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This was a post I really did not want to make and before I made it, I gave Andy the opportunity to respond as I didn't want to do anything rash.
Some of the older members will know that I have been on and off this forum for over 10 years and met several of you. You will also know that I have owned many cues from pretty much every cue maker an am a fanatic about cues and will be open and honest about as much as I can. This does not represent Andy's other work but does represent my experience.
Some back story:
This isn't the first time I've used Andy Travis. A couple of months ago, I asked him to make me a solid wood extension which I paid £27 for this delivered which I was happy with. He was responsive and timely in his delivery. I had read some reviews from some of the most respected forum members about Andy and only found 1 bad review which I judged shouldn't have an impact on my next request to use Andy's help.
I have a Trevor White 1 Piece cue which I wanted converted to a 3/4 with the joint above the splice. I know many people won't agree with altering this way but I wanted to add some weight and convert to 3/4 for convenience as I move around between different clubs for league games. Andy quoted me £80 to have the joint put in and to re-taper the cue from 9.5mm to 9.25mm. This price was later changed to £100 as I wanted a titanium ferrule.
A week later, I receive the cue and on first inspection, the cue looks great - I had opened it on my lunch break and put it into its case. I messaged Andy as a joke to said "Cracking job Andy, I'll let you know the cue is no good when I try it later"
Upon reaching the club, I had noticed there was a perfectly rectangular dent where it looks like the cue had been put into a lathe and either clamped too tightly or put in without a suitable collar.
There is now a dent at the splice.
Within the grain of the ebony, there appears to be sanding caught inside the grain and I now have white streaks on two of the four ebony splices. Also, the ebony points were even before I had sent the cue to Andy and now one of the points is lower and you can see the outline of where he has sanded some of the ebony off.
There are also deep scratches in the ebony which are clearly from mis-handling.
Aside from this, I tried the cue and it actually played really well. I was open minded about "ruining" the cue playability wise and tried to look past the poor workmanship as the cue had played nicely.
However, I couldn't let it go and messaged Andy to let him know the problems. His response was that I had messed up the cue because I sanded the shaft too much and any other cue maker would've turn the job down but because it was an "expensive" cue, he wanted to get it looking ok again. He then made a joke about me having a bad night on the table to imply that I had complained simply because I played poorly - when in reality, the cue played fantastically.
My opinion is that I didn't mess up the shaft but I was going to accept this point he made simply because it had nothing to do with my complaints. I was complaining about the butt, yet Andy was making a reference to the shaft. One thing I didn't mention is that even though he has re-tapered the shaft, there are perpendicular scratches all over the shaft where he has re-tapered (though these are flush so can't be felt). I pointed out that his point was irrelevant because I was referring to the butt and not the shaft. I even pointed out that it was his own words that said the cue was "expensive" so I referenced this to him and asked "if the cue is expensive, why has it been handled so poorly".
I said to Andy that I am a reasonable person. If this had been an Ash cue to be jointed and the grain didn't align, I would be totally ok with this as I can appreciate that this is near on impossible to achieve. I can't however, overlook the blatant miss-handling of a cue which he has acknowledged is a lot of money. I also mentioned that I don't want any money from him or anything like that. The only thing I want is an explanation as to why I have damage on my cue and his response was "Any imperfections in the wood will have been there before. If there's scratch on ebony oil overnight/buff up repeating until scratches gone it will also remove white marks".
This response just showed me that Andy is not willing to accept any responsibility for the damage he has caused and that he can't even give an explanation and take some accountability for what he has done. I have in the past had alterations from other cue makers including Parris, Osborne and Wooldridge and I have never ever had any problems until this day. Some may say I get what I paid for, but I went to Andy purely on the recommendations on this forum. Given I have had cues from all the top cue-makers, I have no interest in saving a few £'s as I have spent thousands over the years on cues. I have had the cue looked over by several people experienced in the production of cues and they've all come to the same conclusion - Yet Andy simply wants to deflect from the point and take no responsibility. I am now left with a cue which plays fantastic but I don't even want to look at it knowing the work has been done by someone who has shown no integrity in what he has done to my cue.
If you want to know the money involved - The cue was £760 direct from Trevor and the work quoted by Andy was £100. I will be posting this to other forms of social media to make others aware. I gain no pleasure from making a post like this but other people need to know to make an informed decision. I hope admins will allow this post to remain for others to see - I have all photos and messages to back my claims and will not share this publicly but will share with admins on request.
All the best.
Some of the older members will know that I have been on and off this forum for over 10 years and met several of you. You will also know that I have owned many cues from pretty much every cue maker an am a fanatic about cues and will be open and honest about as much as I can. This does not represent Andy's other work but does represent my experience.
Some back story:
This isn't the first time I've used Andy Travis. A couple of months ago, I asked him to make me a solid wood extension which I paid £27 for this delivered which I was happy with. He was responsive and timely in his delivery. I had read some reviews from some of the most respected forum members about Andy and only found 1 bad review which I judged shouldn't have an impact on my next request to use Andy's help.
I have a Trevor White 1 Piece cue which I wanted converted to a 3/4 with the joint above the splice. I know many people won't agree with altering this way but I wanted to add some weight and convert to 3/4 for convenience as I move around between different clubs for league games. Andy quoted me £80 to have the joint put in and to re-taper the cue from 9.5mm to 9.25mm. This price was later changed to £100 as I wanted a titanium ferrule.
A week later, I receive the cue and on first inspection, the cue looks great - I had opened it on my lunch break and put it into its case. I messaged Andy as a joke to said "Cracking job Andy, I'll let you know the cue is no good when I try it later"
Upon reaching the club, I had noticed there was a perfectly rectangular dent where it looks like the cue had been put into a lathe and either clamped too tightly or put in without a suitable collar.
There is now a dent at the splice.
Within the grain of the ebony, there appears to be sanding caught inside the grain and I now have white streaks on two of the four ebony splices. Also, the ebony points were even before I had sent the cue to Andy and now one of the points is lower and you can see the outline of where he has sanded some of the ebony off.
There are also deep scratches in the ebony which are clearly from mis-handling.
Aside from this, I tried the cue and it actually played really well. I was open minded about "ruining" the cue playability wise and tried to look past the poor workmanship as the cue had played nicely.
However, I couldn't let it go and messaged Andy to let him know the problems. His response was that I had messed up the cue because I sanded the shaft too much and any other cue maker would've turn the job down but because it was an "expensive" cue, he wanted to get it looking ok again. He then made a joke about me having a bad night on the table to imply that I had complained simply because I played poorly - when in reality, the cue played fantastically.
My opinion is that I didn't mess up the shaft but I was going to accept this point he made simply because it had nothing to do with my complaints. I was complaining about the butt, yet Andy was making a reference to the shaft. One thing I didn't mention is that even though he has re-tapered the shaft, there are perpendicular scratches all over the shaft where he has re-tapered (though these are flush so can't be felt). I pointed out that his point was irrelevant because I was referring to the butt and not the shaft. I even pointed out that it was his own words that said the cue was "expensive" so I referenced this to him and asked "if the cue is expensive, why has it been handled so poorly".
I said to Andy that I am a reasonable person. If this had been an Ash cue to be jointed and the grain didn't align, I would be totally ok with this as I can appreciate that this is near on impossible to achieve. I can't however, overlook the blatant miss-handling of a cue which he has acknowledged is a lot of money. I also mentioned that I don't want any money from him or anything like that. The only thing I want is an explanation as to why I have damage on my cue and his response was "Any imperfections in the wood will have been there before. If there's scratch on ebony oil overnight/buff up repeating until scratches gone it will also remove white marks".
This response just showed me that Andy is not willing to accept any responsibility for the damage he has caused and that he can't even give an explanation and take some accountability for what he has done. I have in the past had alterations from other cue makers including Parris, Osborne and Wooldridge and I have never ever had any problems until this day. Some may say I get what I paid for, but I went to Andy purely on the recommendations on this forum. Given I have had cues from all the top cue-makers, I have no interest in saving a few £'s as I have spent thousands over the years on cues. I have had the cue looked over by several people experienced in the production of cues and they've all come to the same conclusion - Yet Andy simply wants to deflect from the point and take no responsibility. I am now left with a cue which plays fantastic but I don't even want to look at it knowing the work has been done by someone who has shown no integrity in what he has done to my cue.
If you want to know the money involved - The cue was £760 direct from Trevor and the work quoted by Andy was £100. I will be posting this to other forms of social media to make others aware. I gain no pleasure from making a post like this but other people need to know to make an informed decision. I hope admins will allow this post to remain for others to see - I have all photos and messages to back my claims and will not share this publicly but will share with admins on request.
All the best.
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