how many of you have actually lossed business to Wildlife gallery/modern fur dre

I don't understand all this blubbering about WG. Their TAN isn't even that great IMO. There are PLENTY of places that do just as good and many that do BETTER. You can also get your stuff CLEARED elsehwere. If you are doing this type of work you need to instruct your clients where to send stuff and give them the necessary tags/paperwok to do it and make it simple.

Myself I wouldn't use them....especially after they called up my clients and tried to take the work from me or ANYONE. What they are doing is wrong and a SLAP in the face of their customers. Especially MOVING THEIR Tanning ahead. IMO any taxidermist would be a FOOL to send them any tanning at all. Let's see if they can make it on their taxidermy skill.

If you are "worried" about finding a new tannery try:

East Coast
Keystone
Arlington Cape
Golden State(2 week wet tans)

 

Re: how many of you have actually lossed business to Wildlife gallery/modern fur

I posted this some time ago, but you get the drift



Ive waited quite some time to post this, but it seems a good time. Ive spoken with several other taxis privately and on this site and they have conveyed to me that the events I'm relaying are not unique to me. Ive also been advised to leave names out of the post.

I owned a shop in the U.P. of Michigan for 10 years. During that time I switched to a tannery in Michigan(that also does taxidermy). While the turn around time was convenient, I was concerned about a couple of things regarding their operation. It seemed like I would get an invoice on Friday and a call on Monday asking when I was paying. Ive never been late on a bill in my life and it concerned me that accounts receivable was so tight. I also green measured my capes on the way out and again on the way back. Inevitably, the capes would come back smaller despite stretching. Neither one of these things was earth shattering, but It left me with an uncomfortable feeling.

Lastly, and most importantly, I had acquired a game ranch as their exclusive taxidermist. Primarily they shot wild boars, sheep and buffalo. It took me along time to reach a point where my work would impress this business and I was really proud of the new account and financially doing a lot better. I was sending the capes to the above nameless tannery in batches. One day I got all call from that tannery thanking me for sending them the work and asking "Where did all the boars come from?" Wow, they were thanking me, I'm a big deal now. So I naively told them the name of the ranch, the town it was in and that there were two other ranches(by name, and town) that I was working on getting as a client. I even told them that combined, the three ranches shot around 800 animals total.

Within two weeks of that phone call, a representative of that tannery(or shop they own) was at the door of my best client trying to pull my account out from me. My tannery was cutting my throat. Now maybe its coincidence and they decided to send someone all the way to the U.P. to try and pull these game ranches and the information I had given them during the phone call had no bearing on their actions.

The owner of the game ranch actually called me as the guy was pulling out of the driveway and indicated that they were willing to beat my price by $50.00 and drive up and pick up the raw capes. Fortunately for me, the owner defended my account and turned the guy down, mentioning me by name. The representative said he did not want to make any trouble and said goodbye. However he did call back two weeks later to ask if the owner had time to think over the "offer". So even though they didn't want to make "trouble" they were still trying to pull the account away from me.

Now I believe in competition, but price cutting is unethical. I agree that you have a right as a taxidermist to use whatever tannery you want. If you don't feel that they are a competing business with you, that again is your business. I will also mention that while I was discussing what happened to me with other members of this site I was told(I can't prove it) that they had lost African collections to a tannery/taxidermy business by using them as a clearing house for shipments. In essence, the tannery contacted the hunter after receiving the shipment and pulled the account out from under the taxidermist that sent them the collection.

Now notice Ive mentioned no names, no dates, no specific places, just "Michigan" and there are several tannery/taxidermists there. I'm not whitewashing them all, you have to make your own decisions based on how you feel. I'm not trying to persuade anyone to quit using their respective tannery. But after what happened to me(coincidence or not) I am now using a tannery that just is a tannery.

Hugh

 

at the moment I still use them. This past year I had two safaris and an alaskan hunt go from outfitter to there to me without any incident. still the best tan for the buck in my book. i generally have my stuff back within 60 days regardless of wet or dry. I look at it as if its a free market if we are at a hunting show and three taxis are right together we are competing for that customer. ultimatly its up to the customer anyway. i can see both points

 

http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php/topic,173081.0.html

The original post was concerning an add.

http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php/topic,169993.0.html

Post from Dennis *

 

That's three "Taxidermist's" Darrell, not 2 Taxidermist's and the tannery you use for WHOLESALE also competing against you. Sorry, but I do not give my competition my money so they can grow more than me.......that'd be kinda dumb financial planning.

 

Exactly MP. Seems about that clear to me as well. It's not like there aren't other options out there..........

 

Well put MP. Its too bad WG want s to play this way, I really liked their tan.
But they leave alot of us taxis no choice but to move on. Actually I decided not to use them anymore even before this recent episode came up. They "lost" a clients skin over a year ago and have yet to replace it , but oh, they did credit my account for the tanning. HAHA Gee thanks, client will be o.k. with that : :

 

ok, how about with lake country resources, they sell fush blanks painted or unpainted to taxidermists, but also off painted replicas to the general public, you fish guys that buy their blanks, aren`t you also throwing money into your competition as they also try to get work from the general public?

 

How many people here have used both Carolina Fur and The Wildlife Gallery? That's a rhetorical ques I guess, but I bet out of the people that have used both, not many are still using The Wildlife Gallery.

No comparison in the finished product - Carolina is better HANDS DOWN, and they're not taking work away from the taxidermist.

There are better tanneries all over the country, and I can't understand why a taxidermist would continue to send anything to The Wildlife Gallery after what's happened.

 

These are my senitments exactly, I don't like their tan, it has stretch , but it pulls out and stops, NO flexibility, and a very short shelf life. they cut 100 holes in my personal elephant feet, When I asked them if their taxidermists could repair them, he told me they didn't do much African taxidermy and wouldn't be able to help me. They'll never get another dime from me. Liike Dennis says, if they are advertizing nationally then they are trying to get your customers. It's been asked over and over, Why would you send money to a business who is trying to take your customers?

 

They had a spot on a highly watched hunting show last night if thats not nationally then I dont know what is.

 

Ummmm O.K. : : : : Let me ask you this question Ron.......how many of Mike Boyce's customers were from Reno.....and now the Wildlife Gallery is also advertising nationally.....2+2= ???

 

The difference is they aren't calling up my customers and soliciting my work from them. They aren't promising 2 week delivery to their clients and sending me my replica in 4 weeks.

WG is advertising service to their customers that WE cannot even GET and to put icing on the cake they are whispering in the ears of our customers

That's the BIG DEAL IMO.

 

This is kinda like me putting on a mask, going inside a bank with a gun in my hand. Should some one assume that I'm going to rob a bank? Or should you wait until I actually do to take action.

Ok, those of you who were here in Sept. meet my buddy and big client Steve. The guy the Nyala/Hyena mount was for. Steve had just been to Alaska and killed a 64" moose. Steve can not remember who the tannery in question is by name, but this is what he told me. The skin was sent by the outfitter to be tanned. The skull was being cleaned by a local taxidermist that was in party with the outfitter on the hunt. Once done, both the cape and skull is to be shipped to me. The first question in my head is WHAT tannery? The second question is; was it REALLY the outfitter that shipped and handled the cape or was it the taxidermist? My bet is it was the taxidermist. This situation will take a bit for me to get figured out, perhaps not until the items actually arrive here. But, this talk about WG sure has me thinking and wondering. Has it happened to me and I just don't know it yet? I'll wait to see if someone calls Steve wanting to do the mount job. I'm confident Steve won't let them, BUT then again this isn't your normal situation. We are best friends and Steve has a vested interest in my business. All this said, I'm a peon in the big picture. I don't have that many big game customers, and even fewer African customers. But assume you do. What is the total amount of customer taking going on?? It is obvious to me that someone has on a mask, with a gun in their hand. Do you wait until they successfully rob the bank, or do you take action to stop what appears to be in the making??

Now here's one other thought on this. Suppose I wanted to do something similar to what is being alledged here. Wouldn't a smart man disguise the two companies from being so detectable? There seems to be an arrogance here that says to me; we are in your face and we don't care. And furthermore, what are you gonna do about it? Given the small percentage of taxidermists that are actually active on this site; can we truly make a difference?? I doubt it. But even if I am only one little shop that only has one potential situation, that's too many for me. My next shipment of lions and bears will go to Carolina Fur. I might not make a difference, but it makes a difference to me.

 

I'll explain. An unknow to you potential customer from your area goes to a camp that deals with them and decides to use them. Since they aren't your customer there was never a promise to bring you the work, thus, you haven't lost anything, it was never your's to begin with. They could have chosen to use your next door neighbor, the guy across town, or the guy three towns over.

Now, if your a client of yours went to one of those camps, with the understanding that the work was coming to you, and was then coerced into using them to tan only or to clear customs, and was then given the hard sell on how much better and faster they were, and hell, they already have the hide, then yes, you've been robbed.

Big difference in both sinarios, and that's what I meant.


Marty, sure, if you stood outside the door of my garage, yep, that would be stealing, but they aint outside your door. Open updown the street and it's just called competition. They just had the balls to go right to the camps and do it instead of opening up next door to you.

While I can understand the business side of approaching outfitters the part that throws the red flag is the contacting of customers after they already have the animals. THAT is about as shytty as it gets, so it puts me in the group looking for a new tannery, whether or not they did or did not steal from me directly is irrelevant.



Along the lines of the current discussion, have you ever dealt with butcher and/or taxidermist combos that do pretty much the same thing. Customers drop deer off to get cut and get the hard sell later about since it's there already, why not just leave it for them to do.

Hell, I even know of one high fence place, that may have changed policy since then, that required you to leave the work with their taxidermist, or pay a fee allowing you to use your own. That on top of fees to skin and process your critter.

Would both of those senarios be akin to the current topic?

 

what makes a client yours?

 

Crittercorner, no-one is saying anything about competition. Ethics is what is in question.

 

Here's where the line is drawn IMO. I havea client going for an African Hunt. I give him laminated shipping tags to use on his trophies. Although he gets the hard sell in Africa he manages to get the stuff sent to the US in one piece....actually quite a feat.

WG gets his skulls and hides....with my shipping tags and uses the info on those tags to call my customer and tell him basically that I suck and they will do it better, cheaper and faster.....even though I AM one of THEIR customers I cannot get that good service from THEM.

It is VERY simple IMO...I would NEVER let my stuff CLEAR through another TAXIDERMIST....PERIOD. There are clearinghouses that do JUST THAT. There are GOOD TANNERIES that do the job and won't stab you in the back.

I look at it this way....would I let one of my competitors check deer in for ME at HIS shop!?! Same difference. Like I said if you continue to use WG or any of their "branches" you are FOOLISH.