Hardtwood Custom Woodworks — Attraction in Town of Hempstead

Update 11/17/23.

I’m changing this review from a 1 to 4. I received the shelf. Although my initial experience was negative, as shown below, after some discussion with the owner of Hardtwood, they followed through. The live edge shelf I ordered arrived well-packaged, and looks very nice. The mounting system is solid, low-profile, and easy to attach. All in all, the shelf is a robust unit that looks great and has no problem supporting a decent amount of weight. ———— Original review

It takes a lot for me to leave a negative review. I’ll usually leave a business a positive review or no review at all. I also do custom work myself, so I try to be patient and understanding when the shoe is on the other foot. But I feel that a negative is definitely warranted for Hardtwood Custom Woodworks.

I ordered a live edge shelf from them on 7/14. When I ordered, the website gave an estimate of approx 1 week (I think it said 5 days at that time) to ship for that particular item. After 2 weeks and no shipment or updates, I replied to my order confirmation email to check status (like it says to do). No answer. Another attempt via replying to the order confirmation email. No answer. I then used their website contact page to ask for status. Got a reply that my order would ship that week (which would be 3 weeks after I placed my order, and 2 weeks more than the shipping estimate was when I placed my order). No big deal…like I said, I do custom work too, so I understand delays happen. That week went by, no shipping. So I gave them a few more days, and after not hearing anything, I used the website contact page to ask again for shipment status. Again, was told that my order would ship “that week”…which was now the following week. “That week” went by, and again no shipment. I Gave them awhile again before following up through the website. You guessed it…my order was going to ship “that week”.

Finally, after Hardtwood telling me 3x that my order would ship within a specific timeframe, and then failing to do so, I requested that they cancel my order and give me a refund if they weren’t going to be able to ship it it. No reply,and no refund.

So after more than 2 months of no shipping despite being told several times my order would ship “that week”, and having my request for a refund ignored, I had to involve my credit card company to get a refund, which was finalized on 10/24…3+ months after I placed my order. I have to wonder if Hardtwood is a scam outfit or just disorganized and incompetent. Either way,...

Update.

The shelves are beautiful.

After leaving the initial review Kevin immediately reached out and talked to us and shipped the shelves out within a week. The shelves are exactly what we wanted and hardtwood was able to give us the length we needed which was over 8 feet. Most other companies we talked to wouldn't go over 8 feet.

We elected to have the mounting system included. They use a metal bracket routed into the back that allows it to sit flush. I believe it's a French cleat style. I'm not sure if they have rods in it to support the shelves but might be something to consider if you need it. I didn't want to take the mount off to find out.

I would order from hardtwood again but I would expect delays. Delays aren't a huge deal if they're communicated and that's why I'm not leaving a 5 star review. We were told at least three times that our order was going to ship "this week". If it's delayed tell your customers that. I just wish they had been forthcoming with this to begin with.

Original Review.

This has to be one of the most frustrating customer experiences we've ever had. We placed our order in December and acknowledged that lead time would likely get it to us in February. It's now about to be April and we don't have or order nor do we have any meaningful updates.

It says our order was shipped but the tracking number says it was delivered in 2021....

Kevin is the ONLY person who can give any meaningful answers apparently as the call center will answer but they can't provide any useful information because Kevin gate keeps it.

This whole thing feels like a scam honestly. I would not recommend placing any order from hardtwood or doing any business with them unless you enjoy sub par frustrating customer service for an...

Kevin has twice flawlessly executed a piece from a photo for my business. In setting up my studio, I found an image on Pinterest with no credit and sent to him hoping to just buy the material and have someone a little closer to me (I am in Upstate NY) build it. Once he saw the photo, he gave me a really good price for the building the whole thing so I took a chance on someone I'd never met and had him do it. The quality is outstanding (see photos) and he nailed the proportions, as well as followed my directions on the sizing. I'm grateful every day as I use it constantly. After such a great experience, I needed a collapsible display and once again sent him a photo and he executed flawlessly and on time. For my business, I have done CNC work myself (years ago) and then moved on to outsourcing it. I can't tell you how many people I've worked with and literally gave them a file with all the dimensions and still somehow get something different back. It really impressed me that I gave Kevin nothing as detailed as a drawing and he was able to look at a photo and execute it perfectly. As a business owner, it is just such an asset to find people who work like this because it saves so much...