Reasons To Hate Taxidermy...

Thats honestly why I have given up deer hunting in State! The only way I can enjoy myself is to be a 1000 miles away where there is no point in thinking about it! I used to deer hunt every day! I have hunted about four times in the last 12 years here!

 

I feel your pain !

 

In the future maybe the way to take care of this is to make them pay the entire amount up front. You can rest assured they will pick up by Christmas then.

 

agree..."Rush" orders...100% up front. but then, what if the taxidermist doesnt finish it in time ?

 

all the terrible things and customer abuse stopped happening to me when I stopped allowing it to happen. If you set an appointment You have 15 minutes to be here. If I have plans you're SOL. I already have more to do than I want so I'm not wasting my time on the bird in the bush.

 

I hear that Rick, you do need to impress the fact of being on time for an appointment is important, but it is amazing how fast word travels that you didn't answer your door when a perspective customer was an hour late. They tend to leave that detail out when they bad mouth you. Customers, people in general, "Gotta love em".
We all made the choice to go into a customer service type trade and be self employed while doing it.

 

Thank you all for reminding me of what a great decision I made to retire from the bullspit and theatrics.

 

now if we can just get our doctors to see us when they say they will!

 

I literally just had a guy stop by and said he would like to pick his head up he dropped off 4 yrs ago. He didn't appear to like my answer.

 

I stared thinking about retirement when I made an appointment with a guy to bring in ( in his words) "a bear skin" for a rug. I was eating my lunch when he showed up. I new I would be eating when I made the appointment, so no big deal.

By the time I got my coat on and out the door, he already had an ungutted bear slid out of his truck and onto the driveway. It would have been nice to know the skin he was bringing me was actually on the bear. He was starting to drive away, rolls down his window and says" you have about 45 minutes to skin it, I have an appointment with the butcher in an hour" and drove off before I could say a word.

No problem, I can "skin griz", however he seemed a little miffed when he came back about 45 minutes later to find his bear carcass laying in the gravel of my driveway covered in mud and gravel a "knife slip" or two puncturing the guts in several places and the "accidental" skinning slips slicing the back straps into ribbons. He paid the skinning fee and the deposit and left for the butcher.

He got a really nice rug.

 

Had a dude once come back for his deer mount 10 years after the fact! He was real apologetic, said he had moved out of State! He legitimately seemed surprised that I no longer had it! Its frightening that we must live among them!!!!!!

 

Got to wonder what is going on in people mind when they think they can use you as a storage facility for years.

 

The doctors probably learned that from a slow taxidermist.

 

At 8:00 yesterday evening my alarm goes off and the dog goes nuts signalling someone is in my driveway. The doorbell soon rings and who's there? None other than the DNR and he wants to do an inspection. They never phone in advance, so this is about the rudest of the rude. He goes over all my work in progress records and looks over all the specimens, tags and even looks at license purchase dates to make sure the hunters didn't buy the tag after killing the deer, which I guess is getting more popular these days. He didn't find anything wrong but still not very fun.

 

TropSpec,
I see you're in Michigan. How is it that you MUST have permission in the form of a license from an unliving corporate entity named State of Michigan in order to make a living and put food on your own table? Taxidermy is an occupation of common right, is it not? I realize that more than enough taxidermists like to put the word "Licensed" in their phone book ads for business reasons to build confidence in the mind of potential customers. But once you accept a license, which you must apply for, which means you of your own free will asked the state to give you permission, you're screwed and your rights mean nothing.

What happened to you is a perfect example of why accepting licensing is a bad idea. The entity that granted you that privilege can take it away anytime it chooses, 24/7, 365 days a year without cause. Do you understand what that means? And if they do and you do any taxidermy for hire and get caught, you just broke the law (or regulation) and will have to find another way to make a living.

The only purpose for licensing taxidermists is so the state can suck money from you annually and control YOU. If you can live with that, fine with me. What you could use however is a simple test case to settle the matter in your favor. But you'll have to go it alone. Your state association won't lift a finger to back you up. Why? Read my piece on this forum titled: Taxidermy Associations, Knock, knock, anybody home?"

 

I just wish they would take the time to learn how to properly cape out a deer! It's not rocket science.

 

That's why I quit doing it! That seems to be par for the course. With a few exceptions and you will already know who those customers are.

 

Amazingly enough, the V. A. is almost always on time for my appointments. It is rare that I have to wait on the doctor.

 

I usually have a 30 -45 minute wait when seeing a specialist.