Holy crap I can hardly believe what has happened. Just yesterday I had a local "respectable" pool table company move and re-set up an old gandy I have to my new house. I was immediately impressed with their apparent knowledge of setups as they were pointing out some of the flaws of the original install. Awesome I thought, I'll get a pro install yay!. Holy sh!tballs was I wrong. I just spend a few minutes trying to write down what happened so I'll just lay them out here:
They arrived with the wrong size cloth so they opted to glue. i had no idea how bad an idea that would be. When I made the appointment I clearly told them it was an oversized 8. I guess that was my mistake and should have just said 9 FOOT TABLE. Then they didn't even have a full can of the 77 stuff to even complete the job, but they did anyways. Great. Also the cloth was so small one side of the cloth wasn't even pulled over the side at all. just glued to the top.
This was such an incredibly awful slate leveling job i can't even put into words how bad it was. First my table was already missing 2 slate screws so I asked if they could replace them. They never did. On top of that they stripped a bunch of other slate screws (there were total of maybe 11 or 12 screws actually holding the slate down). A couple they did try to fix with a few pieces of wood scrap, others they did not. I mean really it's an old table, but they didn't really take any care in what they were doing.
Not once did they ever put a straight edge along either seam to check the plane of the surfaces. Not once. Thus all three pieces were on completely separate planes and not even close to being level with each other. They barley even tried to level them in any way. they just kinda sorta leveled them as they went along and never went back to make sure anything lined up as stuff moved. Here's funny bit... At one point when the one guy was ready to lay the cloth he noticed a slate screw wasn't even down. The other guy just went over to it and jammed it down with the impact drill neither having any concern what so ever how that would effect their "leveling" job. Unbelievable right?
One side ended up so low that with a straight edge along the center there was more than a 1/8 inch gap at the end of the table. Well I guess it would make a great ramp right?
Then I noticed they scratched the slate badly. Probably did it when they were dragging the slates across each other as they loaded them in or out of their van. They created 3 really deep scratches right on the playing surface that were not fixed or filled in any way.
I heard them say many times the feathering strip (which I provided because they didn't have anything suitable) was too tight for the rails and one had told the other to plane them down. later when I had come back to check on the progress all the feathering strips were installed. but guess what no wood shavings anywhere. they just pounded them in anyways. When I have to get the table fixed this will probably mean every strip will get destroyed.
Then to top it off, after finally covering the "table" (if it really could have been called that at this point) one guy with glue on his fingers puts it right on the cloth and creates a big glue spot. they tried to get it off but they just made a big bald spot. At that point they called their boss to tell them they f'ed up and told me they could either get $50 off the price (LOL) or wait for a call to schedule it be fixed.
After that they left and I began pondering all the s#it I had seen. And considering what had just happened I went to the table and ripped off the cloth and noticed everything I've listed here. I really couldn't believe it. I mean I was trying to give the guys space and was trusting they would do a good job so I didn't hassle them, but now I'm glad they f'ed up the cloth because I got to see exactly how bad it was. The table would have NEVER played well at all. Like ever.
Plus is it me or should the table be kinda sorta level after they lay the cloth? I know it may need a final tweak, but I rolled a ball from one end to the other and it would roll enough to go in the corner. I mean Really? I'm guessing that shouldn't be normal.
End rant. Those guys should be fired. Seriously
They arrived with the wrong size cloth so they opted to glue. i had no idea how bad an idea that would be. When I made the appointment I clearly told them it was an oversized 8. I guess that was my mistake and should have just said 9 FOOT TABLE. Then they didn't even have a full can of the 77 stuff to even complete the job, but they did anyways. Great. Also the cloth was so small one side of the cloth wasn't even pulled over the side at all. just glued to the top.
This was such an incredibly awful slate leveling job i can't even put into words how bad it was. First my table was already missing 2 slate screws so I asked if they could replace them. They never did. On top of that they stripped a bunch of other slate screws (there were total of maybe 11 or 12 screws actually holding the slate down). A couple they did try to fix with a few pieces of wood scrap, others they did not. I mean really it's an old table, but they didn't really take any care in what they were doing.
Not once did they ever put a straight edge along either seam to check the plane of the surfaces. Not once. Thus all three pieces were on completely separate planes and not even close to being level with each other. They barley even tried to level them in any way. they just kinda sorta leveled them as they went along and never went back to make sure anything lined up as stuff moved. Here's funny bit... At one point when the one guy was ready to lay the cloth he noticed a slate screw wasn't even down. The other guy just went over to it and jammed it down with the impact drill neither having any concern what so ever how that would effect their "leveling" job. Unbelievable right?
One side ended up so low that with a straight edge along the center there was more than a 1/8 inch gap at the end of the table. Well I guess it would make a great ramp right?
Then I noticed they scratched the slate badly. Probably did it when they were dragging the slates across each other as they loaded them in or out of their van. They created 3 really deep scratches right on the playing surface that were not fixed or filled in any way.
I heard them say many times the feathering strip (which I provided because they didn't have anything suitable) was too tight for the rails and one had told the other to plane them down. later when I had come back to check on the progress all the feathering strips were installed. but guess what no wood shavings anywhere. they just pounded them in anyways. When I have to get the table fixed this will probably mean every strip will get destroyed.
Then to top it off, after finally covering the "table" (if it really could have been called that at this point) one guy with glue on his fingers puts it right on the cloth and creates a big glue spot. they tried to get it off but they just made a big bald spot. At that point they called their boss to tell them they f'ed up and told me they could either get $50 off the price (LOL) or wait for a call to schedule it be fixed.
After that they left and I began pondering all the s#it I had seen. And considering what had just happened I went to the table and ripped off the cloth and noticed everything I've listed here. I really couldn't believe it. I mean I was trying to give the guys space and was trusting they would do a good job so I didn't hassle them, but now I'm glad they f'ed up the cloth because I got to see exactly how bad it was. The table would have NEVER played well at all. Like ever.
Plus is it me or should the table be kinda sorta level after they lay the cloth? I know it may need a final tweak, but I rolled a ball from one end to the other and it would roll enough to go in the corner. I mean Really? I'm guessing that shouldn't be normal.
End rant. Those guys should be fired. Seriously
