A PHOENIX ART WOODWORKS

Ilya at A Phoenix Art Woodworks did a beautiful job repairing a broken wooden arm chair for our dining room. The turned wooden arm support had broken all the way through. Ilya repaired the break beautifully with an internal metal dowel, and then restained that section to match the rest of the chair. Came out great! Am so happy it could be fixed and we can't even see where it was broken after his expert work.

We built our house 24 years ago with custom african mahogany kitchen cabinets. We sought a true craftsman to completely refinish and were impressed with our interview but now have to admit we made a serious mistake. First, they completely missed the color we had specifically agreed upon and the stain was so dark and heavy that the beautiful grain is almost totally masked... they now look painted. The trim was done in a different color and when we pointed that out ( did we need to do that??? ) the "fix" was to wipe on a gel type stain that left a faux grain that you would expect from a utility handyman... not a craftsman. Our corian countertop was damaged and the first response was that they were old anyway. We held back a small amount to ensure the damage would be repaired but to no avail. Initial follow up phone calls were met wit promises that the corian guy would come out and repair but that ever happened. Subsequent calls have been ignored completely... unanswered and unreturned. There is more that we have since noticed but you get the point. This comany either lacks the skill and ability to do a job of this type or they just do not care. Very bad experience!!!

I told him what was wrong with it, he looked at, and told me it would cost $465. I told him that was pretty high but I agreed to pay if he guaranteed he could repair the chair. He said that he could so I agreed. He returned the chair claiming it was fixed, and I paid him. After living with the chair for a day or two, I called back to say I was not happy with the chair and I was disappointed in his work. I felt the chair was not repaired and it was returned without a backing on it. The work that he did did not fix anything. It was not any better than before he picked it up. He offered me $100 in cash. He came back and did put the backing on it, gave me the $100 and left. Its almost a month later and the chair looks worse than it ever did. I would have been fine if he said he could not fix it, but he gave me a guarantee that he could. That is my chief complaint.

I'm not happy with the light stain or heavy sand marks. I gave a check to my sitter who received the item on behalf. On the invoice, I said" paid in full - client has not approved final finish and reserves the right to modifications if pieces do not meet expectations." I called Illya and told him it was lighter than discussed but I would think about it. I thought about and just called him (less than 5 months later) and he told me: (1) it's been over a year; (2) I should have given him a stain (now he says it was my responsibility even though I indicated that he should make it as dark as the inside (as direction) furthermore, he had told me he didn't have time to bring me a stain to approve (at the time of stripping); (3) he would not fix it and (4) that I was wrong and that he could not make it darker. I'm an interior designer so I know this is not true. I have used him once before wit ha client who was not happy with the work. He also repaired a chair nicely but not these 2 pieces.