Arthur’s Shoe Repair

Totally agree with AT and Caitlyn. This place went from a wonderfully owned shoe repair shop run by the founder Arthur who was courteous, friendly, fair and always willing to chat. The cigarette smoke always bothered me, but i enjoyed hearing the police and fire scanner he monitored. I miss him.
Today its run by a two men, not sure if they are descendants; the younger one is professional, polite, respectful — always calling me Mr. and remembering my name — the older one is rude, insincere, quite the (insert profanity here) and greedy as he keeps raising the prices. $ 10 for a shine is ridiculous when anywhere else it’s $ 6.
I brought a brand new pair of brown shoes in to get an initial shine to protect them. The younger guy said he waterproofed them and put a clear coat shine on them and they looked good. I wore them a few times and dropped them off for another shine. They came back all discoloured with grey stains. I returned with the pair along with two others for shines.
The older guy would not let me explain, interrupting me four times saying the same thing. He said they would have to wash them and put them in a dryer for five hours, when asked why he didn’t do that when he saw them the first time, he responded because it would have cost twenty dollars, which i would happily paid. He continued to interrupt me when i was trying to get clarification so i walked out. He did not offer me my money back and i told him he lost a customer for life. He didn’t care. He sucks. Don’t go there.

I tried to get new heels for a pair of shoes in the shoe repair place in Harvard Square, and he looked at them, shook his head sadly and said because of the something-​something they couldn’t do it. So I took the shoes to Arthur’s. No comment; no «Well, we’ll try to do our best;» nothing — they just took the shoes and fixed them. This happened once before too, so that’s why I thought of going to Arthur’s, which is pretty out of the way for me. Bottom line: it’s a great place.

Small repair (capping a high heel) done on time, next day pick up. They even called to alert me it was ready, as I’d made it clear 2 days would be too late.

I just walked by this place and remembered my experience from about 20 years ago. If there had been a Unilocal then I would’ve given it five stars, but there wasn’t. So I’m doing it now. Arthur was very sweet and kind and took care of my shoes at a very reasonable rate, but, more importantly, I just remember him as a very sweet guy.

I have never been as disrespected by a small business owner in my life as I have at Arthur’s Shoe Repair. This is the first Unilocal post I’ve ever written, but because I felt so personally insulted, I felt compelled to write a review.
The owner and I had a misunderstanding about what he could do by the time he closed his shop. He could have conveyed the message politely, as businesses should with customers.
Instead, the owner was completely rude, disrespectful, and completely out of line. He escalated it to the point of stating «Don’t you or any of your family or friends or anyone you know ever come back here ever». Therefore I thought it was important to share it with «anyone else I know» — all of you.
There was no sense of customer respect. I maintained a respectful demeanor, but the owner was completely rude beyond anything I have ever encountered.
I will obviously not come back here again, and urge all of you not to as well — as per the owner’s request.

DO NOT GO HERE!!! Please beware! This place is run by crooks.
I dropped off my sandals, and the old gentleman at the front refused to write down a price but told me around $ 20. Lucky for me, I didn’t trust a business that doesn’t let you know the charge up front. When I called I was told by his son that gluing the sole of the shoe and fixing the heel would run between $ 35 and $ 45! The shoes cost $ 50 brand new. Needless to say I picked up my shoes and took them to a place that’s less shady

Honorable and always do a great job! I’ve brought mostly boots here, an occasional pair of shoes, and once time a leather bag — I’m a very pleased customer, though in truth get these kinds of items fixed infrequently.

Does not offer full re-​sole.
I can’t say much about the quality of the work because Arthur’s could not resole my boots. They offered to send them to Needham for resoling, but couldn’t tell me how much it would cost. After reviewing the price sheet which listed a cost of $ 69 for resoling men’s boots (these were women’s but I assumed the repair would be similarly priced), I decided to try another place instead ($ 40). Again, I am not sure about the quality of the work, but even though I am not a cobbler, it seemed like a simple enough job to cut a new sole and glue it on. It’s mysterious why it would be so expensive, and why this repair shop doesnt offer this particular repair.

Five stars to two in no time flat.
How does a place go from being $ 6 for a sole and heel repair to $ 13 JUST for the heel? Nothing fancy, just new tips. I’m not a complainer, but I honestly thought she was confused, so I asked her if it was $ 3. No, she assured me, it was $ 13, and proceeded to show me their pricing chart. On top of that, she took a good two to three minutes just to give me my change, half of which ended up being in dollar coins because she had no change in the store. I then discovered that after all that, she’d ended up giving me too much money back anyway. 20−13=7. Not 8.
I will definitely not be back.