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October 2, 2007
Unpleasant exerience with Heights Woodworking
Since I couldn't find a mantel at a salvage store that would fit my somewhat oddly-sized fireplace, I commissioned Heights Woodworking back in June to build a small stained shelf over the fireplace's ugly concrete ledge. I read mixed reviews about this firm here on Brownstoner, but I wanted to give my business to a local carpentry shop, and decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. Big mistake. Heights Woodworking is an unprofessional, extremely unpleasant firm to deal with.
Heights Woodworking took four months to make and install the piece - and only after repeated calls from me to follow up on the status of my order. I was informed that the reception staff could not communicate with the floor staff, and vice-versa. (The owner of the business, who could communicate with all his staff members, kept an extremely low profile during this whole Heights Woodworking did turn up to install the piece in late September, it wasn't stained at all(as I requested). The carpenters took it away, and after three more weeks of nagging from me, the crew turned up at my apartment (almost 5 hours later than promised - lucky I took the whole day off work) with the stained mantel. As they were packing up, I was casually informed that another small piece of the mantel would require staining, which they promised to do the next day. I couldn't take another day off work, but my friends from out of town promised to stay home in the morning and let them in. Surprise, surprise, Heights Woodworking didn't turn up, and when I called to find out why, I was curtly told that the "receptionist works upstairs, and has no idea about what goes on in the shop downstairs". When I demanded to speak to the owner, she promised she would patch me through to him when he checked in later that afternoon. That didn't happen either.
Using this company was a bad decision on my part. I'm glad other people on this forum had decent experiences, but mine was absolutely miserable.
Comments
Uuggh, sorry to hear about your dealings with them. Sounds brutal.
Posted by: guest at October 2, 2007 6:58 PM
Something is going on with Heights. Office Manager, Annie has got her hands full. The very skilled stain man, Jim, has left. A very skilled onsite carpenter has heart-wrenching illness in his family and the owner, Amor has become quite arrogant and unreliable in the face of his changing business. I have used them many times with unbeievably beautiful results. Most recently, they have screwed me and my job in an incomprehensible way. They have employed unskilled people and have left them without guidance or supervision. After a long love affair with Heights- it has indeed ended.
Posted by: guest at October 3, 2007 9:09 AM
We had a strange experience with them as well. Called to discuss a job (built in cabinets, etc.) and a very nice guy came over within a couple of days, spent some time, had several very good ideas. He told us he would come back to us with some options. that was about a year or so ago. We gave him some drawings we had made as reference, which they actually did keep and return when requested, but when we called them back they seemed to have no idea who we were or any interest in working with us. Very strange....
Posted by: guest at October 3, 2007 10:11 AM
This bums me out because I am considering using them to make new windows for my home. At the same time the would fix up my front door. Amor defintely knew what he was talking about as I have fixed windows up years ago and he definetly was on the same page as me which made me feel very comfortable. Every business has it's good and bad experiences but if the labor aint skilled I could have a local guy do the job for 1/4 the price with the same quality.
Posted by: guest at October 3, 2007 11:13 AM
I hear a common theme in all these posts. Heights Woodworking has experienced some employee issues, due to matters beyond their control. That is understandable.
What is not understandable, nor forgiveable, is to not have any kind of customer service to alleviate this. For example, with the original poster, had the owner called, and explained how his schedule was behind because a carpenter had a personal emergency, with his utmost apologies, I'm sure it would have gone a long way in making him feel better. Or simply had his guys call to say they were going to be late on installation day. Or called with a profuse apology when his guys didn't show up at all, with a personal guarantee that they would come first thing in the morning some other agreed-upon day.
There's absolutely NO excuse for this kind of thoroughly unprofessional behavior if you are running a business. And maybe a company could get away with it if they were delivering over the top quality, but if it drops at all, which it appears it has, their business will and should suffer. And once you get a poor reputation, it's hard to get your good one back. Perhaps the owner will read this and try a bit harder.
Posted by: guest at October 3, 2007 2:08 PM
I'm surprised to hear that people have had a less-than-stellar experience with Heights Woodworking. I'm thrilled with the results of a job they did for me a few weeks ago...
I hired Heights in mid-August to replace a horribly sagging staircase in my brownstone, and I couldn't have been happier or more satisfied with their work-- the owner came out to my house within a few days of when I called for an estimate and he got back to me with a quote within hours, started the job two days later and finished up two days ahead of schedule. His employees were professional and polite, and they completely cleaned up their work area every night before heading out. And when the job was completed, the owner came back out to inspect and make sure we were 100% satisfied with the results. Couldn't have asked for a better experience.
We got estimates from all the other woodworking & stair-repair companies that are frequently discussed on the Forum, and I was most-impressed with Heights proposal. And I'm really glad I used them, and I'd definitely use them again.
Posted by: guest at October 3, 2007 3:58 PM
Unfortunately with Heights, it is a crap shoot.
Posted by: guest at October 4, 2007 9:09 AM
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