Joel Verdon Woodcraft

A good lesson that things aren’t as black and white as they seem. I’m sitting at my beautiful table now and consider Joel a good man and kind soul. So sorry to hear that’s not everyone’s story.

Like Jon S. I’m shocked to hear these reviews! I was just looking him up today to refer him to a friend and found this Unilocal link. I felt compelled to write this as I had a very good experience with Joel. My wife and I purchased a custom made table from Joel about 2 years ago. From start to finish, Joel was a pleasure to work with. Very professional and communicated with us throughout the entire design and build process. Joel personally delivered (from Oregon to CA) and installed the table in our home. Beautifully crafted and unique. We still get compliments from everyone who sees it.
If you look at the dates of the negative reviews, they fall around Oct-​Dec of 2011. To speculate, I think Joel may have gotten into something a little over his head during that time… hopefully not something worse since no one has heard from him. Just my guess, but I don’t think he intended to «scam» anyone. He just didn’t come off as that type of person. In fact, Joel discounted me shipping charges and didn’t charge me for the bench I ordered with my table because he was a few days late of his original promise date. Not the sort of thing a scammer would do.
Anyways, I feel bad for those of you who lost your money/​deposits. Hopefully, you can get your $ back if you paid with paypal or through your CC company like one reviewer did.
S.P.

Wow! reading about all this stories sucks. I came across these reviews as I was looking up Joel to get some more furniture. We bought two custom tables from him a couple years ago. He always communicated well with us and we were very happy with his work. Joel, if your out there reading these let me try to help you. We can get these people there money back and get you started again. You have an awesome talent I am here to help.

While I would normally refrain from writing such a negative review of a small business, the fact that there’s a small collection of individuals who report the same utterly bizarre experience suggests a pattern, not an aberration…
We found Joel Verdon online, fell in love with the photos of his work, drove down to Portland to visit with him at his workshop, and were incredibly excited to put down a $ 350 deposit on a farmhouse table and two benches. We met with him in late July, with table/​bench delivery promised toward the end of August/​beginning of September. That date came and went, and like others, our many phone calls and emails were unanswered. We went so far as to send a certified letter notifying him of our intention to take steps to get our deposit returned; that letter was never picked up at the post office and was returned to us. And like another reviewer, we went so far as to email the same colleague, who also sent us a similar email in reply (that Joel was a stand-​up guy).
A tip to other reviewers here: we paid our deposit through PayPal with a credit card and so were able to dispute the charges with the credit card company. That dispute proved successful, and we recovered our deposit that way.
It’s unfortunate that all of this happened; judging by the photographs on Joel’s website (which now seems to have disappeared), he was a craftsman with excellent work. And as others have said, he was perfectly nice in person and really doesn’t seem like someone who would intentionally engage in a scam. Whatever the explanation for all of this might be, I’ll add my voice here mostly to support those others who haven’t been able to get their deposits back and might need evidence that multiple customers were left in similarly sad straits.

We bought a table from Joel in May 2011, it took a few months of talking to him to actually get it. Over the summer, the table warped and now we don’t have a flat table. We’ve been trying to reach him since Oct 2011 and haven’t heard from him. Someone still deletes messages because sometimes his voicemail is full. We ran into him at St. John’s Café where he gets coffee while working, although his shop is locked and his stuff is sitting outside the door now. After reading other reviews, I plan on reporting him to BBB. I’m disappointed, he seemed very nice while dealing with him.

I also bought a table from Joel back in July. He was supposed to deliver it in August and he definitely seems to have disappeared off the planet. He seemed an upstanding guy (as opposed to a scam artist), so I can only believe he came into dire financial straights and decided to take everyone’s deposits and run. I filed a complaint with Pay Pal and urge others to do the same. I am also going to file a complaint with the better business bureau. At this point I have given up hope of getting my beautiful table, and probably of getting my money back, too. If anyone else has any information that could help us all, please post it here. Thanks.

I’m glad I’m not the only one to be robbed by Joel Verdon. He took my deposit and ran as well. Stay away from him at all costs. I will report him to better business bureau as well. He’s a crook and a liar.

ditto the above. we have reported him to the better business bureau.

I paid money through paypal for a table that was never delivered. Don’t do business with this guy and please report him to paypal so he can’t steal money from other people.

I paid a sizeable downpayment (more than $ 500) for a table with a reclaimed wood top and metal base, but I never got the table, but the business owner seems to have dropped off the face of the earth and is no longer responding to attempts to contact him by email or phone. Pretty traumatic experience, overall.