Milt’s Alterations

Owner (Asian man) is very deceptive and screamed at me.
I would consider myself a kind person. I’m not overly picky either. But I left a $ 300 purse there which was red leather and slightly faded for him to treat. I asked him to treat it (mind you not dye it). He charged me $ 15.00 I also left two pairs of designer leather boots that were fading and needed treating. He charged me $ 40.00 for the boots ($ 20 each).
When I went to pick them all up, he had lost the linen bag my purse came in and handed me a dyed purse with red dye all over the zipper, metal accents, the liner inside, the brown leather straps, etc. I couldn’t help but say, «Wow what happened to this? You ruined it» then I stopped myself and realized that was unkind and asked for an explanation.
He started screaming at me telling me he wasn’t a magician and what could he do with the purse but dye it? I was so confused. Then he said, it took me two hours I need to charge you another $ 20.00 for it. I was stunned. I pointed out the red dye smeared everywhere, asked where the linen bag was I had the purse in, and said the words I just mentioned. To balance the conversation out I did tell him the boots he worked on looked nice. I did ask him, «why did you not call me when you were deciding (on your own) to dye my purse knowing it would cost more than double I originally paid and that we had not discussed it?» He just kept saying that it needed dye and that he wasn’t a computer and couldn’t dye the leather red around the brown leather accents because he wasn’t a magician.
So I decided okay this poor old guy just ruined my purse but it did take him two hours to ruin it so I guess I should pay him for it. So as I was reaching for the $ 20.00 (against my better judgement) he just let loose and began screaming at me again. Besides dropping my items off this was our first time dealing with each other. I hadn’t raised my voice or used a harsh tone or threatened him or asked for a refund or anything. In fact I was about to pay him more money when he started screaming at me about how impossible I was being. At this outburst and since I had already paid a fair amount for a ruined designer purse, I decided to grab my stuff and go.
I came home and worked for hours on it with leather conditioner and cleaner I own. I was able to salvage it enough that someone from a distance wouldn’t notice the red dye on the brown leather. That said for any close lookers it is easily noticeable that the brown leather accents are permanently dyed red. Oh well. It does look newer being a shiny red but definitely not ‘designer’ anymore. Oh and I can’t use it with any light clothing because despite scrubbing for hours red dye still rubs off on clothing and other items it brushes against.
Moral to the story if you are going to trust this man 1– Be very clear about what you do and do not want and ask him to call you if he suddenly decides to do something different 2– take before and after photos 3– don’t bring anything additional (like my purse linen bag) 4– be prepared to pay more than he quotes 5– don’t be surprised if he messes up something and blames you for it. 6– If you don’t enjoy being screamed at, go elsewhere.
He did do a good job on my boots.

This place is a great little shop. Though they specialize in shoe repair. They can work wonders with all leather. Very reasonable and reliable.

I had believed that this was an honest establishment. I had my Dress Blue shoes re-​soled here before and went back a week after I wore them to thank him for doing a good job. He re-​stitched a leather golf bag handle for me and though it wasn’t pretty-​it was functional. NOW THE BAD NEWS.
I brought in another golf bag that had a stripped nylon zipper on the «ball pocket.» He said it would be $ 28 to change the zipper, in advance. I paid cash and picked it up the next day. On Sunday I finally got out in the early spring weather and the zipper popped open again because it was the same zipper. I took it back when I was off duty today and he denied ever seeing me or the bag before. I left it there, because I can’t use it or sell it or afford to pay someone else to do what I paid him to do, and to remind him how he cheated me.
CAVEAT EMPOR

Outstanding service!!! My first experience was a few weeks ago. My UGG boot had a hole in the seam. I was worried, because I was in town visiting and only brought two pairs of shoes. I took it in and Milt had it fixed within two hours at an extremely reasonable cost. Today I took in a pair of jeans that had a detached zipper, he fixed it on the spot. Again very reasonably cost. Milt is extremely gracious and very helpful, worth driving a few extra miles for. If was local I would be an absolute regular customer, as I always seem to have something to hem or fix. I highly recommend Milt’s Alterations.

Had a fun time talking with the owner. A lot of people think he’s a crass old man but I found him funny and very interesting. He spoke with me about his business and how long he has been in it and how it’s changed over the years. The art of fixing shoes and having them for a lifetime has dwindled over the years to like everything else disposable. I really appreciate someone that is good at their craft and has pride in their work.

I think this place may be under new management. No one there looked anything like a «Milt».
I dropped off two pairs of shoes. One to have some loose leather clipped and polished. The other to have a complete re-​sole.
They asked me to pay up front, which seemed unusual. And the work took 3 weeks to complete, but the work on the re-​sole was good ($ 65), and the work on the other pair was fair ($ 24). They used a darker polish — which my wife didn’t appreciate.
The only other thing that was disappointing was that they posted a 9:00 start time, but when I arrived to pick them up at 9:15 they weren’t yet open.

Shoe repaired, heel fell off within a week. I didn’t have my receipt so he wouldn’t fix it even though he remembered me. Agree with previous post, that he had a very bad attitude. My mother had a similar bad experience.

I’ve used both the shoe repair and alterations services, and they offer a good product at a fair price. A big bonus is that they keep long hours on weekdays and decent hours on Saturdays, so there’s plenty of time to both drop off and pick up.

Hard to know how many stars to give this place. The owner is super grumpy (perhaps he has a constant headache from all the shoe polish) and I paid $ 20 for a shoe shine. That being said, my wedge leather boots were pretty hammered and they look brand new. Amazing work! He even touched up the wedge heels. It was worth the money to have «new» Kenneth Cole Reaction boots again!

I took a backpack in for zipper replacement. I was told it would be cheaper to buy a new backpack. When I insisted I wanted the zipper replaced, I was given a quote of $ 58. I got the zipper replaced somewhere else for $ 15.
I’ve had shoes resoled at this place before. Good work but very expensive.