What's this heading "Trappist Picture Framing ? The Music Licence Scare " all about, you might well wonder. Let us explain. "Trappist" refers to a branch of the Cistercian order of Christian monks known for their rule and habit of silence.  And the term "Picture framing" is common enough to be self-explanatory.  So why the two terms together?  This is because some dodgy, dubious folks tried to trick us into believing that listening to music while we worked was illegal, that we needed to buy their music Licence and that unless we did that, they would prosecute us, get us fined and even jailed.  Now then, for those of you who are not in the industry, and thus ...

The motive for publishing this post conferring about the Duty of Care ( hereinafter abbreviated to DoC ) conundrum arose after yet another incident at our factory outlet some weeks past. To begin with, let's describe the contretemps.  A young couple visited our store wanting to buy four of our A2 Natural Ready-Made frames for the prints they had with them.  We duly showed them the frames they were looking for, which, by the way, were glazed with clear glass, not plastic.  The couple liked the frames and paid for them. They then blurted out that they were in a hurry and that they ...

Just about every other time we answer the phone we are greeted with a "I found you online!", or, " I found your picture frames online!" , as the introduction to a Customer's telephone inquiry. While this is stating the obvious, users find us online because we have a web site, because its contents are published online, because search engines display these, and thence people find it!  What is not so obvious are the many, electronic,  processes, protocols and procedures used to make all this possible.  In this post we will endeavour to explain what and how this works.  Perhaps the very first step is to fire up one's PC, load up one or more programmes and then create web pages ..

This post "Goodbye, eBay ..."  is really a literary elegy reflecting our recent commercial divorce from selling  online via this eCommerce platform ( hereinafter referred to as 'eB' ). Our decision was prompted by yet another of their "throw-you-under-the-bus" decisions which was emailed to us by either their one of their AI bots, or one of their anonymous apparatchiks, we don't know which.  But let us begin.  We began this selling online relationship way back around in 2009, initially lured and, later seduced, by their enticing promises of easy, profitable sales. Alas, it was not to be... 

This month's post "Googling the right search terms" was sparked by an unknown visitor's, or visitors', persistence in seeking results for an unusual ( antithetical actually ) search term "square A2 frame" which is an excellent oxymoron. Why? Because A2 is an internationally recognised and adopted, rectangular ( not square ) plane being, to wit, 42x59.4 cm. It's also equally surprising that the unknown user, or users, persisted searching this term for several weeks. How would we know this happened, post readers might well ask?  Ah! we would retort, we know because we pay Google Ads to tell us every day what users search for, or with, that's how. As an online retailer spending copious amounts of advertising dollars with Google, Bing, eBay, Gumtree and other online search engines, platforms ...

This post will deal with the humdrum and slightly annoying topic of uncollected, abandoned picture frames and akin picture framing goods. We will  begin by saying that an unglamorous part of our online business retail of ready-made picture frames and the factory manufacturing of custom picture frames is the non-collection and ensuing abandonment by Customers of orders and custom picture framing jobs that they ordered. Each year this consists of anything between 10 to 15 assorted online orders and custom picture frames totalling in value between $1,000 to $2,000, some of these orders are shown below. Individually, nearly nearly every order is worth less than $200.  This amount is important, as it will be seen a little later on as we continue reading.

Apropos change-of-mind returns - it happened to us again last week!  A Customer brought back an 18"x24" black wood poster frame he'd bought earlier in the week claiming that "My husband doesn't like it" , and  adding" Can I please have my money back". We checked the poster frame for dents, dints, damages and breakages, and, on finding none, we refunded her money, and that was that. Nothing extraordinary, one might say, so, what's the big deal ? Nothing remarkable, we will segue, except to say that the refund that the Customer asked for called is called a "change-of-mind" ( CHOM) refund, and one which, legally speaking, Customers are not entitled to. To quote the Australian Consumer Law, Customers, or consumers, are not entitled to obtain refunds "when they got what they asked for but simply changed their mind".

We venture to say that our refunds policy is not only progressive and fair-minded, but that it's also quite generous and at the forefront of the picture framing industry.   We propose this commendation because the Australian Consumer Law legislation, in specific cases, restricts the payment of refunds ( inter alia ) by excluding this entitlement to certain Customers where and when  "  ..  Customers just changed their mind about buying a product,  or found the same product cheaper elsewhere , or simply decided they didn't like the products or could not use it ... ".  Felicitously for all Customers, our Terms and Conditions of Sale page advises that they can return most goods ( Conditions and Limitations ...

Ah, "The Tyranny of Distance".  While many are the readers who are likely to have read, or at least heard of, Geoffrey Blainey's eponymous 1966 history book,  just as many may not be familiar with the book title's subjective, relative  meanings, or its nuances and varied, variable contexts.  And these can be many.  Yet the fulcrum upon which all these tyrannical propositions operate is the sum of  the difficulties and disadvantages posed by Australia's, geographical, long distances.   We could, for instance, in today's discussions about energy, posit that neither the Northern Territory, nor Western Australia, will ever able to cooperate  and economically participate in Australia's ...

We will begin this picture frames online store prompts post by briefly revisiting the Year of Our Lord 1776. In was in that year that a political economist named Adam Smith, published  the momentous book "An Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations". From this work sprang the memorable passage: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect  our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”.   Succinctly, what we are told, is that back then, businesses, whether small, medium or large, provided and ...