ComplaintsforAntique Furniture Restorations Van Holthe LLC

• Initial Complaint

  12/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We had a rosewood dining room table, 8 chairs and a china hutch damaged in the hurricane Ian flood. I contacted ********* the owner of this company to come and assess the damage to see if he could restore. He said he could and gave me an estimate. The furniture was collected and delivered to his workshop on Oct 17, 2022. He arranged for us to view on December 27. The set was originally a red stain which I believe is called Cherry. It is no longer that color and has been varnished on what appears to be the original staining from the water. It is nothing like the original. Apparently he says he was not able to get the stains out nor had any idea what color was originally used. It was plainly obvious the original color as the top half of the hutch did not get water damage plus he could see the color even better when he removed the brass hardware. He said he was unable to remove the staining. The varnish does not have an even finish, there are places that look like smudged with a cloth and I believe there is dust residue dried into the varnish, so even if I found the color and stains acceptable along with changing the finish with varnish, the finish is not done well! I contend that if he felt he was unable to restore the stains and the original color he should have contacted me before compounding the problem by applying high gloss varnish. He also tried to charge over double his original estimate of $2500 for the table and chairs and $1200 for the hutch plus $400 for an antique chest (also badly done). He said he wanted $6250! We ended up paying $5000, I did try next morning to cancel the check but had already cleared. We are supposed to arrange to have collected this week. I told him I was not at all happy with the restoration but he says it was a lot of work and it is what it is. I would never have agreed to this restoration if I knew he could not bring it back or for the money it cost. We should not have paid and just let him keep the furniture.

  Business response

  01/25/2023

  This response was taken verbally by the BBB:

  The consumer came and looked at the service and agreed to them. Consumer paid and had items picked up by the moving company. At this time there is no refund as services were rendered and completed. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩