What do customers expect?

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drpeej
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What do customers expect?

Post by drpeej »

I had a slightly bizarre conversation with someone this morning who wanted a price for dismantling an old frame, recutting the frame to fit a smaller picture (including a slip frame) and underpinning/glueing/reassembling it.

I worked out that it was about a 30 minute job so said I would charge £20 at my £40/hr rate.

He expressed amazement at this cost and said that a previous framer had charged him £7 to do it.

I said I couldn't do it for that price and politely suggested he should go back to his previous framer.

"Oh, I can't do that as he has gone out of business"

Says it all!
Peter Harris GCF (APF)
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by Not your average framer »

I think they must imagine that we have not got anything better to do with our time. I'm guessing that at that price, most of us would be losing money to even consider doing it. Being located in rural Devon, I tend to get a few of those enqueries from tourists who think that frames from a less afluent part of the countnry are going to be desperate enough to want the work.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
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Steve N
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by Steve N »

No need to rush a job like that, I would take an hour to do it, my hourly rate is £60.00, so good job they didn’t ask me, he might have had a heart attack :lol:
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drpeej
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by drpeej »

:clap:
Peter Harris GCF (APF)
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Not your average framer
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by Not your average framer »

I think that the available sources for cheap frames have pretty much disappeared. Down here in Devon the charity shops seem to had already stopped supplying picture frames before the the covid problems even came along and some people who rely up on specific types of frames from Ikea, or the Range, are finding that the availability of such frames is not enough to met demand for all the customers wanting to buy the frames, so things are drying up. Looking at eBay and Etsy, I would say that people are buying less from these sources and also paying less as well. I can't see that the govenment can keep people furlowed for ever and I guessing that people will be moved on to unemployment benefits eventually, so some of these people are likely to find themselves struggling a bit.

Looking at what's happening locally, I would say that it's not all doom and gloom. A few shops have become vacent, but there are some people moing in and setting up some fairly promising looking new business and even doing this during such difficult times. My wife and I even know a ady who has started one of these businesses and it's looking like a really professional type of set up, which seems very relevent to the town's needs as well. Lots of people are starting to think that self employment and creating their own businesses might be the way forward. Obviously borrowing money to start a business is going to be almost impossible, but people seem to be more creative about overcoming this barrier than you might be expecting. In the medium to the longer term things might be looking better than you might be expecting after all.

Having said that I can't see that working for peanuts is going too help us framers very much. Using our precious stock for less than a decent financial return does not make much sense to me at all. I guess that it's still early days yet and it make take a little while to get an understanding of where things are still going.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
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prospero
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by prospero »

I had a chap in one day with two quite big old frames he wanted cutting down. They were the typical Victorian
ornate style. Bits were dropping off as we spoke. He wanted them doing there and then. All my explanations went
completely over his head. "Why not? You have the equipment don't you?". :|
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drpeej
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by drpeej »

Probably the same guy :Slap:
Peter Harris GCF (APF)
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by Not your average framer »

There's lots of cheap frames on the internet. Prices are really low, but what's on offer is terrible. Going by the prices, I'd say that it descended from making a profit to fighting for market share. Perhaps even about who goes bust first. Somehow, I thought it would take a bit longer to get to that point. I'm not really sure what that means for the longer term indications. Could be that the pile them high, sells them cheap guys are unloading stock to paid the rent.

Pretty grim, I would say for the cheap end of the market! The end of March is rent day for many of the big stores and maybe some are really struggling, unfortunately once the race to the bottom starts, it's likely to keep on going. Hopefully it's not going to make life difficult for any of us indeppeneant framers. I suppose, most of us are going to be explaining why we don't what to drop our prices to please those who don't want to pay sensible prices.

I can't help, but notice that there seems to be no short of people selling up their equipment and stock. A lot of main high Streets down here in Devon are looking a bit grim in the bigger towns, is it going to affect the smaller towns as much, I'm hoping not, but who can tell? Holding your nerve seems to be a pretty big thing right now, I would guess. History seems to tell us that the worst part of a recession is usually at the beginning and it's usually reasonably short lived. Lets hope that is true this time.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Not your average framer
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Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: What do customers expect?

Post by Not your average framer »

I'm glad that I stocked up on cheap pine mouldings earlier on. Hopefully it's going to give me some fexibility if things get a bit tough.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by JFeig »

Just remember that the goal of a business is to make an income to sustain yourself and not go out of business due to lack of profit.
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Re: What do customers expect?

Post by Not your average framer »

Hi Jerome,

These cheap hand finished pine mouldings are already my bread and butter. They also provides a good sales turn over, which is quite profit able. I've been selling this stuff for years. It's what got me through the last recession. Hopefully it will do the same this time around.

All the best'
Mark.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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