Robinson Millwork, Inc.

Very unhappy with customer service. Referred by Home Depot - brought in eight 8 ft 1x6's (64 feet) to be simply ripped on table saw to 1x4's. Cheap pine boards cost $8 per board. Was told by someone (who seemed to be a supervisor or owner) the night before that such a job should be simple, and cost around $20, which I was fine with. I brought in the 8 boards the next day, and left them to pick up later, so that they could work / fit them in whenever they had time. I didn't expect them to drop what they were doing, just to rip 8 boards, and do it right then, so I tried to respect their time constraints by just dropping them off. Unfortunately, 3 of the 8 boards were somewhat bowed and twisted - I didn't notice that when I bought them - inexperienced as I am. The worker said he could "probably" fix that pretty simply by just running them through power planer (or power lathe - don't recall which - not a woodworker, but have used a table saw and power lathe). He said he could then just cut off the side that is warped / twisted to get to the 4 inches. Didn't sound like a big deal, so I said, "that sounds fine," reminding him that I'd been quoted "around" $20, but if there was a "bit more labor" to make the boards straight, then they could just charge me the extra time needed to make them straight - little did I know how much "extra time" that would amount to, and that the 3 warped / twisted boards would still be very warped / twisted when I picked them up, and for much more than the $20 quoted. This was especially consternating when all I "really needed" was to have them ripped down, as they are going on basic 2x4 shed shelves - nothing special. And I also told him that I could easily use the twisted boards on the shorter sections, and make them work if needed. But, if "fixing" them was no big deal, to go ahead, and I left my cell phone number to call if needed. Then, the first call I got was that the boards were ready, and that the bill was $80 for 1 hour labor (the cheap pine boards only cost $64 total at Home Depot). Now I don't work at a millwork company, so I wouldn't be able to anticipate just how much time would be needed to work on 3 twisted 1x6's, only to still be left with warped / bowed / twisted boards after the hour labor, but I do know that any seasoned woodworker should be able to rip 2 inches off 8 x 8 ft boards with a big table saw in about 5-10 min tops - heck, it's about 30 seconds per board with the saw running. Still, paying a little extra at $20 for under 15 min = $80 per hour was no concern for me, until I got the final bill for $80. Regardless, they never called to ask if I wanted to pay an extra $60 for that labor, but instead considered it "my fault" for bringing in warped / twisted boards, instead of letting me know (as experienced woodworkers themselves), that it probably wouldn't be worth my while to spend that much $ on cheap pine boards for a basic rough project - we're not talking Kitchen cabinets here. Anyway, they ended up "very grudgingly" knocking the price down to $60, grumbling all the time about it, and saying " this is why I don't like these types of jobs - we won't even break even on this job." Well, I as the customer certainly didn't "break even," and if you'd just called before racking up $80 of labor on $64 worth of rough pine boards, we wouldn't be here. Better yet, providing reasonable customer service, by offering "double" the quoted price, and it would have split the difference for the both of us. Instead, they decided to stick it to me because I questioned the job and the process. This is not the way to do business, IMO, especially over just a few bucks!

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of nights next to Tyler, Ashley and family at an adjacent campsite near Mammoth Lakes this month. What a wonderful, helpful and friendly couple. Merely from THAT experience alone, I have no doubt that comments on Tyler's attention to detail and to ensuring customers are more than satisfied with his work are all true. If I lived closer (I live about 800 miles north), Tyler would be the first one I would call to assist on one of our commercial/industrial projects.