Options
Art Leather is not archival, far from it
Our wedding album was assembled using prints and an Art Leather album 23+ years ago. Bonnie pulled the album out this weekend and the cover was oozing black stuff. It was stored on a book shelf in our bedroom, not in the basement. The books that were on either side of the album are stained black.
Bonnie works in the lab at Creative Memories so she took the album to work to test it. Turns out the cover is 'bound' with PVC plastic, one of the most photo 'unsafe' materials known.
She emailed Art Leather as the album is supposed to have a lifetime warranty. The reply back was that they were sold and the new company will not honor the old warranty, but they will do a new cover for $95 plus shipping.
Unexceptable.
My concern is from my now defunct studio. We sold close to 200 Art Leather albums. Probably a couple of hundred folios that were made of the same material. What do I do when former clients start calling me at home about their albums???? I did not offer a warranty, but I did include the Art Leather warranty card and explained their replacement warranty.
I am disappointed in Art Leather and concerned for my past customers.
Tom B
Bonnie works in the lab at Creative Memories so she took the album to work to test it. Turns out the cover is 'bound' with PVC plastic, one of the most photo 'unsafe' materials known.
She emailed Art Leather as the album is supposed to have a lifetime warranty. The reply back was that they were sold and the new company will not honor the old warranty, but they will do a new cover for $95 plus shipping.
Unexceptable.
My concern is from my now defunct studio. We sold close to 200 Art Leather albums. Probably a couple of hundred folios that were made of the same material. What do I do when former clients start calling me at home about their albums???? I did not offer a warranty, but I did include the Art Leather warranty card and explained their replacement warranty.
I am disappointed in Art Leather and concerned for my past customers.
Tom B
0
Comments
I would however ... just to protect your own butt tell your couples to keep the album out of the sun and keep it stored in a "box". Currently I order "storage suitcases" for like $30 for my couple. Throwing it in for free. They love it, and hey, ... worth the money to me ....
Depending on how P'd your are you could try one more time in writing then go to small claims.
Based on your statement, Art Leather has a written life time warranty. You have an Art Leather product with a defect.
Simply stating that the company is under new ownership is not sufficient to void the warranty. Upon purchase did the new ownership contact Art Leather product owners and inform them that they would no longer honor their warranties? Also what was the legal terms of the sale? Will they show up in court with valid legal documents defining the terms of the sale?
Unless they come prepared they will likely lose in small claims.
Sam
We stored our album properly.
It does not matter, the albums are made by bonding ground leather to pvc. The pvc will always leech out and the outgas will damage photographs. Not 'might' damage, 'will' damage. My wife works in a lab that tests materials and albums for archival storage, she did a chemical analysis of our album and her lab is doing further testing on it.
When we had our studio, we were actually pretty pleased with Art Leather's products and services. I would guess that we used them for 10 years.
Sam is probably right about this but I do know one thing with absolute certainty: the new owners will certainly claim that they are no longer liable for the warranty, whether they truly are or not. Don't take them at their first word.
A former sports shooter
Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu