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Report: #1082636

Complaint Review: Frame Today Picture Framing, Photo Frames - Blacktown Other

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  • Reported By: Frame Today, Blacktown, Sydney Framing — Blacktown Other
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  • Frame Today Picture Framing, Photo Frames Blacktown Mega Centre, Shop B6 Blacktown, Other Australia

Frame Today Picture Framing, Photo Frames DESTROYED My $9,000 Painting. Michael Tarrant, the owner, is removing all Frame Today reviews posted online, is not returning my calls, and has blocked me on Facebook because he doesn't want others knowing the truth. FRAUD! - Blacktown, NSW, Australia

*Author of original report: Frame Today Continues to LIE, LIE, LIE!

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Frame Today destroyed a $9,000 painting that I brought into their Blacktown store to have framed. The manager of the store applied double-sided tape to the face of the painting which resulted in tears to the board. The painting also has black marks on the face of it and all they could do to compensate me was to get Kristy Plaister, the area manager, to email me and offer free framing for the painting they damaged and a $500 check as an apology. How insulting. I called the owner of Frame Today, Michael Tarrant, twice, left messages and he never returned any of my calls. I even posted about my experience on his Facebook page and he deleted my post and blocked me from making further comments.

Frame Today uses false advertising to deceive their customers. They claim to be professional, have experience and have “the most impressive service available.” This is completely false as demonstrated by the damage they caused to my $9,000 painting. Kristy Plaister boasted to me on the phone about how they frame for art shows in the local area all the time and Vivian, the store manager, assured me that she had experience in framing art, specifically on illustration board. The first thing I said to them when I walked into the store was how much the painting cost therefore I wanted them to take extreme care when framing it. Did they think I was joking? I was going to discuss having them frame hundreds of prints for me but after this incident, forget about it. There is no way on earth I would allow them to destroy the reputation of my business with their incompetence. To add even more insult to injury, when asking the store manager for the best price she can give me for framing the prints I said that I was either going to accept their offer or buy a framing machine myself and hire others to do the work for me. Her condescending response, “Good luck”. I guess she thought I was that much of an idiot that I wouldn’t know how to operate a framing machine myself.

I then posted about my experience with Frame Today on TrueLocal.com.au and my review was removed. I guess Frame Today doesn’t want customers to know the truth and contacted True Local to have the review removed. I tried calling them but all I got was an automated message and then the phone hung up. I emailed them my phone number and told them that they can call me and I’ll provide all the evidence they need to prove that what I’m saying is true. I’m not holding my breath though. Last time I posted a review about a bad experience I had with another company it was also deleted. They never called me, didn’t want to see the evidence, told me that their moderator’s decision was final and didn’t want to hear anything more about it.

I also opened a thread on Whirlpool forums to inform everybody about my experience with Frame Today and that also ended up being deleted. What is the purpose of owning a review site that doesn’t allow consumers to write reviews about a business? I guess businesses in Australia aren’t interested in telling their customers the truth and are more concerned about making a quick buck. It’s all about the money these days and not customer service unfortunately. How pathetic.

Since the incident Michael Tarrant has been busy getting all the reviews I’m writing about my experience with his company removed online. My reviews are either being deleted or not being posted at all because Michael doesn’t want the public to know the truth about his company’s shoddy business practices. If you read this Michael, answer these questions:

1) Why are you committing fraud by posting false claims on your Frame Today website?

2) Why are you employing staff that lie to your customers and that don’t have experience in framing art? On top of that, why do you employ people who speak condescendingly to your customers?

3) Why did you get your area manager to call me and didn’t bother calling me yourself? Kristy Plaister said you were “overseas at the time” so that’s why you didn’t call. That’s a load of BS and you know it. Are you that much of a tight a*s that you can’t afford to fork out a few extra dollars to call me, that’s if you were even overseas to begin with? Actually, there’s this thing on the internet now called “Skype” and if you really were overseas, and you really are a tight a*s, you could have called me on Skype and spoken to me for FREE. What are you afraid of?

4) What on earth made you believe that I would accept a $500 check as compensation for a painting that I paid $9,000 for? Remember too that art increases in value over time so in reality you owe me way more than a measly $500. How can I re-sell this painting now with the damage caused to it by your incompetent employees? Do you know how much these types of paintings sell for? “Photo-realistic paintings of pin-up fantasy women by Hajime Sorayama sell for as much as $25,000, while those of Olivia De Berardinis go for up to $75,000.” – Erotica Arouses Art Market. The artist of the painting you destroyed has been compared to Hajime Sorayama and has another one currently listed on his site for sale for $35,000 so, this is a BIG DEAL and you can’t run and hide forever.

It’s obvious to see that Michael Tarrant, along with the people he employs from Frame Today are clueless when it comes to framing fine art. Unbeknownst to Tarrant and the employees of Frame Today is the fact that art vandalism is a CRIME. Yes Michael, your store manager Vivian intentionally damaged my painting. That is classified as “vandalism of art”. The Wikepedia article on Vandalism of Art states:

“Many vandals were diagnosed with a mental disorder and .... a vast amount of damage consists of leaving a minor scratch, a stuck chewing gum, a pencil mark and so on, and usually escapes publicity.”

When discussing my experience with Frame Today on the Whirlpool forum I had a lady post a comment that stated, “even an imbecile wouldn’t do such a thing”. I was also texting the artist of the painting while at the Frame Today store and he wasn’t happy at all. Some of the things he stated included, “What kind of f*****g monkey double tapes the original to the matting!!!” and “Not even a child will do that!!! .... it goes against any common sense.” I already figured out that the store manager didn’t have any common sense when she told me that it wasn’t common sense to center a painting in the middle of a frame. I’ve attached a photo of the first framing job Frame Today did when they called me to come and pick up my painting from their Blacktown store.

As for Frame Today’s “same day framing” claim, that’s a joke. Here is a breakdown of what happened and the time taken to frame, or more accurately “destroy” my painting:

Day 1: I dropped the painting off at the store and was told I would get a call when the framing had been completed.

Day 2: I was sent a text message on my phone stating that my painting had been framed and was ready to be picked up. I drove to the Blacktown store and looked at the painting and it wasn't centered. I asked the manager why the painting wasn't centered and she said, "You didn't tell us to center it." I then asked her, "Isn't it common sense to cener an image in the middle of a frame?" and she replied, "No". How else was it supposed to be? She said to leave it with her and she will order more matting and re-frame the painting again.

Day 3: I called Frame Today and asked them if my painting was ready to be picked up. The manager said no but the matting did arrive and was still in the box and she will get to it after she was done framing other orders. I then asked her why she was putting my job to the side even though I came in first and she started to get irritated. I thought it was a common practice for businesses to work on a first-come, first serve basis and when I brought this to her attention she started talking to me in a condescending manner and told me that she will call me when it was ready.

Day 4: I didn't receive a call so I called Frame Today again to ask if my painting was ready to be picked up. The store manager said that she had cut the new matting but wanted me to come in and see it first before it was placed in the frame. I drove to the store again and looked at the new matting and told her that it was wrong. The matting was cut so wide that only a small portion of white was visible around the image on the painting. She then took off the matting and then I understood why it was cut that way. A black line from the top of the painting on the side to the bottom had appeared there. I asked her how that happened and she said that she didn't know. I also looked on the other side of the painting and there was another mark there. The manager then told me to leave the painting there and she'll apply some powder to it and lightly rub the marks to get them off and I told her that I didn't want her to do that. For all I know she could try rubbing Ajax on it. The painting is on illustration board and rubbing anything on it would make it look worse than it already did.

I told her that the first matting frame was fine and all that needed to be done was for it to be repositioned so that the image in the painting was centered. She then took the first matting she had cut, applied double-sided tape to it and stuck it down directly on the painting.

NO EXPERIENCED ART FRAMER applies double-sided tape to the face of a painting. All art is to be framed using acid-free materials and no tape is to be applied to either the face or the back of the painting directly. See attached photo for an example.

Frame Today should consider changing their name to "Frame Next Week" or even better, "Frame and Destroy". So, let this be a lesson to anybody who is considering taking their art to this store to get framed. Don't expect same-day service, even though they promise it, and don't expect to get a professional framing job for the $400 or so that you get quoted.

"There is only one boss. The customer." - Sam Walton

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 09/07/2013 10:15 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/frame-today-picture-framing-photo-frames/blacktown-other-2148/frame-today-picture-framing-photo-frames-destroyed-my-9000-painting-michael-tarrant-1082636. 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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#1 Author of original report

Frame Today Continues to LIE, LIE, LIE!

AUTHOR: Frame Today, Blacktown Mega Centre, Sydney - ()

POSTED: Sunday, September 08, 2013

I would just like to add regarding point 3 above that the store manager of Frame Today told me that the owner, Michael Tarrant, was currently in Newcastle when I asked for his contact details and then Kristy Plaister lied when she called me and said he was overseas. Don't you people know that professional businesses do not lie to their customers? What kind of shady business are you running? Obviously one that's not focused on customer service!

What I find funny is that Vivian from the Blacktown store told me that Frame Today is "the biggest framing company in Australia". Ha! Really? I went on Google to check how many Frame Today stores you have and found out there are only 7 ... and they're all in NSW!! What a load of baloney that was. These are the Frame Today stores that you have listed on your site:

Frame Today - ALEXANDRIA
Alexandria Homemaker Centre
49-59 O'Riordan Street, Alexandria NSW 2015
Phone: (02) 8339 1110

Frame Today - BLACKTOWNShop B6, Blacktown Megacentre, Blacktown NSW 2148
Phone: (02) 9676 2220

Frame Today - CASTLE HILL
Home Hub Castle Hill
Shop 14, 18-46 Victoria Avenue, Castle Hill NSW 2154
Phone: (02) 9899 3399

Frame Today - LAMBTON
31 Griffiths Rd, Lambton NSW 2299
Phone: (02) 4950 9910

Frame Today - MAITLAND
2/2 Chelmsford Dr, East Maitland NSW 2323
Phone: (02) 4934 5665

Frame Today - PENRITH
Penrith Homemakers Centre
Shop 20, 13 Pattys Place, Penrith NSW 2750
Phone: (02) 4733 3380

Frame Today - WARNERS BAY
393 Macquarie Rd, Warners Bay NSW 2282
Phone: (02) 4954 2727

Next time you decide to lie to your customers I suggest having a staff meeting first to make sure that you're all on the same page. Maybe also pass out a booklet to everyone called "What to Say to a Customer When They Ask Whether You Have Experience".

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