apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This is going to be a long one...Before I get into it, I have to say I LOVE APARTMENT THERAPY and read it daily. I'm not much of a poster, though, but do want to share this to advise everyone to NOT ORDER from Lumas.

I am involved in the worst customer service experience with Lumas. I fell in love with these Stefanie Schneider prints when I saw them at the Affordable Arts Fair and decided to purchase her Long Way Home series online via the Lumas Web site. I was so excited as it was my first piece of art work for my first aparment that I own and just moved into in Park Slope.

I should have known from the beginning that something wasn't right when the Web site wouldn't accept my order for some reason. I ended up calling Germany and it had something to do with their Web site not being able to process U.S. credit cards online. So, Marc Ullrich said I should wire the money to them, which I did the very same day at my bank. The bank charged an extra $45 for the wire, by the way.

That was November 2nd. They assured me that "once the charge has been cleared from my bank account, we will ship the photographs." Today is December 20th and I still don't have my prints.

Let me take a step back.

Two weeks after I placed my order I checked in with them because I had heard nothing. A few days later, a woman got back to me to say that there had been a problem with one of my prints and they had to reproduce it. My order would be delayed "two weeks." Ok - Not a big deal on my end.

Two weeks come and go and I check in with them on December 6th. I hear back from them on December 7th to say that they are being shipped UPS that day. Yay, I'm excited even though it's much later than originally expected. I will receive it "in the next few days."

Almost two weeks later, on December 19th, I haven't heard a peep from them and haven't received my order, so I write to them. I ask for the UPS tracking number and tell them I'm extremely frustrated by the whole exprerience.
I hear back from them on December 20th and they say: "we are very sorry to tell you that your shipping is lost on the way to the USA.
Naturally we produce your photos of Stefanie Schneider anew for free.

Unfortunately, you will receive your order not until january.
For that matter we grant compensation about 7% for your next order with LUMAS."

They obviously never sent the prints as they can't produce a UPS tracking number, and I would have no intention of ever ordering from LUMAS again after this experience. A measley 7% off on my NEXT order with LUMAS is an insulting offer.

I wrote to them to cancel my order, and demand a refund of the $900 I paid them on November 2nd.

It's really a shame since I love Stefanie Schneider's work.

By the way, throughout this whole process, Lumas never once initiated contact with me. Every single time I wrote to them to check on my order. EXCEPT, they did find the time to add my email address to their mass email list, so now I receive SPAM from them. Hooray!

Hello,

I read your post that I fund quiet interesting.
You should go to another web site as Lumas called Wanted (smaller prints and larger editions).

http://www.wantedparis.com

I discovered it by chance and I love what they are selling.
Regards.
--
Yves

Interesting post Mar. I've always checked out Lumas and wondered about ordering.
I find it interesting that on two occasions the offered to reprint the work you were interested in. They stat on the website that they limit thier runs to editions of 100-but seeing how williing they are to reprint I wonder....
Especially because it effects the value of the work. Some of Schnieder's prints have sold at Sotheby's or Christies-not at amount you could retire on but still...

Mar -
Thank you for this post. What a drag of an experience for you.

I find it VERY disturbing that Lumas suggested they would "reprint". Unless the size of the edition you purchased is open, the documentation of this print must state the exact number of the edition size. It brings into question the legitimacy of their claim. I am going to ask them about this as I pass by their store every day. If they are adding to the edition size by offering to reprint, that is completely unethical in the editions world and it misrepresents the work they sell. They may not care however since the service they provide is to offer large photo editions at a very low price. Many may not care that they are not playing by ethical rules.

I am really disturbed about Mar's experience at Lumas. I ordered a total of 4 prints from Lumas over a year ago and did it via their website and had no issues whatsoever. I suspect I didn't experience problems since the 2 artists I bought from are not as popular as Stefanie Schneider. Upon hearing the word "reprint" I would have cancelled my order immediately. I think Lumas has a lot of explaining to do.

I had a similar experience at Koo de kir in Boston a few years ago. I order photo prints and was promised them in a few weeks -took MONTHS! and I got very little feedback along the way, and then the sales people became very unpleasant to talk to. Luckily I had a friend who lived in the city (as I do not) who could go in and confront them face to face, because over the phone I got nowhere.

It's possible that Lumas (or the artist) is printing to order. It can be pretty expensive to make the prints, so some editions are not done in one go, but as necessary.

...but it sounds from Mar's post that Lumas suggested they would reprint. That's very different than printing a partial edition and finishing it at a later point.

In any event, it's too bad Mar had such a negative experience. Lumas' whole game is to print in volume and offer work at low to moderate prices. I kind of doubt that they are not funded adequately enough to complete an edition. They are making special deals with artists to generate large edition sizes since photography editions are generally quite small, and as a result, much more expensive.

I was really disturbed by the experiences you made with Lumas. I bought a picture (Henning Bock) from them online before Christmas, but when it arrived it was damaged on one side. I called their hotline and after I made clear it was down to the forwarding company, they offered to reprint it. I asked the same question as you guys – how can it be that they reprint if it is a limited edition?! I was told that they naturally do NOT reprint – they REPLACE the damaged/lost work, meaning: if you buy for example no. 3 of a limited Henning Bock edition and it is damaged when it arrives at your place, they produce another original as replacement and the damaged work will be destroyed so that it will still be Henning Bock no. 3 of the limited edition. That's the reason why they provide the artist signature on a SEPARATE sticker stating all details of the edition. You are supposed to attach the sticker to the work yourself when it is already on your wall. Hope this brings some light into the issue…Regards!

They represent 90 artist and currently 650 or more works. if the edition size is 100 this reflects a total of 65.000 prints. As only selected editons will sell completely they have no alternative but to print on demand. Nothing wrong with it as all artists do it anyway.

I placed an order for shipment to Italy back in November and received my 3 prints within 2 weeks. Everything worked out perfect for me, quality of prints is absolutely ok so is their service.

Otherwise Christies would not accept their editons for auction anyway.

Regards!

Dear Mar,

Your initial posting isn’t giving the whole story:

You completely forgot to mention that we offered an additional work of Stefanie Schneider without charging for it as a compensation for the hassle and delay. The work SSC07 you received as a gift sold out very quickly – so it was definitely a good one. Our gift reflects 30% of your order value. It would have been accurate and kind to mention this detail, too. At the end you confirmed to be happy with the solution found and the works shipped. The delays you experienced arose December 2005 / January 2006. It all happened one year ago.

You wonder why I still remember this single order? Yes, problems like this happen very rarely at LUMAS. I personally apologized for the delay and personally sorted out the problem for you. I answered all your emails within one day. I provided detailed explanation what went wrong. It was down to exceptional circumstances which happen once or twice a year. If this would occur frequently you would see it posted here or elsewhere.

Regarding the reprint issue: if a print gets damaged by us, the forwarding company or a customer of LUMAS it’s returned to us, destroyed and printed again. For this reason the signature of the artist (this is the core value or DNA of an edition) is on a separate sticker. This is common in the entire art market. What else should we do? The total number of prints is 100% fixed and preserved.

Laura’s assumption is correct, the editions are printed on demand for various reasons. Again this is common practice.

Hope this clarification is helpful.

Best Regards to all,

Marc Ullrich
Co-Founder LUMAS

I too fell in love with Stefanie Schneider's work.
The Lumas prints are digital and good, in editions of 100 but Stefanie Schneider also prints in editions of 5 that are even more beautiful due to the analog process she uses. I bought one years ago and I'll never sell it. Long way home.