What do you think??

Neil said:
At the room I normally play out of, the tables were getting really bad. The owner was going to get some diamonds, but decided to recover the GCIII's that he has instead. No problem there. He has spent a small fortune remodeling the whole room, adding a bar and a restaurant. (still not done after over a year)

The guys come in last night to recover the tables. Up front are two 9' tables that the regular 'players' use. These tables, we were assured, would be fixed right. Most of the other 9's are in the 'back' of the room. Two of those were recovered last night. Today, I spent a whopping $1.50 on one and turned the balls back in. Then I sat down and watched them repair the front two tables.

Recovering the rails- They lay the cloth on the rail, put the featherstrip on, and tap it into place. No stretching of the cloth at all. Then, they turn it over, grap a little cloth between the thumb and first finger, and put a staple in next to their thumb. When done, and the rail installed, you can see exactly where every staple is. And, one end of every rail has more puckers than the other end.

Pockets- When done, they still stick out into the pocket opening. They aren't nailed in at all. So, balls hitting the rubber edge of the pocket rebound out of the hole.

I measured the pockets on the two tables that were done. First pocket- 5 1/2 inches, 2nd- 5 1/4 inches, 3rd- 5 inches. See a problem here??? All us players were told that at least one of the front tables would be double shimmed. Mech. say neither are to be.


Bed- Where the balls rack, there is a divot in the slate. Previous 'mechanic' used wax to fill it in. Which of course, had come out and created ridges around the hole. These guys cleaned out the wax, then prepared to put the new cloth on. I asked them about filling in the hole and was told that you can't. I then explained to them that if you drill a hole there, the bondo or whatever will hold. I was told they aren't going to bother with it!

Some of the slate bolts were missing, and I was told- yeah, these tables are in bad shape. (New bolts not installed) Seams were not filled in all the way, and I was told that the cloth will cover that up. After checking the level of the table, one mechanic came over and asked how that table played. I told him it had some spots that rolled off, but wasn't as bad as the other one. He admitted that there were high and low spots, but he couldn't fix that without leveling the slate and installing shims. And they weren't going to that much trouble.

The wood by each pocket is so chewed out from years and years of staples, that some spots are 1/2" in from the slate. Again, told "yeah, they are pretty bad." No repair done to them.

My problem is, is that I am so disgusted that I don't know if I even want to play there anymore. I realize a lot of people play on crappy tables, but the owner is going to up the price to $9 an hour from $7.75. If the tables were good, no problem. But I have a large mental block about paying an increase for inferior equipment and shoddy workmanship. To me, it is like paying someone to paint my car, and he uses a brush. Hey, it's painted , isn't it?

I am seriously considering boycotting the room, which will cost the owner app. $3,000 a year. Problem is, they have the only 9' tables within 30 miles. Do you guys feel I am over-reacting, or what? The front two tables were supposed to be set up for us 'players', and this is what we get.

signed

DISGUSTED
Click to expand...


Neil I don't think your over reacting at all , that is a complete lack of responesablity toward the owners part , there's no way in hell that I would continue going there if it was me with the following things wrong with the place .

1. Tables are in bad shape .
2. Rates on table time go up .
3 Owner cares more about is Bar and Resturant .
4. Table installers didn't really care what they were doing .

Believe me there's no way if I owned that place that I would let things go that bad , as for the table installers that's there job , Now I'm going to just off subject for a sec , I bought my personal home table from a local dealer and thought I was getting a good price 2400 and some change , well I've had this table since December and it does play great but the things that really made me mad where .

1. The Cloth was not Streched nearly enough ( Simonis 860 )
2. Slate has Popped twice since December .
3. The lamenet looks like a 13 year old with acne because of how cheap it is .
4. The measurement from slate to rale height is off .
5. Drop pockets are cracking .

I just don't get why people have to cut coners , if you want something done right make sure it's done the first time , Friday I went to the dealer that I got my table from and told them that they sold me Junk and I wasn't happy and one of the ladys that work there asked me what table I got and I told her and she said well If I would have known how big of a Pool player you were we would have sold you a Olhausen which now I wish I would have bought but I wasn't thinking .
 
my advice if you have the room get your own GC have it set up right and dont bother going to that room anymore. ;)
 
I would find another room to play in and tell the owner you will be back if he ever gets the tables fixed properly.
 
DJBilliards said:
I would find another room to play in and tell the owner you will be back if he ever gets the tables fixed properly.
Click to expand...

the trouble with that is there's only 2 pool rooms in the area and the same owner has both of them.
 
If your spending that kind of money in the joint I would think the owner knows you and you him. Therefor, a polite conversation about the problem would probably result in a better understanding of the entire situation. Maybe the mechs were suppose to fix things and didn't? maybe they got paid next to nothing and owner got what he paid for?
Its difficult to say without knowing. If you don't voice your opinion it will never be heard. Surely there are other players who feel the same way who you can have support your sentiments to the owner to reinforce this issue.

One thing any owner of anything doesn't want is unhappy customers as this is the #1 rule in business IMO.
 
The room owner probably got a deal that he couldn't pass up, and of course you get what you pay for. You should recommend a mechanic to fix one table for the players and see what he says. Times are tough all over and he probbably took a lowball price for the work.
 
Majic said:
The room owner probably got a deal that he couldn't pass up, and of course you get what you pay for. You should recommend a mechanic to fix one table for the players and see what he says. Times are tough all over and he probbably took a lowball price for the work.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a good solution to me.
 
My opinion, it's the owner's responsibility at that point to double check the work before the mechanic gets paid. Apparently there was some miscommunication about what is acceptable workmanship. But these guys are right, it's hard to tell the scenario. Don't know if they are in-house guys, or contracted installers. Don't know if they were doing the guy a favor or were paid for that work.

That being said, I agree with OTLB. If you're a regular, a polite conversation wouldn't hurt things. From my experience running a room, I would appreciate any feedback from my valuable customers...good or bad. Who knows, you may find out he's just as unhappy as you are and someone else will be in on Monday to fix it. I'm sure he'll appreciate the chance to at least explain the situation to a valuable customer.

That's my .02 anyway.
 
OUCH! Not looking good for the home team....

I'd be making it known to the room owner and the HACKS that were there, that they need to step up their game. Too bad you couldn't get us pictures while they were working...lol
The things you mentioned are not difficult to fix, and Simonis would not cover up their mistakes. Maybe they are used to putting on cheap cloth, but Worsted does not leave the same room for error.
Talk to the owner, if you can get him to agree to getting a GOOD reputable guy in there to fix the tables, help him out with it,then hopefully it will work out for everyone.
Cutting corners in a business environment only hurts business further.
Get it done right and keep your customers happy so they'll stay and keep things flowing.
If it can't be resolved, then trust your gut on where to go from there.

Personally, I'd be disgusted to have anything even approaching that work associated with my name.


I don't even like Golf, but I like Dartman's approach....lol
 
Neil said:
Sorry I haven't responded to anyone here yet. I also posted this in the main forum, and it got quite a few responses. The questions asked here, are answered over there.
Click to expand...

I'm sure all the "experts" in the main area have all the answers. :rolleyes:
IMO the situation is pretty cut & dry. The recovering job was done by hacks.

Message to room owner - if you want my business - fix the tables.
Enough said as there is nothing else to talk about.
Drive the 30 miles if the table there are worthy.

On a side note, there's more to life then 9' tables.
 
Last edited:
Meet up with the owner and have a nice time explaining what the pro's and cons of a bad table job.

1. are there speed bumps at the slate seam.

2. sight down the rails are they straight.

3. Drop pockets installed right.

4. Ball return works right.

5. does the cloth move when you get down on a shot.

6. did they spray glue the cloth on, Staple it on and how close the staples were.

7. did they relevel the tables.

8. replace the old hard facings.

Alittle education and maybe a game or 2 for lunch might wake him up. Also ask him to maybe take a road trip to another place that everyone loves so he can seee the potintial of better profits if he really fixes the tables right the next time.

Take a collection to bring in some one to fix the main 2 tables to help offset his first mistake.

Some education carries alot to a room owner some just see books and forget about the game and people.

Craig
 
Fixing

Neil said:
At the room I normally play out of, the tables were getting really bad. The owner was going to get some diamonds, but decided to recover the GCIII's that he has instead. No problem there. He has spent a small fortune remodeling the whole room, adding a bar and a restaurant. (still not done after over a year)

The guys come in last night to recover the tables. Up front are two 9' tables that the regular 'players' use. These tables, we were assured, would be fixed right. Most of the other 9's are in the 'back' of the room. Two of those were recovered last night. Today, I spent a whopping $1.50 on one and turned the balls back in. Then I sat down and watched them repair the front two tables.

Recovering the rails- They lay the cloth on the rail, put the featherstrip on, and tap it into place. No stretching of the cloth at all. Then, they turn it over, grap a little cloth between the thumb and first finger, and put a staple in next to their thumb. When done, and the rail installed, you can see exactly where every staple is. And, one end of every rail has more puckers than the other end.

Pockets- When done, they still stick out into the pocket opening. They aren't nailed in at all. So, balls hitting the rubber edge of the pocket rebound out of the hole.

I measured the pockets on the two tables that were done. First pocket- 5 1/2 inches, 2nd- 5 1/4 inches, 3rd- 5 inches. See a problem here??? All us players were told that at least one of the front tables would be double shimmed. Mech. say neither are to be.


Bed- Where the balls rack, there is a divot in the slate. Previous 'mechanic' used wax to fill it in. Which of course, had come out and created ridges around the hole. These guys cleaned out the wax, then prepared to put the new cloth on. I asked them about filling in the hole and was told that you can't. I then explained to them that if you drill a hole there, the bondo or whatever will hold. I was told they aren't going to bother with it!

Some of the slate bolts were missing, and I was told- yeah, these tables are in bad shape. (New bolts not installed) Seams were not filled in all the way, and I was told that the cloth will cover that up. After checking the level of the table, one mechanic came over and asked how that table played. I told him it had some spots that rolled off, but wasn't as bad as the other one. He admitted that there were high and low spots, but he couldn't fix that without leveling the slate and installing shims. And they weren't going to that much trouble.

The wood by each pocket is so chewed out from years and years of staples, that some spots are 1/2" in from the slate. Again, told "yeah, they are pretty bad." No repair done to them.

My problem is, is that I am so disgusted that I don't know if I even want to play there anymore. I realize a lot of people play on crappy tables, but the owner is going to up the price to $9 an hour from $7.75. If the tables were good, no problem. But I have a large mental block about paying an increase for inferior equipment and shoddy workmanship. To me, it is like paying someone to paint my car, and he uses a brush. Hey, it's painted , isn't it?

I am seriously considering boycotting the room, which will cost the owner app. $3,000 a year. Problem is, they have the only 9' tables within 30 miles. Do you guys feel I am over-reacting, or what? The front two tables were supposed to be set up for us 'players', and this is what we get.

signed

DISGUSTED
Click to expand...

Sad situation. Really can't blame the owner as he can't be expected to be an expert on table mechanics. He may have hired the only game in town or worse took the lowest bid. Help the owner by telling him of the shoddy work. As for the table mechanics they like everyone else in the world think they know what their doing. Same as auto mechanics. Very high table time prices. Here in OKla. City we pay about $ 2.75 an hour per person. Two snookers, one three cushion, four or five GCs and four Valleys. Just bought an eight ft. GC from said establishment that I had played on for months, so I knew the table and got to watch the setup and all the parts were there. It ain't perfect, single shimmed 4.5 but plays pretty good. Not too shabby for 35-40 year old table!! I can afford to pay that high table time but wouldn't like ir even on great equipment! I think in these days great playing tables will go down just like the pool halls going down. More reason to just bite the bullet and buy your own. Have enjoyed many of your posts, sounds like you have your head screwed on right. Hit em good my friend!
 
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