Ted Keaton Furniture Refinishing

Beautiful job. The table top looks new. I cannot find the areas that were damaged. Excellent customer service.

I’m writing this because people seeking refinishers may not want to be treated the way Ted Keaton Furniture Refinish treated us. We were treated very poorly, unprofessionally, and rudely by Ted Keaton, Sr., the head of this business, on Monday, April 9, 2018. Ted Keaton, Sr., had one thing in mind, Ted Keaton, Jr. had another thing in mind, the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing, and it ended in the most unpleasant encounter with a business I've ever had-- and I've dealt with many businesses, being 66 and a homeowner for 37 years. How bad was it? It was so bad that this is the first and only negative review I've ever written. I have also submitted a review of Ted Keaton Furniture Refinish to the Better Business Bureau. I do so simply to warn other people.. Here’s our story: A number of months ago, my wife and I bought an old dining room table and eight chairs. We wanted to get the table top refinished. Ted, Sr., gave us a quote over the phone, telling us that the process was straightforward and the charge was so much per linear foot of table. That was fine. Having other, higher priority things to do, we took no action. Months passed. In the interim, we washed the grime off the top of one of the chairs, only to find that the finish came off. That nudged us to consider getting the chairs refinished, too, if the project ever surfaced. Then, about a week ago, Ted, Jr., called us. He rekindled our interest in getting the dining room set refinished. Ted, Jr., said he’d come out. We set an appointment, and Ted, Jr., came to our home with another employee. We thought that doing the eight chairs, the table legs and skirt, and some repairs as well as the table top significantly increased the scope of the work and understandably would increase the quote. We thought it justified a “house call.” The quote increased from $1,200 to $2,700. $2,700 is a significant amount of money to us. They had assumed they were picking up the furniture, and started putting pads on it. I said we’d need to get other quotes. They left. My wife and I talked it over and quickly decided to have them do the entire job. We had heard they do excellent work. We called them back about 20 minutes after Ted, Jr. and the employee left. Ted, Sr., answered the phone, Jr. was not available, so we told Sr. we wanted them to do it. He was very upset that we had not let them take the set while they were there (Now, this business is 20 minutes from our house, which Ted, Sr., apparently feels is a long way). He said that they had scheduled a time to do the work if they had be able to pick it up today-- but since they weren’t, and since that time-- they had become swamped with work, and they’d call us back if they ever got caught up. He added in a nasty tone that that probably was fine with us because we said we were going to get more quotes. I reiterated that we wanted them to do it, but that wasn’t good enough. He contentiously retorted that we already had his quote from months back. I told him the old quote was for the table top only, and that we had decided to do the entire table as well as the chairs, which increased the scope of the work considerably, and that was reason enough for Ted, Jr., to come out and quote. He continued to be belligerent, so I handed the phone to my wife, hoping that she could use her superb interpersonal skills to handle the situation. He told her they were slammed with business, three weeks out, and we ought to find someone else to do it. After 15 minutes, I decided to call Ted, Sr., back. I wanted to make sure he knew that it was Ted, Jr., who had called us, and had rekindled our interest in the project. I reiterated that the scope of work increased substantially and that a new quote was called for. Telling him these things turned out to be a mistake. We ended up going ‘round and ‘round, “exchanging candid views” of each other, until he told me to take our business elsewhere. In my opinion-- formed by decades of getting a host of things done by businesspeople--Ted, Jr., had done nothing wrong by calling us, and we had done nothing wrong by having him come out, look at the re-scoped work and re-quote it. In my experience, most firms WANT to look at a changed scope of work, and want to re-quote it. Apparently, that’s not the way Ted, Sr., wants his business to operate, and has failed to inform Ted, Jr., of same. All I can figure is, Ted, Sr., must be used to doing business with existing customers via brief phone calls. I guess new customers are supposed to be mind readers who automatically understand the way he does business. Apparently, he considers visiting a customer to look at the scope of the work and give a quote, and a customer getting other quotes, highly offensive and insulting or something. He certainly doesn’t mind jacking around people like me who can’t read his mind and don’t know what his rules are. Why don’t Ted, Sr., and Ted, Jr., explain to new customers their particular rules for doing business? They don’t have to. The consequences Ted, Sr., ladles to newbies like me for not doing business Ted, Sr.’s exacting way are ridiculous, rude, mean-spirited, disgusting, unprofessional, and a discredit to the Greensboro community. Apparently, Ted Keaton Furniture Refinish has as much business as it wants and can handle, overwhelmingly so, and only wants new customers who have been briefed on Sr.’s rules and forewarned of him, and will accept his way of conducting business. Folks who want to be treated right might want to go elsewhere.

Fantastic, great customer service and beautiful craftsmanship

Quality work, on time, would use again.

Ted did a great job, very happy with our refinished table.

Ted repaired and refinished our antique kitchen table. He did a great work with both the repair and the refinishing of the table. This was our first time using Ted Keaton Furnature Refinishing but if we have any other need involving wood work we'll contact him first.

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Keaton Refinishing is excellent. They've done half my house. I buy things at auction, antiques, and they refinish a lot of it for me. They do quality work. They're very perfectionistic in their refinishing. They're nice people to work with. They are expensive but you get what you pay for.