White Sands National Monument

The latest news from my world

Richard Charpentier Notes from Rich, Tech Reviews, Wide Format Printing 2 Comments

Busy?  Yup, very busy over the past few weeks to be sure!  This morning I’ve been running canvases at the gallery (yes, I know we’re closed on Mondays) and doing some additional work that I’ve meant to get done.  So, here are the quickie updates!

Screen shot 2009-11-30 at 1.09.28 PMUpdating my personal photo site

While working on canvases today I finally had the opportunity to update the RichCharpentier.com photo part of the web site.  I’ve still got to rework the whole site at some point in time, but it won’t be today.  So, I at least uploaded files from Coyote Buttes and White Pocket.  I’m pretty happy with the results!

As always, I welcome suggestions from folks in “net land.”  I’ll take all the feedback I can get, so let me know what you think of the new galleries, and the overall layout of the static website.  Clearly I spend more time on the blog than the static site, but I’m not sure what else to do with it!

Mac’s New Magic Mouse

Guess what I received for my birthday?  If you guessed Magic Mouse then I’d know you’re good at reading these little section titles.

So far I have been amazed with Mac’s newest “toy” on the market.  The mouse works well, and I love the slide touch sensitivity!  Unlike my older wireless Mac mouse, I will never have problems with the little roller ball because there isn’t one.  After working with my new mouse at home I can safely say that I’d like to have one here at the gallery as well.  For the moment though, the new mouse will be staying at home.  🙂

Way to go Apple, this one is a winner!

How far do you go before you’ve gone too far?

I almost titled this section, “The customer from hell,” but then decided not to.  However, I did just tell you my alternate title, so let’s talk about it.

Personally, I pride myself on timely turn around, making customers happy, etc, etc.  But I find myself wondering today, how far do I go to satisfy a person who just can’t be satisfied?

Recently I did several prints for a younger customer.  The images are to be used in a class project.  How fun?  In addition to doing the prints he requested that the images be mounted on foam core.  While we reviewed his photos I showed him the foam core we have in stock and he was fine.  But in all honesty, he wasn’t.

When he returned to pick up his images, mounted and all, he stated that he had wanted thicker foam core, and not white, but in black.  Uh, okay?  I don’t do the photo mounting here, Ian does.  We both agreed to redo the prints (at my cost) and make them available for the thicker foam core which we didn’t stock.  The customer came back with the foam core later in the day, and we realized that it was way too thick for us to cut.  We had to get another framing shop in town to cut it.  No problem there.

Well, once we presented the client with the newly mounted, newly cut images he was unhappy again.  He felt the edges were crooked……..Okay…….?!?!

So, I reprinted once more.  At this point the $50 print sale has cost me $75.  Working against myself if you ask.

Well, to wrap up the story the kid also wanted to swap out a print, bring in a new edit, etc.  I purchased some additional thick foam core at my own personal expense and offered it to him this morning to use with any framing shop he likes in the area.  The new foam core wasn’t exactly what he wanted.

So, how far do I go to help a customer out who told me he’s just trying to get a C on this project?  Ah well, sooner or later it was bound to happen……the unhappy customer has graced my business with his presence!

The one thing, I just hope that my efforts registered slightly.  It’s my first truly bad consumer experience here at the gallery…..  🙁

On the mend…..

Well, it looks like the calendar lifting the other day didn’t cause a hernia or something.  Feeling better, able to bend, although still a little sore.

On the jaw front……white count is still down, amazingly!  5 years of weird blood work, and it looks to me like it’s all tied to the tooth.  Gosh, I wish I’d asked those physicians in New England if the jaw infection could still be there…..oh wait, I did ask time and time again, and I was called paranoid and anxious for my trouble.  At least it looks like we’ve found a resolution!

There’s the wrap

Well, that’s about it for today folks.  Gotta finish veneering 5 canvases and I’m calling it a day.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and long weekend to boot!

Comments 2

  1. Your blood work being normal is terrific. So happy for you. It is so interesting to me how that could be overlooked for so long. Weird. Here is to good health from here on out. Namaste!

  2. Hey – good to see that the jaw thing is improving! Regarding difficult customers – remember your epiphany? Yeah, that seems appropriate!

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