Olek Lejbzon & Co

This review is mixed.
I retained Olek to restore a 17^th-​century, carved, ebony, Renaissance-​period cabinet with three marble columns with ormolu capitals and bases. The cabinet is worth a small fortune.
When Olek returned the piece to my apartment, the delivery men, who work for Olek, damaged one of my floor tiles. The deliverymen immediately apologized, acknowledged responsibility, and immediately left a voice message with Peter Triestman, Olek’s owner, to send a repair person out to fix the floor tile. I immediately sent Peter photos of the damaged tile. A few days later, not having heard from Peter, I sent him an email. He never responded. A few days later, I called him on his cell phone. He attempted to blame me for the damaged tile. He told me he would not send someone out to repair the tile but would send me a do-​it-​yourself repair it. That was weeks ago and I haven’t heard from him. My most recent email, sent today, requesting an update, remains unanswered.
Update: I sent a copy of this review to Olek’s owner, Peter Triestman. He asked me to comment on the workmanship he demonstrated in restoring the piece. The workmanship seemed acceptable to me. The work he did was vastly more expensive ($ 1,495) and involved than the work others had proposed to do, and for that kind of money, I was expecting him to restore the piece to something approaching perfection. He did repair the cosmetic defects, but one of the two doors was still severely warped. When I called him to discuss this while the piece was being delivered, he told me that the warping was unavoidable. I don’t have the expertise to know whether this assertion is true. He does, however, have a real business operation and seems to have a range of expertise to handle jobs large and small, involving metalwork, woodwork, and upholstery.

This has been the WORST experience I’ve ever had with a business.
I contacted them to replace the rubber shock mounts on my vintage Eames lounge chair, warned them that there was a previous repair to an ear on the chair, and they came and picked it up.
Almost 3 weeks later when it was supposed to be close to finished, I received an email from them saying that I needed to pay an additional $ 800 due to «damage on the ear». Included was a photo of my chair, with the ear completely broken. No other explanation.
I wrote and called them back repeatedly to try to understand how the chair had been broken while they had it.
I didn’t hear back for weeks, and was scared that I had lost both my deposit of over $ 400 AND my chair, and would have to go to the police or small claims court.
Finally I heard from them and it turned out that they had been calling a wrong number — even though my number was in the emails, and I had given it to them repeatedly on the phone. Only when the person whose number it was called them back did they finally try my actual phone number.
I received no apology for them calling the wrong number and not responding to my emails.
Peter said that the chair had «fallen apart» while it was with them, and blamed the previous repair, which was holding perfectly and showing no signs of stress when it was picked up by them.
After repeatedly pushing him on how this could have happened, he admitted that someone had sat in the chair as a «routine stress test» and that it had broken immediately. He also claimed to have no previous knowledge that the chair had been previously repaired, even though I had told a person at the company.
I, and the company that had done the previous repair (in California), are at a loss to understand why someone would sit in a broken chair in order to test it — obviously that has the potential to cause further damage to a piece of furniture!
FYI — Eames chairs without any previous breaks are known for having ears break when one shock mount is loose, and this is exactly what you would NOT want to do. It even says that on their website: To prevent a catastrophic failure of the shock mounts, and breaking of the lower back shell, an owner must be vigilant, and observe any signs in deterioration of the shocks.
If they had noticed that there were any signs of stress they should have told me that when they received it, before they broke it further. And they definitely should not have SAT in a chair with loose shock mounts!
They took zero responsibility for the damage done to the chair while it was in their possession, and a repair that should have been about $ 700 suddenly became $ 1500.
Based on outside advice, I asked for them to send back the chair, and they said they would refund the deposit as well.
The first time they were supposed to deliver it: they called and said the delivery guy had only picked up half the chair, and did I want half the chair now and half another day or both pieces at once? Are you kidding me???
The next time they brought it the delivery guy actually was hitting the wood on the chair against the stairs and railing as he brought it up. When it came it was even more disassembled than in the pieces, and the leather upholstery pieces were incorrectly arranged.
To add insult to injury, the refunded deposit has taken out $ 150 in delivery fees to and from NYC! I had to pay money to have my chair broken and banged up by this company!
The whole thing has taken 3 months.
I would never ever recommend this company and may have to take them to small claims court due to the damage to the chair.
Save yourself the grief and go anywhere else for furniture repairs.