Roger W. Feldman

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
Thank you for your time in this issue, I can't except the response offer from Mr. Feldman.  I was being overly reasonable with my offer.  Now, to have the set done right I will have to have most of the work done by him removed and redone.  The problem is with his prep work.  He failed to clean the leather before he applied his repair material and color.  So with that said, if the initial bonding layer doesn't stick then everything else will just peel away also.  Secondly the repair material he used in my opinion isn't  pliable enough for the area he used it in.  You can tell this because there are new crease lines that are created by his repair and the feel of the repairs are different from the natural feel of the leather.  There's also a strange texture that has built up on the one cushion he has put so much work and layers of color onto. 
 
I've tired to give him multiple chances to repair his work, but all he does is add more layers.  Now he has multiple layers stacked on the initial poor bonded layer.  He has refused to agree that the work is not correct, instead he says it looks good to him and meets his standard.  He doesn't seem to concerned about my opinion.  The last photos I sent weren't from my pets causing damage, they aren't allowed on the couch.  The damage shown in the photos is from the initial bonding layer he added coming unbounded.  You can push down on the leather and see that the layers he has applied over time are to rigid to properly bend with the leather.  So the movement of sitting on the couch over time releases the bonding finish he added due to it's inability to properly adhere, flex and naturally crease.
The only way to repair this is to remove all layers down to the initial product that he started with.  Of course this will cost me more money then what he charged me because someone else will have to remove his work and then redo all his work.  Yes, I can try to ignore the other pieces.  But their is no guarantee they will hold up.  Among many other factors that haven't been mentioned, like color matching, texture, style, materials used, poor bonding  of initial work again, and many other thing I know noting about.  Unfortunately for me we only really use the couch that he has done all the repairs to.  So we are just now using the other pieces on a regular basis.  Mainly because we are scared to use the couch!!!!  Now that sounds like Great Customer Service!
 
I feel Mr. Feldman has tried his best to do a good job, but it's not the job he promised me.  I don't see any of the issues I've discussed as small, Mr Feldman does.  I don't feel paying a large sum of money for a product that promises years of use, but only gets a few months use fair.  He has misstated a few fact also.  He hasn't always been available.  Usually his schedule is only free on Fridays.  And in December I said one week wouldn't work for me, he said that he would have to do the job in January.  I called in January, then he moved it to February.  I am a stay at home dad so I'm usually pretty flexible with my time.  All I want is a product I can count on.  I don't care about the money.  If he decides not to refund the $600.00, then that is fine with me.  It is more about the principle of the matter.  You can't cheat people or it will catch up with you one day.  I hope he makes the right decision, I don't like this weighing on me anymore than he does.  This has been a huge aggravation and frustration to me.  I've been overly polite and understanding, giving him every opportunity to rectify the situation.  I am a very peaceful and forgiving person, but I feel a duty to let others know of my experience in hope they don't get cheated also!
 
P.S.
You can look at the couch he returned to me and see the difference in sheen and color from one cushion to the other.  It looks like a partial repair, their is no uniformity in the couch after his repair.  I hope when I find a reputable repair man he can fix this but, if Mr. Feldman can't make a repair of his on work and make it look decent at least in color and sheen.  Then, how can he expect to rectify dividing the money paid to him by cushions.  Does he really expect me to get someone to fix the one cushion and do a better job blending the color he mixed and knows.  This just baffles me!!!  If you would like more photos, I'm sure I can dig them all up with their respectful date stamps.
 
I have attached a photo of the couch.  This is after his repair didn't hold up.  I have many more on different occasions!
Thank you once again for your time in this matter,
[redacted]

RE: Complaint ID [redacted]
 
Dear Revdex.com,
 
I am sorry to hear that the customer is still not happy with my attempts to address his concerns. I have been in business for 14 years now, and this is the first time a customer has felt the need to get a...

third party involved. Thank you for the opportunity to explain my efforts.  
During the initial repair project the customer was there for most of the time.  When I got to the color application phase of the project he inspected a test area and approved the look of the finish. By days end, most of the finish was applied. The next day upon returning he informed me that he was no longer satisfied with how it looked. Upon accepting the job I had assured him I would do everything in my power to complete the job to his satisfaction.  So, I changed the look of the finish to his satisfaction.
The work involved a couch (2 cushions), a love seat (2 cushions), an easy chair and an ottoman along with all armrests.  About 4 months later he called with concerns about peeling.  Upon arriving, there was indeed severe peeling on 1 cushion on the couch. This cushion was the most severely damaged of them all, with deep scratches from dogs and much of the coating worn off. I assured him this was not up to my standards of quality and re-did that cushion along with one small area on the easy chair that he felt was too rough. A short time later he called me to inform me the same couch cushion was peeling again.  I apologized for the inconvenience this was causing him and told him I would do some research to determine why this one cushion was causing so much trouble. 
I reached out to one of my vendors that supplies my materials, (who has 25 yrs experience in furniture refinishing) sending pictures and talking the situation over. He advised on a process to address the problem and the materials needed. I purchased the materials and contacted the customer. This process would require repeated applications of various products over a period of time.  The customer objected to his home being tied up and the couch being unusable for such a long time. I thought his objection reasonable and made arrangements to pick up the couch and do it away from his home. Upon returning the couch he asked for an extension of the 1 year warranty I initially offered.  I felt his request was warranted and extended the warranty on just that cushion for a year from that time (April 2013). The rest of the work done on the furniture have had no problems at all.
In December 2013 he contacted me about cracking. I asked him to send pictures, which he did. Based on what I saw I did not feel this warranted a repair done under warranty, but given he had such a bad experience I wanted to extend good will and do it anyway.  I made an appointment to do the repair within one week of his call. The night before the appointment he called me to verify that I am picking up the couch to do it away from his home. I informed him this was a very minor job that could be done in his home. He mentioned about his wife having allergies and did not want it done in his home. We agreed that perhaps it could be done in his garage. Upon arriving the next morning it was far too cold to be done in the garage. I asked him if he objected to it being done around the Holidays. He preferred not to have it done then.  I informed him that would mean waiting till late Jan or into Feb and he would have to provide some heat in the garage which he agreed to.  He called me while I was on vacation in early Jan and I reminded him of our conversation. 
I contacted him on Feb 6th via text, to say I would be available Feb 14th but if he did not want it done in the home he would have to move it into the garage and provide some form of heat. He became very upset with me over this.  As a final attempt to extend goodwill I offered to once again pick up the couch and do it away from his home. He seemed delighted that I was willing to do this.  Upon return of the couch he asked me to extend his warranty for yet another year. I made it clear that the area he was concerned about was in actuality holding up well given the original condition of the leather and thus no longer qualified for an extension.
Based on the complaint he submitted to you it seems he is concerned about what might happen in the future. The picture he sent is a closeup of an area before the last warranty repair was completed.  I have never dodged any calls or texts from the customer.  I feel I have done everything within my power to satisfy our agreement. I communicated to him (based on my most recent conversation with the aforementioned vendor) that it is possible that the leather on that one cushion had been damaged before the repairs started to such an extent that this is the best he can expect. The only other option would be to replace the leather panel if he is not satisfied with its wear at some future point.
Although I feel I have done everything to meet my obligations, I am still interested in finding an equitable solution. Since there were 6 seating cushions involved in the project (not including armrests or the 4 sides of the ottoman) and only one has been a problem I would be willing to refund $200 ($1200 divided by 6). I would hope this final gesture would provide closure to this matter.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to explain my efforts to satisfy this customers concerns.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Roger Feldman

Review: Hello,I am writing this letter to inform you of poor service and craftsmanship provided by the company listed in this complaint (Roger W. Feldman LLC). Around November of 2012 I called Mr. Feldman to have him come and look at repairing a leather furniture set. It is composed of four pieces. He came to my home to inspect the items and give me a price to repair. He told me that their would not be an issue to repair the items. I asked him how the finish would hold up, he told me it would hold up as good as the original finish. He mentioned he wouldn't be able to match the marbling but he could get it close and I would be happy with the final product. He gave me a price of $1200.00, which I thought was high so I told him I would have to think about it. I felt the work that was needed to repair the couch was worth the $1200.00 as long as he would stand by his work, so I called him and told him he had the job. He came out in December to start the job. I assumed he would have taken more time to clean the items of oils and dirt, I restrained from my comments thinking he was a professional. He repaired a large area on the couch that had deep scratches with a compound, and sprayed finish on all the pieces. He completed the job in three half days. At the completion of the job I wasn't impressed with his work or craftsmanship. I explained to him that the way he laid the the color made it look like some one scribbled with a marker all over the couch. And the way he sprayed the sealer looked like their where shiny spots and flat spots. I personally don't believe he used the correct methods. I finally just gave up and figured it was as good as it was going to get. In Feb 2013 he had to come back and do some additional fill and dye work, due to missed color in spots and the scribbling effect. In March 2013 He came back and had to take the couch due to peeling. And again in Feb 2014 for peeling. He has informed me that he has done all he will do! So how is this suppose to last?Desired Settlement: I request Mr. Feldman return a protion of my money he took,so I can have the areas that are damaged repaired by a professional.He originally gave a year warranty, then he extended the warranty. I have been overly understanding.He has taken his time and ran out my warranty.Each time I called him he put me off from weeks to months.He promised the finish would hold up as good as the original leather did.I have had this leather furniture set for 10 years.His finish has lasted less than a few months

Business

Response:

RE: Complaint ID [redacted]

Dear Revdex.com,

I am sorry to hear that the customer is still not happy with my attempts to address his concerns. I have been in business for 14 years now, and this is the first time a customer has felt the need to get a third party involved. Thank you for the opportunity to explain my efforts.

During the initial repair project the customer was there for most of the time. When I got to the color application phase of the project he inspected a test area and approved the look of the finish. By days end, most of the finish was applied. The next day upon returning he informed me that he was no longer satisfied with how it looked. Upon accepting the job I had assured him I would do everything in my power to complete the job to his satisfaction. So, I changed the look of the finish to his satisfaction.

The work involved a couch (2 cushions), a love seat (2 cushions), an easy chair and an ottoman along with all armrests. About 4 months later he called with concerns about peeling. Upon arriving, there was indeed severe peeling on 1 cushion on the couch. This cushion was the most severely damaged of them all, with deep scratches from dogs and much of the coating worn off. I assured him this was not up to my standards of quality and re-did that cushion along with one small area on the easy chair that he felt was too rough. A short time later he called me to inform me the same couch cushion was peeling again. I apologized for the inconvenience this was causing him and told him I would do some research to determine why this one cushion was causing so much trouble.

I reached out to one of my vendors that supplies my materials, (who has 25 yrs experience in furniture refinishing) sending pictures and talking the situation over. He advised on a process to address the problem and the materials needed. I purchased the materials and contacted the customer. This process would require repeated applications of various products over a period of time. The customer objected to his home being tied up and the couch being unusable for such a long time. I thought his objection reasonable and made arrangements to pick up the couch and do it away from his home. Upon returning the couch he asked for an extension of the 1 year warranty I initially offered. I felt his request was warranted and extended the warranty on just that cushion for a year from that time (April 2013). The rest of the work done on the furniture have had no problems at all.

In December 2013 he contacted me about cracking. I asked him to send pictures, which he did. Based on what I saw I did not feel this warranted a repair done under warranty, but given he had such a bad experience I wanted to extend good will and do it anyway. I made an appointment to do the repair within one week of his call. The night before the appointment he called me to verify that I am picking up the couch to do it away from his home. I informed him this was a very minor job that could be done in his home. He mentioned about his wife having allergies and did not want it done in his home. We agreed that perhaps it could be done in his garage. Upon arriving the next morning it was far too cold to be done in the garage. I asked him if he objected to it being done around the Holidays. He preferred not to have it done then. I informed him that would mean waiting till late Jan or into Feb and he would have to provide some heat in the garage which he agreed to. He called me while I was on vacation in early Jan and I reminded him of our conversation.

I contacted him on Feb 6th via text, to say I would be available Feb 14th but if he did not want it done in the home he would have to move it into the garage and provide some form of heat. He became very upset with me over this. As a final attempt to extend goodwill I offered to once again pick up the couch and do it away from his home. He seemed delighted that I was willing to do this. Upon return of the couch he asked me to extend his warranty for yet another year. I made it clear that the area he was concerned about was in actuality holding up well given the original condition of the leather and thus no longer qualified for an extension.

Based on the complaint he submitted to you it seems he is concerned about what might happen in the future. The picture he sent is a closeup of an area before the last warranty repair was completed. I have never dodged any calls or texts from the customer. I feel I have done everything within my power to satisfy our agreement. I communicated to him (based on my most recent conversation with the aforementioned vendor) that it is possible that the leather on that one cushion had been damaged before the repairs started to such an extent that this is the best he can expect. The only other option would be to replace the leather panel if he is not satisfied with its wear at some future point.

Although I feel I have done everything to meet my obligations, I am still interested in finding an equitable solution. Since there were 6 seating cushions involved in the project (not including armrests or the 4 sides of the ottoman) and only one has been a problem I would be willing to refund $200 ($1200 divided by 6). I would hope this final gesture would provide closure to this matter.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to explain my efforts to satisfy this customers concerns.

Sincerely,

Roger Feldman

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Thank you for your time in this issue, I can't except the response offer from Mr. Feldman. I was being overly reasonable with my offer. Now, to have the set done right I will have to have most of the work done by him removed and redone. The problem is with his prep work. He failed to clean the leather before he applied his repair material and color. So with that said, if the initial bonding layer doesn't stick then everything else will just peel away also. Secondly the repair material he used in my opinion isn't pliable enough for the area he used it in. You can tell this because there are new crease lines that are created by his repair and the feel of the repairs are different from the natural feel of the leather. There's also a strange texture that has built up on the one cushion he has put so much work and layers of color onto.

I've tired to give him multiple chances to repair his work, but all he does is add more layers. Now he has multiple layers stacked on the initial poor bonded layer. He has refused to agree that the work is not correct, instead he says it looks good to him and meets his standard. He doesn't seem to concerned about my opinion. The last photos I sent weren't from my pets causing damage, they aren't allowed on the couch. The damage shown in the photos is from the initial bonding layer he added coming unbounded. You can push down on the leather and see that the layers he has applied over time are to rigid to properly bend with the leather. So the movement of sitting on the couch over time releases the bonding finish he added due to it's inability to properly adhere, flex and naturally crease.

The only way to repair this is to remove all layers down to the initial product that he started with. Of course this will cost me more money then what he charged me because someone else will have to remove his work and then redo all his work. Yes, I can try to ignore the other pieces. But their is no guarantee they will hold up. Among many other factors that haven't been mentioned, like color matching, texture, style, materials used, poor bonding of initial work again, and many other thing I know noting about. Unfortunately for me we only really use the couch that he has done all the repairs to. So we are just now using the other pieces on a regular basis. Mainly because we are scared to use the couch!!!! Now that sounds like Great Customer Service!

I feel Mr. Feldman has tried his best to do a good job, but it's not the job he promised me. I don't see any of the issues I've discussed as small, Mr Feldman does. I don't feel paying a large sum of money for a product that promises years of use, but only gets a few months use fair. He has misstated a few fact also. He hasn't always been available. Usually his schedule is only free on Fridays. And in December I said one week wouldn't work for me, he said that he would have to do the job in January. I called in January, then he moved it to February. I am a stay at home dad so I'm usually pretty flexible with my time. All I want is a product I can count on. I don't care about the money. If he decides not to refund the $600.00, then that is fine with me. It is more about the principle of the matter. You can't cheat people or it will catch up with you one day. I hope he makes the right decision, I don't like this weighing on me anymore than he does. This has been a huge aggravation and frustration to me. I've been overly polite and understanding, giving him every opportunity to rectify the situation. I am a very peaceful and forgiving person, but I feel a duty to let others know of my experience in hope they don't get cheated also!

P.S.

You can look at the couch he returned to me and see the difference in sheen and color from one cushion to the other. It looks like a partial repair, their is no uniformity in the couch after his repair. I hope when I find a reputable repair man he can fix this but, if Mr. Feldman can't make a repair of his on work and make it look decent at least in color and sheen. Then, how can he expect to rectify dividing the money paid to him by cushions. Does he really expect me to get someone to fix the one cushion and do a better job blending the color he mixed and knows. This just baffles me!!! If you would like more photos, I'm sure I can dig them all up with their respectful date stamps.

I have attached a photo of the couch. This is after his repair didn't hold up. I have many more on different occasions!

Thank you once again for your time in this matter,