Almost 2 years waiting

I almost want to make him pay for a replica....


Why on earth would he do that? Less than $7.00 an inch, wow, what a deal.

 

If he had surgery he had surgery, there are only so many hours in a day and he can only do so much.

As for you wanting to make him pay for a replica, how does it feel to want? Yea I think you are out of line wanting him to pay for a replica.

Call him and ask for a date and say look if you have not started onit I will come pick it up you keep the 50 and I can find someone else.

150. pretty cheap for doing a mount of ANY QUALITY.

 

The other thing that most people from your side of the fence do not understand is we have a very large # of customers. If he was a year out when you brought him the fish he has all of the others in front of yours to be finished too. I agree you should have been contacted and told the circumstances but we have "raindays" too. I worked construction for years and if you didn't have inside work at another site when it rained you basically spin your wheels until it clears up. If we have problems with a specimen it may hold our calender up as well.
Another thing you can look at is the price. If the guy does good work he is working for slave wages and you are getting a steal. That may be the reason he is so backed up. That same fish would be almost double that price by the time it walked out my doors.
Or maybe you are just being screwed by a hack. Just a couple things to think about.

 

To me the key issue would be what you were told when you gave him the fish...did he give you a time frame ? If you were told a time and he has not lived up to it you have a legit beef. If no time was given, than hey live and learn.
Just my 2 cents Paul

 

Just wondering what length of time he gave you for completing your fish in the first place ? I know right in my contract it states that as of right now it can take up to 1 year to complete however I was running 2 months till this Winter now I went back to 8 months . Any how a couple of things I don't think its reasonable to demand anything other then either your fish back or just say hey you said it was going to be 1 year this is 2 years I will be up there a certain week it would be great if its done. If not ask him to send it to you and maybe stick him with the shipping depending on your agreement. Anyhow also remember if you rush him normally it will look like a rush job. It is a sad fact but it does happen alot. As for the contracting of things out. In the taxidermy world there is no standards like construction. If you let Joe blow do your wholesale work it could comeback looking like Frankinstain and I don't know if I would want a fish leaving my shop looking like that. Just my 2 cents.

 

You guys beat me to it. my first question was how long was he promised on a turn around time... either way, If I was the taxidermist, I would have been using the telephone calling everyone whose mounts turnaround time would be affected by my surgery.. I have had this happen to me with a deer, and there were a myriad of problems this guy was going through. I would have been understanding if he had contacted me, but it appeared that he was hiding from his customers....

 

I agree, things can happen. He should have called you to let you know that there would be a delay. How long did he say it would take? How much of a back log did he already have. $150 is cheap, but I am only charging $176 for the same fish. Call him and find out a completion date, if you think it is unreasonable take your fish back home to a local taxi.

 

Yes, the taxidermist has a duty to call customers when a situation arises and inform them...that is..if he wants to keep those customers.
You did make one mistake though....you brought your FISH to a taxidermist because someone was happy with their BEAR rug. The two are NOT the same and require quite different abilities/methods to do well. The $150 was another clue that it may not be top quality work...unless it is a very small smallie.

 

Well I have had the same problem with a deer head and the deer was shot in Nov. 2005. Took it to one guy said it would be done in 8 - 9 months and it wasn't. Then tried to contact him and couldn't. Finally got him after a year and a half and he told me he did not remember me and that he would have to look it up in his records and would call me back in a couple days. Well a week later no cal and I can't get ahold of him. Finally a friend had some fish there and called to check on them and they were not done after 2 years and he said they were in the bottom of the freezer and would have to find them. He told my friend he found my deer. So I ended up picking up my deer and muy friends fish, took my deer to a diferent taxidermist and I mounted the fish for my friend.

Well when I took my deer to the other taxidermist. I was told it would be finished in 4 months because it would be done in their catch up month when they do repairs and the like. Well still no deer.

 

I agree the price sounds fishy, I mean who can work for that little. I am reminded of 2 instances when customers left me because of my 2 yr turnaround on deerheads, I should note that when dropped off with me they were told that it may take up to 2 years to complete. Heres what happened.

Customer #1 being told 2 years felt that he could speed up the process by phoning every month or so and remind me how slow I was. When he picked up his head he informed me about the other taxidermist that he had found that was doing a sheep head for him that would cost half as much and be completed in 2 months. He now has a poor quality job on his once in a lifetime sheep that has started to smell because the horns were not popped and cleaned. He has since brought me another head.

Customer #2 Once again after being told 2 years was upset that his head took 2 years to complete so he took his next to a taxidermist who promised 6 month turnaround, almost 5 years later and many angry call later he picked up his head and brought it to the same guy that did a terrible job within 2 months. This guy also is back with me as a customer.

What is my point you say. DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE DROPPING OFF YOUR TROPHY!!! Promises mean nothing and more times than not a great deal or unbeleiveable price indicate shoddy workmanship or BS, which is fine if you are happy with that, just expect to pay and wait for quality work. Great taxidermists are in great demand. Ask for references and you should know what to expect.

 

Good info Diamondhitch.

 

Heres another tip for ya, a 22" smallie for 150 dollars is to say the least, a CHEAP price-now all you have to hope for is that the quality doesnt reflect the price!! : Taxidermy is just like anything else, you get what you pay for.. So lets see, you got a cheap deal on a fish you wont see for two years--hhmmm :-\

 

Anyone can be a taxidermist, not everyone can manage their time while being a good businessman.

You have two options:

1. One simply wait for the fish to be done and apply slight pressure with your time concern, while hoping for the best.

2. Go pick up your fish and take it to a more reputable taxidermist. There are actually quite a few on here and if you look at the thread "This week in fish pictures" you could fins some good ones. I highly doubt you will get away with $150 for one of their mounts though.

Option three is to just forget you caught that fish and spent the $50 deposit.


I have to ask if you signed a contract with terms (like return times) spelled out in black and white?

 

$7 per inch..........Wow, that is almost primitive! Did you look at any of this guy's fish work before you dropped it off???

I've seen som really funky fish on walls up North. You might just want to tell him to keep the deposit. I bet you have your fish in no time. Ask him if it is mounted yet. If so, take a look at it. If it looks like crap, tell him to keep it. If not, insist that you get the fish back and have somebody give it a good paint job. Call 262-279-3660 at Angler's Art Taxidermy...LOL

 

Dennis,

$7 per inch..........Wow, that is almost primitive! I charge $8.00 per inch on warmwater fish. And I know you have seen my fish. So you don't always get what you pay for. You sometimes get more.

 

I agree with slick. Cheaper price doesn't always mean poor quality. This fish was done at $7.00/inch. The first of the year I raised my prices to $8.50.

 

trueth being told, if i have a guy that drops off a fish and then when its done i try to contact him and i cant well then its sold off or used for display someplace. maybe this happend, its happend to me before. cant contact and used it foir display then 2 years later the guy walked in and asked for his mount. i had to tell him it would be a few weeks due to it was on display and i had to get it. not saying it happend to you but hey. and i had back surgery a few years ago and it sent me back over 14 months, things happen. good luck either way.

 

I hope that price included the back panel, lol. You should be charging more then 8.50 an inch.