Alyice on November 13th, 2009

Upcycled Canvas

Three weeks ago, I heard about two companies offering a free 8×10 canvas to new customers. All the customers had to do was pay a modest $14.95 for shipping and handling, upload their image, and wait for the canvas to arrive.

Always on the lookout for a good bargain and a great company to recommend to my colleagues, friends, and family, I opted to give both companies a try. The second company, Canvas Brothers, did such a great job with my canvas that I immediately twittered about it—and followed up with a thank you note to the company’s staff! (They even took my suggestion and got on twitter.)

The first company, however, was a huge flop—and not even worth mentioning here! Aside from the lousy quality of the canvas, their customer service sucks. It took me over a week and five emails (2 via their online form, and 2 via my email account) to get a single response from them, I was even polite when contacting them, stating what I felt the problem was with my canvas, sending them photos from every angle, and asking how the issue could be resolved.

Copyright 2009, Alyice Edrich
Original image for 2nd company
Wanted a little black to show on front and all black sides
© Alyice Edrich, 2009

When I finally did receive a response, there was no apology for the crappy job and no attempt to make right what was wrong. What I received was an email that simply stated they had done their best job and had I wanted something better I should’ve went to a professional service.

Huh?

At $50, per 8×10 canvas, I was pretty sure I was paying for a “professional service”. Okay, so I didn’t technically pay for the canvas, but I had every intention of sharing their company with my circle and possibly buying more at some point in the future. So even though I received my canvas “free”, had I bought it from the company, I would have expected better treatment as a customer.

To be fair, the print quality was good. I was pleased with how the print matched the image I sent in. What I wasn’t happy with was the bubble wrap envelope it came in or how crappy the image was placed onto the canvas—as though someone thought so little of me as a customer that he/she just threw the canvas onto the wood frame and slapped in some staples without so much as checking to make sure that it was aligned correctly.

Part of the image fell off both sides of the frame, as well as the top of the frame. It was set onto the frame slightly crooked, the corners buckled and were folded twice, and the back looked as though a child had come along and cut up the canvas for them! Normally, I wouldn’t have cared if the back looked crappy since it would be sitting against a wall, but it just gave me one more reason to be disgusted with my sample.

You know, I looked at that canvas, then the other canvases I own, and I just couldn’t believe that this company thought the poor workmanship was “their best”. Ah well…

After a few days of staring at the canvas, I got a brainstorm. Cut it up! Take it off the wood frame and place the images, separately into two matted frames. Now—instead of one Christmas present, I had two! So I guess you could say that I turned a bad situation into a positive, saved the landfills, and essentially upcycled.

Keep Creating

Disclosure: This is “my opinion”. It is not an endorsement, express or implied..

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One Comment

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lisa says:
Yay for upcycling! Great image, too!
Posted at 3:35 am November 14th, 2009

AlyiceEdrich.com
I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

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