the condition of the inlay work, though the auction description didn't.
Anyway, he tells me that he doesn't want me to be stuck with the cue, but that he already spent the money on equipment for his shop. However, he has another "friend" who is interested in the cue, knows all about the inlays, etc & is willing to send me the same amount I paid for it. He puts me in touch with this other guy, and we go back and forth with emails a few times.
Finally, he sends me an email saying he sent the money PayPal. Except I have nothing from PayPal confirming this and nothing in my account. I tell him this and he says he contacted PayPal and they were having "difficulties," and that now the money should be there. It still isn't. "It has to be...are you sure you gave me the right account...etc, etc." This process lasts a week, then he tells me, OK now it's all taken care of and I'm sending payment. Let him know that I got it and forward the tracking info for the cue.
Well, he sent payment, but in the form of an eCheck, which takes several days to clear. I tell him this, and that I don't actually "have" the money until the payment clears. Also that I don't plan to ship the cue until this happens. Now he tells me that he has to have the cue by Saturday, because he's going to Vegas for the BCA thing and wants to take the cue with him to have a leather wrap installed. I tell him that as long as the eCheck clears by the scheduled date (Wed) that should be OK. I was shipping Priority Mail, and he is only a couple hundred miles from me.
Wed comes, and instead of receiving confirmation that the eCheck cleared I find that they have changed the expected clearing date to 10 days in the future. Apparently this is because the money was not available in the account and they will try to get it again (but not immediately). I tell him about this new development and he then sends the money by credit card thru PayPal.
I had a regular account, and wasn't interested in "upgrading" to Premier to accept CC payments since that also means I get jacked up for 3% every time I accept money from now on. I tell him what he needs to do is to send an "instant transfer" from his bank account (instead of an eCheck or CC transfer). I deny the CC payment they sent. They (his girlfriend/wife is involved at this point, as the PayPal account is in her name) tell me that the CC payment was in fact a MAC card attached to their bank account, and although I denied the payment it will take several days to get returned to the account. They can't send the instant transfer until this happens, but now it won't happen until too late for the cue to arrive by Sat.
If the cue can't get there by Sat, he says he doesn't want it. At this point, it's Friday, and I make a (poor) judgement call. I ship the cue via Express to them so it will be there by Sat for their trip. Yes, it was risky, but my feeling was that they had (for all intents & purposes) "paid" for the cue when they tried to send the CC payment. All I had to do was upgrade my account and I would have gotten the money. Because of this, I felt some degree of comfort that they would in fact send the money when the funds were credited back to their account.
I let them know what I did, and they were very thankful and reassured me that I would get the money when it was possible. The cue arrived in time on Sat (verified by USPS tracking) and as far as I knew they took it to Vegas.
The weekend after Vegas, I hadn't heard back from them, so I emailed asking how the trip went, etc, etc, did your account get properly credited and is my money coming?
His wife replies that he got the cue, but it "wasn't what he expected" and he didn't want it. (after all this crap I went through over 3+ weeks) She says they will ship it back to me, but I tell her to hold off on that until they talk to the cuemaker since it wouldn't make any sense to return the cue to me only for me to return it to him. I forward this to the cuemaker, who has been following along with the whole process. He has no idea what the problem is, and insists that this guy knew all about the cue. He'll talk to him and get to the bottom of it....
That was a week+ ago, and as per the cuemaker his phone calls went unreturned and emails unanswered for that span up until this morning. This morning, he got an email saying that they were going to return the cue to him and nothing else. He said that he replied that they need to let him know what's going on first, if they want to trade in the cue, etc. Also that they need to "take care of me" which I found pretty funny...like they're going to pay me for a cue that they don't want either and then get stuck holding the bag for what has now been 6 weeks.
I told the cuemaker that I might be willing to accept a partial refund and keep the cue, but one way or another the situation needs to get taken care of very soon.
So the end of the tale has yet to be told. We'll see...
~Chris
I bought a cue off a lesser-known cuemaker whose name I will not mention pending the outcome of this situation (which is still unresolved).
The cue cost me close to $600, which at the time of purchase seemed like a good deal considering: expensive woods, ivory joint, butt cap & ferrules (2 shafts), matching JPs.
When I got the cue, I was disappointed to find that some of the inlay work was WAY off. For example, there are some large inlays in the butt sleeve with smaller inlays of the same shape inside. Some of the smaller inlays are so crooked that they are almost "coming out" of the larger inlays.
There are a few other issues as well. The points look like they came from 2 dramatically different batches of the same wood...a couple of them are colored far lighter and it doesn't look right IMO. The cue has ringwork, with a metal band on either side. At the base of the forearm, the wrap area of the cue seems like it starts (was cut?) right in the middle of the metal band at the lower edge of the C ring.
I contacted the cuemaker immediately upon receiving the cue and let him know I wasn't happy with it. I was very nice about it, telling him the problems I had, but being careful not to "trash" his work.
He replied that he described how the inlays were "off" and asked everyone to contact him before bidding on the cue (yes, it was an auction). I went back and looked at the description and found it didn't go anywhere near as far as he said. In the description, he did not ask everyone to contact him prior to bidding, only to email him if they had additional questions about the cue or its specs.
The description said that he doesn't use CNC, that he uses a manual pantograph, and that the inlays "are not as accurate as CNC." I didn't read this to mean that the inlays were "crooked," just that it was a "handmade" cue. I own quite a few non-CNC cues, and while you can pick out very minor descrepencies in some of the inlay work, nothing is close to as far off as this cue.
In his response to me, he went on to say that his pantograph is a "handmade model" and is of "poor quality." He further stated that it "has never been accurate" and that as time goes on "it gets more slop everywhere." This obviously explains the condition of the inlay work, though the auction description didn't.
Anyway, he tells me that he doesn't want me to be stuck with the cue, but that he already spent the money on equipment for his shop. However, he has another "friend" who is interested in the cue, knows all about the inlays, etc & is willing to send me the same amount I paid for it. He puts me in touch with this other guy, and we go back and forth with emails a few times.
Finally, he sends me an email saying he sent the money PayPal. Except I have nothing from PayPal confirming this and nothing in my account. I tell him this and he says he contacted PayPal and they were having "difficulties," and that now the money should be there. It still isn't. "It has to be...are you sure you gave me the right account...etc, etc." This process lasts a week, then he tells me, OK now it's all taken care of and I'm sending payment. Let him know that I got it and forward the tracking info for the cue.
Well, he sent payment, but in the form of an eCheck, which takes several days to clear. I tell him this, and that I don't actually "have" the money until the payment clears. Also that I don't plan to ship the cue until this happens. Now he tells me that he has to have the cue by Saturday, because he's going to Vegas for the BCA thing and wants to take the cue with him to have a leather wrap installed. I tell him that as long as the eCheck clears by the scheduled date (Wed) that should be OK. I was shipping Priority Mail, and he is only a couple hundred miles from me.
Wed comes, and instead of receiving confirmation that the eCheck cleared I find that they have changed the expected clearing date to 10 days in the future. Apparently this is because the money was not available in the account and they will try to get it again (but not immediately). I tell him about this new development and he then sends the money by credit card thru PayPal.
I had a regular account, and wasn't interested in "upgrading" to Premier to accept CC payments since that also means I get jacked up for 3% every time I accept money from now on. I tell him what he needs to do is to send an "instant transfer" from his bank account (instead of an eCheck or CC transfer). I deny the CC payment they sent. They (his girlfriend/wife is involved at this point, as the PayPal account is in her name) tell me that the CC payment was in fact a MAC card attached to their bank account, and although I denied the payment it will take several days to get returned to the account. They can't send the instant transfer until this happens, but now it won't happen until too late for the cue to arrive by Sat.
If the cue can't get there by Sat, he says he doesn't want it. At this point, it's Friday, and I make a (poor) judgement call. I ship the cue via Express to them so it will be there by Sat for their trip. Yes, it was risky, but my feeling was that they had (for all intents & purposes) "paid" for the cue when they tried to send the CC payment. All I had to do was upgrade my account and I would have gotten the money. Because of this, I felt some degree of comfort that they would in fact send the money when the funds were credited back to their account.
I let them know what I did, and they were very thankful and reassured me that I would get the money when it was possible. The cue arrived in time on Sat (verified by USPS tracking) and as far as I knew they took it to Vegas.
The weekend after Vegas, I hadn't heard back from them, so I emailed asking how the trip went, etc, etc, did your account get properly credited and is my money coming?
His wife replies that he got the cue, but it "wasn't what he expected" and he didn't want it. (after all this crap I went through over 3+ weeks) She says they will ship it back to me, but I tell her to hold off on that until they talk to the cuemaker since it wouldn't make any sense to return the cue to me only for me to return it to him. I forward this to the cuemaker, who has been following along with the whole process. He has no idea what the problem is, and insists that this guy knew all about the cue. He'll talk to him and get to the bottom of it....
That was a week+ ago, and as per the cuemaker his phone calls went unreturned and emails unanswered for that span up until this morning. This morning, he got an email saying that they were going to return the cue to him and nothing else. He said that he replied that they need to let him know what's going on first, if they want to trade in the cue, etc. Also that they need to "take care of me" which I found pretty funny...like they're going to pay me for a cue that they don't want either and then get stuck holding the bag for what has now been 6 weeks.
I told the cuemaker that I might be willing to accept a partial refund and keep the cue, but one way or another the situation needs to get taken care of very soon.
So the end of the tale has yet to be told. We'll see...
~Chris
