The Furniture Works (Permanently Closed)

We ordered a custom-designed dual medicine cabinet with a shelving system in the middle. When I first met the owner (Cory Skillen), he was very nice and helpful. He put in plenty of effort in the first few days, interacting back and forth with me, helping design the details of the piece. I was impressed with his knowledge, and the solutions he came up with to issues I didn't know how to resolve. He said it would be 3-4 weeks to get it done, and we paid him a 50% deposit.

About 5 weeks later, I began trying to contact him for an update. It was very hard to get ahold of him (I would leave him voicemails at his office and his cell that were not returned, or a few times when I did get ahold of him, he would blow me off by saying he was busy and would call me back- and then he didn't; this treatment generally continued throughout the ordeal). At about the 6 or 7 week mark, I finally did get to talk to him. He told me that his house had been flooded in recent storms (which I believed at the time, as there had been some nasty rain storms recently), and that all his projects were being delayed as he dealt with that. I agreed that that was ok, and that we would happily wait a bit more.

After that, I called weekly for updates, with varying success of getting to talk to him or anyone (more ignoring voicemails and/or blowing me off). At about the 11 or 12 week mark, he finally told me the job was almost done, and that he had to send the doors away to have the mirrors put in them. I suggested I should come in to see what he had so far (to confirm that anything had been done), and he said I shouldn't bother, as it was all out of his shop at the moment (I thought only the doors needed to be sent away, but whatever). Another week or two of no updates passed, and I finally started calling again, rather aggressively. When I got ahold of him, he said the place he had sent it away to had dropped it, and damaged it beyond repair. It would be several more weeks, as he would have to start over. He offered to cancel the project, and he would refund my original 50% deposit- I obviously accepted.

Even the refund process was suspicious and frustrating. He swore he processed the refund on my visa immediately, but a week or two passed, and I had received nothing. What finally got his attention was when I sent him an email (because calling was useless) in which I threatened to challenge the original deposit charge through my bank (luckily, I had paid by visa). He immediately "tried again" to process the refund, and the money was back on my card in minutes. (If he had processed the refund when he originally said he did, shouldn't he have been worried about why that didn't work, and where that money went? But he wasn't- he just processed it "again".)

The fact that he did give my money back, without me having to resort to challenging the charge through my bank, is why I gave this review 2 stars instead of 1, and why I am choosing not to register a complaint with the better business bureau. After the whole experience, I am fairly sure (though I have no proof) that 1) no work ever got done, as I never saw any evidence of it and 2) he did not process the original refund when he said he did.

The net result if you've read this far, is that I would advise you to avoid this place. Cory seems like a nice guy at first, and maybe he is- I don't want to say he isn't. But at the very least, he needs help running his business- currently, it is not being run in a way that would leave any customer happy with their experience. All that was realistically needed was an occasional phone call/ update (without me having to badger for it), and I would have been fine with the delays. I'm really very forgiving and easygoing if there's a good reason for a delay (such as the flooding, if that was even true).

I do not write reviews like this often or lightly- in fact, this is the first time I have written a review like this. After reading several other similarly negative google reviews about The Furniture Works, at least I know I am not alone!

We hired them to do a custom solid wood kitchen with wood plywood boxes at an extra charge and instead we got a customized swindle. They promised us the best quality at a lower price because they are a Family business. We got an incomplete kitchen that is already falling apart 1 month later and they won't come back to finish it or fix all the the parts that are coming apart. They sold us on solid surface countertops that they make in house over granite. Little did we know they would scratch so easily and would get water marks and cup rings that would not come off. Now we are stuck with a crappy incomplete kitchen and they won't even answer our calls for followup. Now we know why they were so focused on a series of deposits totalling 100% before they would install our kitchen. We regret ever going to Furniture Works!

Consumer beware.....
The workmanship is great but the service is terrible. It took 5 months for them to even start on our kitchen cupboards from the initial order date. This was after several phone calls and stopping by their store to find out when they were going to begin. The cupboards were not totally completed until 3 months later after the initial installation (8 months all together). We had also ordered a pantry door to match our cupboards which has never been installed (1 year later) . The first one they ordered they drilled the holes for the hardware on the wrong side of the door. We have now waited over 1 year and still no response from phone calls and messages left to inquire on the status. We have decided to go elsewhere for the pantry door as a year is just too long to wait to complete our kitchen. Like I said the workmanship is very good but the service is the worst we have ever experienced with a contractor. Good Luck....

STAY AWAY !!!! Find another cabinet maker or cabinet shop. He starts off like he knows what he is doing, but everything turns sour quickly. The product quality is terrible, completion dates are non existing. They never return calls. All I had after 6 weeks is mediocre plywood boxes built on the same day, no drawers no fronts , so I decided to walk away, they kept my 50% deposit, but good riddance. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE.