A little over a month ago, I bought a cue off ebay from a fairly well known cuemaker. The cue was advertised with two shafts, and I could have them tapered to my specifications at no extra charge. It was also advertised that I would recieve the cue 2nd Day Air shipping after payment was recieved. I won the cue on Sept 6th and paid for it in the morning of Sept 7th. I told him what size shafts I preferred. A week went by, and I sent him an email asking when I would recieve the cue. He replied a few days later saying that he had trouble with the shaft sizes I ordered (12mm) and that he had to redo them a couple of times. He said I would recieve the cue when he was done with the shafts. A few days later I recieved the cue. The cue itself was very nice, but the shafts were unacceptable. First of all, the wood quality in both shafts was so poor that it was similar to what you would see in a $100 mass produced cue. This was supposed to be a custom cue retailing at $1800. One of the shafts was severely warped, and BOTH of the shafts did not fit the cue, not even close. The rings were way too big for the joint, and when screwed together they stuck out and were lopsided. The pinholes in both shafts were too small for the pin, because when I screwed both shafts together it made a very loud squeaking noise, and I had to screw both shafts on to it extremely tight or else they would not even be TOUCHING the joint. Upon unscrewing both shafts I noticed that there were tiny wood chips on the pin, indicating that these shafts obviously were not fitted, and nobody even bothered to check. Even with the straight shaft screwed on the cue, there would be a huge wobble when I rolled it, probably because the shaft rings were so big and mismatched to the cue. I emailed the cuemaker and told him the problems with the shafts. He apologized and said "sometimes this happens during shipping" (whatever that means). told me to ship the cue back to him and he would replace both shafts, and he would personally check the cue before sending it back to me. He then said that turnaround would be 2 DAYS OR LESS. The day I shipped the cue to him, I wrote him a message thru ebay and an email telling him not to taper the shafts, just leave them as they are and I will have a cuemaker out here trim them to my specifications. I told him that I didn't want to cause him more trouble then he had to deal with. He never responded to those emails. It has been over two weeks since he recieved the cue. I emailed him a few days after he recieved it and asked him if he got it and everything was okay. He replied the next day that they recieved a cue, but it came with no note and they didn't know what to do with it. Obviously I was talking to someone else. I then copied and pasted the emails between us so he could read them and know whats going on. He responded a few days later saying that he was working on the cue at that time and I would recieve it that week. That was Monday of last week. I have been really patient but when I noticed that I didn't recieve the cue today, I got really upset. I haven't left him feedback on ebay yet, because I was hoping in good faith that I would recieve my cue back with two good shafts that fit the cue perfectly and everything would be fine. But this guy has lied to me twice. First with the turnaround being 2 days or less, and now with him saying I would recieve the cue last week. I don't want to mention his name yet and leave him bad feedback either. For some reason I still have faith in this guy and I JUST WANT MY DAMN CUE. So basically I need some advice. What should I do? I tried calling this guy and can't get thru. And for those of you who know which cuemaker this is, don't say anything please. If I don't get the cue this week then I will say who he is.
What Should I Do?
- Thread starter LastTwo
- Start date
I think the best way with this maker is by phone, personally. I've dealt with him that way and have always had good service.
I really believe he will get it to you and it will be right. Just get him on the phone himself and make sure he knows your exact situation so it's right in front of him.
I know it's hard, but my advice is to don't do like I do and start yelling and chewing butt. It accomplishes nothing.
Chris
I really believe he will get it to you and it will be right. Just get him on the phone himself and make sure he knows your exact situation so it's right in front of him.
I know it's hard, but my advice is to don't do like I do and start yelling and chewing butt. It accomplishes nothing.
Chris
LastTwo said:
One thing I found out about good cue makers, they are creative people. Just the creativity side makes them a poor judge of time. They get fully engulfed in a project and what was only two days could end up being two weeks. Not just for your stuff but possibly you caught him in the middle of another project. I don't fault them at all especially after seeing such great works of art.
Anyway, I am not a cue maker though if I were I guess the shaft would be the last thing of interest to work on, they are somewhat boring I imagine. Not making an excuse. Before you announce any names, see if someone on this forum might know the cue maker and then PM them asking for help.
Good luck, I know you can not wait to start playing with it. I would be anxious.
daytonajoe
Deceased
cuemaker??
Sounds like DP to me!
I had a shaft tapered for a cue I purchased on Ebay from him, that was to be 12.5 when I got it 3+ weeks after payment sent( which he said was not received, for 2 weeks) it was actually 13.1 mm.
Sounds like DP to me!
I had a shaft tapered for a cue I purchased on Ebay from him, that was to be 12.5 when I got it 3+ weeks after payment sent( which he said was not received, for 2 weeks) it was actually 13.1 mm.
matthew staton
Banned
LastTwo said:
lol sounds like a dale perry custom cue 1,800 retail with 2 shafts must be one of those 100,000 one of a kind cues he makes 4 a week of.Good luck I hope he fixes your shafts .