Andrew C. Maher Custom Furniture & Repair

"The customer did not tell me about two other businesses that worked on his piece. He said that he had gotten one other person to look at it, a man who had moved to the area from Maryland. He explained to me what the Maryland man had done to the piece and that he (the customer) was satisfied with the work at the time. It was some time later, he explained, that the Maryland man’s work was no longer satisfactory, and I could see why. By way of explanation, the chemical that had been spattered onto the piece of furniture had bubbled the finish up. The man from Maryland sanded off the bubbled areas, leaving indents in the finish, which he touched up with a marker and then sprayed fresh finish onto the entire side of the piece. At that time, the customer was satisfied with the Maryland man’s work. Some time later, the touched-up spots became shiny, prompting the customer to call me. He did, over the phone, ask if I could refinish the piece. When I arrived at the customer’s home and inspected the piece, I said that there was no reason to go to the expense of refinishing the piece, when all that was needed was to re-scuff the finish and blend the shiny spots in. The customer said, “Okay.” I did not go to work on the piece without his permission. It was the customer’s idea to get the lamp so that we could better see the shiny spots. He held the lamp, moving all around the piece so that I could work on the shiny spots. I rubbed out each spot as he pointed to it. The customer also pointed out the inconsistency of the sheen of finish sprayed on by the man from MD. I rubbed the finish out while he watched. He coached me as I worked until the sheen was to his satisfaction. The customer and I sat on the sofa in front of the piece to see if any spots had been missed. While sitting on the sofa, we discussed various ways to further hide the spots if perhaps the shiny spots reappeared as had happened before. I suggested rotating the doors. He liked the idea. We even looked at what was necessary to do so in order to rotate the doors. We further discussed remedies without going through the expense of refinishing. I explained the risks of refinishing just the side of the piece and the difficulty of color-matching. The customer also informed me that he had a furniture store, from which he bought the piece, order a replacement door and asked if I could install it. I said I’d be happy to. We then stood and talked about other topics including the possibility of my making end tables to match the piece being worked on. I asked the customer several times if the work was satisfactory, to which he said yes. I said that he should call me back if at any time he felt that it was not satisfactory. When I asked the customer for payment of $60, he said, “Oh, thank you; that other guy charged me $75.) I’m confused as to why the customer said that the work was satisfactory and paid me if he was not satisfied with my work. I felt that all was well, especially after making informal arrangements for me to return to hang the new door if that’s what he wanted to do. Sincerely, Andrew C. Maher"