Some of you may be familiar with Chantrellposter.com a website setup to sell posters and art that was in the possession of the famous poster artist Tom Chantrell. I've made two purchase from the site since it's inception last year and my last transaction left me a bit put off by the inconsiderate service I received from the person running the site, Mike.
First off I'll say I have nothing bad to say about what's sold on the website, I've been pleased with both items I've purchased, but on the first occasion I never had to deal with Mike, I just checked out through the website and received my item. On this occasion I had to request the price on shipping for the item because in was a little larger in size, a very light piece of art on a light cardboard 20 1/2"x 25 1/2" in size. Upon requesting the cost I was told it would be 104.30 pounds to ship via UPS, but he would need my address to give me an exact amount. Knowing that UPS is extremely overpriced I asked if there were any cheaper methods of shipping (like postal) and provided him with my shipping information. He responded by telling me he could ship it to me Royal Mail Global Priority Parcelforce for 69.35 pounds (no indication that this was an estimate, it was a definitive statement). That still seemed a little high to me but I agreed, he sent me an invoice and I paid it.
Upon receiving notification that he had shipped the item he stated it ended up costing more than what he had told me, about 22 pounds more, and requested that I pay half of that. I was a little put off by this. First off the price I was given to ship via the postal service was not referred to as an estimate, which the UPS one was. Second I was put off by the fact he went ahead and shipped it anyways after finding out it cost quite a bit more and then came asking for more money after, when the considerate thing would have been to contact me before shipping it and tell me it was going to cost more, or as many sellers do suck up his mistake because he told me an amount and not ask for more money.
I reluctantly paid the money but told him I didn't particularly appreciate being shaken down for more money, especially when there had been no indication from him that the price he had given me was not right. He responded by giving me a bogus explanation that he could not get an exact price for ParcelForce without actually packing the piece up and taking it down there, all they would give him was a quote over the phone. This made me angrier, A) if that REALLY is the case that should have been told to me when he gave me the price, B) I went online to ParcelForces website and not only can you buy postage online you can get the shipping cost. Plus the wording of his email seemed to suggest that he knew this ahead of time and, that's what I get for asking for the "cheaper" method of shipping. C) the bottom line is if most eBay sellers can correctly estimate shipping costs without packing something up I think he could.
I tried to convey my disappointment in him not being more forthcoming, I wasn't as so much upset about the money but the fact it pretty much seemed like he knew what he was doing and failed to inform me of it. This basically led him the tell me it was clear I wasn't happy with how he ran the show over there and I should not buy from him again! This really blew me away, here I spent good money on this piece, he makes a mistake (or did it intentionally) and never once apologized only gave me excuses and between the lines blamed me for wanted a "cheaper" form of shipping!
So the point of all this was just to inform you guys, if you ever have to deal with Mike on the Chantrell site or his other many sites beware. He needs to take a crash course in customer relations, I've bought two things from Chantrell and two things from his own website and he's willing to lose me as a client due to his own mistakes! A few people have warned me about this guy and now dealing with him first hand I understand why. I'm also blown away by the fact he acts like this when he's selling someone's else's stuff. He might not care about losing a customer on his own website, but he's not the owner of what he's selling on the Chantrell site, he's working for the Chantrell family, so I'd imagine they wouldn't be too pleased to find out Mike is doing this kind of stuff and then telling people to bugger off when they don't like it!
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a little better customer service from someone supposedly representing an artist and their family than I would get off eBay! But from what I've heard Mike would rather deal with the really gullible big spenders, who don't ask questions, and don't care whether their being ripped off on shipping or just treated poorly in general. To me it seems like he's only running this site to promote his own merchandise, and I've also heard there's a little grey area in terms some of the items actually being from Chantrell's collection, a I know first hand some of the information he has on there is inaccurate, so do your research before paying those prices. I'm not saying don't buy from them, again I'm pleased with what I've bought, but be aware of the type of person you're dealing with, you're not dealing with anyone in the Chantrell family, and he doesn't appear to be that invested in the site with all the other projects he's into. Mike would do good to learn a little bit about how the treat customers, especially repetitive ones. Business 101 is when you screw up apologize, otherwise it just looks like you did it on purpose or just don't care.
