Plastix in Brookvale

If you’re looking for a perspex company which embodies value, professionalism, quality work, and customer service - look elsewhere.

I had four pieces of ceramic artwork which were going into an exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney which I took to Plastix to enclose in perspex frames.

In fairness, they got the work back to me in time, but apart from that there is nothing positive I can say about them.

Firstly there was a problem with price. I had agreed prices verbally with the manager, Brad Tregent, but nothing had been written down. When I went to collect them, the overall price was a good $200 on top of what I was expecting to pay. My efforts to talk to Brad about this later were dismissed. He claimed we hadn’t settled on prices for three of the pieces, which I know to be untrue since I always, without exception, get quotes in advance for work. One reason for that is that I have to build the price of framing into the price I set for the work. However, since I didn’t have any written proof and since I had to deliver the work the next day, I had to pay up.

Then there was a problem with the workmanship. Although all the pieces were wrapped and presented to me as if in good order, one piece had substantial problems with the framing, sufficient that I couldn't show it in the exhibition. For one thing, they had omitted to remove the backing paper from a piece of perspex and presumably then discovered their mistake, and so what I received was a work with unsightly bolts through the back. It also contained quite a lot of debris within the frame, despite my having reminded them to blast the work with air before sealing it. This was a problem since the frames are totally sealed and the debris is therefore sealed in with them. What it meant for me was that this piece couldn't be shown at the exhibition (where almost all of my other work sold), thereby causing me to offer one fewer piece than I’d offered the RBGS, and also depriving me of a potential $2500.

The most significant problem was with customer service. Attempts to discuss the problems with Brad Tregent met with a brand of customer service along the lines of “tell it to the hand”. He was brusque and dismissive in his mails. He put the phone down on us when we tried to talk to him. He did agree to look at the piece if we got it to him (we had to courier it, since we were frantically preparing to leave the country the next day) but then refused to countenance the suggestion they were at any fault. He refused to make good their error or refund me the $200 costs. In the end I had to rely on the goodness of friends to recover the piece.