"Can I phone through a custom picture frame order" was a request we received last week? Sorry, no, we said, we would rather not do it. And we know this sounds crazy, but let us explain why. The main reason is that most 
people aren't picture framers, they don't know how to measure for picture framing, they get the measurements wrong and then we may make picture frame that won't fit the artwork. When this happens, the customer blames us and either refuse to pay for the frame we just made or wants a new or "better" frame made up for free. This is a lose-lose situation for both customers and ourselves and that's why we won't take over-the-phone orders for custom picture frames or custom picture framing.
Oh well, you might say, why not accept these phone orders anyway and just warn customers that they, and not you, will be responsible? We actually tried that and it doesn't work! Let's face it, how would you like to pay a hundred bucks for something that doesn't fit and can't get refunded for, even if you're at fault? Custom picture frames aren't like Ready-Made, off-the-shelf- picture frames.
No picture framer takes back or refunds on custom picture frames. This is because 9 times out of 10, these frames are of an unusual, specific, non-standard size which will only fit the customer's artwork. A custom frame's colour, shape and finish also tends to match just one specific piece of art instead of being a generic black or brown. We routinely get customers who have just ordered over the internet from the U.S. or the U.K. a 36"x 24" poster or A1 size print.
These same customers love our prices and ask us to make picture frames for whatever art they've just ordered. They explain to us that, when their artwork arrives, they just want to be able to come into our store an "pop" their pictures straight in the frames we've just made for them. But we have to dissuade them from this strategy. What if the 36"x24" poster when it arrives, is found to be too small for the frame? What if the A1 print, when it comes, can't fit into the frame because it's too big?
What happens then? Oh, you could say, no that won't happen because the web site I bought my prints from stated a certain size. Well, we've been framing for nigh 40 years and we see these sort mismatched sizes or printing stuff-ups just about once a week. This is why we won't accept telephone orders for custom picture mats, custom picture frames or any type of custom picture framing. You'll thank us in the end!
That said, if you're still of the mind of phoning through an order online for a custom picture you may as well read our Picture Frames Measuring page which shows the correct way of measuring photo frames an d picture frames. thank you for reading this post Can I phone through a custom picture frame order and pick it from your store?".
Actually, this is right! I do photography on the side on weekends ( the money isn’t great, but I enjoy it ) and I’m often putting mats and print from my lab into already-made, stock picture frames or photo frames from my framer. I changed labs a while back ( they kept getting the cyans and magentas wrong ) and the new lab supplied me with European-sized matted prints which were undersize for the frames I’d already had. When I complained about this with the lab they said that usually, frames are cut -after- photos are mounted and matted, so it wouldn’t really matter if the size was a bit small. But, to save money, I buy pre-made or ready-made frames. I explained that to them and next time they made my matted ( photos with picture mats ) photos to standard sizes. As for the frames that wouldn’t fit, luckily my picture framer took them back and made some special ones cheaply. My customer didn’t know any of this of course. But my tip is this, if you buy ready-made frames, make sure that the mats or prints will fit! It’s no good blaming the framer if the don’t.
I bought online 2 custom picture frames from an internet Sydney picture framing company. I gave them the sizes which were for my graduation photos. The 2 frames included black mats which had to go over the photos. They were a bit dearer than other places but they said that they could ship the frames to me so I went ahead. I then got the frames, the mats, the perspex plastic glass and everything. There was nothing wrong with the custom frames. Later I finally received my photos. But when I went to put everything together the mats were too big for the photos and the pictures fell through the square holes. It turns out that the University photographer had made the photos "undersize" or a little bit under the standard 11"x14". Apparently I since found out that it’s better to get your photos firstly and then have them picture framed but I did them the other way around. Anyway then I had problems just to get the new mats cut because I didn’t know how to measure the mats’ overlap. Also I couldn’t find a picture framer willing to cut mats only. They all do "full framing" only. In the end I got a teacher artist friend of my mum to cut the mats. So my experience is that I won’t order custom picture frames online again. Too messy, expensive and complicated.
Hope you guys are better than the last picture framers I went to in Carlton. They didn’t give me a date for my picture framing job. Said they’d ring me when ready. After 3 weeks I hadn’t heard from them so I rang! They say they were busy and that they hadn’t even started on my picture frame! No empathy, sympathy or apologies for they tardiness! How rude! They only seemed to become nice to me when I threatened to take my job somewhere else if they didn’t frame it by the weekend. But they still didn’t ring me !!!! I went to their picture frame store on Saturday afternoon anyway and yes, my frame was done, but they still didn’t let me know. When I queried this with the lightweight sales chick she didn’t seem to have a clue and didn’t seem to think that it mattered. Wasn’t my picture frame ready after all, she said? I’ll never go back there again.