Tom Van’s Shoe Service

The gal that runs this place, apparently has taken over from the original owner. It’s family owned, so perhaps it was her father that I remember doing business with back in the day. Great service back then. She, on the other hand, is rude, sarcastic, and does not care, one bit, about customer service. The work I had done was excellent, but the lady helping, has a bad attitude. There used to be alternative shops to go to, but the other shop owners have either retired or passed on unfortunately. So this is the only repair shop left, in the area. Sad, because there’s money to be made in this line of work.

If I could do zero stars, I would for this place. I don’t even know how well they fix shoes, but the service I received here has been the very worst I have ever received in my life. It went to the point where I rather lose my deposit and take my shoes back than entrust them to safely repair my shoe.
Every time I called or ask about the status of my shoe I was rudely yelled at by the lady in front. Rather than informing me that my shoe would take longer than intended to be fixed, she waited until we arrived at the store on the date it was scheduled to be fixed by and said, verbatim «Well honey, things don’t always get fixed in a week.» Then she promptly refused to give me a date where it would be fixed and informed me that she had other customers to tend to.
Also, I, as a paying customer, do not appreciate the store I’m trying to give my business to, yelling at me. In any manner. When I called back to ask about the status of my shoe, she unprofessionally put me on speakerphone and proceeded to yell at me. She excused her yelling by responding that she had «Other stuff to do, so therefore I had to be on speakerphone with her.»
This is by far, the most unprofessional store I had ever been to. I am not begging you to fix my shoes for free. As a customer, I expected a certain amount of professionalism and even basic human manners in a retail environment. No amount of expert shoe repairing could make the disgusting way I was treated acceptable. Never go here if you expect even semi-​decent service. No shoe is would ever be worth this truly awful experience.

My husband travels a lot and during a recent trip the airline damaged his bag. The repair the airline had done lasted one trip before it started to come apart again so I decided to see if a local shop could stitch up the bag before we went out and purchased another suit case.
I took the bag in and got the repair done for a very reasonable price. The front is very cluttered but overall friendly staff and the repair was excellent. I’ll be back for any future repairs!

I had my Italian leather jacket scratched up by the cat (story for another day). I did not have very high hopes for repair, but figured it was worth a shot. Van’s was able to smooth down and glue all of the nicks, match the color, and restore it to wearable condition with great attention to detail. They can’t work miracles, but the end result was much better than I expected and cost $ 32.
If you have damaged leather goods you can probably get them repaired for far less money than replacing them. I’m glad an old-​school repair shop like this is in business still.
The only problem I had though was time. It’s a family business and sometimes short-​staffed it seems, so the timeframe for the job was pretty vague and kept expanding. This is a shop that will do a very good job on repairs but you might be wondering when the job will be done. Unlike the other reviewer though I thought the staff was very courteous and friendly.

This place is a shoe/​leather goods repair place. My favorite yellow purse was fading so I decided to get it redyed (it was a really cheap purse but I really adored its shape and color). This place assured me that they could match it exactly for 30 dollars — this was Aug ’08 btw. It almost cost more than the purse but I really liked it so I figured why not?
A month later I checked in with them to see how they were doing and they said they were having trouble finding the right color. I wanted the color to be exact so I didn’t mind waiting. I came back in November and still it wasn’t done. I came back in January and the lady had the nerve to say «It’s not done but don’t worry about it, no one would wear a yellow purse during the winter time. I’ll have it done in the spring.» Who would say that? I actually have a coat that matched it perfectly and yes– I would wear a yellow purse during the winter time. I came by there a few times during the spring and it still wasn’t done. After a few trips I finally got my purse today. In a few days it would have been a full year. Good grief. I was charged an extra 9 dollars because she said it the original price was an estimate. I thought WTF! She had my purse for a friggin year and still have the nerve to charge me an extra 9 dollars. The color was off and unevenly done. The edging is uneven and the purse feels weird. I really wished I didn’t come here to have my purse dyed. It was a waste of money.
Go ahead and come here if you want your boots repaired but beware. you might not see it for a while.