Sugartree cues (Eric Crisp)

[DEGAMO88]

Back in 2008-09, I sent three cues to Eric Crisp to convert for me- a Brunswick 26.5, a one-piece titlist and a Willie Hoppe Pro.

Over the years, I kept in touch with Eric through emails, DMS and texts to check on the progress of my cues.

We agreed to auction off the Brunswick 26.5 after it was completed with 100% of the proceeds to be donated to a charity that benefited injured soldiers returning from combat.

I posted my problem to the Sugartree cue group on Facebook around Thanksgiving and was told by a member that Mr. Crisp received my message, but I have yet to hear back from him, even though I left my phone and email with his friend.

What would you do?

 

[Birk1]

Same thing I did with Tony Zinzola And $1500 dollar deposit ~ You write it off

 

[Thunder Thighs]

With no update finished cue after 12 years I'd say fuggetaboutit. Even if unfinished I'd ask for my cues back though.

 

[7stud]

I'd post here and tell everyone what a scumbag Sugartree cues is. If Eric Crisp didn't reply with a good explanation, then I would hope most people would be swayed to avoid his cues.

 

[maha]

i tend not to do any mail business with a pool cue person that doesnt have a brick and motor business i can go to to get something remedied.
unless it is a big going business that does a high volume, and not some hokey pokey guy in his basement using your deposits to fund his lifestyle.
if i do, i use a credit card to pay for goods that are going to be delivered immediately.

 

[Bavafongoul]

I think you should let Eric know you started this thread and people await his response to your allegation
which really portrays him very badly. If he’s a decent person, he’d want to clear things up fast. If he isn’t
inclined to do that, then he should realize his reputation will suffer badly and it definitely will cause him to
lose future additional business that he otherwise have gotten. No one wants to deal with someone unreliable.

 

[mikemosconi]

i tend not to do any mail business with a pool cue person that doesnt have a brick and motor business i can go to to get something remedied.
unless it is a big going business that does a high volume, and not some hokey pokey guy in his basement using your deposits to fund his lifestyle.
if i do, i use a credit card to pay for goods that are going to be delivered immediately

i tend not to do any mail business with a pool cue person that doesnt have a brick and motor business i can go to to get something remedied.
unless it is a big going business that does a high volume, and not some hokey pokey guy in his basement using your deposits to fund his lifestyle.
if i do, i use a credit card to pay for goods that are going to be delivered immediately.

I have to agree here. The few times in my life that I mailed cues to independents for repairs, I had met them in person somewhere and had a good sense of their honesty- guys like Jim Buss, Mike Johnson (Jensen cues), Mike Webb, Barry Cameron; to are a few. Otherwise, I have taken my stuff directly to the cue makers shop - Ted Harris, Preferred Cues, Fred Collier, to name a few.

Outside of the instances above, I will deal with Muellers ( Troy Downey) and Proficient Billiards. For conversion work on titilist- Cues Directly.

I NEVER had any issue with ALL of these above mentioned cue guys - never in 30 years!

Many years ago the U.S. mail had a C.O.D. service, you could receive a cue in the mail from a cue maker, pay your mail carrier, somehow the money got back to the cue maker- if you did not pay- the cue went back to the cue maker. You will sometimes see a Balabushka cue mailing box that someone was wise enough to retain and the box usually has C.O.D. in large letters on the box. I don't know what happened to this service, but I imagine the days of most people being honest has also gone by the boards.

This is not an " I told you so". - just some advice from a whole lot of cue repair and cue dealing experience. Posting something like this where someone has let 12 years pass and is still looking for their cues is a little strange to me, to say the least.

 

[Chicagoplayer]

Back in 2008-09, I sent three cues to Eric Crisp to convert for me- a Brunswick 26.5, a one-piece titlist and a Willie Hoppe Pro.

Over the years, I kept in touch with Eric through emails, DMS and texts to check on the progress of my cues.

We agreed to auction off the Brunswick 26.5 after it was completed with 100% of the proceeds to be donated to a charity that benefited injured soldiers returning from combat.

I posted my problem to the Sugartree cue group on Facebook around Thanksgiving and was told by a member that Mr. Crisp received my message, but I have yet to hear back from him, even though I left my phone and email with his friend.

What would you do?

Almost 12/13 years?
Yikes.
I’m sorry.
Anyone you know live close to him?

 

[Joe_Jaguar]

Back in 2008-09, I sent three cues to Eric Crisp to convert for me- a Brunswick 26.5, a one-piece titlist and a Willie Hoppe Pro.

Over the years, I kept in touch with Eric through emails, DMS and texts to check on the progress of my cues.

We agreed to auction off the Brunswick 26.5 after it was completed with 100% of the proceeds to be donated to a charity that benefited injured soldiers returning from combat.

I posted my problem to the Sugartree cue group on Facebook around Thanksgiving and was told by a member that Mr. Crisp received my message, but I have yet to hear back from him, even though I left my phone and email with his friend.

What would you do?

"I posted my problem" <-- which is? You say you were in touch over the years. So did he stop responding? Did the texts bounce? What was the progress reports given to you? Have you asked for your cues back and he refused? Did he finally say of the filler work that he had no interest in doing a "convert" on cues that weren't his and just chunk them?

Just curious in actual details as I am interested in ordering from him.

 

[Bishop]

Over 10 years? Was there never a projected finish date?

This is weird one.

 

[DEGAMO88]

Sorry for the lack of details everyone. I'll post more emails, dms and texts as I find them.

The intention of this thread is to inform everyone of my experiences with Mr. Crisp and to give some transparency to a deal gone wrong. If you choose to do business with him or a cuemaker who lives outside of your area, you might want to proceed with caution.

 

[DEGAMO88]

Same thing I did with Tony Zinzola And $1500 dollar deposit ~ You write it off

I've written off the Titlist and the Hoppe Pro that I sent him. The raffle cue to help disabled veterans is another story.

 

[sonoman]

I have to agree here. The few times in my life that I mailed cues to independents for repairs, I had met them in person somewhere and had a good sense of their honesty- guys like Jim Buss, Mike Johnson (Jensen cues), Mike Webb, Barry Cameron; to are a few. Otherwise, I have taken my stuff directly to the cue makers shop - Ted Harris, Preferred Cues, Fred Collier, to name a few.

Outside of the instances above, I will deal with Muellers ( Troy Downey) and Proficient Billiards. For conversion work on titilist- Cues Directly.

I NEVER had any issue with ALL of these above mentioned cue guys - never in 30 years!

Many years ago the U.S. mail had a C.O.D. service, you could receive a cue in the mail from a cue maker, pay your mail carrier, somehow the money got back to the cue maker- if you did not pay- the cue went back to the cue maker. You will sometimes see a Balabushka cue mailing box that someone was wise enough to retain and the box usually has C.O.D. in large letters on the box. I don't know what happened to this service, but I imagine the days of most people being honest has also gone by the boards.

This is not an " I told you so". - just some advice from a whole lot of cue repair and cue dealing experience. Posting something like this where someone has let 12 years pass and is still looking for their cues is a little strange to me, to say the least.

Mike,
I can also recommend Muellers and Troy Downey. I have purchased leather wraps, three shafts with matching ring work and many tip replacements. You get free shaft conditioning with tip replacement. The prices are very reasonable and you know you will get what you ordered in a timely manner.

 

[DEGAMO88]

I think you should let Eric know you started this thread and people await his response to your allegation
which really portrays him very badly. If he’s a decent person, he’d want to clear things up fast. If he isn’t
inclined to do that, then he should realize his reputation will suffer badly and it definitely will cause him to
lose future additional business that he otherwise have gotten. No one wants to deal with someone unreliable.

I just sent Eric an email with a link to this thread. I'll update everyone if anything new develops.

 

[DEGAMO88]

I have to agree here. The few times in my life that I mailed cues to independents for repairs, I had met them in person somewhere and had a good sense of their honesty- guys like Jim Buss, Mike Johnson (Jensen cues), Mike Webb, Barry Cameron; to are a few. Otherwise, I have taken my stuff directly to the cue makers shop - Ted Harris, Preferred Cues, Fred Collier, to name a few.

Outside of the instances above, I will deal with Muellers ( Troy Downey) and Proficient Billiards. For conversion work on titilist- Cues Directly.

I NEVER had any issue with ALL of these above mentioned cue guys - never in 30 years!

Many years ago the U.S. mail had a C.O.D. service, you could receive a cue in the mail from a cue maker, pay your mail carrier, somehow the money got back to the cue maker- if you did not pay- the cue went back to the cue maker. You will sometimes see a Balabushka cue mailing box that someone was wise enough to retain and the box usually has C.O.D. in large letters on the box. I don't know what happened to this service, but I imagine the days of most people being honest has also gone by the boards.

This is not an " I told you so". - just some advice from a whole lot of cue repair and cue dealing experience. Posting something like this where someone has let 12 years pass and is still looking for their cues is a little strange to me, to say the least.

When I contacted Eric back in 2008, I was relatively new to working with cuemakers and I also lived in Hawaii where there wasn't a whole lot of choices if you wanted a custom cue.

Sugartree cues has quite a following and is very popular with players and collectors so keeping tight-lipped about a bad deal could be the difference between getting your cue made in a timely manner or not. Sugartree cues is kind of like Southwest, in a sense, with a very long wait list and he stopped taking custom orders years ago. I was very naive in believing that Eric was a man of his word and I had hoped that Eric wasn't stringing me along with all of his promises.

I'm at a point in my life right now where I'm cutting the BS out of my life and dropping negative things that no longer serve me and I've stopped caring about owning a Sugartree cue. That's why it's taken 13 years.

 

[DEGAMO88]

Almost 12/13 years?
Yikes.
I’m sorry.
Anyone you know live close to him?

Unfortunately, I don't. I've resigned to the fact that I'll never get my cues converted, but I do care about the raffle cue that would have helped disabled or injured veterans.

 

[wagdad]

I've had many many conversations for hours on end with Crisp. He has no problems lying right to your ear hole. He'll pretend to be empathetic to your cause or situation, say what you want to hear and never deliver. He's the opposite of a class act. My opinion of course.

 

[alstl]

I have to agree here. The few times in my life that I mailed cues to independents for repairs, I had met them in person somewhere and had a good sense of their honesty- guys like Jim Buss, Mike Johnson (Jensen cues), Mike Webb, Barry Cameron; to are a few. Otherwise, I have taken my stuff directly to the cue makers shop - Ted Harris, Preferred Cues, Fred Collier, to name a few.

Outside of the instances above, I will deal with Muellers ( Troy Downey) and Proficient Billiards. For conversion work on titilist- Cues Directly.

I NEVER had any issue with ALL of these above mentioned cue guys - never in 30 years!

Many years ago the U.S. mail had a C.O.D. service, you could receive a cue in the mail from a cue maker, pay your mail carrier, somehow the money got back to the cue maker- if you did not pay- the cue went back to the cue maker. You will sometimes see a Balabushka cue mailing box that someone was wise enough to retain and the box usually has C.O.D. in large letters on the box. I don't know what happened to this service, but I imagine the days of most people being honest has also gone by the boards.

This is not an " I told you so". - just some advice from a whole lot of cue repair and cue dealing experience. Posting something like this where someone has let 12 years pass and is still looking for their cues is a little strange to me, to say the least.

The only one of the cuemaker you mentioned that I met in person was Jim Buss. I'm pretty sure he is retired now but he seemed 100% honest to me. He showed me a couple cues he made early on when he was learning and he refused to sell them because he didn't think they were good examples of his work.

He was good people.

 

[Dave-Kat]

I've had many many conversations for hours on end with Crisp. He has no problems lying right to your ear hole. He'll pretend to be empathetic to your cause or situation, say what you want to hear and never deliver. He's the opposite of a class act. My opinion of course.

I always liked his 'Micro Rings' and choice of blanks. Came close to pulling trigger a few times when one was offered here. Glad I held. Sounds like just another DB custom builder. I will be interested if he jumps in or...... not.

Sorry to OP who had a great idea for a great cause.

Seasons greetings,
Kat

 

[ipoppa33]

Sorry about your cues. He builds a pretty cue but his customer service is for shit. Emailed him once a month for a year with no response. Love the cue but won't ever buy another! Unfortunately this is par for the course for too many cuemakers!!!