Nothing "magic" about this place....Living in the area all my life, driving by almost every day and personally never had any kind of upholstery work done on any thing, I thought I would give a local independent shop some business.
Keeping in mind that as a professional mechanic working in the industry for 30+ years and having a big vendor that would have gladly picked up and delivered my seat to my job, I unwisely opted to use this clown shop.
I brought my truck's driver's side seat for torn fabric and damaged foam on seat cushion and backrest. I was quoted $180 CASH. I initially thought all the foam would be replaced. It was explained to me (in very broken english) that a piece of foam would be inserted into the damaged areas instead of full replacement and I was fine with that because IT WAS EXPLAINED TO ME. I also thought all the fabric would be replaced, which was my intention all along because I have sent many seats out for repairs and they always came back with all new material so that was my expectation. (I'm just the mechanic not the parts department so I have no idea how much the costs are).
The man who quoted me the price had to call someone else to give me the price. I left it on a friday was given the option to pick up on saturday or monday so that was fairly quick service I guess. I was excited to pick up my seat as I have suffered for many years with stuffing a towel into the hole in the seat cushion and constantly sweeping foam crumbs from my floor.
When I picked up my seat, I could not believe my eyes as I saw my same old dusty, dirty, faded seat with two strips of new and DIFFERENT fabric covering the previously damaged areas. This was the man who was on the other end of the phone when I dropped the seat off. He explained that he could not find the same materiel so he picked one out that he thought matched and seemed to be proud of himself. I was flabbergasted when I asked why didn't he change all the fabric? He said for "$180?", and I said yes! He could not believe that I thought I expected him to change all the material for that amount. He asked me how much should it cost? (Like I have any clue how much it costs to upholster a truck seat). He finally said it would be $500.
First of all, It was never explained to me that he was only going to replace two strips of the upholstery. The man I spoke to when I dropped off did not speak good english and as stated before I assumed all the material would be replaced so maybe that was part my fault for not clarifying. The man I picked up from claims that he heard his worker tell me this the day I dropped the seat off. How can he say that I was told they would only replace two strips of fabric and match it as best as they can If I didnt even ask them that exact question? Easy answer: with lies and corroboration. (One lies and the other one swears to it).
Second, if he could not find the same material, why didnt he call me like any professional business would? My name and phone number were written down so theres no excuse for not calling me. If he would have called me, I would have asked "why are you not replacing all the fabric?" Because I thought he was replacing all the material, at that point I would have become aware of this and I probably would have canceled this job given that he would have then asked for $500 to do the whole seat. Even for $180, I could have bought more than a few cheap seat covers, stuffed another towel into the hole and just dealt with the seat that way it was.
Thirdly, they didn't bother to vacuum, clean or even dust off my seat before I picked it up. (I picked it up at 2:30pm monday so they had it since the previous friday at 3:00pm), so they had time. It took me about 3 minutes to knock off the dust and foam crumbs with a rag at home. At least they could have done this which clearly shows the lack of quality and pride in their work.
Fourthly, they left some kind of adhesive on the front left corner of my seat that I cant take off. I did not notice it until I got home and cleaned the seat. Again, if they had cleaned the seat like a professional shop would have, I would have seen it right then and there and complained so that they could lie and tell me that it was already there. I am assuming this is adhesive they used to glue in the new foam?
Fifthly, now I know why he asked for cash as I was never offered a invoice, receipt or any proof of any work done. This no doubt makes it easy to hide that income from the tax man and say that I made this whole story up.
Lastly, the fabric is not properly placed around side seat controls.
Over all, the seat looks dumb AF and I will probably buy a seat cover so I dont have to look at it or be embarrassed about this chicken s*** work. On the plus side the seat feels good. I have no idea how the new fabric is fastened to the other fabric but I hope it lasts as long as my intense disgust at this 3 ring circus of a business.
Photo of Magic's Auto Upholstery - Bellflowe read more