David’s Professional Clock Repair

Occasionally over the past couple decades or so we’ve had a need for clocks to be repaired. We’ve taken them to David’s Professional Clock Repair up in Boulder. And until this last time, we have always been pleased with the results.
However, our most recent experience was not a good one. Our grandfather clock was having problems: it would sometimes stop midway through its 8-​day cycle, unpredictably; sometimes it would continue running after we started it again, other times it would stop again, over and over in the same 8-​day cycle, and other times it didn’t stop at all during the cycle. David made a house call, which went very well — he showed up on time, was very pleasant as always, checked and oiled the clock. He said if that didn’t fix it to give him a call and he’d bring it to his shop.
Sure enough, we continued to see issues. We called and he promptly came and got the clock works, and took it to his shop. All was fine and as expected, so far.
But finally, after more than 2 months with no word whatsoever from David, I called to find out when he’d be done working on it so we could have it back. He apologized, saying he had not even started on it yet! He said he had quite a lot of work to do, but that he’d move it to the front of the line and we could pick it up that weekend. I reminded him that the issue was not that predictable, and he might need to keep the clock running for an extended period to experience the problem. Oh yeah.
After several more days, I was increasingly uncomfortable. If you have a grandfather clock, you may understand; these things grow in importance kind of like honorary members of the family — not like a son or daughter or pet, of course, but like a favorite piece of art that also has a job to do. It’s something you look at, rely on, and listen to frequently, and with appreciation. It needs to be there, and it obviously needs to work. When it’s not there, you really miss it.
So I called David again and said I was going to come pick it up even if it wasn’t finished, and pay him for what he had done. Again, he’d had it for over 2 months and last I knew he hadn’t even started, so I figured I’d just take it somewhere else. And this was some days after he’d said it would be his main mission. Well, he said he didn’t have the pendulum… did we bring it to him? I reminded him that he came to our house to get the works, and yes, he took all parts. OK, he’d look around, we could come and get it. So yeah, obviously I’m getting pretty nervous now.
We went to his shop in Boulder to pick it up. It wasn’t running. He had set it up to do his work, but the pendulum was not attached and he’d still not even started working on it. He still couldn’t find the pendulum — see, this one doesn’t fit, he said, and neither does this one. This was in his back room, which is (like the front room) full of clocks of all sizes, as well as parts, boxes, tools, etc. all stacked around on shelves, floor, chairs, workbenches…
Well, it was me who found the pendulum. He had leaned it up against a shelving unit near where the clock was mounted for him to do his work. Not exactly in plain sight, given all the boxes and such, but it wasn’t hard for me to find with about 12 seconds of just standing there — after all, I wasn’t going to take the place apart looking for it! So he checked it, and sure enough, that was the right one. Though now it was dented. And now the hour hand on the clock was not properly aligned — when the minute hand was pointing at the 12, the hour hand was pointed somewhere around 20 – 30 minutes after the closest hour. Great.
David let me take it, no charge. That was a good business decision, obviously. But when I took it home and set it up, I found other issues, new problems. I called another shop in Denver to see about having it repaired, and from my verbal description they knew exactly what was causing the occasional stoppage (the original reason to have it worked on, though by now I had a few other reasons, too). They didn’t do housecalls to my area, but that’s OK — I took it in and it’s being worked.
David is a very nice gentleman who undoubtedly knows clocks. But now that he’s in his 80s, spry and nimble as he seems I just don’t think he’s able to effectively run this business anymore. It’s a shame, because I really liked to take my business to his one-​man shop! Maybe he could have someone buy and run the business, and he could focus on just fixing the clocks? Until that happens, I’m afraid I’ll no longer take clocks to David’s shop. Sorry.