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Report: #988290

Complaint Review: 1st Art Gallery - Los Angeles California

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Ken — Orlando Florida United States of America
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
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  • 1st Art Gallery 8721 Santa Monica Blvd. #1420 Los Angeles, California United States of America

1st Art Gallery The promise was quality, the reality was schlock Los Angeles, California

*UPDATE Employee: Unverified posts by our Chinese competition

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: 100,000 happy customers can't be wrong

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

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1st Art Gallery promises "museum quality handmade oil painting reproductions" and that its paintings "start and end with quality." It offers "100% satisfaction guaranteed."

However, what I received was schlock -- just awful, really. When I asked for a refund, I was told that my request was "immoral."  Odd, because I thought it was immoral to take a guy's money and then present him with crap. The painting was so amateurish as to be an embarrassment to the gallery. 

Except that the gallery wasn't embarrassed. 

The story: About 3 weeks before Christmas I ordered from 1st Gallery a reproduction of the painting "Joan of Arc" by French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage. My fiancee loves the original, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, and both of us have been privileged to study "Joan" in person. It is breathtaking. I asked for the painting to be rushed because Christmas was drawing near, and I wanted to present it as a gift for my fiancee. I knew she would be excited.

My heart sank after the painting arrived and I removed it from its mailing tube. If it had been a horse, I would have shot it. The subtleties of the original are gone. The colors are wrong. Joan's face, so captivating and wondrous in Bastien-Lepage's work, looks to have been drawn by an 8-year-old. The spirits that should mystically hover behind Joan instead appear menacing and heavy, as if they are about to mug her instead of inspire her.

Quality? Non-existent.

Satisfaction? Non-existent.

Instead I was told via email that a refund was "not possible" and that I was being "immoral" to even "dare to ask" for a refund because I had asked for a rush order.

Any number of steps could have been taken to avoid this mess. 1st Gallery could have rejected my rush order.  1st Gallery could have assigned the painting to a better artist.  1st Gallery could have recognized that the finished product was inferior, notified me by email and offered the choice of another attempt by a better artist or my money back.

None of those things occurred.

I might just frame the hideous thing and display it in a prominent place in my house accompanied by a placard: God-awful artwork courtesy 1st Art Gallery on the internet.









 
     

















 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/28/2012 02:52 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/1st-art-gallery/los-angeles-california-90069/1st-art-gallery-the-promise-was-quality-the-reality-was-schlock-los-angeles-californi-988290. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
1Consumer
1Employee/Owner

#2 UPDATE Employee

Unverified posts by our Chinese competition

AUTHOR: Mike Mitchelle - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, August 13, 2017

Attached to this rebuttal an image proving without doubt that all the reviews about our company are fake and were left by the same person, a Chinese competitor.

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#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

100,000 happy customers can't be wrong

AUTHOR: Mike Mitchell - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, September 17, 2013
 
We believe this review was left by our competition but we will reply anyway so people reading this can make a better informed decision when searching for the right company to order reproductions from.

We are by far the largest and most respected art gallery in the world. We have more than 100,000 happy customers in more than 100 different countries. We operate online since 2003, the time before Facebook, Twitter or YouTube were founded.

No reproduction company in the world has the amount of experience we have and when it comes to the quality of the paintings or customer service, we are by far your best choice.

Our testimonials page is packed with VIDEO and PHOTO testimonials which cannot be faked:

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/testimonials.html

Notice that we receive dozens of testimonials each month.

You can view hundreds of recently painted reproductions and judge the quality of our paintings yourself here: 

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/photo-testimonials.html

You can "test" our customer service by sending us an email to service AT 1st-art-gallery.com . You'll receive a reply within six hours, usually much faster.

You may call us at 888-417-8278. If we're busy answering other calls, leave a message and we will return your call within one business day.
 
Our return policy and money-back guarantee policy can be read here:

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/100guarantee.html

Videos of paintings being made can be viewed here:

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/inside-our-studio.html

Our frequently asked questions page:

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/faq.html

If you have any question or concern please contact us at service [at] 1st-art-gallery.com


Mike Mitchell,
Operations manager at 1st Art Gallery

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