15 August, 2013

Ridiculous lack of customer service at Brooklyn Frame Shop

I am still in shock over the treatment I got yesterday afternoon at the Brooklyn Frame Shop and I'm going to rant about it.  I did leave a Yelp review, but since it was unfavorable and that site already has some unfavorable reviews, it was filtered.  It still shows up when you go to filtered reviews (which I do quite a lot) so hopefully I can keep someone else from wasting their time. 

I bought a beautiful water color from an artist friend of my sister for a birthday present last April.  It was unframed at the time and my sister said she'd get it framed down there and have the framer ship it to me.  But one thing led to another and it ended up staying with her when she moved, so I picked it up when I went down there this week and put it into a tube and brought it home.  Ah, but now it still needs to be framed.  So yesterday afternoon I walked up to the Brooklyn Frame Shop to get an estimate. The artist suggested "floating" the piece, which after seeing several examples I agree is the best way to frame it.  I know the size of the piece of art.  I know the type of background I want.  I know the frame I want.  At that point yesterday I just wanted to get a quote that I could use as a starting point for shopping around.  I walked into the shop.  No customers and one man behind the counter who looked at me, but didn't even greet me.  Strike number 1.  No smile either.  So I said Hi and proceeded to tell him that I had a water color that I wanted to float on a textured background in this frame.  Could he give me a ballpark cost?  "You'll have to bring it in".   Well, I told him I knew exactly the dimensions of the work and the type of background I wanted ...... He didn't let me finish.  "No, we don't do that.  You have to bring it in". 
I was getting flustered at this point, and I said "This is a fine piece of art.  I don't want to be carrying it all over the city". 
"Is it framed"?
"No, it's not framed.  It was in a tube and I don't want to put it back in there". 
"We don't do that".  And he wrote his name down on a card and handed it to me.

I was flabbergasted!  I called my sister to get a reality check and she agreed with my conclusion, that framing can be a scam and they'll get as much from you as they possibly can because people don't get things framed very often.  So I am going to take my business to Lake City Framing where I had some work done about 8 or 9 years ago.  They've been in business for over 50 years.  I know it's going to be expensive but I refuse to be ripped off or, worse yet, treated like dirt.  What an ass.

That pretty much colored my day but I got over it and took Tink for a lovely walk in the rain(!) and made a gorgeous shrimp salad for dinner.  Tonight it's steamed mussels and salad.  It's still muggy and cloudy today too.  I don't mind.  Maybe I'll even set up my Apple TV tonight.

1 comment:

Speattle said...

I have used the Lake City shop in the past and they do great work.