John Bennett Billiards

Hi Everyone,

Waited ages for my first full size table and finally took the plunge with John Bennett Billiards. What a mistake! Here is a short (!) summary of my experience. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I ordered a bespoke oak snooker table from John Bennett Billiards in March. Initial omens were good with a picture of the turned legs and friendly service from the husband and wife team of Mike and Sarah Hudson. When the table arrived I noticed the cushion rails (friezes) didn't fit the steel block cushions very well so that when cueing from the rails there were sharp edges under your hand. Also they protruded above the rubbers into the pockets. To my surprise Mr Hudson opted to saw the corners (somewhat roughly and unevenly) off the friezes to make them fit better. Frankly they looked terrible and R Hudson agreed to make new ones. During the installation I was concerned at how much packing was going under some of the legs and Mike said this was due to an uneven floor. On closer inspection I realised that it was not the floor that was the problem (it is out of true by 3mm over the entire area) but that the legs were of different lengths. (Fortunately my table sits on thick carpet and even thicker foam underlay but the stumpy legs are still propped up in mid air....on a solid floor there'd be 18mm of packing visible). To compound the problem the joints cut to hold the long bearers for the slates were also at different heights. In addition to these rather crucial errors the overall finish was poor. Mitre joints did not fit together well, there were machining marks in places and the surfaces were rough.
Before Mike returned with the new friezes I mentioned in an email that I wanted to discuss the legs with him when he came.
His immediate comment when he arrived was that he'd agreed with his wife that I could keep the £750 outstanding payment and he'd fit the friezes and go. I explained that it wasn't a question of money, that this was a piece of furniture in my house and it has to look right. He insisted that the problem was the floor and even tried to prove it with his engineer's spirit level (with an accuracy of 1:10000 it, not surprisingly, showed the floor was not perfectly level!).
By this stage it was clear that he didn't understand why the legs were faulty and more importantly had no intention of doing anything about them. He surprised me by saying that he reckoned he'd have a good case in court! So clearly not in any mood to compromise. He then fitted the friezes, this time leaving me with professional size pockets rather than the club size we'd discussed and he'd agreed. He couldn't even fit the pocket rails correctly and the balls kept hanging up in the bags rather than falling into the rails. Neither did he fit the hooks for the half butt and long rest but just stormed off saying "see you in court" accusing me, falsely, of having complained to a another snooker table manufacturer about my previous table.
Within half an hour I had an email from his wife saying that unless I paid the £750 within 7 days they'd take me to court even though I'd still not indicated that I wasn't going to pay.
I have tried to be accommodating and reasonable throughout and even went to the trouble of investigating a solution with a local carpenter, who thinks he can rectify the problem. I offered to pay all bar £200 to enable me to pay the carpenter for his work but I'll have to live with the unsightly stumpy leg until the table needs to be reclothed as I can't justify any more expenditure. My latest email about the small pockets has gone unanswered and I think that Mr and Mrs Hudson are no longer interested in rectifying their mistakes now that they have their money.
As an aside I wouldn't even trust him to re-cover a table as he missed a little lump that is an occasional reminder of his shoddy workmanship!

Announcement

Leave a comment: