Laurence Bernstein in Toronto

It is not often you experience real honesty and helpfulness from any body. But our experience with Traian is the absolute exception. In this case, we asked Traian to fabricate a stainless steel top for an Ikea table. He gave us a quote and agreed to bring samples of the finish to us in our downtown condo. When he arrived he gave us the samples, helped us choose which to use and then told us that as he did not fabricate the steel himself we would be better off dealing directly with the fabricator – he gave me the estimate they had prepared for him and said I should deal direct. I asked him what he would get out of it and he said “nothing” but he was happy to help out. This very helpful man ordered the steel, wrote the specs, got the estimate, found the samples and brought them all the way downtown and charged nothing. I am convinced he did not get any kindof kickback from the fabricator because the estimate he gave us form the fabricator was less than his original estimate (which presumably, and perfectly reasonably, had included a small mark-up). I only wish I could deal with more people like Traian.

We wanted to have our living room sofa re-upholstered to recreate the original look (we could not find a sofa anywhere that matched the modern design, so restoring was our only option). We interviewed 2 companies. One played games from the start ("...but of you sign right now, we can do it for 25% less; and if you sign right now we can do it within 4 weeks because the shop is empty..., etc.). The second company we interviewed was TJ Fine Upholstering, specifically Milton. From the get-go, Milton gave us a fair price and did not try to pressure us. The actual quote was lower than the "best price if you buy now" form the other supplier, but not so low as to make us uncomfortable. Milton came back a second time so we could have time to make a decision and he brought additional swathes. He assured us we would have our Sofa within 2 weeks. In fact, he delivered the sofa 5 days after taking it away. The work is excellent -- however, there were a couple of minor problems that I pointed out -- he came back 3 days later and fixed the problems on-site. I could not imagine how an upholstery experience could be any better!