We'll just start with TL;DR
Just purchased a BBO poker table and figured I would do an in depth review as well as point out some issues I've had and the poor customer service I've experienced so far.
I moved into a new house in December and have a basement that is going to be set up as man cave so I immediately thought of a card table to get a regular home game going. I did quite a bit of research and reached out via chat to ask the BBO team some specifics on their tables. I got the specs on the X2 mini and settled on that being the perfect size table for a home game with 6-8 people as it gave us enough room but wasn't so big that you had to stand up to scoop a pot if the person was on the other end of the table.
I decided to go with the standard black arm rest as I had read somewhere that it was actually pretty good quality. From there it came to the playing surface. The one thing I knew was that I wanted a betting line and after some thought I decided not to do a custom logo but rather just have one solid color with a white betting line. This is an option under their "template" options for this combination. I reached out to the customer service team (via chat) and inquired about what colors were available as I wanted a navy blue color with a white betting line. The reason I wanted to know what color options were available was because on the site the template option with any color/betting line color shows color options but did not show the navy blue color I wanted but rather a royal blue color which I did not want. The rep told me they did not provide samples or would not send proofs because the "template" playing surface option was not considered a custom graphic (i'll get into this more later). She did say that I could just put a note on the order stating what color I wanted and they would do their best to match it. I tried to do it one better by sending a screen shot of a table from an EPT event that I liked. From there I proceeded with the order and paid for the table. $1599 + $199 for the template playing surface option. That order was placed on April 6th.
At this point I am expecting that the table with arrive somewhere within 5-8 days based on what their site says. According to the site standard tables ship within 2-5 days. If "some" customization is needed they say to add a "few" extra days. So here goes a week, then two, then three. Finally I call and they say the table has shipped and they give me the tracking number. The table finally arrives on May 3rd from the freight company. This obviously pissed me off as the only type of table that takes this long according to them is a customized graphic BUT my "template" did not qualify according to customer service and because of this they didn't have a designer send me proofs to verify color, betting line size etc.
Low and behold we open up the table (packaged very well and table was undamaged during shipping) and the color is not what I was expecting. My first thought was I didn't like it as I was expecting a more navy color but decided I could live with it. The playing surface was covered in some cardboard box and shavings and some standard debris you would expect pulling something out of a well packaged box but no tears or chips on any of the wood or playing surface. We sign for the table from the freight company and a buddy and myself take the table to the basement piece by piece.
The setup went very smoothly and as far as the actual quality of the table I was very impressed. The table was sturdy and well designed. Upon getting the legs mounted to the table I was getting really excited for the overall purchase. The X2 mini comes with a black gloss dinning top and this looked great as well. Outside of the color being a little off I thought it was one of the better purchases I had made UNTIL I decided to bust out the lint roller to clean that cardboard debris of the playing surface. The lint roller did the trick until we notices a vague, but large streak going across the table. At first I assumed it was just dust or dirt from being packaged so I grabbed a damp wash cloth and tried to wipe it down to remove the streak. This did not remove the streak and it quickly became apparent that this was something that was permanently on the table. I was going out of town the following day for work but decided I would write an email and send photos of the issue to BBO to see if they had any solution or ideas on how to get the streak out as I didn't want to use any type of soap that might do more harm than good. I got the email to them on Friday I believe (it was through their site) and I included pictures to show the issue I was talking about.
I went through the weekend with no response which I didn't think was any big deal since they are closed on the weekend. Then we get to Tuesday and nothing so while Im at work I send them a message via chat and the rep says she sees the email and will escalate it to the manager and I will receive a call by the end of the day. No call and nothing on Wednesday. On Thursday I decide to call in and I get through to Dave who is the operations manager but is just handling over flow and doesn't cover these types of issues. He assures me that its been passed to the right team and I will get a call by the end of the day. No call. Friday I call back and I get Dave again. He doesn't know why no one called and he apologizes. there isn't really much they can do about the streak so he proposes two options. He can give me a credit (didn't say how much) or he can mail me out another playing surface. I didn't really know what to say to that because either way I paid $1599 for a table with a messed up playing surface OR I paid $1799 for a table that I will have to re-felt myself. I tell him I will need to put some thought into what I want to do over the weekend. He tells me I can call back on Monday and let him know. I do some thinking over the weekend and it starts to bug me that I'm in this spot after a substantial amount of money spent. They say that they will take a return on the site within 30 days of delivery but that the customer is responsible for the cost of shipping and I'm assuming the freight delivery is going to be substantial and that I might be out the cost of a credit or refund that he proposed anyway. I called Dave to see if there was any other options like shipping out a new table or having someone re-felt this one. They tell me Dave is there but he has stepped into the warehouse. They assure me that they will have him call me before the end of the day today. Once again, no call. At this point the issue has still yet to be resolved.
From the standpoint of table construction and quality (outside of the playing surface) I would say that the tables are very well build and would be a solid fixture that would hold up to some very heavy use.
Overall I would not be able to recommend BBO poker tables to anyone from a customer service standpoint. I have almost not faith that a warranty issue within their 1-year warranty time frame would be addressed in a timely manner.
I have included a couple of photos of the table with the second one zoomed in to show the vague streak.