I'm giving 2 stars for customer service. While the actual upholstering that was done was okay, the person, I'm assuming the owner, was less than satisfactory in his demeanor & customer service. After researching who I should take my chair to for reupholstering, I found Skinner's Upholstery had the best reviews so I called them up. The phone was answered immediately. I asked for an estimate and time frame, up front. The gentleman, I assumed was the owner, seemed very nice & straightforward. He told me that for my item, it's usually around $300-$350. He said that he's also charged up to $500 or more depending on what needs to be done plus the cost of ordering the fabric. I told him I was providing fabric, he said that was great! He wouldn't need to charge me for that. He said that he wouldn't be able to get to it til probably the end of September/early October. So I said okay. I went ahead & bought the fabric that I wanted at the fabric store, then took my chair and dropped it off along with the fabric. September and October came & went, I had not heard from him. I at least expected an update. At the end of October, I tried calling the number from the website only to get a message that "the voice mailbox was full" so I was unable to leave a message. I sent an online message via the website. Still, I did not hear from him. I waited a couple of weeks, tried calling again but again, voice mailbox was full....finally, I called again and was able to leave a voicemail message but still did not hear back from him. I tried again the next week, finally getting through this time. He seemed very aggravated that I called to ask about my order. He acted very pissy over the phone. He said that it was in line with everything else and it'll be done as soon as he could get to it that it'd be done by the first of the next week, that he'd have his assistant take the chair all apart so he could do the finish work. By the following Monday, I rec'd a call that it was finished. I asked him how much. He said $500! I thought wow, the chair must've needed extensive work for that price. Then I asked him what type of payment he accepted. He said cash but a check was okay. He told me 2 different things and wasn't quite clear. He first said $500, then he said it's $500 plus tax so it'd be $50 more which is incorrect but I didn't say anything. So I said it's $550? He said correct. Then he said if I brought him the $500, he wouldn't charge tax. I then asked again, how much was the total charge. He said $500. I set a time to meet but when I got there, no one was there. I had to call twice to get ahold of him. He had an emergency and wasn't able to meet me which I completely understand, things just happen sometimes, he apologized several times. We set another time to meet. When I got there, he apologized several more times for not being able to meet me the day before, I told him I completely understood, no problem. I had to wait my turn as there was a customer ahead of me so I checked out the chair. It 'sat' fine. The stitching around the top along the sides was puckered and not pulled 'taught', was a bit loose, looked like a rush job but wasn't sure if it was supposed to be that way since it's a different fabric. I didn't say anything, the rest of it looked great. He came in to where I was and asked how I liked it. I said it was fine. He then told me what all he had to do do. He said all my chair needed was just new foam! "That's all?" I said. He said "Yep, nothing more was needed" so basically, I was charged $500 for new foam and the application of the fabric which I provided. I feel I was greatly overcharged, especially since he first told me his "usual price" estimated at around $300-$350, more if extensive work was needed, which apparently, there wasn't any. I didn't argue the price because I felt I had to accept the price. I had made my check out already and started to hand it to him, he looked at it then he suddenly became upset at the fact that I wrote it out to his business name. Okay so who else was I supposed to make it out to? He never said anything about it over the phone. I know that if it was important, he should've told me. I told him I would write another check but he replied that it was fine, no problem but seemed very sarcastic when he said it. Sorry but he should've been more clear about it beforehand. I even mentioned that he wasn't very clear over the phone, he glared at me as if he did tell me but I know he didn't, otherwise I would've complied. He did "cut me a break", however, on the price after that since he had to "charge me tax" plus helped me load and tie it down so I do appreciate that. While I do understand that he must be very busy, I do feel that his demeanor at times could've been nicer and customer service needs some work. While he did a nice job for the foam and overall fabric application, IMO, I felt I was greatly overcharged for what was actually done to the chair according to his original estimate. read more
