Poster Restorers, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[Neo]

Damn straight.
His frickin name is all over it.

Indeed.

With the company name "Jaime Mendez Restorations," among other reasons, I figured that Jaime does most of the work there, himself.  I had not seen the video of Mr. Castillo, in the other thread, and it seems that many of us did not know who all does the work there.

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In any case, I spoke with Jaime Mendez Jr. today, and he seems like a nice guy.  He is one of the folks who works there, and he assured me that he will do his best to fix the issues with the restoration.

[erik1925]

Indeed.

With the company name "Jaime Mendez Restorations," among other reasons, I figured that Jaime does most of the work there, himself.  I had not seen the video of Mr. Castillo, in the other thread, and it seems that many of us did not know who all does the work there.

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In any case, I spoke with Jaime Mendez Jr. today, and he seems like a nice guy.  He is one of the folks who works there, and he assured me that he will do his best to fix the issues with the restoration.

Brandon, I hope that comment of his equates to them doing the work over to remove those long creases, that were caused by their poor linen backing job as well as the bad touch ups done to the scratches that THEY caused. Anything less should be unacceptable to you.

Plus the shipping costs for the re-mailing, to and from them, this second time around.

No additional nickels from your pocket should be spent on this poster job.

[Neo]

Since they said they would repair it and send it back to me, even after the PayPal claim and all, I figured it would be a good gesture for me to send it to them without haggling about the shipping cost.  However, I know what you mean, and you're right that I should not (and will not) pay for additional work.

JM Jr. went into detail about what he will do to repair it, and I'm staying positive that he will do a good job.

[erik1925]

Here's hoping for the best, Brandon. 

[50s]

Hey, to those that appreciate my help and are in a similar circumstance, I'll list the shonky seller/ restorer on my  http://nameandshameyou.com/ website. I've had refunds through PayPal in minutes from just subtly letting them know they could be featured there

[erik1925]

Great site you set up there, Steve..

As the Jacobson debacle still resonates loudly, since we both had dealings with that dishonest individual, back in the day.  

[Neo]

Hey, to those that appreciate my help and are in a similar circumstance, I'll list the shonky seller/ restorer on my  http://nameandshameyou.com/ website. I've had refunds through PayPal in minutes from just subtly letting them know they could be featured there

Seems like that would be a good way to compel people to do the right thing. 


On the Humanoids restoration, I spoke with a couple people at JMR yesterday.  They said they're going to remove the backing, wash the poster, put a new backing on it, and Mr. Castillo, as seen in the other video, is going to do the restoration work.

I'll post a photo of the new work when it is completed.

 

[erik1925]

Seems like that would be a good way to compel people to do the right thing. 


On the Humanoids restoration, I spoke with a couple people at JMR yesterday.  They said they're going to remove the backing, wash the poster, put a new backing on it, and Mr. Castillo, as seen in the other video, is going to do the restoration work.

I'll post a photo of the new work when it is completed.

 

Great to read, Brandon! A complete redo, is the way to do it, and to remove those creases and added crinkles that JMR caused in the first place.

Good for you!

 

[Neo]

Thanks, Jeff.   

[Mirosae]

All the best Brandon. I went through a very stressful time with my resto on a couple of times. I can fully understand your fustration. I hope they can fix it.

[Neo]

Thanks, Rosa.   

[erik1925]

Brandon, you should ask for pics after the new work is done and BEFORE they ship it off to you, (along with detail shots of the 'trouble areas'), to make sure they did what they said they were going to do. Sounds harsh, maybe, but after that first mishap, I know I would be asking to see the final result, while still in their hands, vs. opening a tube with a not-so-happy surprise.

,  my man.

[Neo]

Brandon, you should ask for pics after the new work is done and BEFORE they ship it off to you, (along with detail shots of the 'trouble areas'), to make sure they did what they said they were going to do. Sounds harsh, maybe, but after that first mishap, I know I would be asking to see the final result, while still in their hands, vs. opening a tube with a not-so-happy surprise.

,  my man.

They said they are going to email me a detailed pic when the work is complete, hopefully next week.

[erik1925]

Right on!

 

[CSM]

Happy to hear that the situation should be resolved satisfactorily.  Of course it would have been much better if it had not come to this at all in the first place!

[Neo]

Happy to hear that the situation should be resolved satisfactorily.  Of course it would have been much better if it had not come to this at all in the first place!

Indeed.



I received this one for Humanoids from JMR, as mentioned here http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,4517.msg187812.html#msg187812

They took much better care with their work this time, and addressed all the issues with their previous work.

In hindsight, it could have been a little less of a saga, as I could have just sent it right back to them.  However, frankly speaking, the work and customer service from the first run with this restoration left me with little confidence that it would be different if I sent it back to them.

Although this second experience with JMR was not perfect, several of the issues were better this time.  There was something not right with the shipping, both times, as they sent me a tracking number, and the tracking status was not updated until the package arrived at my local post office.  It just said "Pre-shipment info. sent to USPS."  The first time, the package took over a week for a 2-day Priority Mail service, and this time it arrived on the expected day, but having no updates is annoying, and apparently JMR does not know the reason that happened.


This concludes my saga with JMR.  Thanks for your thoughts and advice with this.

 

[erik1925]

Good to read, Brandon.

Re the tracking updates or lack thereof. I have had that too, recently. And that really is the fault of the USPS. Ive called and asked, and the USPS reps told me that it is due to sheer laziness by employees who routinely forget to scan the tracking number into the system, as the parcel moves along.

Ive even had things delivered here, but according to the USPS tracking page, still shows an item as having arrived at the LA sorting facility. Annoying for sure.

But glad it all worked out for you in the end.

 

[Neo]

Good to read, Brandon.

Re the tracking updates or lack thereof. I have had that too, recently. And that really is the fault of the USPS. Ive called and asked, and the USPS reps told me that it is due to sheer laziness by employees who routinely forget to scan the tracking number into the system, as the parcel moves along.

Ive even had things delivered here, but according to the USPS tracking page, still shows an item as having arrived at the LA sorting facility. Annoying for sure.

But glad it all worked out for you in the end.

 

I've never had the problem with anyone other than JMR.  The woman at JMR said that they watched the mail carrier scan the package when he picked it up, yet there was no record of that scan or any other, until it arrived at my local post office.  On three different occasions, I spoke with a supervisor at USPS customer service, and they all said that they've never heard of the only update being the "pre-shipment info. sent to USPS."  All of them also said that there should have at least been a "package received by USPS" update, and the reason that update was not there was probably because there was something wrong with the bar code on the package.  Ultimately, when it arrived at the local post office, they would have to manually enter the info. in order to deliver it.

Basically, this all leads to there being some issue with the barcode and/or label that JMR printed, as there is an extremely low likelihood that all those checkpoints between here and California, that would have scanned the label, which would have updated the tracking, did not work both times.

[erik1925]

Sounds like JMR may have printed labels that were not sharp and clear, then, if BOTH times this happened with them.

All i was meaning tho, too, is that I have had any number of parcels that have shown as being initially scanned, from the seller's location, and then seen nothing on the USPS tracking page, until it has literally been delivered to me, with no updates in between departure and delivery.

[jedgerley]

side note: I could swear USPS priority used to update at every Hub along its journey but now its only updates for "shipping label created," the initial scan once dropped off at post office, and once its delivered.  Am I tripping? Paying more for less service.

[erik1925]

side note: I could swear USPS priority used to update at every Hub along its journey but now its only updates once delivered.  Am I tripping? Paying more for less service.

They are supposed to. And when i called to complain about that.. asking what good a tracking number was, if no one was bothering to scan it, along the way, the only thing the woman said to me is that "Some workers dont bother to scan it when it arrives at their location. Sorry about that."  Grrrrrrrrr.

Not the answer i was hoping for, but it explains a lot!

[jedgerley]

oh and I had a problem when the post woman picks up from my house. often those dont update and dont get an arrival scan and the tracking updates only once delivered. I always drop tubes off at the post office now.

[Neo]

The instances with a lack of tracking updates seems to be a more common issue than I had thought.



Not to re-open the box of worms with JMR, but after looking at this Humanoids poster a little more closely today and in brighter light, there are a few new, large touch-ups that I missed upon first look yesterday.

It must be something with the way JMR is doing the backing, causing what appears to be scratches, that need to be touched up.  Also, JMR left the tiny nicks and dings untouched.  When Poster Conservation did work on a few posters of mine, there were numerous dings and what not, and they touched up all those almost perfectly.  

Here are the new huge touch-ups, and all the minor little dings that can be seen in good lighting.






That is all.  I'll send work to Poster Conservation and Poster Mountain in the future.

[erik1925]

Brandon, just so i'm understanding correctly.. are you saying that large touched up area in photo #1 was NOT there, on the first go around, once you had gotten it back from JMR the first time?

So that is yet another (new) mark that they caused, that then had to be retouched over on this 2nd pass??

[Neo]

Brandon, just so i'm understanding correctly.. are you saying that large touched up area in photo #1 was NOT there, on the first go around, once you had gotten it back from JMR the first time?

So that is yet another (new) mark that they caused, that then had to be retouched over on this 2nd pass??

Yeah, those big blemishes were not there after the first backing.  They were definitely caused during the second go around.  I think that the person who did the backing is not doing something right.

I'm not going to pursue this any farther.  

It's cool that Mr. Castillo was able to make the initial problem areas much better, and the added scars add a little more character.