Pax L.
Yelp
The proprietor is most unpleasant. I've been to this store three times and each time was more unpleasant than the last. The first visit wasn't so bad, apart from the salesperson's attempted hard sell of an $800 velvet chair. On my second visit, I attempted to talk a bit with the proprietor -- an older, gray-haired woman who does not arise from her chair or behave pleasantly or smile, ever -- about my experience looking for mid-century furniture. She was cold and made it clear she was not interested in talking to me.
After the second visit, I decided not to return but yesterday I was driving past and saw some pieces out in front of the store. I pulled in and was delighted to find two teak veneer bookcases for $195 apiece -- an actual reasonable price! The pieces were not refinished as most of the store's furniture is but were in great condition for their age. They were also vastly less expensive than the pieces inside the store, few of which cost less than $900. I conversed with one of the salespeople about wanting one (or both) of the bookcases but needed to race home and measure the bookcase-wanting nook in my house to make sure it would fit. I live 17 blocks away. As soon as I measured the nook -- an entire twelve minutes after I left the store -- I called and, unfortunately, reached the unpleasant proprietor instead of the salesperson with whom I had spoken. I told the proprietor that I had been looking at the bookcases outside and wanted to buy at least one of them -- the salesperson knew which one. The proprietor told me I would need to pick them up by five, which the salesperson had not said. I do not have a pickup so said I would have to figure out if I could manage that. Honestly, if the salesperson had told me I would have to haul them off the same day I would have just moved on with my life.
However, my landlord happened to be around right after my phone conversation with the proprietor, and he said he would help me move the bookcase. Eight minutes after the first conversation, I called back to say I was on my way. The proprietor told me they had just sold one of the bookcases, and they would not hold the other one for me. That disappointed me, as I had liked them well enough to purchase them both. In any case, I figured that the proprietor would have told me if they had sold the one I preferred, so my landlord (who had dropped what he was doing to help me collect the bookcase) and I continued on to the store where I discovered that they had, in fact, sold the bookcase I preferred. The salesperson said she was sorry and that she had wanted me to have the bookcase and had even asked the purchasers to wait five minutes in case I called to say I wanted it. She said the purchasers had actually waited ten minutes, but this does not jibe with the fact that I called twelve minutes after leaving the store to say I wanted the bookcase, and they had not sold it at that point.
The proprietor did not say she was sorry. (And I reiterate that I called twice within twenty minutes of leaving the store, first to say that I wanted the bookcase and then to say that I was on my way.)
Then the salesperson announced to me that I had said to the proprietor when I called that I would take either one of the bookcases. Um. What I had said was that I wanted at least one of them, meaning that I would probably buy both and have the matching set. The condition of the second bookcase was not as nice as the one I had indicated I preferred, nor did it have the enclosed shelf I wanted, but I would have liked the set. The unpleasant proprietor decided I would take an inferior bookcase at the same price as the bookcase I wanted after she sold that bookcase out from under me and wasted my time and my landlord's goodwill. I probably would have bought this second bookcase, which was still a good price, but I did want not something in my home reminding me of the unpleasant experience and, more importantly, did not want to support the store financially after that display of disrespect. All of the interactions, including my trip home from the store and my trip back to the store, took place in a span of 32 minutes, but I have felt ugly about it since it occurred -- and frankly turned off from mid-century furniture in general.
My landlord, alas, bought a wall hanging from the store, so they did get some business from us, but I am very sorry that I stopped at Uptown Modern at all. I went from having a nice day to feeling upset about the near miss of a bookcase I loved -- and I have been looking for a bookcase for months. I will not be returning and will instead spend my money in establishments that do treat me with respect.
