Peng Custom Upholstery

I had called Peng Custom Upholstery on the recommendation of another local upholsterer. I needed a couch disassembled so that it could fit out of my apartment. The upholsterer that had originally disassembled it and reassembled it inside my apartment had moved and I was no longer in his service area.
I set up an initial meeting with Mr. Peng for him to look at the couch about 2 weeks before I moved. Mr. Peng did not come to that meeting. Instead, on the day of the meeting, he called me and asked me to send photos of the couch; which I did, promptly, about 5 of them, all from different angles. He told me he would be able to remove the arms so that the couch would fit down the stairs. The cost would be $ 100 per arm — $ 200 for both arms. Fair price.
We scheduled a time for 2 days before my move for him to disassemble the couch. This time though, when he saw the couch, he told me that, despite what he had said before (and despite the fact that the couch had already been disassembled to move into the apartment), he would not be able to take the arms off. The reason he said was because it was «not easy». This was not news to me. In fact, it’s something that I had assumed and thus why I’d sought the experience of a professional upholsterer in the first place. Were the task «easy» I could have accomplished it myself for no cost.
Despite this set back, Mr. Peng claimed that he would 100% be able to get the couch down the stairs using his movers. He said they had many times succeeded where professional movers had failed. He *guaranteed* me. He said «it’s our responsibility now — don’t worry — it will fit».
I was skeptical, because I’d been there the day that we tried to move the couch in, and all he did was take a quick measurement. But he said he was taking responsibility for getting the couch out of the apartment, so I took him at his word. He agreed to come back on the day of my move and he would get the couch out.
On the day of my move out, after my movers had removed everything else from the apartment, they thought they would take a crack at getting the couch moved out while we were waiting for Mr. Peng to arrive. As expected, half way down the stairs they got stuck and gave up. As we were returning the couch to the apartment Mr. Peng arrived. With the couch (and a flight of stairs) between us, I tried to explain to him that the movers had just been giving it a shot and, as expected it looked like it wasn’t going to fit and that they were returning it to the apartment.
When the movers got the couch back into the apartment, I squeezed past them and went to find Mr. Peng to see what he recommended we do next. Unfortunately, he was no where to be found. I had assumed he had gone to his truck to get his tools. I was wrong. I caught sight of him as he pulled away in his BMW SUV, window open and looking at me as I stood on the corner outside my building.
I called him and asked if he had left, and he told me that he had, and that I had wasted his time and that I should pay him $ 200. When I asked him what I should be paying him for and what I was supposed to do with a couch that I couldn’t remove from my apartment, he said that if the couch could not be moved out in one piece, then he would have to «cut it in half» at a cost of $ 400.
Unwilling to be bent over a barrel, nor willing to have someone angrily work on my expensive couch, I hung up the phone and called the upholsterer who completed the work originally. I begged him to travel outside his service area to help me out of a jam and he happily agreed. The original upholsterer showed up the next day (on time) and took the couch apart in 60 minutes (
). Then he helped me move it out and transport it to storage. He charged me $ 200.
No thanks to Mr. Peng, I was a day late leaving my unit, much to the disappointment of my landlord and the person who was supposed to be moving in.
Mr. Peng may be a skilled upholsterer, but I wouldn’t know. He refused to attempt exactly that and instead claimed to be a couch mover, and he couldn’t even get that right. When he did finally offer to be an upholsterer, he tried to charge me twice the price we had agreed upon to do the original work.
Should you have similar needs to mine, feel free to look me up and I’ll be happy to point you in the direction of another upholsterer who is willing to actually do the work, properly, promptly and for a reasonable price.