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Here is a guy applied for an upholsterer position with our shop. He has more then 30 years experience and would be a good candidate, but here is the catch - he is in some weird status where he can stay in US but can not work and to hire him we would need to sponsor him for a green card. He showed some serious skills  and I would like to consider him, even if it takes some time to get it done, he has a lawyer and will be paying for it himself. Have you ever done anything like this? Should we try this?

Do you guys use social networking to be more visible? What do you use and how? We did not really do much except basic facebook and some twitter, but  I don't think it makes us more visible to people in the area.

Customer brought back semi big order of dinning chairs (not a simple ones) done in leather looking vinyl. They were used indoors and now the vinyl peeling like crazy in the areas of use (seat, top of the back where they grab it to move it). Big question - anyone have experience getting money for fabric AND labor back from the fabric supplier, who sold the fabric for things like this? Surprisingly it is the first time I have to deal with this type of situation.  This vinyl is listed on supplier label and site as esceeds 100,000 double rubs heavy duty and stain resistant.
Let me know, like to hear what you think.

Here is the deal. The item has came in for upholstery in used condition with fair amount of wear on it. Some parts of in made out of PVC plastic, we did not make any notes about existing scratches. We have done the job and at the time of pick up the customer claims that furniture got a scratch when was getting off of our shelf during pick up. My guys swear it did not touch anything. Also another problem is my guys made an "upgrade" without confirming with the customer and put plywood decking instead of belts, as they explained to me because the item is not strong enough to hold belts, but never the less this customer got pissed about this too. He also claims that old stuff was piled on top of  his chair, when there was nothing on it, it has been seating next to the item awaiting upholstery, which was unfortunate, but nothing was on top of the item. In phone conversation with the customer I understood that my desk guy who was handling the release of the item was busy at a time and told him that he needs to hurry up and that I guess pissed the customer off. So now the customer wants us to keep the item refund the deposit for upholstery and material and pay for the item. We can replace the plywood to belts as he wanted, but claim with the scratch is a problem. The scratch is on the unpainted plain PVC surface that can not be fixed.
I see how all thisunfortunate chain of events can piss somebody off. We can not prove that scratch was made in our store, and what if it was? Do other shops buy furniture back?
This guy threatens with law suit, he is retired big shot who is pissed (I think it is all because he got pissed when he was brushed off at the time of pick up), and he has time and money on his hands to handle this stuff. I don't know what will be more expensive to buy his stuff or to deal with the suit, but I want to do the right thing...
Any input is appreciated..

We did few orders in waverly outdoor fabric Tommy Bahama. Customer came back in 3 months - fabric has faded and has peel fuzz balls in the area where it was seated on. No fading or peel in back parts of the cushions (it has not been washed). Customer complains, we promised to take the issue to the supplier and waverly. What should we ask for from supplier and from waverly (if they will even talk to us)? How to resolve this issue with the customer(s)? The fabric is advertised as fade and stain resistant. Even reimbursing the cost of fabric is not going to cover our labor to redo the whole order. To fix everything they would have to pay for fabric and the labor, I doubt they would do that, would they?

I have several fabric suppliers who ship me cut yardage per request and I am dealing with 2 fabric manufacturers who I can order fabric directly, but they always want you to buy 100+yards and not always have all their prints in stock. I would like to get more variety of manufacturers and first hand suppliers of fabrics, where wholesale prices are $3-$6/yard, those guys who make fabrics for sunbrella, greenhouse, kast and others. Right now I am specifically wondering who is making or selling those Tommy bahama outdoor tropical prints, that just hit the market, at some sources they are $8/yard, I wonder what it's wholesale is.

Somebody just posted that one of the best workers he ever had was a seamstress fresh from college.  Who is not exactly a professional "upholsterer". Now after we have a seamstress we can do 2 things - 1. Hire an upholsterer who will finish everything else, and will stay away from sewing - honestly guys, professional seamstress is few times faster that an upholsterer who does everything, and you can not be perfect in everything, that said, a professional upholsterer is not really that fast in anything that he does, since he has to do it all, and is not specialized in any particular operation. So we can expect that after fast sewing there will be a delay in upholstery part, and thus we are going to pay high dollar for highly professional upholsterer and mediocre speed. Or 2. We can break all our operations in bunch of similar tasks and get fresh untrained labor for each task. It will be easy to teach just one task plus this worker will not leave you since he do not know the whole process. Also unqualified labor can be paid very little at training and will require almost twice less pay then one of us professional dudes dreams of getting. I just thought of that and I know this is how it is done on regular furniture factories, but I just did not apply it to my business before.

I might have to move to another state. My shop is extremely busy and getting busier. As many of us here I am a working boss, I have a seamstress and temporary helpers when I need them or can use them. I do not think I should close it - it has a dynamite location, thousands of customers served, well known name. One problem - I need to find myself a replacement. I have looked around and I realized that there are not too many (none close by) qualified upholsterers who can take this job and mainly I think because they are running their own little show and would not want to work for someone else. I need an estimator and an upholsterer in one person which will pretty much make him CEO of my shop.
I see only 2 ways to have it this way-  to hire someone on my position or to fly back and forth closing the shop for the time I am absent(which would be too crazy and a huge waste of money)
Have anybody had such experience?
Where would you look for an upholsterer (I tried local ads with no success)?