Scam artist or idiot?

[kev@frames]

Had a chap in the shop.
wife left a picture "about three weeks ago".
they dont have the receipt (duplicate job ticket when order was taken).
Its not in the order book.
Nothing matching its description is on the premises.
wasnt sure which name it was left in, as they have double barrel name it could be in one or the other, or the full name.
None of the five people who work here recognise the name.
None of us recognise the person.

we can't find it, despite his describing it in a gold frame. Then he comes in again, all confrontational and demanding to look through our store room, where all the jobs pending and jobs to be collected are. We refuse. Customers dont come behind the counter - good reasons which we as framers/retailers all understand.

By now this man doesn;'t know who left the picture (he. his wife, or both of them) and now thinks it may have been six months ago. Also he now cant remember if it was in a frame or just a "gold mount" and no frame.

so we go back through the order book, and find one order in his double-barrel version of the name, on a saturday morning, for a re-glaze, which was done and taken away same day - about 8 months ago, Which is a long way away from the original 3 weeks....

We've told him three times we are unableto help him further until he brings us something to identify the job (and prove he left it here).

I reckon they brought it in here, didn't like the price we quoted, and left it with some other framer Its happened before.

So now he's going to his lawyer because this picture, which he cant remember was in a frame and could have left here any time between 3 weeks and six months ago seems to have turned into the most valuable watercolour in Cornwall all of a sudden.

there are usually one of two outcomes in cases like this.
a) they are trying to scam you.
b) they are so dim they can't remember where they actually left a picture for framing.

either way, they cause you a lot of bother.

its a good supporting for keeping accurate records, giving receipts for work in trust as a matter of routine, and backing it up with a written record and/or database. Chances are if you then have no record and cant find it, that it wasn't left with you in the first place.
I wonder what version his lawyer will get?

*last time this happened it was allegedly a £2000 canvas. Turned out the "customer" was trying it on, he backed off immediately when we suggested his mystery item may have been stolen, so we were calling the police. This was after he produced a "receipt" proving its value which happened to look seriously "home made" considering it was supposed to have come from a big london art house - no vat number, no invoice no, no registered office (did not comply with the legal requirements for an invoice basically)

[Bill Henry]

There are a lot of dim bulbs out there as well as crooks.

I wouldn’t loose any sleep. “No tickee; no shirtee!” works for me.

It appears that you keep pretty good records, so unless he can come up with something concrete in his grubby little paws, I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about.

Do you usually require a deposit? If so, he had to pay by check, credit card or cash. Except for cash, he should have a bank statement to prove it. (Nobody uses currency for deposits.)

He’s just a time waster in my opinion.

[foxyframer]

Just another tosspot, Kev. Good liars have to have good memories. Takes the gloss off a good day and makes a bad day a pain and we don't need to run round like ' blue arse flies ' .

Never had one like this though. Most will turn up without invoice tickets,(left on kitchen table) or bring in another framers' ticket, forgetting where they took the picture in the first place.

Really are a load of klutzes the general public, shouldn't be let out.

Foxy

[Not your average framer]

I would make sure that you get this guys name and address. If he starts publicly trying to blacken your good name you may want to sue him and you will need to know who he is. Given the fact that you keep a record of all framing jobs, deposits, collections and final payments, then your records are evidence that you have not had this item in for framing.

If this worries you and you have his address to write to him, then you might consider this. There are solicitors who operate a scheme where you can get a solicitors letter written for a very small cost. So if you get a solicitor to write a letter to him detailing his claims, his failure to produce anything other than vague opinions to back up his claims, the fact that you records system shows his claims do not match any work you have had brought in, etc.

Then the fact that you are giving him the benefit of any doubt, in so far as you are assuming he may have taken it elsewhere and can't rember where. In view of your obvious innocence and well maintained records system which will stand upto official inspection if required, you object very strongly to his totally unreasonable threatening attitude and allegations and that this letter has been sent to him as a true statement of all facts known to you and that if necessary a copy can be produced as evidence in court should it become necessary for you to instigate appropiate actions in the event of any slanderous or liablous actions on his part.

In closing you might like to add a list of other framers in the locality and suggest that he checks if his picture was left in the care of any of these.

I suspect that should focus his mind in appropiate directions.

[kev@frames]

Good advice, Mark. We already have taken his name, phone no etc.

i think this guy has just simply convinced himself that he brought something here.

i don't doubt hes left it at a framers, but it isn't this one.

As he has a holiday home here, and lives in London, he might well have left it in any local framer, or one in London for all I know. Or it might all just be in his own imagination.

He's been in again.

He's brought in a photo of this picture in a frame on a wall, presumably to "help" - however we can't get the concept through to him that this does not mean we have it, in fact it just underlines the fact that nobody here recognises it at all. For the moment we've told him (as Bill says) "no ticket - no shirtee" and have asked him to have a look at home for his ticket.

[markw]

It really doesn't matter if you keep good records or not - you still end up wasting vast amounts of time on problems like this. I had one of my better customers inflict this madness upon me. we turned the workshop upside down looking for her work, must have taken best part of a morning. We fail to find the work. Now angry customer makes all sorts of nasty threats. some time later customer pops head round door - "oh I have found that picture". My paperwork was perfect and showed she had picked up - but still we wasted time - she has earned a red band on my customer database - beware severe time waster.

[Couture's Gallery]

We get this 4-5 times a year..and usually it is a forgetful person who has left the job at another shop.
We call the other 2 shops in town to see if they have it, while the customer is present, and 99% of the time it down the road at our competitors. Only once have we been unable to locate a piece locally, and it turned out that the customer left it with a frame shop up north at home ( we have lots of winter residents here).
Keep good records and be a s helpful as possible and the situation usually resolves.

[kev@frames]

today matey comes in, all apologetic.

he's found it in a bag behind his dressing table.

at least this one had the decency to let us know, and apologise for the inconvenience.

[Bill Henry]

You must be relieved. Even though you were 99.97% sure, I’ll bet that there was still a tiny, nagging feeling in the back of your brain that he might have been right, wasn’t there?

I’m glad for your sake that it finally resolved itself.

[kev@frames]

thats a bet you might have won Bill he almost has us convinced.

[Not your average framer]

he's found it in a bag behind his dressing table.

Do you get to re-frame it too? It would be nice after all the agro!

[bilhughes]

Oh dear it looks looks I will need that anger managment course before I open my shop you handled it so different than I would have