Siwek Lumber & Millwork Corp - NE MPLS — Attraction in Minneapolis

I went to Siwek Lumber today on Friday July 21st at noon in Minneapolis. The staff member I spoke to was extremally rude. I almost never write negative reviews, but this was some of the worst customer service I have ever encountered.

My husband and I were planning to purchase bamboo plywood in addition to a more expensive plywood for a tiny house project. When we asked the employee if they still carried bamboo plywood, he codependently answered yes and told us he couldn't help us get the plywood down. That is understandable, since the fork lift wasn't in that building, however he did nothing to assist us further.

Afterward, I was interested in buying walnut plywood that was $180 per sheet and we needed quite a few sheets. The plywood was a bit over my head, so I couldn't quite see what it looked like. I carefully lifted the plywood, about an inch off the other sheet, to see what it looked like before I invested in it. When I did this, the employee came over to me and scolded me, as if I were a child and then proceeded to tell me that he will have to charge me $180 for any sheet that I damaged.

First of all, this is unlawful to detain someone and force them to pay for something. And number two, nothing was damaged, and number three, if the lumber is that susceptible to possible damage, than it should be Siwek's responsibility to put cardboard or spacers in between each sheet of plywood. Or put up signage that instructs people not to touch the wood, and have helpful employees assist customers that do want to look at the wood. None of which were present. I mill my own lumber and we have spacers. This was ridiculous and make me leave without buying a single item.

I gave it two stars because we have been loyal shoppers at Siwek's for years. We have never ran into anything or anyone like this before and the staff is mostly friendly and helpful. I am beyond disappointed with today's visit and I feel like I was treated like I didn't deserve to shop at the store, from the first interaction to the last. And I am not sure if I...

I tried over and over to give Siwek Lumber $10,000 of my business. I really did. I'm the owner of a 100+ year old Arts & Crafts Bungalow & repeatedly tried to order about $10,000 of windows & a front door from Brad & eventually from Tom Siwek himself. The main problem: it took them WEEKS to get back to me with information and eventually MONTHS. The last email I received was Tom telling me he'd get back to me shortly. Well, he never got back to me. It seemed like they've never ordered windows from Andersen & didn't understand the product at all. Eventually, I went and got a 300-page Andersen Window catalog on my own & figured out precisely which windows I needed, how they should be milled together, all of the hardware & accessories and supplied Siwek with all of that information, along with a detailed computer-generated drawing showing precisely what I wanted. They didn't even bother getting back to me. I really don't understand it. I was cordial in every interaction; I wasn't asking for anything out of left-field (all of my windows except 1 were standard sizes). I was left feeling like a $10,000 order must be small potatoes for Siwek, because they clearly didn't want my business. My advice: don't use Siwek for windows & doors. Their lumber yard looks pretty cool, though. Maybe I'll give that a try...

Never write google reviews, but this is not excusable at this point:

So I purchased materials here a few times of the past few weeks and it's rare to see a member of the staff wearing a mask. Unless I'm mistaken, the state mask mandate is still in effect for businesses, so not sure why the exception here. Customer facing staff were not wearing masks. Other staff walking within the store were not wearing masks.

No, I'm not particularly concerned about my own safety directly, but the safety of those that it could spread to. As I'm writing this, 356,000 people have died in the U.S. and it's apparent that the staff here don't want to help slow the spread.

Hard to want to bring return business to this place and hard to view them deserving of any past/future government financial relief, if they aren't going to look out for their community.

Simple solution. Staff, just wear your masks. it's really not that hard and it's effective. If it's for political reasons, maybe time to start listening to medical professionals before you listen to your preferred politicians....