CDS Furniture Repair Company — Local services in Auburn

2023-10-15 update: BEWARE. The business owner, Craig is writing reviews for his own business, giving himself 5 stars to try and counter more critical reviews!!

Original post: I saw the sign for CDS on the way to Hidden Falls for a hike one day.

I called up Craig the owner on Aug 25, and described my project. He was very motivated to help and said send him some pictures and he’d call me back. I followed up with him the next day, sent him the pictures and we discussed a bit further.

He said he had a few other jobs he was taking care of before he could get to mine. I called back 11 days later on Sep 7, and he said he still had 5 jobs to finish before he could get to mine. I told him that was fine and offered to call back in a month.

But to be sure he was interested in the job, I invited him to stop by briefly to take a look first hand. He said that would be fine but he would be out between Sep 16-26. I gave him some times I was available.

He mentioned he would need to work inside the house since the job was to repair a cabinet built on top of a stairwell bulkhead. I agreed to pay whatever his in-house repair rate was or to rebuild the cabinet entirely if it would be easier. Whatever it took to do it right.

But when I asked what it would cost to repair and build new, he said, “if I knew I’d quit my job and start counting cards in Vegas”.

So I threw out a couple of numbers to him to see if I was in the ballpark. He started getting really bothered and said he would pass on the job. Even though I said I would pay whatever it took to fix it in the end.

I’m not so angry that Craig passed on the job or even that it may have been slightly out of my budget. That’s his prerogative how he makes business decisions, and maybe my job was more effort than it was worth. But Craig was not very professional and verging on downright rude.

2023-10-15 update. I got an odd warning from Google services that reviews are public. So I wondered whether Craig the owner took offense to my review. Which apparently he did. 4 days later he wrote a review about my review and gave himself 5 stars for it. Seems a bit odd that the business owner is reviewing his own business to bias the ratings 🤣

Anyway, I don’t think following up after 11 days is a bad thing. And then trying to arrange a time to meet at my house to look at the job was out of reason either. We had several text exchanges about price which again a normal customer might ask. When he just started getting frustrated with the questions, I apologized for perhaps coming off rude and shouldering some of the blame if his frustration was due to the communication. And followed up to talk over the phone since texts can often portray the wrong tone. Being someone that grew up in Auburn I was trying to support his local business, so I offered another job to him that might make more business sense. But he didn’t answer. I don’t think any of these things are out of the realm of just being a decent person trying to conduct business.

Also why is it relevant whether this is a cabinet that my contractor made needing repairs or a store bought one that was damaged or broken? He advertises as a furniture repair business.

FYI, I went to Interior Wood design on Sacramento Street and had the same conversation with them and they were much more pleasant to deal with. I’d highly recommend checking them out if you experience a similar thing as Tony de la Peña or I did in...

Wonderful work and very nice man. He finished a cabinet and vanity in two weeks. He matched the color perfectly from a pretty small sample. The cost was reasonable.

I was remodeling a bathroom and my cabinet stainer got very backed up, saying he need 8 weeks to finish. The project couldn’t proceed with out the cabinet because the tile went to the cabinet edge. Craig had me drop off the 5 pieces that need stain a day after my call explaining my problem. (This was a the Friday before Thanksgving) the Tuesday after Thanksgiving I pick up a finished cabinet and the project got back on track. He matched the other strainers color so nicely. The project is done and the stain...

I express heartfelt gratitude to CDS company for expertly restoring a priceless, custom-crafted Indian wooden salad bowl on a gold tripod with handles, broken by my moderately autistic seven-year-old child due to the Nanny’s brief lack of attention.

After a week of frustration and a Google search, followed by a phone conversation with the owner, I was amazed by the restoration's complexity. Upon retrieving the repaired item today, I was astonished by the seamless repair, initially doubting if it was the original piece. The repair was truly magical, and I highly recommend CDS Company.

Thank you...