| rev:text
| - Allow me to clarify my rating;
Two stars for customer service skills, at best.
2.5 stars for the actual repair work experienced.
Clarification; our mantle clock decided "nada mas" one day. Found this shop online, checked out the hours and took it there for a "look see."
While this is a quality clock, it is not an antique or heirloom, so our interest was in an evaluation , followed by a phone call with an estimate, to give us the facts prior to green-lighting the repair.
This place is in the "Front St mall" area of the Falls, meaning, be prepared for some hoofing if you are a first timer.
I parked and hoofed it into the shop, where there were a number of antiquities and curiosities, including the cigarette puffing owner who was not-so-deftly trying to put the watch mechanism back in the case for a customer he was attending.
There were three other customers excluding the writer who were trolling the clogged display area leisurely looking at the available wares, and then there was me.
I stood holding the clock for perhaps ten minutes while the owner labored at his craft for the guy whose watch needed a new battery, while I stood, becoming progressively more uncomfortable and glancing around unsuccessfully trying to find an empty spot on the counter-top, and later anywhere, to place the clock while my patience and his skill were locked in a struggle to the death.
During this time, My presence and predicament both went unacknowledged, and by default unaddressed by the shopkeeper.
I'm thinking when there is a stained glass sign over the entry door which boldly proclaims "Clock Repair", that one would have a spot for folks to set down there clock while standing in queue. But I'm ust a GOM, grumpy old man.)
In most similar circumstances, I am the poster-boy for patience.
However everyone reading this knows the drill here!
Even without ever having been in a clock repair shop.
One walks in with clock in-hand, knowing that it will not be fixed while waiting, and that a ticket will be filled out identifying the issue, the name, the phone number, and a spot for comments and the tag will come with a tear-off receipt to prove that indeed you left something there.
One knows that the tag information completion will largely fall on the owner of the clock, following which, one will scoot out the door.
Had the shop owner been a bit more adept at the watch assembly process, I would probably have just waited things out; but the overpowering stench of cigarette smoke was even more annoying than his dexterity level at the task at hand, and I had lost most of the feeling in my arms, so I just excused myself and asked for the tag so I could set the clock on the floor, fill out the tag and, hopefully get out of there before the nausea from the smell bore fruit.
I got the tag, filled it out, (he had a difficult time finding a spot for me to put down the 2' square tag on the counter-top!), instructing on the tag that a call with a cost estimate be made prior to making any repair. And tore off my receipt.
Hey this is the age of throw away everything, 'cause there is a third world country somewhere that can build a new one cheaper than we can repair an old one!
If it can be true of refrigerators, surely it can be true of clocks!
So I felt this was a very reasonable request.
Sure enough when the phone call came, he left a message stating the work had been done and to come pick up the clock.
So much for my informed consumerism!
It turned out all the clock needed was cleaned and oiled, so for a crisp new $100 bill, the gent air-cleaned and oiled my clock at which point it began ticking again.
Not exactly the value of the decade, but shy of highway robbery.
Next time I'll buy a can of air for $5, and some clock oil for another $5 and spend the $90 savings on a nice dinner out with my wife.
Hopefully if that produces nausea it will be from some bad clams, and not the stench of my surroundings!
When I returned to pick up the clock, he had a difficult time finding it in his 500 square-foot shop, and asked if he had called me stating the work was complete?
Call me a stickler for organization, (and pay no attention whatsoever to the loud cackling noises coming from my wife stage left), but when the clock repair guy doesn't know where he puts completed work vs.the stuff he is selling, I become ever so slightly disquieted.
Perhaps during the down hours at the shop, a little organization is in order?
And hey, while you're at it a HEPA air cleaner can be had for almost exactly what you charged me for cleaning and oiling my clock, how about investing in one? That and a can of Glade, and perhaps the 2/3rd:s of us that DON"T smoke will be able to stay in your shop long enough to make a purchase without diving outside for air every three minutes!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)