The Framers Forum

Had a phone call yesterday from a lady wanting to find a framer. Sounded good to start with....but what she wanted was for me to give her the name and address of another local framer. Went into a description of the location but she could not remember the street name or business name.

I told her we are very good framers and we would be pleased to help her but she kept on describing the place where this other business. was. So I told her I had never heard of them (I had) and ended the conversation politely.

What do you think Gordon Ramsey would say if you rang him up and asked for the phone number and directions to Heston Blumental's restuarant?

I think Gordon would be very helpful and using his finger to put her in the right direction he would say... ... and that's how you get to Heston's place!

Me on the other hand, being a soft la, would probably give her a lift round there

Yes, that's right. We were there, but we moved. Under new management too. I look forward to helping you with your frames; bring them in any time...

The other thing I used to find annoying when I had a shop was people (retired men) coming in to ask me how to frame the picture that they are going to do themselves. No, they don't want to buy the moulding or materials, they just want me to spend half an hour explaining how to do it, so they can save money!

I sold a bundle of offcuts to a old geezer once. Good stuff and only charged him a few quid. He came back complaining bitterly that one short bit was slightly warped.

Never again.

retropic wrote:Yes, that's right. We were there, but we moved. Under new management too. I look forward to helping you with your frames; bring them in any time...

Wish I had thought of that at the time. Trouble was she did remember the blokes name and I had already given her mine.

Once upon a time when I had an artmaterial shop an interior designer from a very famous TV show in the 90's came in asking if I could do here a favour and sell her some materials at cost because she had run out of budget on a job she was doing (private client not TV show). When I said no she said she asked for the suppliers name .

And you wonder why I got out of retail

As well as framing I run an art class. The other day one of my regulars asked.me if I'd mind advertising a rival class, only they were struggling a bit and would have to put up prices if they couldn't get the numbers up. When I told her, politely, that I couldn't help because they were competitors she seemed quite put out!

These are people who have no concept of business or business etiquette.

We had a regular customer not collect her order for months, when she finally came in she said she couldn't collect because she was a bit short of cash. But, in the next breath she asked if i would give her a raffle prize for an event she was having to promote her business! When I declined and said I couldn't afford to she completely went into one!!!!


She never collected her picture and i ended up selling it to recoup what i was owed......

Funny stories.

There is a guy near us who is quite a good bespoke framer/hand finisher. But he likes to remain quiet and does a lot of gallery work. My wholesaler goes to him and I asked one day if he could let me have his details, just in case we could help each other out - sometimes I need extra hands/bits. He asked permission but the framer declined.

He works in a shed somewhere....

So people ask us but we can never actually give directions anyway!!! lol. We only know within 300 yards and he has no sign. His loss. We do manage to get half of them here instead. And also a lot of people know there is a "good framer" in Norton but not quite the name - as we advertise I'm sure we end up with some benefit from his reputation! lol

My friend is a graphic designer and the other week a woman rang him up and said "I need a logo for my business, what program do I need and how do I do it!!!!"

Incredible.

JamesC wrote:
My friend is a graphic designer and the other week a woman rang him up and said "I need a logo for my business, what program do I need and how do I do it!!!!"

Incredible.

Photoshop and RTFM*.




(* Read The ############ Manual. )

JamesC wrote:My friend is a graphic designer and the other week a woman rang him up and said "I need a logo for my business, what program do I need and how do I do it!!!!"

Incredible.

Lol, the graphics / design game is so full of these stories, they have their own gripes website http://clientsfromhell.net/

Some great reading here, makes you realise how lucky most of us are.

Hi guys, I'm new here. Could some of you send me some sample mouldings. A couple of metres of each will do. If you cut to length so that you can always send the mounts and backing would be nice.

I think it is always good to make a promising start on a forum.

Hi Motoman, welcome aboard.

You better have a massive storage area, as I'm sure every one of our 2978 members are at this moment arranging their delivery to you.

Welcome motorman.

I have a few thousand feet of white Hogarth that you are very welcome to. I'll stick it on a lorry this very day. Should be with you come the morrow. If you don't use it all, it makes very good bean-sticks.

Hilarious and welcome as you obviously come from a cheeky neighbourhood. In the early days of my business I invested over £700 (a considerable investment in1981) in a colour A4 leaflet, professionally photographed, many 1000's were handed out at antique fairs all over the country and as my product became used by props. directors for TV and film the image of the flier was quite powerful. A jobbing craftsman picked up my leaflet at a very large trade show and asked it he could have a handful to pass on to other potential customers, which we obliged.

Some years later I passed a shop near Bridgenorth and there was a framed copy of my leaflet in a window, with my legend cut off the bottom. When I challenged the bloke, an indifferent and egotistical craftsman?, about the ethics of his actions, he was perplexed by my attitude.

His attitude was, as we made the same product it was fair practice, we didn't, my product did not let down my customers. Those, who copied the product, did so without questioning the protocols involved.

hahaaha. That's like the dubious practice of saving the source code of an entire website and editing the text and pictures.

There's a lot of it about. (or there used to be.)


I guy once brought me a watercolor of some woodlands. He was very chuffed with it and proceeded to give me a load of.... (cough) tell me all the history of it. Where it was ....blah rhubarb. What he didn't realise was it was exactly the same composition as one I had painted several years earlier.

Like it, could tell a few more.........some other time perhaps.