Woodcraft of Rochester — Local services in Town of Henrietta

Reading other reviews, I'm oddly relieved to know I'm not the only one that experienced this complete lack of customer service. It's very strange, I have fond memories of shopping here as a woodworking hobbyist and always recall feeling encouraged and excited. Not so on my recent visit there.

I went in with one question--and before I could actually ask the question, the guy at the counter immediately told me everything wrong with my project (having asked zero questions and knowing absolutely nothing about it, or my experience), while a younger guy behind him just shook his head, agreeing with the first guy. He proceeded to show me around 7 or 8 different shelves, telling me what would be way better than... what I'd already done. After 10 minutes of this, I was able to ask my simple question--to which I received a flat "no." No ideas, no creativity, absolutely no interest in what I was doing or what I needed. "Try Rockler" geez thanks, I'd NEVER heard of Rockler and have no idea how to use Google. Brilliant idea.

As I was about to exit, an older guy joined the chorus of opinions on what I should have done with my project. It's as if the worst of the trolls on the woodworking Reddit decided to go IRL and form a club together at this shop so they could join forces in telling everyone else how wrong they were, without ever coming up with a single actual solution to anything, or even an idea. Sad to see they're pulling a young kid down with them, I hope he can find some better mentors. Next time I'll just drive to Buffalo and go visit this "Rockler" they spoke of. Maybe that was the best...

Staff are generally rude and not very helpful. The older guys tend to be rude and impatient, the younger guys tend to be pushy and snobby. A very elitist store where the staff will always claim to know better than you, even if carpentry is literally your trade. Plus they hover over you the whole time like they’re watching to see if you’re gonna steal something, and I don’t like being treated like a thief.

If you are not buying the most expensive version of a given tool, they will tell you the one you’re looking at is junk and not to waste your money. If it’s junk, why are you selling it? Not to mention, I know what I’m buying - probably know more than the staff. They are not very knowledgeable but hey - if they were they would probably be at a workshop like myself, not selling tools in a retail space.

Take the 50 minute drive to Rockler instead of shopping here if you want good customer service where you aren’t automatically treated like an “amateur” because you don’t work...

I needed a center for my shopsmith. The first employee told me the part that holds the center looked like a piece to an adjustable assembly that was not put together and needed to be replaced. He showed me a center and other parts that weren't what I needed amd I left confused. I did some more research and went back with my part and a different employee, older and visibly annoyed with me, told me there are no parts compatible with shopsmith outside of shopsmith. Almost like a tapered center is unique to each machine or something and again I left confused and irritated. I sat in my truck and told myself that they were wrong and after going back in and forcefully asked for the second employee to show me the tapered centers they had available. Lo and behold the piece they fit my machine. I've been in customer service as a McDonald's manager in canandaigua for half a decade and frankly the majority of my employees were better suited to helping customers then the employees...