01/10/2023
Good morning Mantiques fans!
I haven’t been able to update this page for a while as I am finalizing moving the shop on Sterling Rd to my home shop which is not open to the public.
I can only move a little bit at a time whilst working on clocks too. But I am doing it bit by bit. I am no longer working at the Sterling Rd shop at all as I have moved all my tools. So your clocks are being serviced at the other shop.
All customer clocks and parts are still under the same conditions as the commercial shop; monitored alarms, climate control, and shelving to prevent one clock coming into contact with anything else. The same and better quality of service will be afforded to every job entrusted to me.
The Sterling Rd phone and internet will be disconnected as soon as every last customer clock is safe and secure in my other shop. Then the phone and alarm will be disconnected.
The new number for the shop is a mobile number 352-697-9704. You can call voice or preferably, text me at that number to contact me. I will return calls during business hours. Texts I will return either during business hours or up until 8pm and no later. In other words, I won’t bother anyone later than that. Texting has the advantage of not immediately being thought of as a robo call and it is a permanent record of the contact. Please text whenever possible. This new phone in 8 hours received 52 robo calls! No kidding. I counted.
Anyway, until the Sterling Rd shop is 100% closed, soon, I can meet you there for pick ups and drop offs. After that, I will be mobile. Once or twice a week, I will pick up clocks from an area, repair them, and drop them back off as the repairs are completed. I will have a mobile payment system so exact cash, checks, and any brand of cards can be used for the costs.
Cuckoo clocks - no good news I am afraid. There are no new parts being produced and shipped still after a year and the parts that distributors have on their shelves have gone up in price 4X. I am fixing the clocks that are fixable without parts, but the outlook is grim. Of course when parts do become available and reasonable, the remaining clocks will be repaired.
Did you leave a clock with me and forget about it? I have a few that seem abandoned. I cannot store them forever. Please contact me if you think your clock is still with me and you’ve forgotten.
Since Henry’s passing last July, things have been rough. But I am carrying on with a bit of help from Brandon, but it’s a slow process.
I am arranging to market the grandfather clocks on consignment. In the meantime, they will be available to anyone that asks.
Most of the jobs I have in the queue are the most difficult to repair. They are not just “spray and go” kinds of repairs that some other shops might do to speed up the process. I will not do that. If the time lag is longer than you care for, contact me and you can have another shop do the work. I don’t charge for work I don’t do.
As many of you reading this might agree, I personally in my 61 years have never experienced anything like the things affecting the world, our country, state, and locales like what is happening right now. The last few years have been brutal for small businesses. That hasn’t let up. Fixing is what I do, and do it well. Dealing with lack of materials, parts, banking, corporate governance, and all the rest is much more challenging.
I still have a good fight left in me and will continue undaunted until it’s time to cease…. a few years away.
Meanwhile, thanks for the unwavering support and encouragement many of you offer up. It means a lot. I’ve left a photo of the kind of work I am doing at the moment. The gear on the left was designed and cut by me. It belongs to a 1700’s grandfather clock and is excruciating in its exactness. You don’t just oil the old one and send it on.
Carpe diem!
