The busy season must be starting in the pool table moving business

Pool table movers are getting sloppy, and I’m the one having to pay the price.  Well at least someone has to make things right with the customer.

For some reason the installers that I’ve been working with are just not making my life easy.  I do guarantee all of our services to customers I set appointments for, it’s too bad the installers don’t.  They all say they do but when push comes to shove and a customer notices an error the first thing the installer says is “That was like that before.”  We’ve all heard that before haven’t we?

Traditionally our industry is a terrible mess of drug users, alcoholics, bad business practices and more.  I even talked with an installer who failed to tell his customer what form of payment he would accept and then threaten to take one of the parts to the customers pool table if not paid in cash immediately. Come on what type of people are we dealing with here?

This was the main reason I founded the American Billiard Installers Association, to raise standards in the industry.  It scared the crap out of everyone that heard about it.  Why?  Because there are so few companies with actual business ethics and standards in our community of pool table people.

Last week I was hit with the following.  Remember I am only a pool table appointment setter and I guarantee the services a customer gets.  I also do everything in an effort to help installers gain business.  In most cases it is a one way business relationship and not in my direction.  I can deal with it though, I’ve been around long enough.

1. Installer late on a job, failed to call and confirm appointment with customer or advise them they would not take a check or credit card, refused any other form of payment other than cash then stained their carpet.  Good experience huh? Well guess who has to deal with it? I do.  I fixed the situation but this is just an example of what I stand for in the business.
2. Last weekend an installer had two scheduled appointments, one on Saturday, one on Sunday.  MISSED THEM BOTH.  Excuse?  “I didn’t know about it.”  Yea right buddy.  You just run a horrible business, face it.  I’m totally dumping this guy, no more free money from me pal.  Survey says:  YOU SUCK!
3. Here’s my favorite.  Installer broke a rail in transit and apparently had a difficult time putting some screws in the table.  AND when the customer caught him trying to STAPLE HIS BUSINESS CARD TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE POOL TABLE she asked him not to do it because it was going to ruin the finish on the table.  He did it anyway.  He made 250.00 on that job.  I’ll be out of pocket 600.00 after I take care of his mess, when I talked to him about it he had nothing to say.  Weasel.

In all of these cases the installers have all walked away from their obligations to fix the problems they have created.  This doesn’t surprise me at all, been in the industry too long for that.  This actually has been the worst week for installer mess ups in over 10 years for me so I should be thankful.

Right?

Call me if you want to make sure your job is taken care of properly.

Saying goodbye to my father

As I write this I feel such sorrow for my father who spent the last 10 years in a living hell.  He was a pool table mover, he taught me everything I needed to create a good business and take care of my family.

24 hours ago I learned of his death.  I am mourning the loss even though I was adopted and I know I never was anything to him.  He did pass on his motivation and skill to me which I expanded on.  This has been a tremendously difficult 5 years for me knowing he was losing his mind,  suffering from diabetes and living with a woman who turned him against me because she wanted his business and assets.

My father Larry Ross Black passed away on the 30th of September.  His girlfriend did not notify anyone of his death and went so far as to tell the cremation service that he had no next of kin which she knows is false because she made threats to me by mail when I lived in Oregon.  I am in a hurry to travel to my home city and take care of my father.  This woman has left my father in the crematorium with no intention of taking care of his body.  I will meet up with her soon.

I just wrote this off to an estate attorney.  This sums up the life of a pool table mover.

I am flying to Portland tomorrow to arrange cremation for my father.  I have not spoken with him about his estate or anything in over 7 years.  He has spent this time with an emotionally unstable woman who at this point has left his body in a crematorium since Tuesday with no contact to initiate any plans for his body.

The woman told them there was no next of kin which she has good knowledge that I am alive and do exist.  I think she is hoping she can pawn everything he owned before I get word of his death but I have heard from people in his trade that he had passed and I am making arrangements with the crematorium at this moment.

An example of what the cheapest pool table mover in town can get you

I had a guy laugh at me today because he said our prices were too high.  The fact is that if a customer is not a quality customer it’s going to make my business look bad no matter what I do.  I can’t lower my price on a pool table move, offer an exclusive 12 month service guarantee and still give the best service.  It’s not possible! I was checking some search results today and found this article from Yelp.com.  I can’t stress enough that you want to do business with professionals.  This is very important in our business, we’re not moving rocks around and just because a guy tells you he’s the best doesn’t mean he’s going to follow through with your order, especially on the low end of the price range.

From Yelp.com. Customer review

Here’s  a link to the business page

After having this vendor re-felt our pool table, we decided to purchase a pool table cover and felt cleaning tool through them.

We never received the product. We purchased the items on May 22nd, because they only take payment up front. The cover was supposed to take 3 weeks for delivery. We reached out to the vendor several times after the 5th week of waiting receiving multiple excuses about the cover company being closed for inventory review and then receiving the wrong cover and then the company closing down. Once he said he had the cover, we had a set date on when he was going to deliver the cover and he never showed up. After over two months of waiting, we decided to just ask for our money back. Because of it being past 60 days he was unable to issue a credit back on to my card, so he said he would send a check. After almost 3 weeks of waiting for the check, we decided contact American Express to dispute the charge. During this process, it was often difficult to get a hold of the vendor. This was a very frustrating experience and I do not recommend working with Sheehan Billiards

2nd Customer review on Yelp

Paid for new pockets over 3 months ago and guess what …. nothing should of went with the gut.  This guy is a rip off and didn’t do a good job on the felt either

And this is the funny part about this pool table mover

This guy actually took me for 200 dollars as well a couple of years ago on a job. This is what you’re up against people.  A teacher of mine used to say, “Pay me now or pay me later.”  Going with a cheaper provider isn’t worth it.  Here’s proof of what I know about our industry that most customers don’t.  I just wish I could reach them all so this type of thing could be avoided. Would you rather go with a guy who is known in the industry, does his best to try and provide the finest quality to his customer or would you rather go with some unknown cheap pool table mover because you’re going to save a little money? I keep sayin an dat’s all I can do.