The Finish Man

"When I met with the customer, he told me that he was not able to get any response or solution from the manufacturer or the distributor because they are not in the business of maintenance and repair. I often hear this from my customers and that's why they call me. I told the customer that because the furniture was made of thin MDF material, that a repair would not be an option and that I would have to custom fabricate a whole new drawer. I further explained that the Blum drawer guides that the furniture manufacturer chose were not meant to be used with material thinner than 1/2" and definitely not pressed material. They are designed for 5/8" or thicker, of real wood, hardwood is preferred. I quoted him $450 for a whole new drawer box and he said that was way too much and insisted that I could just replace the one damaged side panel. I explained to him how much time is involved with the layout and engineering for the installation of that type of hardware. So the optimist that I am with a heart for the customer, with hopes to make another happy customer, we agreed to half, $225 to replace the damaged side panel. In the process, I came across several unexpected time-consuming issues. The drawer box was assembled with cheap cast tin cam and pin hardware. (First innovated by the Danish many many years ago, made of bronze and used with hardwood furniture, long before engineered wood products were invented.) All 8 cams broke as I attempted to unlock them and required a tedious process to remove them. I also had a hard time finding the right size cams to replace the broken ones and after going to 4 different vendors, I found some that would work with a little modification. Because the replacement cams were not an exact fit to existing pins, I had to seal them in with silicone and touch up the drawer box with a basic white, not an exact match to the white laminate but would not be exposed behind the drawer front when the drawer is closed. These drawer guides have 2 push pins that engage the bottom inside edge of the side panels to secure them in place and 2 tiny #4x1/4" screws to assist as well. These tiny screws don't really help and are not really needed from my experience with other furniture and custom applications. When I returned to the customer's house and installed the drawer, it stayed secure to drawer guides and functioned perfectly. He responded with gratitude that the drawer was functional again. It was about 2 weeks later that he contacted me to let me know that the 2 tiny screws came out and wanted a full refund, but did not say anything about the drawer's function even when I asked. So I offered a partial refund, but he would not accept anything but a full refund. He then filed a dispute with his credit card company and received a full refund. I had over 3 times the cost of what he paid me in time and materials invested in the repair. I could have returned the broken drawer at the beginning of the repair process when all the cams broke on me and told him that I could not fix it and cut my losses of just a wasted trip. But I would never leave a customer hanging like that and would rather make less on the job and make a happy customer. If you have read my other customer reviews, you can see that this is not a common situation and has not soured me as a tradesman. I take pride in my craft and my passion as an artisan is what drives me and I continue to look forward to being of service!!!"

"When I met with the customer I had space in the shop to take the furniture and get started right away. The customer asked if I could pick up the furniture right before they moved. I try to be of service in any way that I can so I said yes. By that time the shop was a whole lot busier and I told the customer that it would be about 2 to 3 weeks before I would get started on it, and she said that would be fine. The furniture was made of Maple with a finish that looked a bit like Cherry in color. I told the customer, being that it was aged it would be hard to match the stain color exactly. And that there was a wide variation in colors from light to medium to dark tones all across the furniture, and that it would be best to try to match the medium tones. She understood and we agreed on a Golden Maple. The stain process on this furniture was a bit tricky, with every coat of Maple stain I applied it seemed to bring out a reddish tone. I tried several products and had to redo it twice. So I contacted her to let her know it was taking longer then expected. She said there was no rush and to take the time I needed. When refinishing the top surfaces of furniture it is standard to rub down all other surfaces with a rejuvenating oil to renew the finish. When I delivered the furniture and brought it into the open foyer I told her that I would need to wipe everything down because of the dust from the furniture pads. She proceeded to move things into different place and made it difficult to get to because of all the other furniture and boxes that were still out of place from the move. She told me that she still had to sort thought everything being that she moved from a larger house to a smaller house, there was more stuff that space and told me not to worry about it. Her response to the finished product was that it looked beautiful, being that it was over 25 years old and quite beat up. She did say that it looked a little red in some areas and seemed ok with it at the time. So her comments in the review took me a little by surprise. Working with natural materials as well as aged materials is not an exacting science, ever if we had the exact formula and products, it still wouldn't be an exact match. So I work with what I have and do the best I know to do and hope the customer is pleased."

"As an independent contractor providing a turnkey service I am the one handling the whole process from start to finish. So there is one thing I have learned over the years, to be flexible. Some of what I do may depend on people, places and thing that I have little or no control over. So it is very important to always keep the customer posted on progress and changes. This customer was always very gracious and accommodating and very appreciative to all that I was doing, so I was a bit surprised to read her comment. When there was a change in my schedule I always let her know the day before. There were a few times she made changes that were brought to my attention at the time of my arrival rather than the day or even the night before. Directly affecting my schedule and the days productivity. I do my best to give personalized attention and quality service to every customer. After completing the custom cabinet project she called be back to do some interior painter and furniture repair and has also referred me to her neighbors. She sure seemed like a happy customer and I look forward to being of service in the future."