looks like tesla tape.
to be honest the frame and mount colour chosen seem fairly routine and predictable, we certainly do a lot like that.
Ive always refrained from sending in other people's gaffes for a couple of reasons:
1. glass houses, stones and all that. What was acceptable a couple of years ago isn't today, for example.
2. customers are not too reliable in their recollections or admitting that they wanted a cheap job, or when, or where they had it done.
3. some customers do tend to blame framers for things they did themselves. Particularly stretching, lacing, etc.
4. often we are fixing something that someone else has already tried to "fix" or put right.
5. im always reluctant to pull apart someone elses work, or critiscise them in front of the customer. If they
ask why something has gone pear shaped that they had done somewhere else I'll do my best to tell them, but as a rule I'll just try and sort it out if its not too much trouble, and hope to do a better job which (hopefully) might speak for itself.
This is exactly what happened in your case Robo (5), so you did the right thing. A good result: customer trusts your opinion, and you can justify what you charge by showing that you know what you are doing.
Did you get the re-framing job out of it for your time and trouble?
But mostly, its no 1. Nothing worse than one of your own skeletons tumbling out of a closet you forgot about
We DO lace all ours, as routine now, but it is a fairly recent thing. we used to ask customers to do it themselves, but often ended up seeing them bring back the likes of which Robo has just presented us with.
The tesla tape is a bit of a giveaway that it came out of a framers workshop - Had it been masking tape or duct tape, i'd say there is a 50-50 chance that the customer did it. Flexitabs? was it a ready made frame by any chance?
We seldom used to lace anything ourselves. John at Merlin made me see sense one day, when he pointed out that Barbara laces all their jobs, very quickly too, behind the counter. So i got to thinking, decided it was girls work, and delegated it to Tom* At first they took ages, but now its just a few minutes worth - certainly quicker and neater and more "proper" than letting the customer do it. And no risk of tape. Some people just wont pay for it, though. and take away a ready made frame, have a mount cut to fit, and produce very similar results to the one in the original post.
* i figured anyone who knew enough about tying a blood-knot tight enough to repair an air clamp on the wizard, ought to manage a passable bit of needlework. eg. you are a fisherman, lacing will be your job
re the original needlework- its a nice piece, and a lot of hard work. Someone ought to have taken that into consideration before bodging it. Hopefully they'll see it on here, and raise their game.
