Review: Dave Haden

I have no doubt about the quality of Mr Haden's work. That's why I was keen for him to do my car for me and why I waited so patiently for a year. My grumble is about his customer service. I first went to see him in June 2019. He gave me a quote with which I was happy. He told me to come back in a month to see if he could fit me in. I did and the response was the same. I called in the autumn - same thing. I went to see him in March 2020, we looked a fabrics, discussed logistics, he talked me into having the headlining done, we agreed a price and he said he call in 3 weeks. He didn't. I called him and he said the seat fabric supplier was closed for lockdown. (I didn't believe this.) Now lockdown is nearly over, I emailed for an update but got no reply after 3 days so I called. He said he hadn't phoned them yet. I said I'd been waiting a year now and couldn't keep hanging on. He put the phone down on me. If he didn’t want the work, why didn’t he just say or give me a sky-high quote which he knew I wouldn’t want to proceed with? Why waste time choosing fabrics? Why talk me into getting the headlining done? Why has he wasted a year of my time going through this pantomime? He may be an old-fashioned business, but I’m an old-fashioned customer. If I’ve agreed to something, I stick to it. I’m a man of my word. I’m loyal to businesses which treat me well and do a good job (he had replaced a headlining on my other classic a couple of years ago and done a good job). I don’t expect him to call me but even if he does, I’ll be going elsewhere. This is not the way to treat customers. My advice if you are considering using his services is this: if he doesn’t take your phone number and give you a provisional date on your first meeting with him, walk away and go somewhere else. If you don’t, he will just waste a lot of your time.

Reviewed by Steven Forster on 17/06/2020