Sometimes it's not somgthing we've done or not done that makes a framing order late. I've had frames lost by UPS or mats delivered to the wrong shop by a delivery driver. I've even had the local supplier send me the wrong mat entirely. (Luckily, when I called, the rep grabbed the right mat and drove it down to me just in the nick of time!) I've had the wrong moulding sent to me twice - when the supplier figured out they had put the moulding in the wrong bin in their warehouse.
I've had two orders in the last three weeks that had frames that were brand NEW on my wall - when I called to order them, the supplier said they wouldn't have any until mid-February - I offered to pick new frames for the customers, but if they had been dead-set on the orginal frame they picked, it wouldn't have been my fault if they had to wait for it to come in.
Most of my customers would leave without placing an order if I had to call and check on the availability of each frame they looked at or chose. I've done that in the past in under special circumstances,a nd you should see how antsy the customers get!
Another thing to keep in mind is that many customers think there is some kind of "magic" in framing - like I have stock of all 3000 samples in the mysterious back room, or I stock every color of matboard ever produced. Or the attitude that they are the only customer you've had and that because they need something done THAT DAY, that you don't have other orders from other customers (organized enough to place an order two weeks before they need it) that are in the que ahead of theirs.
I do everything I can to get pieces done before or on the due date. But I also explain to every customer that a 2 week wait is approximate, and that I will call them as soon as the pieces are finished. I do call them if the pieces won't be ready on the approximated due date, but things can and do happen that are out of our hands.
I had a woman place an order back in the middle of October. I had to order the frame and then re-cut it because the supplier wouldn't chop it that small. It took me a couple days to get the frame re-cut (because I had to take it home and set up the equipment to cut it). She called me a day before the due date wanting to know if it was done - I explained that we were just waiting on the frame and it would be ready in a day or two. She was annoyed that it wasn't done, but I had asked if she needed it for a specific date when she placed the order, and she had told me "no". She was just that way. I got the piece done a day after the due date and called her. I called her on October 24th, and she just came to pick it up Saturday (December 19th) - so, obviously, she wasn't in a hurry to get it, she was just being annoyed to be annoyed - she wasn't going to die if this little piece wasn't up on her wall back at Thanksgiving or she would have come and picked it up!
I doubt that if Candy had offered to replace the backordered frame with another one the customer would have been okay with that given his reaction to the slight delay in getting the piece the way he ordered it.
) the customer is at the mercy of what I like to call "Framer's Choice." Take this or take nothing.
