La Costa Upholstery

This is a follow-up to a review from 2013. At the time, I thought they did a great job, and I gave them a positive A review. When a problem developed, they made commitments they did not keep. Today I received an abusive phone call from Roger. When I spent $1120 for La Costa Upholstery in 2013 to replace my sling fabric, I expected the fabric to last for many years. At about 4 ½ years, we started to notice that people sitting on it got up with white fuzz on their backs. In April we figured out the fabric was going bad, I looked up the Pampas fabric online and found it had a 5 year warranty. I called La Costa and explained my problem. Margaret was very helpful at first and, after some research, said they would replace the fabric. She said they’ve had bad results with sling fabric and no longer offer it. Margaret said the fabric I had was discontinued but offered another kind of fabric with a 2 year warranty, and asked me to choose one of the available patterns. I chose one and she said she would work with the manufacturer to replace it. I followed up repeatedly over the next 6 months, and it was always forgotten or she would have to call the manufacturer again. No progress was made. Reviewing my emails with them, I see now an email where I thought they were telling me they were replacing with a 2 year warranty fabric - now I see he said he sold me 2 year fabric. Finally, at the end of summer, I was tired of not getting anywhere and requested a refund. Roger and I spoke at length, and he offered me a $200 refund. This left me with furniture I could not use, that I could not transport in my car, and no way to dispose of. I said I had an idea and I'd call him back. The Salvation Army scheduled a pickup, but their driver told me it was in such poor condition they would not take it. We were fortunate to find a neighbor with a pickup truck who would take the furniture for free. I called Roger back to accept his offer. Two days later he called me angrily, accusing me of extortion. He told me the original fabric he had sold me was not the fabric with the 5 year warranty I thought I had, but the same 2 year fabric they were replacing it with, and I had always had a 2 year warranty. (There was no paperwork from the original job to refer to.) He told me he would not honor his offer to refund $200. It’s bad enough to spend over $1000 for fabric and be left with unusable junk a few years later. And I do understand nobody else will fall into the trap of buying Sling fabric from this shop since they no longer offer it. But when their customer service process is to stall for 6 months, then offer a partial refund, then renege on the offer with an angry phone call, I have to wonder what kind of customer service anyone else will get from La Costa Upholstery if they have a problem.

Their service was great--everything you would hope for in a long-standing, family-run business: Experience, competence, conscientiousness, timeliness (keeping in mind that quality work takes time). Plus they were a pleasure to work with. Based on the quality of the work, it was fairly priced.

Everything went good. He was very nice and timely.

unknown

I had an excellent experience with them. They were great. They were always on time. They were really professional. I liked their pricing and they did a really good job.

A few years ago I bought some used but quality patio furniture - all matching with sling fabric.  The old fabric was getting holes and unsafe/uncomfortable.  New sling furniture is horribly expensive, and it was hard to find a solution.  I discovered an online store that will custom make replacement slings, and they have great video tutorials.  But actually doing the replacement work is a LOT of work, and I didn't do a very good job (the two pieces I replaced came out too loose.)
I asked them if someone could do the job for me, and they recommended La Costa Upholstery.  When I called, the price Roger gave me wasn't that much more than the fabric alone, so I said let's do it. Roger came out and measured my furniture.  I showed him the two pieces we'd replaced, and he suggested he could take them off, re-sew them, and put them back on for a fraction of the total cost, and I agreed.  It cost a bit more than I'd expected, because of the re-sewing and the bolt, but it didn't really matter in the end.
It took 3 weeks for the fabric to come in, then Roger had a truck pick up my furniture (another headache gone - how to get the furniture to the shop!)  They were to have it for a few days, but a stuck bolt, an employee getting hurt, and my schedule pushed it out to 10 days.  They delivered the "like new" furniture - even the ones I'd done wrong were perfect! This is a follow-up to a review from 2013. At the time, I thought they did a great job, and I gave them a positive A review. When a problem developed, they made commitments they did not keep. Today I received an abusive phone call from Roger. When I spent $1120 for La Costa Upholstery in 2013 to replace my sling fabric, I expected the fabric to last for many years. At about 4 ½ years, we started to notice that people sitting on it got up with white fuzz on their backs. In April we figured out the fabric was going bad, I looked up the Pampas fabric online and found it had a 5 year warranty. I called La Costa and explained my problem. Margaret was very helpful at first and, after some research, said they would replace the fabric. She said they?ve had bad results with sling fabric and no longer offer it. Margaret said the fabric I had was discontinued but offered another kind of fabric with a 2 year warranty, and asked me to choose one of the available patterns. I chose one and she said she would work with the manufacturer to replace it. I followed up repeatedly over the next 6 months, and it was always forgotten or she would have to call the manufacturer again. No progress was made. Reviewing my emails with them, I see now an email where I thought they were telling me they were replacing with a 2 year warranty fabric - now I see he said he sold me 2 year fabric. Finally, at the end of summer, I was tired of not getting anywhere and requested a refund. Roger and I spoke at length, and he offered me a $200 refund. This left me with furniture I could not use, that I could not transport in my car, and no way to dispose of. I said I had an idea and I'd call him back. The Salvation Army scheduled a pickup, but their driver told me it was in such poor condition they would not take it. We were fortunate to find a neighbor with a pickup truck who would take the furniture for free. I called Roger back to accept his offer. Two days later he called me angrily, accusing me of extortion. He told me the original fabric he had sold me was not the fabric with the 5 year warranty I thought I had, but the same 2 year fabric they were replacing it with, and I had always had a 2 year warranty. (There was no paperwork from the original job to refer to.) He told me he would not honor his offer to refund $200. It?s bad enough to spend over $1000 for fabric and be left with unusable junk a few years later. And I do understand nobody else will fall into the trap of buying Sling fabric from this shop since they no longer offer it. But when their customer service process is to stall for 6 months, then offer a partial refund, then renege on the offer with an angry phone call, I have to wonder what kind of customer service anyone else will get from La Costa Upholstery if they have a problem.

It seemed like a long wait, but I was told upfront it would be.

Working with LaCosta Upholstery was easy. When the slip seats failed we took two of the seats to LaCosta because they had put new fabric on the cushions after we purchased the chairs from Ethan Allen. Roger opened the scrim covering and we saw that the webbing which holds the stuffing had failed-it came away from the wood frame, causing the stuffing to push down through the opening each time you sat on the chair. Roger had no reason to touch the webbing when he first upholstered the chairs-they were newly delivered to us and we took them immediately to be re upholstered. Roger gave us an estimate to fix the slip cushions, leaving our upholstery intact.When we settled with Ethan Allen over the failed slip cushions, La Costa fixed the slip cushions like new. We couldn't be happier with the outcome.

Roger was very prompt with his estimate response and very fair and competitive in his pricing,. The work was done quickly and professionally. We will highly recommend La Costa Upholstery...and would use them again, in a heartbeat!

They did a very good job. They are professional and very creative.

They were very friendly, and very pleasant to work with. The owner, Roger is very nice and they got the work done on time.

LA COSTA WAS PROMPT IN THEIR ESTIMATE AND IN RETURNING THE CHAIR AND OTTOMAN AS PROMISED. THE NEW ENSEMBLE IS LOVELY AND WE APPRECIATED THEIR ASSISTANCE IN FABRIC SELECTION..

OWNER ARRIVED, MEASURED CHAIR AND GAVE ESTIMATE. WORKERS ARRIVED ON TIME TO COLLECT CHAIR. DELIVERED CHAIR IN TWO WEEKS. ON TIME, BEAUTIFULLY DONE.