JAYROE ANTIQUES

Ok. I will try and make this as objective as possible so whoever reads this can make their own decision on the facts of my dealing with Jayroe design. I had seen the review of Jayroe design here on yelp, so I contacted Jeff to see if he could help me re-do a daybed/sofa that I had ... sending photos via email. He said he could do the work and that the piece would have to be picked up to be looked at and worked on. He worked up an estimate, and I told him that I wanted to get started. He arranged to have the piece picked up, and I gave the delivery person a check for half down of the estimate. About a week after the piece was picked up, I received an email from Jeff Jayroe with his thoughts on what should be done. Jeff suggested covering all of the wicker on the piece, which raised my concern as the wicker was something I thought gave the piece character. I had asked him to check out the possibility of replacing the cushions as I found them a bit too firm for me. His recommendation was to leave them as is as he thought they felt fine to him. Having my concern raised after these recommendations from Jeff, I contacted a designer friend of mine to have her work with Jeff to possibly figure all of this out. Jeff was fine with this, so my friend contacted him via email. She sent her suggestions with a few questions about what Jeff had proposed with the wicker and the cushions. Jeff replied to her, answering her questions, and asserting the reasons for his suggestions. He still continued with his suggestion to cover the wicker. He continued with his suggestion that he thought the cushions were fine, although he did say that could would try and make them a little softer, but he felt that much more softer would be too much. After all of this communication, I felt uneasy having Jeff continue with the work as I did not like his recommendations. Right or wrong recommendations, I did not feel comfortable moving forward. So, I contacted Jeff and told him that I did not want to proceed. His reply was that he hated for me to lose the deposit and delivery costs, but understood if I had changed my mind. I felt it unfair that I would lose the deposit as he had not done any work on my sofa/daybed. I asked him about this, and his reply was that it was I who changed the contract, and that he would be keeping the deposit. I am not a lawyer, so he may or may not be correct. The estimate he wrote was never signed by me. I asked Jeff what work did he do on the sofa/daybed to justify the $750 deposit. This was what he sent as far as work done: "Estimates Professional Opinions Assessment Correspondence - pages of emails Storage Moving Collaboration with your designer - your single item job consumed more time than 2 to 3 times Larger Jobs do (15+ piece jobs) Multiple Team meetings with Problem solving and Assessment" Ok, I will let the reader of this review make their own judgment on his list of what was done. I will note that that the collaboration with my designer was basically about 8 questions from my designer friend in ONE email, with her comments as well as to how she thought the job should be done as well. An added note was that my designer friend felt like Jeff was condescending to her. I will leave it to the reader to make their own assessment of Jeff if/when they meet him. Next was arranging to pick up my sofa/daybed. I told him that I do not want to have to pay for the delivery, so I was going to pick up the piece myself. His reply was that he only does full service, meaning he only lets his drivers pick up and deliver pieces, reasoning "safety, security, and privacy". It was non-negotiable. He also stated that "I don't make anything on deliveries and they are just part of the business". He was adamant that there was no way that I was going to pick up my sofa/daybed. Ok, so that was how it was. When the delivery people came to drop off my sofa/daybed, I was curious how much they got paid. So, I asked them, "How much does a job like this typically cost?". The delivery driver said, "Usually about $100/hour, but Mr Jayroe gives us a lot of work so we charge him less." I then asked, "So, this would be about $100 to $150 job?". HIs reply was, "typically less. I can't tell you specifically because that is between Mr Jayroe and myself, but it is a bit less than that." I paid $150 to have my sofa/daybed delivered back to me. Jeff Jayroe said "I don't make anything on deliveries". His driver told me that this job was a bit less than the typical $100 to $150 job. I will let the reader decide what this means. All I know is that I lost my $750 deposit and no physical work was done on my sofa/daybed. It was my decision not to have Jeff Jayroe not work on my sofa/daybed, yes. Is all of this legal with the deposit and the delivery situation? I do not know. Ethical? That is for the reader to decide ... and to decide whether to use Jayroe or not.