Johnston Millwork

My contractor recommended I work with Matt at Johnston Millwork on a major remodel. Matt guided me through the selection of doors, hardware, and molding with experience, insight, and humor. Costs were lower than I expected, and the results look terrific! Quotes were accurate, orders were filled promptly, and an unintentional goof-​up was remediated immediately and at no charge to me.

Where to start with this disaster of a company? First, I worked with their deadbeat sales person Larry who took weeks on end to respond to simple requests for sizing and pricing information. The pricing info came, but late and incomplete. Emailed questions for further clarification would go ignored, weeks past. Then I heard back from the company owner Mike Hochstatter who apologized for the non-​responsiveness and assured me things would be different. But, their unprofessional nature was just beginning. I made another appointment (this time with Mike) to review the project and get a new quote. He showed up 45 minutes late with no apology. He moved as though he had lead in his feet, slow as hell, as if I had all the time in the world (given that I was on my lunch break and now very late to work.)
He took samples of my trim and took measurements. Then took several days to respond with a new quote. This time providing only partial information on some portions and then claiming he could not quote the doors that Larry had previously quoted for me. When I asked why, he simply ignored my emails. And my calls. And more of my emails.
When I finally was able to get Mike on the phone (and simply by chance that he answered), he told me he didn’t feel the need to respond to me. And he didn’t care that I was going to give him a bad Unilocal review. He is now holding my trim pieces hostage in Redwood City and saying that I have to drive all the way down from SF to pick them up. This family run business is a piece of crap. Go find other professionals and don’t even waste your time with these bozos.

Doing business with this company is a NIGHTMARE. Remodeling a home is stressful enough and the last thing you need is disrespectful personnel with no idea how to provide customer service adding to the chaos.
From the beginning, when they initially gave me a quote with missing info that was a red flag. My emails and voicemails regarding questions on the quote were ignored for weeks. Finally I got the owner, Mike Hochstatter on the phone and said he would come take samples of my trim and re-​took measurements. Days later, he gave me another quote, still with missing info. When I asked why they didn’t want to quote me and work on the other doors in the house they again became non-​responsive to my emails and calls. At one point an associate answered the phone and said, «oh yea, my boss said he didn’t want to do your job at all, but I don’t know why.»
I guess this company is doing so well they can just ignore customers. The owner kept the wood trim from my home he took as samples – and I live in San Francisco. He said if I want them I have to drive to Redwood City to get them back. He also said he didn’t care if I gave him a bad Unilocal review…
So here you go Mike! Clearly you don’t understand the power of social media and how people use it to research where they do business. You also have no respect for people’s time and it’s amazing your company hasn’t went under yet. (Keyword «yet»).

Johnston Millwork knows doors and their customer service is AWESOME. We replaced all of our interior and exterior doors which turned out to be more complicated than I anticipated. After several weeks of chasing door reps at another local door company, I was referred to JMI by the hardware company.
Matt W. and Jimi K. were incredible. I stopped by without an appointment and they made time to review my needs and worked with me to determine everything we would need to replace the doors. There are door sizes, door widths, door types, glass types, hinge types… and the list goes on. They educated me and walked me through step by step, never once making me feel lame because I didn’t know door specifics.
I was worried I would end up paying more because the other company is the «go to» door company for everyone in the area. We just ordered our doors and their price beat the other company by nearly half WOW!
I’m not sure about the negative reviews or who they worked with. I can guarantee that JMI knows what they are doing and will treat you kindly and fairly. This is THE PLACE for doors.

I wish I could give them 0 stars.
JUST THE FACTS:
They overcharged my wife for a custom main entry door paint job. We ordered a nice door and my wife wanted to custom paint it. David told my wife that only Johnston Millwork could paint it because that way they could ensure the job as done right. In the end, they installed the door already painted. There were some pieces missing such as trim, weather strip at the bottom and courtesy items promised at purchase such as a touch up kit.
We’d call David and he was always out or he’d return the call 2 weeks later and we’d start all over again.
DISGRACEFUL SERVICE!!!
We also noticed the door paint job was done poorly with a lesser quality paint than we paid for. Then when we complained they gave us the name and phone number of the UNLICENSED and INEXPERIENCED PAINTER for us to deal with him. the painter came and he brought the paint which was Home Depot grade as opposed to the manufacturer paint we’d paid.
I would not even recommend this place to my enemies. No one deserves the terrible customer service.
We wrote a letter and after the reply we received, it was just better to lose the $ 2000 dollars than to deal with these scumbags any further.
They are experts at taking advantage of housewives who don’t have a sense of what they are paying for.

The customer service of this company is beyond anything I have experienced among contractors. They know more, stand behind their work and are tidy to boot. This is the only time I have not had to micromanage a contracting job.

First, the experience with Johnston was a little rocky, but the guy we where dealing with the owner Mike fired, after that we only dealt with the owner and he is the nicest guy you could meet. He totally fixed all the issues that we where having with one of his employees always replied and always very helpful. The reason i give 5 stars is the fact that the owner took our complaints to heart and actually instead of treating us just like another customer, took it to heart and did something.

Terrible quality, very poor customer service.
I first used this company 13 years ago for our front door. It was not stain grade as had been specified — the owner came to our home to see it and agreed, but wouldn’t do anything about it. I said I’d never use them again, but a few years later, our contractor talked us into ordering from them again.
We were doing the work in phases, but wanted all the doors to match, so when I ordered the first 3 doors, I asked the salesman to make sure that the french doors that we would order later would be able to be the same style. He took some time to look it all up and assured me that it would be fine. When it came time to order the french door, he then said it wasn’t possible. We had to redo a wall, and still settle for doors that weren’t what we wanted. Much expense, and disappointment, and then I noticed that one of the first 3 doors had one of its beveled glass panels put in crooked. Clearly that isn’t a homeowner or contractor mistake. But it had already been painted and installed, so they wouldn’t do anything about it.
If you choose to do business with this company — be very, very careful. Now, years later, our front door needed refinishing, and we find out that it’s very difficult to refinish because it’s veneer!
In case you think I’m one of those customers that is impossible to please, I have left positive reviews on Unilocal as well as negative ones, I believe there are many in the construction business who are stars. And I’ve been very happy with a different window co. in Redwood City.