Universal Stained Glass

Buckle your seat belts, kids. I’m upset about my recent transaction and this is the only constructive forum I can think of to warn others.
Now, I work for a company that deals with listing real estate owned properties. We had a specific property that had some stained glass to be repaired. I had been recommended to Brenda by Alco Glass in Berkley. My first contact with her was great. She looked at the pieces, gave me a quote, and told me she would accept a company check for payment. I asked if a deposit was necessary and was told no — we could pay for the whole thing when we came to pick it up. I have a witness who was standing nearby who heard her say this. I was greatly impressed when I left — confident she would do a great job. After discussing it with the company, we decided to commission her to do the work for us.
The day I was set to meet her, I went and no one was there. She called me that afternoon, informing me there was a family emergency and that she would be at the shop for the next few hours. I completely understand family emergencies. I stopped what I was doing and drove about a half hour to meet her. She was gone again — citing the same family emergency. Again, I totally get it. I do not get telling someone you’ll be at your shop in the middle of such a situation if it’s possible you won’t be.
Either way, we worked with the schedule and I went in with the pieces for her to start work. She then decided to ask if I had a deposit. I said no as I asked her specifically and was told none was required. I could put money down but would have to use my personal debit card. That was unsatisfactory as she barely, barely accepts credit cards — so she would definitely not accept it for the $ 5 deposit she apparently required on a $ 90 sale. She says it’s okay, that I came in twice so it was obvious I was serious. Now for payment. I asked about the company check and apparently she decided, without cluing me in, that because she had not done business with our company before — she would not accept a company check from us. That was fine, but I would have to use an AMEX company credit card. I asked if I could call with the numbers and have her run it over the phone as my boss was taking it out of town that weekend. She said okay after giving me a hard time about the $ 3 fee and we left it at that and she was going to begin work.
I get in to work that same morning and she calls me, informing me that in her 18 years of operation she has never done business like this and she was upset that I was forcing her to «change» her deposit and payment rule. I was confused, as I thought we had worked around the issues, and I had offered to put a deposit down of my own money even though she told me it was not needed. All I wanted was to pay her for the work she was doing. She told me she would not allow us to pay for the $ 3 fee and that my boss would need to go in with the card and pay for the items, again, contradicting what she said before. She was rude and acted as if I wanted her to break the law or do something crazy. I got upset, understandably, and informed her this was ridiculous but that my boss would be in with the AMEX company card this week.
This afternoon, my boss goes to pick up the items and informs me that Brenda will not accept American Express. I’m as shocked as everyone else, that something she said turned out to be different when she changed her mind. So, we had to use personal money to pay for the items.
As far as the work — it’s great. Glass is a lot darker than we thought, and if I were buying it as a gift, I would demand that it be changed.
She then informed my boss that I had a copy of the receipt, which was untrue. She did not double check this before sending my boss away. I called and she admitted I was right and sent me the receipt. If this were the only thing, I would have shrugged and chalked it up to an honest mistake. But as it was the 5^th one — I feel the need to include it.
This is an unacceptable way to run a business. You do not tell your customer one thing in one conversation, and then because you decide to, change your mind without informing them. This makes me look bad as an employee as I was sure she would do a great job and be easy to work with and assured my superiors as such. Obviously, won’t be making that mistake again.
I was going to commission her to do some pieces for me personally, but I will not be utilizing her in the future and would recommend careful consideration before others commission her.
All of this being said, I know it was a lot, Brenda is a nice woman — seriously. She is very personable. This is no excuse though, for running a business such as this and treating customers this way.

Brenda was so helpful when I stopped buy to pick up some stained glass supplies for someone else. I didn’t really know what I was buying and the items on the list didn’t quite make sense to Brenda, so we called my friend and Brenda got the order straightened out.
Brenda is a true Renaissance Woman and is into many art forms: Stained Glass, Blown Glass, Pottery, and Photography. She does custom work and repairs.
Brenda is so easy to talk to and has so many beautiful works of art in her shop that; after 15 minutes, I left her shop feeling that I hadn’t just met her, but that I’d known her for some time.