RANT: frame colors that DON'T match the samples

Create a Post
Beveled

Beveled

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
In Memorium
Rest In Peace

Gone but not forgotten
Joined
Oct 9, 2008
Posts
3,200
Loc
Harbor Springs, MI
Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!:mad::bdh:

I've just spent 45 minutes tinting a frame that came in a vastly different color than the sample. I may have to do more work on it yet.

I get so upset by this, because the sample is only a couple years old. Why is it so different? It is not wood grain, it's cream colored. Thank goodness it is a washed finish, or I'd never be able to match it.

Am I wrong to expect it to match? :shrug: I spent alot of time designing with my customer, and carefully chose this frame. Yes, I know the frame company will take it back, but my customer will be so disapppointed.

I've taken samples off my wall because of this.
I wonder what all of you do when you come across this problem?
 
I run into this fairly often. I just had to adjust a silver fillet last week that came in way lighter than the sample, and a frame from a different place that had the wash on the wood so thick it was a totally different color and hid the attractive grain of the wood.

Thank goodness for 0000 steel wool for the frame.

What did I do?? Well...the fillet I kept because it was an easy fix. The moulding sample...in the garbage! It was less than 6 months old...:mad:

Any moulding I have that varies greatly...especially if it is a year or less old...straight to the dumpster...I have enough headaches!
 
I've had that a few weeks ago. Sample is an almost turquoise blue, perfect for the art.
What came in was much greener than the sample. Fortunately, in a shade that even looked better on the art, so I was able to use it.

I now have both shades on the wall, and tell the customer what the drawback might be.

My supplier will take it back of course, but I know how you feel when you design the perfect match and then have to go back and do it again...
 
We had the same problem with a cream colored moulding last year, from a vendor who shall remain nameless. It was a somewhat pricy moulding, and was being double stacked for the design. The sample wasn't even remotely close to what came in, and the vendor wasn't concerned.

This happened multiple times when we ordered from this particular vendor, with mouldings that didnt resemble their samples. I don't know if they sourced them from a new manufacturer, if the samples degraded, or if it was just a quality control problem.

That vendor is no longer on our wall, as a result.
 
UNBELIEVABLE!! I just got an order for 12, count em, yes 12 of the same moulding only in the aqua color. Carp! Carp! Carp!

Guess I'm gonna have to order a chip first, cuz I'm NOT going to refinish 12 frames!

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
 
I expect it. You must get wallpaper from the same run or it will look different. You can get 3 gallons of paint mixed at exactly the same time and they will not match. Moulding made in different runs will not match. It's an impossibility at a price we would be willing to pay.
 
I recently ordered a chop from one of my best vendors,2 legs came in looking like the sample and 2 legs were fo the same moulding but totally different. The vendor was very apoligetic and sent me 2 legs to match the sample but what was the employee who shipped this out thinking the diferences were quite obvious.It is hard to get good consciensious employees this day in time. I am so proud of the one I have for this and many other reasons.!!!!
 
I would expect some variation...but sometimes...it is so vast it almost doesn't look like the same moulding! Even more irritating...is when they have changed manufacturers and the new one is an inferior product.

I have run into that more than once...a cheaper looking version of the original moulding... at the same price mind you! :mad:
 
Seems to happen more often lately.

Just last week, instead of a darkish rustic gold, I got a VERY shiny gold....like 30 shades brighter!

Returned it and ordered the same moulding from a different supplier, and it matched the sample (of the first supplier....)....:popc:
 
Beveled said:
UNBELIEVABLE!! I just got an order for 12, count em, yes 12 of the same moulding only in the aqua color. Carp! Carp! Carp!

Guess I'm gonna have to order a chip first, cuz I'm NOT going to refinish 12 frames!

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Click to expand...

I'll take that order.....:D
 
Jay H said:
I expect it. You must get wallpaper from the same run or it will look different. You can get 3 gallons of paint mixed at exactly the same time and they will not match. Moulding made in different runs will not match. It's an impossibility at a price we would be willing to pay.
Click to expand...

Jay, how do you deal with it? Do you refinish or do you toss them? I understand that wood colors vary, and the wash will vary based on the color of the wood, but it's so far off, I'm doing a much better job hand finishing it with acrylic paints!

OTOH I painted my living room a rich spicy brown color several months ago, and had no leftover paint. We decided to add a wall of that color, so I went out and purchased another can. Perfect match.
 
Small rant. I have this thread up now about this same topic. Look at this pic below.

What am I supposed to do with this? This is not a variation, this a whole new moulding, and a busy eyesore at that. Customers don't fall head over heels in love with the SHAPE and darn the finish. This is expensive moulding. Is it half price now since it looks so cheap?

D., Don't send me a new sample. I don't want this. Wall space is premium, and just as soon as I sell it to someone who wants a tiedyed frame, this kind will suddenly become unavailable. Another line in the Dumpster.
 

Attachments

  • designer wood.jpg
    designer wood.jpg
    417.6 KB · Views: 112
*shrugs*

We re-finish what we can, send back moulding that's too different or too time consuming to adjust. And if we notice that the difference is constant (meaning everytime we order, it's always different from our sample) we tell the company to send us a proper corner sample for our wall. Then, at least our customers can choose the new ugly plastic looking gold instead of the beautiful hand-finshed gold that a frame used to be :p
 
MabSadie2 said:
Small rant. I have this thread up now about this same topic. Look at this pic below.
Click to expand...

Actually, this looks to me like the same moulding, but made with a really terrible stick of wood. Looks like this is sapwood with branch rings in it; when sliced lengthwise you get this grain pattern. The pattern is so "busy" because the different grain orientations take the stain differently.

I know you're p'd with the vendor, but I'd at least alert them to a serious quality-control problem. These days it seems nobody examines the moulding closely until it gets to us; unless we push back the vendor and the factory will never know about it...
 
My supplier is great, they are a general distributor, it's not their fault. (Hi, guys). They always look for matching moulding for me. It's the company that manufactures it that is driving me crazy. This is not even close to the first time.

Why are things this different going down the supply chain? And everytime, their solution is to send me a new sample. I already have carpy sapwood on the wall, I won't be adding this to my collection.

One would assume that a huge shipment of this comes in and then what? The company whose name is on the product says, "Well, it's very different, but if anyone complains, we'll just send them a new sample." I am so over this. I need consistent product in my life.
 
To keep moulding costs low, and as manufactures change

"we want MBA finishing with unskilled labor"

unfortunately, the result is color variances are the casualites....
 
On a somewhat different rant, how about when the color matches, but when you go to put the miters together in the underpinner, you see that the SIZE of the profile is different between the 2 pieces.

One is higher or wider or the curve is different than the other one.
 
I have been getting those too Marky.I have one black frame that every time it comes in it is a different height.It makes it hard to use the scraps when i get new material in.
 
attachment.php


Stick was run through the shaper wrong. Or was sized wrong... It was moulded as plane sliced or what is sometimes called "through and through", but the sample was moulded as a "vertical grain" or "Quarter sawn" so that it would have no grain.
That Sawyer should be fired either for incompetence, stupidity, or incapacitation on the job. They cost the company the materials to make it, all of the peoples time, and probably you as a customer.
 
I have found that certain types of frames have a greater chance of coming in different from the sample (whites) so I try to tell the customer that it could happen.

It still burns my biscuits every time.

I had this happen very recently too with fabric for a fabric wrapped mat. It stinks trying to convince the customer that this shade of tan is much better than the origional one they liked!
 
Create a Post
Back
Top