There used to be a Honolulu refinisher that offered a 10 year warranty. He went out of business after a year and a half. A warranty is useless if the service provider isn’t around to honor it. Its easy to offer an incredible warranty. Its much more difficult to back up that warranty.
When choosing a refinisher, use your gut instinct. Is this guy going to be around for the long haul? Is he dependable, responsive, and trustworthy? Is he a member of the BBB? In general you want to go with someone who has been around at least as long as the warranty he offers.
We see people all the time who are shopping based on two criteria: price and warranty. Unfortunately, these are two things that are easiest to deliver upon. There is a glut of refinishing work in Honolulu, and not many qualified refinishers who do excellent work. Those of us who have been around a while are usually flooded with jobs from established commercial clients like property managers and hotels. There are also a few new people to the business who aren’t as busy and are more likely to offer reduced prices or longer than normal warranties.
This isn’t to say none of them do good work, but do your due diligence and follow your instincts before making a selection. Everyone has to start somewhere and we applaud those who are hardworking and take the time to do quality work the right way.
At least every other month, we get a call from someone whom we had previously provided a quote to. These customers have previously gone with someone else because of a longer warranty or lower price. We always suggest they call that company back. Usually though, they’ve already done that, and the situation hasn’t gotten better and now they’re sick of the inconvenience. Unfortunately now, our price is higher because we have to deal with fixing another company’s work. The unfortunate thing about this business is that when the job is done, it may look great, but there is no way of knowing if it will stand the test of time.
