PENDER'S ANTIQUES & REFINISHING

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Having used Pender's Antiques & Refinishing in the past and been 100% pleased with the work, I recently had a large chest of drawers refinished.  Afterward, I decided to check Angie's List for reviews and couldn't believe the 2 poor reviews.  There is no way these people are being completely honest.  I am completely pleased with the service I've received.  The work is excellent.  The woman for who liked to be "clean" but actually be a germaphobe and used a cleaning product that damaged the table top.  Many of the products sold in the grocery store are very strong and will damage many surfaces including paint or wood finishes.

I am just so pleased with this company. I had a very old piece that I didn't just want anybody to repair. After some research I found this business and drove the 525 miles one way trip to get it taken care of. Dave Pender is a real craftsman and professional. Dave and I had talked before I had gotten there and he was ready for us. The cost was very reasonable and he finished on time as promised. I will definitely be taking a few more items to him. A huge thanks to Dave Pender for his beautiful work.

I am certainly not a complaining person but this has to be shared for folks to be able to avoid the same issues we had.  We contacted Pender's Antiques to refinish our kitchen table last September and the first go around was pretty smooth except that it took longer than he estimated.  When we got the table back, it certainly looked very well done, so for the sake of my "Quality Grade" I would give the appearance an A+. He had stressed that he had used a "new" finish and that it should be a perfect solution for our table and we thought it looked great.
However, we had an issue with the durability very quickly (within a few months) as a couple spots seemed to chip off and you could see the wood beneath the color (its a black painted wood table).  When he came to look at it we were even blamed for "taking a screwdriver" to the surface or scratching it with something intentionally.  So knowing that we didn't do anything destructive to the table, nor had we used it for anything other than eating, we asked them to redo the surface with whatever product they had used in the past since we didn't like this "new" product.   He did and we were very thankful for his willingness to get this done for us. (However he did want to tell us about 10 times how he had to "scrape" that finish off to put on their old product, probably to keep implying that we must have done something to scratch the table and that it is a good product)... Anyway,  we got the table back again after a few weeks, and it again looked great.  Now here is where my WARNING comes into play. 
My wife is a very clean person and likes to kill germs or wipe things down very often, especially in the kitchen.   So when the table was delivered, she specifically asked if she could use the same cleaning products on it that she always has (we had the table for roughly 9 years) and the answer was "absolutely."  This is key because it put us in a "he said, she said" situation that EVERYONE who deals with this company needs to avoid.    We ended up having issues again with our table but this time it had to do with the cloudy damage that happens usually from moisture.  We were told this would not happen especially since we use place mats, but it certainly did cloud up in three different places.  I brought the table to his office to see what he thought was going on, and after having it for another two weeks, they asked what we used to clean it and I provided the same info we shared when he delivered it.  Apparently he didn't look that closely to what we showed him because when we told him our cleaning products, he berated us on the phone about using items other than soap and water. Now this is all of a sudden our fault and we should never have used anything other than soap and water, and he now wanted to charge us a second time to do the job. 
I don't mind owning my mistakes but when we are told something specific in person and you shake hands, that should be good enough.  Unfortunately, we were told that we are now lying about being able to use cleaning products and this is a HUGE problem. First of all, I volunteered the information about my cleaning products because in our mind, we had NOTHING to hide and wanted to do everything right to take care of our table. Second, when it comes to Pender's invoice/paperwork he doesn't have ANYTHING listed about care for our table.  If you do business with them, you may get a good looking product, but you better get in writing how you are supposed to care for your product.  We know we live in a state where the law is on the side of the consumer, but we just decided enough was enough with this company and small claims court would take more time than it's worth.  Anyway,  I hope this helps keep someone from making the same mistake.

In order to widen the rails to accommodate a queen mattress on a full-size bed, Pender took the rails leaving the headboard and footboard with me. His price for the adjustment was to be $175. But when he returned with the adjusted side rails, the mattress did not fit because he failed to lengthen them to accommodate a queen mattress.(Queen mattresses can be 3 to 5 inches longer than standard mattresses.) He saw immediately that mattress was too long for the now adjusted bed. Oddly, he said over and over, "But I measured it!"
He took the rails back to his shop with a plan to add wooden pieces to make them longer. A week later he returned with the new rails and placed the mattress on the bed. He charged me an additional $75 for the adjustment!
As I tried to make up the bed, I realized that the mattress fit so tightly within the four posts, it I could barely fit the covers around the mattress. Furthermore, because he had advised me to discard the box springs (good advice) and to set the mattress on the slats or plywood (not good advice), it was apparent that a bedskirt could not be used because, other than the slats (he didn't bring the plywood), so there was nothing underneath the mattress to hold the bedskirt in place.
Fully disgusted with his work, as well as his additional charge, I wrote him a letter describing why I was dissatisfied. When he got the letter, he called me to say he would adjust the bedrails a third time and would use the plywood to support the mattress. By this time I feared he would be unable (or unwilling) to do the work to my satisfaction. In addition to my dissatisfaction with his work, and added cost, I found his attitude condescending and defensive. After reflecting upon my experience, I opted not to pursue it with him.

The work was well done. The sofa looks better than it has in over 50 years. I grew up with this sofa as a child and it still sits better today than any new sofa I have ever sat on anywhere. It is solid, firm and supports the back and the body in a way sofas built today are just not built or designed to do. That is the reason I spent the money to have it rebuilt and recovered. I've waited for 25 years to have this work done. David was punctual, arriving on time, calling to schedule the delivery time, and delivering on time. He gave us an estimate of between $1600 and $1700, depending on what fabric I chose. He stayed on top of his subcontractor doing the upholstery work to insure the job was done in a timely fashion and the work was professionally completed. He invited us to come by and take a look at his location and see how the work is done, which we did. Since I used to do hand refinishing of antiques, rebuilding and reupholstery work, in another life time ago, so I am very familiar with all the aspects involved. It is difficult, dirty, and time consuming labor. David is set up to do dip stripping, however I prefer not to do this on my antiques. But I can say that the sofa has never looked or sat better than it does now. We have a great many pieces of furniture we have inherited which will need to have repair work done to, not necessarily complete refinishing, just repairs and minor refinishing. David will be called again. My only request that was not followed through on was that I did not receive the remainder of any unused fabric, and there were no protective sleeve caps made for the sofa to prevent wear, which the upholsterer would be expected to think about, as a long term protective measure against dirt, stains and wear on the sleeves. As an artist, I use all types of items in my creative work. So I wanted to use the remnants of this heavy gauge fabric.

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They ended up making two trips to pick up the pieces because one was discovered later than the others, which I appreciated. He said up front it would take several months because they were so busy with work. I believe it was about 3 months and I probably delayed the completion about 2 weeks because I was having trouble finding fabric for them to do the reupholstering on the chair. David and his people did a fabulous job--all four pieces looked better than I had ever seen them. He was very concerned with making sure I'd be happy with the color of the finish, especially one cherry table which had become orange in tone over the years from sun damage. He suggested restoring it back to what it probably looked like when my grandmother purchased the table, and it looks beautiful. I had been planning to consign the chair after the repair, but it looks so fabulous I kept it.

The work was fine, it did not exceed my expectation, but it was still good. They said that it would take 3 weeks but ended up taking 6 weeks. They seem like they knew what they were doing though.

I am very satisfied. This is the second time I've used Pender's. Would definitely recommend. I can't comment on price as this is a difficult service to shop around for prices. Regarding time frame, David was honest from the beginning. I knew it would take months to get my items back. It took approximately three months. I probably would have requested quicker turn around but was in no rush. It was worth the wait.