Aba Semar

I went to the Shorewood location and was not impressed. At first, they could not tell how much it would cost to repair my luggage. Then, they didn’t have the parts but never called to tell me. The person running the store didn’t seem to know anything and always had to call someone before he was able to give me any information. I would never go back to this store.

This place is terrible! I walked in with a simple fix that I probably could have done myself but thought I should have a professional do it. The man behind the counter looked at it, broke it completely and on purpose, told me I had bought junk and then tried to sell me a new one from them. Never ever ever will I go here again.

They repaired the buckle on my backpack. I ordered the buckle from the manufacturer and they sewed it on the strap. Only took a few days and they did a good job. No complaints here… Yeah!

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are talking to another person and after a few exchanges, you realize that other person is existing in an unparalleled universe, a possible crazy land, or at least a reality far far away. Welcome to the distorted idea of business and customer service of Paul at Aba Semar. What follows is a shortened version of a weird and convoluted exchange.
Paul: (phone) ‘we were cleaning out our storage, i remember you calling about 6 months ago. We found your two leather bags”.
Me: «WHAT? yes I did call you 6 months ago hoping to find answers about my bags I gave you 2 years ago.»
Me: (now in store) «I can’t believe you have my bags after all the times I called and came in, I have given bad reviews of you all over the place»
Paul: «What, why were are so good»
Me: «umm you told me you could not find them and probably donated them»
Paul: (with old guy and bags) «here is a strap that we could use (simple strap I am sure they have had forever) and this is all we could find for this one (totally wrong color).»
Me: «this wont work it does not match, and this might be long enough»
Paul (while waiting for old guy to trim, smooth and punch 4 holes in a strap): «You should bring in your other leather repair needs.»
Me: «You know I am never coming here again, right?»
Paul «But why, we are good and we are good to our customers»
Me «You had my stuff for over 2.5 years and said you donated them after never calling me and me coming in and calling you multiple times!»
Then…they bring out the simple leather strap, and were going to charge me $ 36. Recognizing the danger of stirring the waters in crazy town, I gently say, «you are charging me for this, after 2.5 years?»
Paul: «yeah, we should charge you storage fees hahaha, don’t worry I will give you a good deal» he rings up $ 20.21 or something, I give him $ 20 and walk out,
Bizarro– I have never experienced anything like this.

I took two pairs of boots here for repairs. One pair needed stitching, on the other leather needed to be glued to sole. Pretty basic.

It took two weeks for the work to be completed. Stitching was done very well — can’t even see it. Gluing was sad — they just put three large blobs of glue along the sole, and left it at that. Good thing these are casual boots — were these for work, I would have to get rid of them,
The price was awesome — $ 11 for each pair. I can live with that. But why it took 14 days to splatter some glue on my boots — I will never know. Probably will not come back.

I’ve taken dresses to this tailor two times now and I’ve been very happy both times. He is friendly and does great work. Both times he asked me when I needed the item (instead of telling me when it would be done, which I have encountered at other places) and was able to meet my request.
This shop does all sorts of alterations and repairs, not just clothing. According to their business card, they also repair jewelry, watches, leather goods, zippers, luggage, shoes and they do embroidery.
I highly recommend this shop. It’s in a little strip mall, called The Worth Building, near the Subway on Port Washington Rd.