Not great customer service

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I have inherited some old chairs from my parents, one of which belonged to my father’s grandmother, and I would like to keep them although they need re-upholstering. This is especially true of the oldest one (in the photo) which has been stored in a shed, while the other two are a pair of reclining easy chairs. A few months ago I found a local upholstery business and thought I would try them. I went to visit and they seemed helpful, showed me around the workshop, and tried to help me choose suitable fabric, but I couldn’t find just what I wanted so in the end I said I would have to come back another day and they assured me I could come any time to browse. Well time has flown past and I’ve been too busy. Then last week I emailed them to ask if I could come in again to look at fabrics, and they replied that they were too busy and could I come on Friday 17th instead. So I put it in my diary and today I dutifully showed up. At first the man said it was fine for me to spend time there and they just left me to look through all the sample books. After looking through dozens of different fabrics I found two that looked just right for what I wanted – one for the dining chair and another for the two recliners. I was pleased, but then the man and woman came in again and she looked at my choices and explained that even though the fabric I’d chosen for the easy chairs is upholstery fabric and is shown in the catalogue covering a chair, it isn’t very hard-wearing and would only be suitable for occasional use, so if I was planning to use them often I should choose something tougher. She said that she had a pretty good idea of what designs and types of fabrics they had in their sample books, so I asked if she knew of anything similar but longer-lasting and she started to look. But the man then told me that helping me choose was taking up too much of their time and costing them money! This seemed a bit much since obviously I need to choose something to my taste, I’m not going to spend hundreds of pounds upholstering my chairs in a fabric I don’t like! I came in on the day they asked me to and chose the fabric by myself, and I’m happy enough to do so again, it was only that the woman mentioned that she had a good idea of what was available that prompted me to ask if she knew of any alternatives. We agreed to book the dining chair in to be recovered in the fabric I’d chosen for that, and I would try again to find something for the others. The woman apologised afterwards and explained that they are short-staffed due to illness, but I’m thinking that perhaps I will avoid costing them any more money and taking up any more of their time and take my two recliners elsewhere! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2017.