Service

Moosh has been posting a bit about poor service- his beef is with comcast and also direct tv. Mine is with Aaron Brothers framing on Richmond Ave.

DO NOT GO THERE....EVER.

Ok, so back in 2005 we purchased a Rodrigue Blue Dog at his last show in Houston before Hurricane Katrina. We bought the piece on a Friday and the Hurricane came a few days later. The Hurricane made the value go up on the piece (a good, yet bad thing due to circumstances obviously). More on this in a minute.

So, I had taken some art prints and a few odds and ends to the Aaron Brothers on Richmond for custom framing in the past. No problems. Well, we took in the Blue Dog and got a call a few days later that the framer destroyed the piece!! I went in to see it and somehow they managed to squish the entire right hand corner down like an acordian!! It was ruined. They were apologetic and inquired as to the price of the piece and what they would need to do to replace it. Well, due to the Hurricane I was worried about even finding a replacement. Of course there was no reaching anyone in New Orleans at that point, but Rodrigue has a gallery in Carmel, CA and a call there located a replacement piece. At double the price we had initially paid!!! Aaron Bros. sucked it up and purchased the new piece for us. They framed it and all was well (besides the fact that they destroyed a great piece of art).

Even though they took care of us, I should have known not to go back there. Fast forward to the first weekend in May 2008. I take in a new Blue Dog piece that Manny got me for our first anniversary along with a large photograph from our wedding. Both need to be customed framed. In 2 weeks, they call us and say the are ready. We go in to pick them up and they put them out for us to look at. It was immediately obvious to both of us that both pieces were messed up!! The Blue Dog was framed in a solid black mat and the mat had white specks in random places. The museum glass was actually cracked in the lower corner. And there were numerous fingerprints under the glass!!! WTF!?! The wedding photo was framed in all white and the white mat had black marks on it, including fingerprints, and also fingerprints under the museum glass!!!! WTF AGAIN!!!!!

We could not believe that they were trying to pass these off on us as acceptable! Each frame job cost about $400- not cheap. I was very irritated. I pointed out everything wrong with them and requested a re-do of both items. The sales person acted annoyed, but said that the items would go to the top of the list and be ready Monday (2 days later).

2 WEEKS later, at the end of May, I go into the shop because no one had called me to tell me they were ready. I get there and they say they haven't even been started. Another 3 weeks later at the middle of June, they finally call and say they are ready.

I go in (and see Christy in there) and the Blue Dog has been corrected. The wedding photo issues have also been corrected, except that now the top of the photo has very obviously been bent. There is a huge creased across the top of the photo! Again, it was obvious, but they tried to pass it off as acceptable! I pointed it out and the salesperson goes "ohh yeh. I see that now." Trust me, there was no way you could miss it!

I refused to take the piece and asked for the manager. The guy helping me said he was the manager and he didn't know what they could do about it b/c I didn't have proof that they bent the photo!! WTF!?!?!?

I got the regional manager's name and number and called her. I left her a message detailing the issue and she called me back the next day. She said that they would dry mount the photo to try to fix it or buy us a new one. I had been told in the store by the Aaron Bros. sales people that dry mounting a photo was a bad idea because it is not reversable. If we ever wanted to take it out of the frame, we couldn't. I told her that and gave her the contact info for our photographer. She said she would call him and get a new photo.

The next thing I know, I get an email that the photo is ready. They dry mounted it anyway and considered it fixed. I went in to pick it up and was told that it was not ready and had not been started yet! I was pretty pissed b/c the email that it was ready came from the regional manager and she told me that the photo was fixed and LOOKED great. How can it look great if it's not done?! The framer and the salesgirl got into an argument about it. The framer was a dick. The girl was being nice and apologetic, but the framer was trying to overpower her.

Finally as the girl and I were trying to call the regional manager, the girl looked in the finished bins and saw a finished item with my last name on it. It had the wrong first name, wrong address, wrong phone number and the wrong description of the inside contents (it said the photo was a cuban beach scene- not a wedding photo!). The girl opened the item to make sure it wasn't mine and you know what, it was!!!

The framing job looks fine now- the crease is gone- but the photo is drymounted so I can never take it out of the frame. I took the photo with me and called the regional manager on my way home. I then sent her an email requested a full refund of the framing job- $405 total. I told her what happened in the shop and how I will NEVER shop at Aaron Bros. again. My money has been refunded, so now I'm telling everyone I know- do not use them to frame anything!!!!

You've been warned!!

Labels: aaron brother sucks