Cue craft quality rushed?

[bringmeflowers]

Ordered a cue on thr 20th of March and i received an email about payment a few days later. PayPal was being funny but it was all sorted and I asked them for a time scale and they replied saying they were bogged down with orders. Well today I received my cue only to find the bottom had a glob of glue and really dirty, the badge is off centre, a mark on the veneer and one of the veneers isn't even level. Is this a rushed job or standard quality? The cue with p+p was £80 which is cheap but I have much better quality at half the price.

[DeanH]

Have you contacted them yet? The first port of call of an issue, complaint, etc is with the supplier you paid.
Let us know how it goes and good luck.

[narl]

Veneers and splicing not being even is nothing new for CueCraft.

[bringmeflowers]

Veneers and splicing not being even is nothing new for CueCraft.

That doesn't sound great. I have emailed them and I'm waiting for a response. Thr only time I have know this to happen is when I bought a cheap Canon. Its for my other half tbh who wants a 2pc (middle joint). It's amazing how little I paid for Pheonix cue and I can't fault it. I'm actually still in shock.

[bringmeflowers]

[bringmeflowers]

Sorry I'm unsure how to use this site for uploading pictures (it's been a while lol) but hopefully this link will work...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51383402@N08/?

[the lone wolf]

Think you should wait for a response and deal with this privately...
It's a bit unfair to go don the name and shame route before having seeking a reasonable reply or response.

You've sent an email. Now wait for a reply.
Hope it all works out for you :snooker:

PS - have you played with the cue and if so, how does she play?

[bringmeflowers]

Think you should wait for a response and deal with this privately...
It's a bit unfair to go don the name and shame route before having seeking a reasonable reply or response.

You've sent an email. Now wait for a reply.
Hope it all works out for you :snooker:

PS - have you played with the cue and if so, how does she play?

Just arrived today and sadly I won't have chance (if we do use it) until Thursday. It certainly wasn't my intention to name and shame but more of a question if others have had similar quality issues in the past. Main reason for this is because I can ask for a refund rather than a new cue which could take weeks if not months. I'm sure many people have ordered from them in the past so I was just testing the water as it were.

[Mark187187]

I have similar average quality splicing on a Mastercue I have. It was one of their entry level hand spliced cues, so I wasn't expecting perfection, but it annoyed me at first. That lasted all of a day or two, and I got over it. It was a cheapish cue, and it played well.

I don't think your's looks terrible for £80. The inaccuracies in the splicing are just quite noticable against the light maple. I'd say the dirt and glue shows poor quality control, but those things are easily sorted. Like you, I've had real budget cues (£30-40) which looked neater, but that's deceiving. Strip the lacquer back on those and you'll probably find painted wood, so it's no surprise the splicing looks better.

If you're really unhappy, opt for the refund. A replacement is more likely than not going to have similar or different imperfections. You'll just end up going round and round more months and end up without a cue. Probably worth giving it a hit though.

[bringmeflowers]

I have similar average quality splicing on a Mastercue I have. It was one of their entry level hand spliced cues, so I wasn't expecting perfection, but it annoyed me at first. That lasted all of a day or two, and I got over it. It was a cheapish cue, and it played well.

I don't think your's looks terrible for £80. The inaccuracies in the splicing are just quite noticable against the light maple. I'd say the dirt and glue shows poor quality control, but those things are easily sorted. Like you, I've had real budget cues (£30-40) which looked neater, but that's deceiving. Strip the lacquer back on those and you'll probably find painted wood, so it's no surprise the splicing looks better.

If you're really unhappy, opt for the refund. A replacement is more likely than not going to have similar or different imperfections. You'll just end up going round and round more months and end up without a cue. Probably worth giving it a hit though.

Great advice. I probably won't receive an email from them until Monday. Until she looks at it in person or at least plays a game with it, we will never know if it is just cosmetics. I'm kinda reluctant to send it back only because it does feel nice and the lack of laqure is a big plus in feel. Ironic isn't it? They say it's not about how the cue looks, it's about how it plays. I would have loved to have seen thr quality of Hendry's £20 cue back in the day. Apparently that was beat up and bent like mad.

[jrc750]

Back in the day Hendry's cue was more than £20 and was one of the top models in the powerglide line up!

[DeanH]

I think it was the top model they did, and was £85 in 1985, equivalent to about £250 today. So with the top cue makers being what they are now, probably closer to £800 today

[jrc750]

I think it was the top model they did, and was £85 in 1985, equivalent to about £250 today. So with the top cue makers being what they are now, probably closer to £800 today

And if it had Ultimate written on it it would be £1500 plus

[bringmeflowers]

Back in the day Hendry's cue was more than £20 and was one of the top models in the powerglide line up!

It was £40 not £20 which is my mistake. I'm actually quoting the man himself....

https://youtu.be/aDmXxql_AUk

[narl]

Back in the day Hendry's cue was more than £20 and was one of the top models in the powerglide line up!

And was bent thanks to being in one of those display cases with a light directly above it.