I recently had an incident where I quoted a customer to replace rattan in the chair back. She lived some way out and decided to use someone closer, although R350 more expensive per back, than me. She queried him about his price, and this was his response:
“…offering you the machine made rattan not real natural rattan” “ours is slightly thicker and stronger and a lot better looking”
“no need to add stain once completed, which you’ll need to do it that at an additional cost I am sure.”
Guess what? 2 weeks later this customer is still waiting to get her chair back.
Okay, so, about the price, and passion: while this is my income I would rather book in 3 chairs at a lower price, than loose all because the customer cannot afford it. Does it make sense?
Clearly this guy has no understanding of the cane webbing manufacturing process. UNLESS the chair has holes in the frame, and the rattan go through the holes, it is sheet webbing/cane webbing/machine webbing… My offer was on natural cane webbing, real, quality natural rattan webbing. And yes, it is machine made, accept mostly for the diagonals, which is done by hand. I can not see a machine performing that part of the weaving. I will repost the Youtube video of the production process.
As for stain – yes, if you need it t match other older furniture, unfortunately staining is inevitable. Personally, I avoid staining where possible. Since you’re applying stain to the skin of the rattan, it does not really “suck up” the stain.
As for price, if he reads this he should come to me so I can refer him to a more reasonable supplier than the one he buys from.
2 weeks for a straight forward replacement on 2 high-back chairs, no disassembly required – I am concerned for the customer.
Btw – I don’t know who this guy is, and I did not bother to ask the customer. I honestly for the customer’s sale hope he knows what he is doing. On the other hand, maybe I should consider raising my prices.