Matting customer complains about not getting remnants?

[Andrew Lenz Jr.]

One of my framers handed me a note with a customer's name and phone number saying she is complaining that she didn't get the leftovers of the matboard when she ordered a custom mat.

It's a rare thing, maybe once every year or two or three, but how would you handle such a phone call?

Do any shops out there have a policy of providing all the rest of a board to the customer? They buy an 5x7 mat and you give them almost the full board that's left over?

Just curious.

Andrew

 

[Andrew Lenz Jr.]

Maybe I should mention that I called our customer and told her that we charge depending on the size of the mat and that if we provided the entire board to the customer, 8x10 mats would cost the same as a 30x40 mat.

Andrew

 

[Cliff Wilson MCPF]

Twelve years and no one has asked that, but I would probably have said the same thing you did.

I have had customers ask for the fallout and explained that we reuse the fallout and our prices reflect our ability to use such pieces. Essentially the same thing you said.

 

[Gregory K. Norris CPF]

I would have said the same thing. I would be happy to sell the whole board at the retail price though! :smile-new:

I will have to admit if some good customer or some starving artist student asked me for the fallout, I would probably give it to them. But as a rule, I use up nearly all of my scrap in one way or another. Nobody has in 20 years, though. What I can't use, I give to the local high school art teacher.

 

[Randy Parrish CPF]

I they ordering and purchasing finished product, if a wood worker made a bowl, you don't get the tree. The rare time it happened I was a student and framer did give me the off cuts.

 

[Russ Wood]

I had one that recently asked for them when she placed the order, so I charged for a full mat, and explained that I was charging for a full mat, and gave the left over pieces back to her. She wanted to use them for two other re-framing jobs she thought she wanted, in the same color.

I told her, that I would only do the first job to make sure she was happy, but that I would be glad to use the left overs and not charge her for those mats, if they were the correct size on the future job. {I like working with happy customers, and she didn't seem to be one of those, so that is why I didn't want to do the other two, initially}

When I delivered the first order, she loved the work but said she would not have me do the smaller ones because Hobby Lobby was $2.00 cheaper on the full mat price. But she told me she might have me do some of the larger ones, because she could get the mat remnants back from me. I told her that was fine, but make sure she brings the left over pieces from the job I did to Hobby Lobby, so that way Hobby Lobby could use those mats on the smaller ones, and make sure they didn't charge her for those mats too!

I haven't heard back from her about what Hobby Lobby said.

Customers,....aren't they great!

 

[Kai Vanuffelen]

Customers can make our life easier by asking for the fallout etc. when placing the order for a window-mat instead of when asking for it when everything is finished.
Customers come in all types and levels of intelligence. Thankfully not all customers are the same, so we can expect surprises.

 

[John Barlowe]

I don't think it has ever been requested of me ( now it will 7 x's today )
I could understand the customer thinking they were entitled to the fallout but thinking they were entitled to the whole mat when they only purchased a 8x10, is just greed on there part. After all you don't get the excess dough when they are punching out the donut. Heck they even sell you the hole when buying a donut.

Let's think of other analogies to explain this to a customer. I'll start ...

• When you buy a tire you don't get the rubber from the middle

 

[Ellen Collins MCPF]

I tell them that it's like the grocery store. You can buy an orange. Or you can buy a segmented orange in a nice jar. But you don't get the peel to make zest with. Two different things. That usually suffices.

I have had them ask for the fallout, but never the rest of the sheet! Nobody crazier than people...

 

[Gregory K. Norris CPF]

You don't get the eggshells back when you order an omelette.

 

[Mike Drury MCPF]

When you get a dozen doughnuts you don't get the "holes" for free. They sell those separate and sell quiet a few I might add. Don't ask me how I know this!

 

[Kai Vanuffelen]

Mike must have been employed in the fast food industry after completing school before he became a framer.
I had a customer with a picture and all she wanted was to change the glass into conservation glass. There was nothing wrong with the glass, so I placed it with the other sheets of clear glass to be used for other customers (shock, horror). She came back to collect her reglazed artwork and asked for the original piece of glass. I told her I threw it away because it was old, but I can give you a good piece of glass. I just gave her a piece of clear glass roughly the size of her frame.

The same can be done for the mat, when on the rare occasion the customer asks for the fallout. Give them a piece of board to roughly the size of the opening and create a happy customer. Never mind, that they can cut themselves on the board or sheet of glass.

 

[Liz Chase]

I like the doughnut analogy...based on that, the customer should pay for the fallout if they want it.

 

[Mike Labbe]

I like that a lot too. I think we had one customer demand the "fallouts" in a dozen years.

 

[Ormond Williams MCPF]

The same can be done for the mat, when on the rare occasion the customer asks for the fallout. Give them a piece of board to roughly the size of the opening and create a happy customer. Never mind, that they can cut themselves on the board or sheet of glass.

I think any customer who asks for the fallout or the offcuts is some sort of greedy lunatic who is seeking to get something for nothing. Keeping that sort of 'customer' happy, is very, very low on my priority list. Nope...... it's not on my priority list at all. In fact quite the opposite!

I'm not in this business to 'give' away anything to people with this attitude. I often give things away to people who never expect it. Much more rewarding!

If you ordered a steak dinner at a restaurant, you couldn't expect to get the remainder of the cow as well, could you?

 

[David Lantrip MCPF GCF]

Ok, I'm going to the the pedantic twit. There are two different ways to make donuts. In one the dough is forced through an extrusion device which creates a fully-formed ring of dough. There is no center to the donut to be bought or given away. The other method is sort of like making cookies, and the dough is spread out into a sheet and then a cutter is rolled over them to cut out the donuts. These are the donuts that are often roughly hexagonal in shape, and they do have a center that is cut out. That center is put back into the dough to make more donuts.

Can you tell I haven't had breakfast yet?

But anyway, it's silly to expect to get the fallout in addition to the mat, and it's sillier still to expect to get the rest of the 32x40 board.

If you buy two yards of fabric do expect to get the rest of the bolt?
If you buy a steak do you get the rest of the cow?
If you buy chicken breasts do you get the rest of the chicken?

 

[John Barlowe]

If you buy the cow, do you get the milk?
Hopefully but you keep paying for it as long as you own the cow! :loco:
Now back to the subject at hand.

 

[Sara Applegate]

you guys crack me up! and for the guy with the hobby lobby competition, I am SO SORRY! what a jerk! 2 whole dollars!! ugh!