Is it just me?

[upthewall]

At first I thought it was just a bad run of luck, but this is really getting ridiculous. Out of the last I say about ten jobs I have had defective material on at least six of them. Not just from one manufacturer either, it has run the gambit from York (Candice Olson) to Patton and Brewster. Is this just a sign of the times; cut backs, layoffs...etc. at the manufacturing level: or is it just me?


Has anybody else out there had any problem with this?

[My-T-Fine]

I've been noticing it getting worse for years. I really don't think there is any quality control anymore. Some of the defects are so blatant I just can't understand how they made it out of the place...I just completed a boat for the second time at the designers expense as I told her the stuff was defective and she said I was too picky to hang it. Well apparently the client was too picky as well :headslap:

[HangingInThere]

I may have mentioned on the forum an experience I had once with a manufacturer's rep, but just in case... I was installing a triple drop match that began to have subtle shading problems. Rep ran me through the usual, "Did you shade the paper prior to install, etc. ?" I replied, sure did!! However, I don't have laboratory or the manufacturing control you would have. Conditions are not ideal with clouds oft times affecting the amount of sunlight and casting shadows, etc...

Well, anyway, he says to me that checking records there have not been any calls regarding this particular product. And then, the kicker..."If we don't get a certain number of calls, then we are doing too much quality control."

[Bill Archibald]

"If we don't get a certain number of calls, then we are doing too much quality control."

that's one to be framed and hung on the wall

The last best one to be quoted from industry insiders was when wondering what to do with returned defective goods, "just keep shipping it until it don't come back"

[upthewall]

Well it happened again.... At a job just this week I was hanging a Norwall product, one of their "The Works" branded patterns. Low and behold the face of the material just started flaking off under my sponge. I even tried gingerly hanging it with a wet microfiber towel and still just flaked off like snow storm. The reps answer was that I must have left paste on the front of it...Duh! It was happening as I was putting it on the wall.

Thankfully the retailer of these products is a good friend of mine and I was able to get a replacement pattern and get back to it and even stick to the schedule, ( the client is high profile and timing is everything) but are you ready for this... The replacement pattern was a solid color 20.5 inch material that had a 1 inch white line one every seam. Needless to say 8 hours and 48 double cuts later the job was completed and looked great.

I would just like to thank the genius rep for his valuable insight and genuine interest in the quality of his products. Please don't mention that I took his junk product and made it look good. I think he should feel free just to throw me under the bus at will and I will continue to thank him when we are both on the unemployment line.

Sorry guys, I really don't mean to come here and complain, I just needed to vent.

[Jeff Evans]

Wow, I'm really surprised about that happening with a Norwall product.:roflmao::roflmao:

[My-T-Fine]

Norwall and quality go together like bees and honey. NOT!

[Chris Nelson]

Don't bees make honey? Does Norwall make quality? I did a norwall powder room last week and as usual came away thinking that norwall is to paper, like BEHR is to paint, not a good thing.:cuss::headslap::rant::ack::ack:

[Chris Murphy]

The "mass market" manufacturers have been producing crap for decades. It is why I personally charge as much to hang them as more expensive papers, like the UK pulp papers: there is always a lot of fooling around to get them to look good, either because of print issues or the lousy substrates they use. They don't get it, and my eternal hope is that they just die a painful death. Fortunately, they don't sell much to customers that hire installers. Unfortunately, they deal with us like we are homeowners who have never hung a sheet before. It'd be nice to see a manufacturer with integrity, say Bradbury (or Peter Fasano or Cavalier or any of the 'boutique,' small shop owners that provide good product and service) take a plant over and decide to do business in a manner that is based on providing a good looking product that performs as (should be) expected.

[upthewall]

I would really love to sit in on the orientation class for new factory reps.

Okay class the first thing you have to learn is that no matter what goes wrong, it is the paperhanger's fault. No exceptions ever...Admit to nothing. Oh yeah and their labor is worth nothing to us. Even if we are totally at fault. See we wrote it right here on the label.... just in case you forget!

Never mind that the only wallpaper you will ever hold will still have the cellophane on it or that the extent of your expertise consists of " my yes that is a pretty pattern." Anybody seen my commission check, I left it right here by the expense report.

Those silly paperhangers and their customers think they can push you around....Don't worry by the time this class is over, you will know just what to say to cover your @ss under any circumstance. Well, I hope this was informative..now I have to go spend our whole nationwide advertising budget on a stripper.:banghead::banghead:

[Chris Murphy]

Speakin' of the devil: http://www.paintsquare.com/news/article_news.cfm?id=3585&nl_versionid=393&trackid=6175753

[Rusty]

The problem I'm experiencing has been the back ordering of materials. One of the jobs I'm doing now has 10 different wallcoverings. Only 3 of the 10 are in stock. On another job, I have 3 different grasscloths and 2 of them are backordered.
This has happend a few times recently. Has this happened to anyone else lately? Rusty

[Lillian]

Funny you should mention defective paper. I too have seen an increase in defects. I have two claims going on now. One is for York that has been going on for over a year. Did I say I was persistant? The other is a seabrook with black lines all down the middle. Seabrook shipped a new roll right away. Gee if trying to stay in business isn't hard enough. Now increses in defective papers start up all over again....
What's a paperhanger to do???
Gotta love it
Lillian

[cgreene]

This past month I hung a Villa Nova wallcovering. 20.5 wide. Florence Plain. Label said Random. But it was a machine print gold horizontal string print on black. Knowing a machine print can be matched I always try and match if I can(this paper was matchable) so the mismatch of print does not highlight seam with every strip. They also said to reverse strips on label. This tells me they know the paper is shaded from one side to the other.(and it was) My question is- If they know the paper is shaded, why don't they reprint instead putting out shaded goods. I give them credit for tinting the ends of black paper, that was nice.

[HangingInThere]

Is the DIY market really that big as compared to what comes the way of the professional installer?? If the DIY is the realm of most manufacturers, then I can see where they just wouldn't give a darn...to just keep shipping the defective goods until they eventually find a home would make perfect sense for short term economics...but that mentality will eventually turn around and bite you...and continue to kill our industry...

[upthewall]

I think you have to come to the conclusion that the manufacturers really don't care anymore. Their reps are apathetic at best. The quality of the product is certainly suffering. It won't be long before all of the wallpaper is going to be manufactured in Asia anyway (Hence the Norwall/Patton article). Perhaps that's what they want. It is really sad a companies with rich histories like York and others are willing to give up on American quality and pride so easily.

A very wise man once told me that the definition of a professional is not somebody who doesn't make mistakes; only god can do that. A professional is the person who admits his or her mistake and then makes it right.

Given the amount of contempt at which they treat paperhangers.
I don't know if any of the manufacturers or reps ever read this forum ( I really wish they would).

If given the chance....

I would like to remind them that the longer your head stays buried in the sand the better the chance what is left exposed is going to be kicked.

[HangingInThere]

As a professional installer I could care less about pre-pasted goods. In fact, when they first began to appear on the market they were fraught with difficulties...which would be another thread. But what I was hearing back when they first began to appear was there was a paradigm shift in the works and manufacturers were targeting the DIY market.

Well, with the DIY market folks are not as knowledgeable as those of us who do this for a living. For many Do It Yourselfers I believe it's akin to buying a diamond. Hopefully, you do that once in your life and you wind up relying on the expertise of the professional. The clarity and acceptability of a stone, just as with wallpaper is not necessarily clear to most DIYs. Add to that the time investment of the DIYer installing and then having to remove and do it all over...I would submit that the majority will "settle" rather than go through the unfamiliar machinations involved with challenging and redoing.

If the DIY market is the mainstay of the manufacturers, then I guess I can see where this is all going. Unless we're going to be handling custom papers from service minded conscientious manufacturers, we'll be getting someone else's returns on a regular basis. This certainly appears to be what is happening. The results are down days costing us money. The manufacturers pass the liability to us with no recourse on our part to cover our lost time and expenses. Most state that their only liability is to replace the wallcovering. And, they want the "defective" returned to...what? Recycle? LOL