Almost turned a customer away today.

[dbl.throat_patch]

The work "quality" means different things to different people.  You could do a quility and professional job on an ole maingy coyote,  you could make it look exactly like it did when it was alive,  but the public perception of that is gonna be WHO THE F#$K MOUNTED THAT POS!  It is most deffinately a catch 22 at best.

[mk]

LMAO, yeah I've seen some real Whores out there.  taxidermy prostitution at its finest.    I'm a high end hooker.

[Redwolf]

LMAO, yeah I've seen some real Whores out there.  taxidermy prostitution at its finest.    I'm a high end hooker.

ROTFLMAO and Scott is your pimp

[hunte567]

Hey George, we just do not do neck mounts.  They just do not look good.  An taxidermist friend of mine that just retired that did and still does some of the best work gave me the advice of not putting out any work that doesnt compliment the art of the piece. A neck mount is one that falls into that catagory.  We give them the option of another cape or we will do a euro, but no neck mount.

[bill@hogheaven]

Well if you are independently wealthy I guess you can turn away whatever you like. I will do the neck mounts, after exhausting the other options, so I can BECOME wealthy.

[Ted Befus]

My .02, neck mounts look cheap, I don't want anything like that coming out of my shop.  BUT, since I take every cape that is worth keeping from euros or antler mounts I have alot of spares.  Also, since I DON'T pay for capes I don't have to charge the customer if he/she needs one!

[John C]

well it happened again, I have another head mount to do. One came in today. if it was a big deer then maybe up sell but its not. So I told them this.

I can do a europeon and showed them a cleaned bleched skull for $135.00 or we can find a replacement cape and your get the cape or I will find one and only charge what I pay for it. and do a shoulder mount for $435.00  (they did not have the extra money times are tight) or I can do a headmount for $325.00 or an antler plaque for $125.00 on Oak or walnut or if you get a panel for $75.00

They took the head mount.. at $325.00 Lets see. I have a head laying around I changed out, so no from (if I had to buy a changeout head $15.00 plus shipping 10 for eyes and 35 for a eurpoen plaque assembly.. 290 or there about for a head mount and you will not do IT??

Send it my way.

http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/category/wood-panels

You talk about taxidermy whores and look, you have missed the money and pissed someone off because you have standard and its darn bet your work is not much better than mine..

Now look at this do you like someone upselling you at McD's? or someone saying they can do work for you at 500 bucks then once they do it saying they need more money???

Who is the whore..and who is the businessman..  $290. will buy me a hell of a lot of steak aqnd yes we eat steak three times per week and my ldl and hdl combined is just 151.

I have a happy custopmer who will have their mount, even though I dont like the idea and you will have a poed customer because you wanted more money.. You guys in your first five years or so may not be in this business next year.. In the mean time we are looking at options for expansion.. So someone must like what happens.

Do you turn down a fish even though  it has an boghead or a bird because it has a leg shot off or a wing broken???

Make it look good and it will pay. These head mounts are not mangy yotes,, its someone who made a mistake and you are trying to screw them over.

[dbl.throat_patch]

. These head mounts are not mangy yotes,, its someone who made a mistake and you are trying to screw them over.

So I'm trying to screw him over?  SERIOUSLY?  I think you need to go back and reread how I handled this.  I was not going to charge him anything for what I had done so far!!!  So how much do you get for skinning out a head?  YOU must do them all free?  No that's right,  you try to milk him for everylast penny you can for whatever kind of work you can.  If that's how you do it,  Then good for you.

Dude you need to relax and take a pill,  why should it bother you so much that some of us won't do neck mounts?  By your own account a couple of turned down neck mounts will put us out of buisness anyway.

[George Roof]

Well, to each his own, but in my mind,it's simply just bad business to refuse what a customer wants within reason.  I've done neck mounts on BIG antlers for guys who lived in trailers (mobile homes I think they call them) and one guy had to have it above his fireplace (I know, I told him, still put it there) and the room had an 8 foot ceiling that wouldn't accommodate a full shoulder mount (please don't tell me to have it sneak as that would put the head right over the fire).  As I said, send your customers to another taxidermist.  They'll probably be happier that they got what they want, and the taxidermist will damned sure be glad you sent him a new customer.

John's a big boy and can defend himself, the the "screw them over" is a perception.  The customer WANTED something within reason yet you REFUSED to accommodate him UNLESS he acceded to YOUR desires.

Ted, I USED to give extra hides to customers until I realized STUPID SHOULD HURT.  If not physically, certainly financially. No one rides for free and since I have to cape TWO deer to get one, he pays.

[Ted Befus]

Well George, I look at how I do things like that a certain way, if I'm doing a european mount I have to cape it anyway, so the guy who brings it is paying me to cape it (as its part of the price) so in effect I still haven't paid for his cape, he just paid for me to take it off his hands and re-use it somewhere else.

The person who I'm "giving" that extra cape still has to pay me to take the cape off his deer even though I won't be using it, so the way I look at it, I'm not out anything. 

[Ted Befus]

Also, I've had some customers insist that I pay them for capes, when I refuse and tell them why they know sooner or later they're gonna need one and they'll be glad I don't charge an extra $150 on top of the $700 i charge for the mount.

[GravityKills]

All I can say is I'm fulltime, in a crappy economy right now,and surrounded by low priced hacks. What the customer wants he gets. You can put out quality neck mounts !

X2!!!

[Becky P]

I've done one neck mount and never plan to do another because it looked so freakin stupid. Although this year since it's so crummy, I just might do it if one comes in and I can't discourage it, I've always been able to discourage it before though (well since the ugly POS anyway because I started discouraging tactics then ).

You say it about 3" short? Not sure that one would warrant a "neck" mount. There are short shoulders out there or just alter the form - SOME shoulder is better than no shoulder IMO.

[mk]

neck mount i did...

[Becky P]

MK, that looks better than just stuck on the wall, has a better balance to it. I'm still not a fan of neck mounts BUT if I ever have to to do another one because the "discouraging" didn't work, I might have to encourage them to go with something like yours