I bought an antique reproduction bathtub faucet from these guys when they were at the original location on the corner of my street. Worked fine for several years, then began to leak. Knowing nothing about faucets, I took it back to them to see if they could repair it. The fellow scowled and said, no, with faucets of this sort it's a "whole reconditioning job" and it would have to be disassembled and rebuilt or some such. Made it sound like a huge deal. Said he didn't have time to do it, but as luck would have it, he could sell me a recently reconditioned faucet of the same make and model, with minor wear for the excellent price of exactly what I'd paid for the first one new, $250 plus tax. I didn't know any better so I bought it. He said I may as well leave the old one, but I declined.
Well, yesterday it started to leak again. I know a little more than I did back then, so I went to Home Depot, bought a bevelled washer for a dime, unscrewed the various parts of the faucet and fixed it in about 15 minutes.
It's experiences like this that have made me a distrustful, bitter, and somewhat handy middle aged man.
The fellow that lead me down the garden path was not the owner, and this was some years ago. Hopefully he doesn't work there anymore.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $250.00