How my heart died at Mister Minit (Bag repair review)
- Brian
- May 6, 2018
- 5 min read
For those who know me, I'm an avid lover of leather and some of my hobbies includes maintaining them. While such maintenance can extend the life of your leather, wear and tear is inevitable and they usually start at the threads that holds the leather together. I started dealing with the loose threads by burning them with fire, hoping that the threads will curdle and stop the threads from getting loose further. Okay, it did work for a while but eventually the gap started growing to the point I was afraid the whole strap wouldn't survive and it looked like this:
So to keep my bag strap alive, I finally gave in to bringing it to a repair shop. Frankly I didn't know where to go get it fixed but I know I had three options:
(1) Send it to the old clobber sitting by the streets
A while ago, I sent my worn out Birkenstock to one of them and it came back hideous, the threads were so badly stitched with no aesthetics, it legit reminded me of Frankenstein's slippers.
(2) Send it back to the bag's boutique
I once enquired on a repair for one of my other bags that had a similar issue, I was quoted about $300, so no thanks bitches, I ain't paying that money for a few loose threads.
(3) Send it to a third party luxury bag artisan
I knew they exist, i just didn't know who they are and where to find them.
Clearly, option (1) is out and (2) is a little high priced so I explored (3) by searching "luxury bag repair" on Google and Mister Minit came up, good lord I never knew they repair shit, all along I thought they were just overpriced key duplicaters. I read whichever little reviews I could find and manage to get a sensing of the price points, which is definitely below $300 so I went ahead with it.
Warning: Grandfather complaint story for this segment, skip to the next segment (Verdict) if you're not interested.
My Experience
I checked on their opening hours first then made a trip down to their Westgate outlet and arrived at 10.30am. Unfortunately, the shutter was down albeit the lights within the store were turned on, I figured the clobber could have gone off to the toilet, so I sat at the nearest bench to wait for his return.
10.50am:
20 minutes passed and the clobber was yet to be seen, three other ladies also came by the shop only to see it closed and also sat at a nearby bench waiting for the clobber to appear. I thought "perhaps they changed the operating hours and website wasn't updated?" So I asked the lady at a flower shop nearby if she's aware of Mister Minit's opening hours to which she replied "Oh usually he's already in by 11am, maybe you can wait a little more?" so I did.
11.05am:
I decided to call Mister Minit's HQ to clarify the operating hours in case the website wasn't updated, I wasn't trying to find trouble or express my dissatisfaction at that point. However, the person over the phone confirmed the operating hours starts at 10.30am and promised to get the area manager to find the clobber as I relayed my rush for time, the effort I've made to bring the bag down as well as the three other ladies waiting outside with me. Like pls hor, who is so free to be sitting here for so damn long because your clobber is irresponsible and decides to play hide and seek, cb I could have just gone across my house to a similar shop but I bothered to come all the way here because you're supposedly credible.
11.25am - The Clobber's Grand Entrance
By now, all the ladies had enough of waiting and rushed off to work, frankly I'm surprised I have that much patience. The clobber and I discussed the options available for my splitting sling, we either: (1) cut away the splitting portion of the leather then resow the remaining strap to the hinge, or (2) just sow over the splitting portion. The former seemed like a better option so I went ahead with it and was told to come collect it after 5pm. Furthermore, the clobber didn't seem to be very happy that his chaokeng has been made aware by the managers, so he wasn't very polite throughout the conversation, I was worried that he might do a shitty job to my bag but whatever, I've waited for one hour for this asshole furthermore how bad can it be when all he has to do is to cut and sow?
6.10pm - The Collection
I made a trip down again at 6.10pm. Once again, the clobber was missing, but this time, with the shutter up and a little whiteboard on the counter that says "Be back by 12.05pm" *roll eyes* and there I saw my bag on the work desk, I assume it was repaired and looked forward to just grab and go. He came back at 6.15pm and said "Bro, I was about to start on your bag, give me 30mins more ya?" *roll eyes again* Seriously this dude is far from being responsible and repeatedly fail to deliver even when he's the one who sets the deadline. I left to walk around aimlessly for 30mins.
At 6.20pm the clobber walked out of the store again to buy some fruits and thereafter started casually chatting with another lady cb this guy is legit damn irresponsible. 6.30pm I collected my bag and I have two points to make on top of the shitty service I've already received:
The workmanship was rough as seen from the stitching, what kind of thread is that, it's damn thick and ugly??
I am particularly annoyed at how the leather strap was not cut well, it was cut at a slanted angle, like wtf?? Aesthetics pls??
Verdict
This evaluation is based on the service I've received for bag repair and not meant to evaluate of all their services (shoe repair, key duplication, etc).
Aesthetics (3/10): If you're looking forward to having your repaired bag looking as good as new, forget it. They'll just stitch it in any way to make sure it's functional. From far, it's not noticeable but it'll be a prick in your mind because you know how ugly it looks up close.
Customer Service (1/10): Clearly, the customer service at Westgate outlet is trash, the clobber fail to deliver up to expectations and barely has any sense of responsibility. He probably hates his job.
Craftsmanship (10/10): From my use so far, the bag is still functional and free of issues after the repair although it does look like shit.
Pricing (10/10): Compared to the professional luxury bag third party artisans and the boutique quoted pricing, it's much much cheaper, my repair only costs S$20 albeit at the expense of aesthetics and having to endure shitty customer service
Location Convenience (6/10): Mister Minit has a total of 19 outlets in Singapore (as of now) and are somewhat well distributed with most concentration in town areas.
Who is it for: If you're looking to repair an affordable luxury bag at a reasonable price, your concern is functionality and you don't mind a little bit of ugly
Who is it definitely not for: If you're looking to repair your ultra luxury bags like Berluti, Bottega, Hermes and Dior, your bag value plummets immediately after they touch it.
Other Pricing Lists
These are prices that I've gathered from the other customers who dropped by to enquire:
Adding Anti-Slip rubber sole to your shoe ($30)
Belt adjustment ($30)
Wtf?? Cut belt with scissors and screw the buckle back also can charge this price? I cut for you.
Key duplication ($4)
Definitely overpriced, you're likely to get it done for much less in neighbourhood areas
Mister Minit Combi Spray - clean, moisturise and protect ($30)
I wouldn't recommend buying these, because they work as well as those 3 in 1 washing powder, minimal performance
If you'd like, you can look at this brand of leather care product that I love: Tarrago
Until next time,
Brian
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