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Undecided

Randy Parrish CPF

Frequent Poster
Certified Picture Framer®
Messages
2,210
Location
Ann Arbor Michigan
Company
Parrish Fine Framing
I kind of know my answer but always nice to hear feed back.




I framed a large photo for a customer, we went over several designs, then I heard from her a couple days later, she wanted to see photos of what she was looking at, so I added them to the Larson visualization software and sent her pictures. She passed them along to her daughter who owns a art gallery and they both agreed on the the final choice we already picked out.




Well she comes to pick it up and decided she doesn't like the mat, she wants a grey suede mat now and she spends hours with my employee going over, she has narrowed it down to two. 40x60 suede mats are not cheap, It will cost her an extra $300 for the new mat and labor, for a job that has already cost her $800




1. Do I make her pay? Any other business I can think of would.




2. Make her pay a discounted rate?




3. Eat a $75 sheet of suede mat board and the time and labor to make some one happy who could come back again with more work or more trouble?

View attachment 1534

View attachment 1535



 
Our satisfaction guarantee posted in the gallery says that, if the customer changes his/her mind within 30 days, we will replace any parts of the framing and charge only for the parts - no charges for labor to disassemble or refit.

Mind you, we go out of our way to make sure the customer "owns" every framing design before we collect the 50% deposit and proceed with the project. So, there are no surprises when the job is done. If a customer changes her/his mind - and I can't remember the last time that happened - it's not because of any unknowns in the design, and there should be no quibbles about a reasonable charge for the fix.

On the other hand, if a framer allows a customer to get away with design instructions like "Just frame it the way you think is best", or "I'm not really sure about this design, but let's go ahead", or if the customer does not fully approve every feature of the design up-front, for whatever reason, then I would consider absorbing the cost of corrections to be my obligation.

In our salad days, a few customers took a very cavalier attitude about the framing design, expecting us to guess what they like, and expecting us to re-do the framing at their whim when we guessed wrong. That lesson was learned long ago, and we don't design like that anymore.
 
Hi Randy,

It's more expensive to find a new customer, than it can be to keep an existing one.

It's hard to be objective when you're in the middle of this, but from an outsiders perspective - I would suggest that you eat the sheet and make her happy - but definitely let her know the value of what you gave her - so it doesn't create a precedent.

Also, perhaps it could deb worth considering building this type of cost into your business overhead... e.g.: the annual "keeping unreasonable customers happy" fund... and amortise this into your operating costs and pricing.

Cheers,

Jared
 
Dear Randy, You replace the mat like the charming and professional CPF that you are, at the same time wearing chap stick and kissing away. Make sure at your POS that this lady is known and had her chance at bat. You can't afford her changing each time, but once is good business. She comes back enough times without costing more you can always make it up on a PMO charge. Ain't it fun??
 
Any upgrade in replacement products should be covered by the customer. It would have been that price if it had been in the original design. I let people know that any design change after the fact will be charged the difference in what was originally decided on vs. the replacement parts and there would be no labor charge. A downgrade gets no credit.
 
Any upgrade in replacement products should be covered by the customer. It would have been that price if it had been in the original design. I let people know that any design change after the fact will be charged the difference in what was originally decided on vs. the replacement parts and there would be no labor charge. A downgrade gets no credit.

That sounds like a reasonable policy.
:cool: Rick
 
Epilogue

She came in to pick it up and did not like the suede mat, so we settle her balance and I am removing the suede mat, which I had just laid over the old, and she will come back to pick it up the original framing.
 
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