My partner and I took two expensive watercolour portraits we`d had commissioned into this shop to be framed and were absolutely appalled by the service we received from Gillian.
Firstly, she had an abrupt manner and made it clear that she wished to spend as little time as possible helping us to chose the appropriate frames, mount board and glass etc.
However, whilst we were prepared to excuse someone`s offhand manner if they are good at their job Gillian excelled at both being impolite and abrupt to customers and lacking in even the most basic knowledge and skills in picture framing. For example, when we were choosing the frames, Gillian made the ridiculous suggestion of putting a mount over part of one of the portraits so that it could be put in the same size of frame as the other portrait. This showed a total lack of both artistic and framing knowledge, as this would have changed the overall composition of the portrait that had been done by a well known watercolour artist. Since the obvious way to adapt a painting to a size of frame would be to change the size of the mount, we could only put Gillian`s suggestion down to a lack of skill and knowledge about her job.
Even more alarming, was the fact that when she went to measure the portraits for the frame size Gillian used a metal measuring tape which she put in direct contact with the delicate paintings by laying it directly over the portraits when measuring, instead of placing the tape round the edges of each of the portraits. This caused us such concern that we asked Gillian who exactly did the framing, as we wondered how the paintings would be handled when the customer wasn`t present, it she had actually risked a metal tape scratching the portraits by needlessly putting it in contact with the paintings when we were actually in the shop. When Gillian informed us that her boss (the owner of the shop) made the frames in his workshop in the borders, and then delivered them to the shop once a week or so, and that she and her female colleague were left to do the mounting and framing, my partner and I decided it would be safer to take the paintings to a framers that we could trust, and in which the owner or manager could be contacted at the shop if necessary. When we asked Gillian if the owner had a contact email address or a phone number at which he could be contacted, she informed us that he was one of the "old school" and that he didn`t use email and didn`t like to be contacted at his home phone number at the borders. It seemed clear as to why Gillian felt that she could conduct herself in such an impolite manner towards customers since the owner was rarely present to manage either her or the other young(ish) female that does the framing, and one has to similarly wonder who it is that has trained and / or supervised the work carried out by Gillian and her young colleague when they do the framing?
My partner and I are even more disappointed in the appalling service we received at Framers Edinburgh in Bruntsfield when they are displaying a Fine Art Trade Guild Commended logo, and we will most certainly be enquiring of the latter as to when this was awarded and if the shop is expected to adhere to certain standards once it has been awarded. read more
