This is the practice version:
What does it take to get a JB Case ???
- Thread starter unlukydonkey
- Start date
Not really.
These two custom cases were made for about $290 each.
We make custom cases from $100 to no limit.
A little description would help (how many shafts etc. ability to hold jump cue - are they leather?). Besides, these cases look like CRAP.
I have been on your site before searching for cases and they ALL started at $800, after I waisted my time zooming in on a few. Your search engine (is there one ever?) doesn't sort by price, groups by leather vs. vinly, etc. I was looking for a leather case with 3 butts and 5-7 shafts and found your website so frustrating that I left and bought my old trusty InStroke. You had to dig down to find the price and nobody in there right mind would want to do this.
Regards.
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We are sorry that you didn't have a good experience on our site. We know that it needs work and aim to make it a better experience.
The two cases above are custom jobs that the owner and his wife designed themselves. So while they are not be to your tastes they do reflect our ability to deliver what the customer prefers. We will provide detailed descriptions of this project at a later time.
We don't yet have a search engine on our site. Our current listing of cases that we have made features the cases by name and size. www.jbcases.com/casesbyname.html We do intend to put up a pricing guide at some point but for now it's best to simply ask.
The old one is here www.jbcases.com/ordering.html under the pricing header.
Again our apologies that we provided you with an uncomfortable experience. We hope to be better in the coming months. For now the best way to get a quote is simply to send us an email and ask about what you want in a case. Or call Roy Malott at www.indyq.com his phone number is listed at the top of his website. He will be happy to walk you through the order.
You may email to lisa@jbideas.com or mike@jbideas.com and we assure you that your query will be answered within one day.
Mike
case
I sure hope it gets better. My experience was not good. When I ordered my case, there was a lot of communication with emails from John. I wanted a different pocket configuration that was pure custom. I was told 6 to 12 weeks. After I paid in full, no more communication. I sent lots of emails that went unanswered. I recieved my case just short of a year later! John said his idea of the cutom pocket was not finished, but case was useable and would ship. He started he would work on trays for my pocket. Well I recieved my case and was missing some of what I ordered.
I have sent several emails and even some pics of what I have done to complete the pocket, all with no response. Also I don't believe he was ever planning to do anything to finish the pocket. My case works fine and I like it, but this was a very painfull process, and I would never do it again.
Chuck
I sure hope it gets better. My experience was not good. When I ordered my case, there was a lot of communication with emails from John. I wanted a different pocket configuration that was pure custom. I was told 6 to 12 weeks. After I paid in full, no more communication. I sent lots of emails that went unanswered. I recieved my case just short of a year later! John said his idea of the cutom pocket was not finished, but case was useable and would ship. He started he would work on trays for my pocket. Well I recieved my case and was missing some of what I ordered.
I have sent several emails and even some pics of what I have done to complete the pocket, all with no response. Also I don't believe he was ever planning to do anything to finish the pocket. My case works fine and I like it, but this was a very painfull process, and I would never do it again.
Chuck
I thought I'd share my experience thus far with JB Cases, which has been very good. They had great turn around time on my order and all my inquiries. I haven't received an exact start date yet but everything on the case is pretty much set to go and I paid $570.00 total with shipping. Granted, there's nothing too fancy about this case in terms of tooling or anything but I'm definitely not looking for that sort of thing anyway. The only thing that will be in the leather is my name on a shoulder pad and then my initials in a kind of hanging fashion on the top front pocket. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it should look and I imagine that once I finally get it it'll be far better than I ever figured.
Attachments
The way your order was handled was disgraceful Mr. Landis. You are owed considerably by us. Our apologies for the whole fiasco. Looking back over your last emails it appears that you were generally happy with the case which is good.
We will insure that the rest of the project is finished and shipped your direction.
Thanks. I am very happy with the case, inspite of missing some of the stuff I ordered. I was just very unhappy with the way the whole sale was handled after the initial order.
Chuck
I most definitely agree that communication is vital.
Some days are spot on while others seem lethargic. It sort of kills the experience with going the custom route thus making me less motivated to make a transaction happen.
Consistency would be next on the list. I do understand business must be great with all the orders coming in so it wouldn't be fair to leave any negative connotations.
I'm just thinking I should wait to place an order when things 'die down' so to speak.
When it's all said and done, I believe I'll be happy with the final product.
It's just the matter of time and patience.
Some days are spot on while others seem lethargic. It sort of kills the experience with going the custom route thus making me less motivated to make a transaction happen.
Consistency would be next on the list. I do understand business must be great with all the orders coming in so it wouldn't be fair to leave any negative connotations.
I'm just thinking I should wait to place an order when things 'die down' so to speak.
When it's all said and done, I believe I'll be happy with the final product.
It's just the matter of time and patience.
I'm in the same boat. Ordered a case in person from John at the Super Billiards Expo in March. Paid in full, in cash. My order is for a nylon case with a few minor customizations. No leather, no tooling, should be pretty much off the production line.
The quoted build time was three weeks. Now it's been four and a half months and I don't know what's going on. The last response I've received from JB Cases was in April. I've tried emailing John, Karen, and Mike, to no avail.
I'm glad that John and team have so many orders. It is a real testament to the quality of their products. However, at this point I'd just like to know what's going on with my order...
The quoted build time was three weeks. Now it's been four and a half months and I don't know what's going on. The last response I've received from JB Cases was in April. I've tried emailing John, Karen, and Mike, to no avail.
I'm glad that John and team have so many orders. It is a real testament to the quality of their products. However, at this point I'd just like to know what's going on with my order...
I am surprised you haven't heard back from Mike, he is usually very prompt. Have you tried emailing Lisa? Lisa@jbideas.com
We agree. The ordering process should be painless and should never be frustrating or killing the excitement. We know that we suck right now and we are working on it. No need to bore you with excuses, we simply have to fix it.
Thank you, Mike. Let me know if you need my email or contact info.
The delays notwithstanding, I have heard so many good things about JB Cases that I'm eager to try one!
- Geoff
I decided to purchase a JB Case called "Python Snake" from IndyQ instead of waiting for the ordering process. I would have wanted something similar with some customizations but after hearing about the ordering process, I decided it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle.
Great products can be destroyed by inefficient business practices.
Great products can be destroyed by inefficient business practices.
Perhaps you mean great businesses can be destroyed by inefficient practices. If so then we agree. Great products are great regardless.
Lets be perfectly clear here, we are slow, we are not efficient, we don't have proper communication or a proper system that works smoothly. What we do have is a track record of delivering more than 400 high-end truly custom cases to the pool world in the past four years.
We have a track record of delivering "dream" cases that no other case maker would consider or attempt. We also have a record of NOT delivering on some dream orders in a timely manner. This is partially because we simply don't say no to any request even when we should.
In our shop we push the limits of what can be done with leather every day. We don't push out cookie-cutter mediocre product. We take orders with an almost infinite variety of choice.
This is our order form, www.jbcases.com/orderform.html
On it there are 19 questions to answer with choices ranging from anything you want to up to 6-8 specific answers. You can do the math to figure out that this all equals "true custom".
What this means though is that each order is also complicated and detailed and missing one detail can mess up the order. In addition to the 19 specifications on the order form is the ability to ask for WHATEVER you want and customers often do. Imagine the process of ordering a single case and the conversation over it IF it's not straightforward. That conversation can span many emails with details buried in them, can span chats over many platforms, can be through phone calls or all three. And this same conversation is happening with many customers at once.
Now you take all that and try to give it to a people who speak an alien tongue. Not foreign, alien, because that's what Chinese is to English. There is not any commonality in Chinese with English. Every concept that has to be explained has to be done with a LOT of care and often still results in misunderstandings. It is difficult even for experienced interpreters to translate English to Chinese properly.
Frankly, in hindsight, we are very very very stupid to attempt to build a business like this in China because of the complexity of ordering. We should have a much simpler setup where there is a choice of one type of case, three colors, three font choices and only two places to put your name. We admire and are jealous of our case making colleagues who have much simpler offerings than we do. But this is the course we chose and we believe that at the end of the day we can make it work. And with more than 400 cases already built we haven't been idle either.
We do know that we have to get better with the process. But we are in no danger of destroying our business because the products are that good. So again to the relatively few customers that we have given you grief with the communication and the delivery delays we do SINCERELY apologize. We suck on that front and we know it. But we do promise to deliver a well made case that is as close to what you dream of as we can possibly make it. And on that we not failed to deliver yet to our knowledge.
Sincerely,
All of us at JB Cases.
Cases in prgress
This is all mockups and practice pieces for cases we are making now. We don't just do a few types of case, we make cases no one has ever done before every day.
These are snapshots of cases in various stages of progress, about 20 different cases that we are doing concurrently.
This is all mockups and practice pieces for cases we are making now. We don't just do a few types of case, we make cases no one has ever done before every day.
These are snapshots of cases in various stages of progress, about 20 different cases that we are doing concurrently.
It takes this many leather parts
To make one of these
To make one of these
Here we made a custom stamp with the customer's "chops". In China a chop is a signature done in the traditional style that is stamped on art and documents. In order to do this we have to draw it on the computer to set it up for the laser engraver, then make several versions which are each hand-sanded to get it just right.
