Simoni’s Clock Shoppe

I took my clock to Simoni’s Clock Shoppe to have its chains put back on and oiled. Over the course of 4 months, I called them and was given a new deadline over 3 times for when the clock would be ready. I finally realized that it was never going to be finished so I had to go and pick it up.
When I arrived to get the clock, the male owner was extremely rude. I explained that in the future when you can’t honor a customer deadline that it would be common courtesy to call the customer and explain. He sarcastically apologized to me and told me that family comes first. I don’t understand how that has any baring on honoring customer promises. If your family comes first and you can’t run your business then close; I am not demanding that they stay in business.
Find another clock shop; by the time that they finish performing maintenance on your clock, you will have forgotten that you even dropped it off there.

I had an old cheap clock that I had grown attached to — nice wood carving, but battery-​run — and the «engine» (I know nothing of the nomenclature of clockworks) stopped working. My wife said she could fix it if I bought a replacement «engine» for probably ten bucks.
I went to Simoni’s and Cheryl helped me: she was friendly and efficient. She tested it, said yep: I need a new motor, and wished my wife luck in fixing it, which was sure was do-​able. My wife later confessed she felt bad: she’d tried to fix it but couldn’t make it work and told me to just go back and pay Simoni’s to fix it, which I did.
Cheryl found out the «made in China» motor she sold me was defective, so she found a different one and took pains to install it herself, all the while keeping up a funny banter about how fast culture and society seems to be moving these days, piano tuners, the Giants, etc. This is someone who knows her way around the faces of clocks. Watching her work was marvelous.
She fixed it, we waited and watched the hands to make sure they moved correctly, and they did. There was no extra charge, and she asked me to please tell my wife that it wasn’t her fault.
What a delightful experience.

My usual watch repair guys (Olde Towne Jewelers in Santa Rosa) recommended I take my antique clock to Simoni’s. They are SO nice and very informed. They were able to identify problems and give me a decent quote. They are well known in the area and backlogged so the completion date was a bit far off, but then they surprised me by finishing way sooner. They were able to reverse a previous, botched clock repair and also avoid ordering a part they thought I’d need when they initially looked it over. They really seemed to be perfectionists, truly desiring that a clock be in excellent condition without gouging the price up for unnecessary work. They even brought it out to my car when it was done as I’m disabled and its hard for me to get in and out. I was impressed with my whole experience and recommend them.