Al's Attire — Local services in San Francisco

CRUEL SHOES

Al was a shoemaker to San Francisco's rock stars back in the day, and his work was pure art. But good luck getting him to perform if you’re from out of town.

Or think you’d hear from him within three months after placing your order to make shoes for your wife, given him a $1135.00 deposit with detailed specs and artist’s renderings, and sent him two pairs of her own shoes to ensure a proper fit.

In December, I made arrangements with Al to give my wife a gift that would keep on giving – a continuing supply of cool shoes.

I told Al our important 2015 occasions: Valentines Day (2/14), our Anniversary (2/24) and her Birthday (3/13.) He agreed to start working toward those dates and more TBD throughout the year.

I gave him a $1135.00 deposit and returned to the East Coast. A call to Sarah at his store confirmed that he had received, by 12/30/14, all he needed from us to make the shoes - including 2 pairs of my wife's Dolce & Gabannas we sent as samples for fit.

Valentine’s Day came and went. No word from Al. Our phone call for a status update vanished into the store's voicemail. Unreturned.

Then our anniversary. No shoes. No word from Al. We sent a more urgent email and follow-up phone messages. Also ignored.

Next my wife’s birthday. No word. No shoes. Not even her own shoes returned.

90 days, and nobody at Al’s Attire touched a phone or keyboard to contact us.

We found out that Al’s Attire was still in business, just not for us. We sent another email. Another phone call left in the black hole of Al’s voicemail. Both ignored.

Finally, my associate was able to get Al on the phone. What was he planning to do, if anything, to earn my $1135.00 deposit?

According to her bemused report, Al became the offended artiste. As if we agreed that he could start my project on the 12th of Never if that’s when his Muse struck, so why bother him only 90 days later? He promised her that he would call me and send pictures. No call. No pictures.

I finally sent an email notifying him that I was canceling our agreement under California CC1689(2)(b), for buyers whose sellers won’t perform. Now I’m waiting for my refund. And for Al to return my wife’s two pairs of Dolce&Gabbanas he’s held onto for 83 days and counting. Sarah, the unfortunate middle-person in this baffling transaction, promised my associate we'd get both when they got her shoes "back from the cobbler" and Al figured out "whether he wanted to issue a check or credit card refund." Cobbler? I thought cobblers made repairs, and we sent my wife's shoes to them in perfect condition.

I’ll update this saga if and when we get either from our...

I want to preface this with the fact that I had high hopes for this store and the tailor. I had an N1 deck jacket made, spent nearly an hour in there with fitting, selection of materials and design only for it to not be made the way I asked. On top of that, the jacket fit, slightly too tight but I went home with it figuring it may break in. To my dismay the jacket would not let my arms reach forward (think Chris Farley in the movie Tommy Boy). I proceeded to drive from San Jose back to San Francisco four times over the course of several weeks to get the jacket to fit right but my arms would still not move forward when seating (like driving a car with it on). I'm now out over $1000 if you count the gas I burned and the Jacket still doesn't fit. I was recently contacted by Al and he told me that the jacket had been completely remade without my knowledge and wouldn't you know it...the collar still was incorrect. I'm now out a sizeable amount of money and being forced to sell a custom jacket that still doesn't fit me correctly with the wrong collar on eBay. Needless to say I will not be returning to this store in the...

I gave them a $1500 jacket for tailoring that they said would be ready in 6 weeks.

8 weeks later, the day before the event I bought this jacket for, they are saying they can't find it. This is after 3 phone calls over the previous two weeks inquiring about the status, with them saying each time that they would get it to me by when I needed it.

When I finally did get to go pick it up, they hadn't even properly finished it - one of the sleeves was still stitched closed so the jacket was unwearable. They at least had the decency to drop it off by me after fixing it.

The owner promised me a refund during all this, but he went dark after I got the jacket back, so I never got anything.

After all that, the amount they charged me for this ended up being 4x what another tailor in the city later quoted me...