It's been several years but I had two leather items sent for refurbishing at the same time - one to Madison Ave and one to San Fran (that was back in the days when you could mail the items directly to the store), as I knew that those two H's had in-house craftspeople. What came back from San Fran was infinitely better than what came back from NYC- the NYC job looked no different than it did before I sent it out and the San Fran item looked brand new. I don't know if Dominique is still the repair person in SF, but he was back then and I was so thrilled I sent in several more items to him, all of which came back in immaculate condition. What's more, Madison charged me as much as SF (I think it may have even been more, actually). I can't say enough good things about Merna Oeberst and Dominique at SF- they are just divine.
Thank you for that reaffirmation. I remember I was told they would clean the handle at my store as well, but it has been a while, so I thought maybe policy had changed after reading the other post.