I'm resurrecting a Yelp account I haven't used in years just so I can warn others not to go here. It's that bad.
Warning: this is a long and angry review. I should have listened to all the other one-stars before giving these guys a shot. :(
On Monday, I brought in a pair of cheap little oxfords from Amazon that I bought for like $20 two years ago. The heel was worn down/snapped on both of them and there were some scuff marks on the toes. I also brought in a piece of luggage with a broken zipper. They told me:
- The shoes would be ready by Friday (which I confirmed again via phone call Thursday) and would cost about $20 to fix
- The zipper would have to be ordered from a special place in LA (??), would take a week or so, and would cost $50 for the zipper alone -- yikes, but oh well, I'm going on a trip in 3 weeks and luggage is an investment, right?
They gave me a tag that said "82.50" on it, which sounded a little pricey, but about right for two major repairs. I dropped off the shoes and the luggage at the counter.
I returned today and the first red flag was that my luggage -- which has an ID tag on it with all my personal info -- was sitting in the exact same spot I left it, right next to the chairs, accessible to the public. I try not to be too paranoid, but damn, you couldn't at least move something with personal info a little out of the public eye?
Anyway, I said I was there for the shoes and presented my ticket. The guy showed me my shoes (which were completely un-fixed) and said it'd be another 20 mins. Like, why say they're ready Friday if they're not going to start working on them till I come in? Oh well. I took a walk.
When I came back 25 mins later and showed them my ticket again, it took them five mins of looking just to locate my shoes again. They suddenly couldn't find them and didn't believe me when I said they'd literally JUST shown them to me a half hour earlier. Anyway, they finally located the shoes, and said it'd be another 5 mins.
I was irritated -- I'm on a break from work here, and now this is longer than I'm really allowed to be out -- but oh well, what can I do? When I was sitting down, I looked at the luggage again and it said $80 on it, which was waaaay more than I was expecting to pay. I asked the guy at the counter if I could take the luggage back since I'd might as well just buy new luggage at this point, and he agreed. We took it off my ticket and I took the luggage back.
Finally, 15 mins later, the guys came out with my shoes. They told me ... drumroll ... it would be $52.50 for the shoes. WHAT?! In no world would I pay over twice what the shoes actually cost me just to repair them. I was baffled and told them that it was much, much more than I was quoted and didn't even make mathematical sense ($82.50 - $50 at least from the luggage = ~$30 for the shoes). Like 5yrs ago I got a similar repair done at a shop on Durant, and that only cost me $15, so I expected the price to go up some (we ARE in the Bay Area ...) but this was waaaay outside my frame of reference.
They then told me that the luggage was never going to cost $50, even though I had literally just seen that price on the tag that was sitting on my luggage before I took it back. I said that I was quoted $20ish just a few days earlier and I know I could go to other places and get this work done for a reasonable price -- not to mention, at this point I'd rather just buy the same crappy pair of shoes again than pay this price. I even showed them the Amazon listing for these shoes, which were around $22.
We went back and forth on what was quoted -- with all 3 of these guys going off on me, saying this was "disappointing" and implying I had lied about the quote they gave me, until I got totally freaked out and almost started crying -- but I still held firm and said I simply wasn't going to pay something so far above what was quoted.
They eventually told me that they would do it for $37.50 and, late for work and totally panicky about this whole ordeal, I agreed. I shouldn't have given in because I feel awful about it now, but I feel worse about being put in such a shady and dishonest situation in the first place. One of my coworkers had a good experience with Paul's, but another one had a very similar encounter where she left feeling ripped-off and confused.
The cherry on top is that I finally checked the shoes (I know, I should have checked before I left, but I was super stressed out by the confrontation and wanted to leave) -- they left glue stains on the shoes, the new heels/soles are put on super shoddily, and the toe scuffs are literally worse and more widespread than they were before.
They may be just down the street from my office, but I am literally never going there again and we're gonna do our best to avoid them. This whole ordeal was ridiculous and confusing, not to mention altogether dishonest. Please go elsewhere -- it's worth the walk. read more