I have a question for the experts. As a customer if you go to pick up a head and it looks wrong what do you do?

As a taxidermist if a customer said I don't like the ears, eyes and lips, what do you do at that point? I just wonder what happens. Will most people just pay and take it home and not go back?
Ron

I would point it out and have. However, you should always examine a taxidermists previous work, and an extra 50 to 75 dollars spent will be worth it in the long run. Remember, that thing will be on the wall a while. I am always amazed at how some folks say " Well I went with Joe Bob because he was a bit cheaper than everyone else", yes and Joe Bob sucks and so does his work. Talk to other customers, examine previous work and let the taxidermist know your concerns ahead of time. I always mention the eyes and the mouth on game heads and necks etc on birds. I also tell them of other taxidermists crappy jobs that I have seen. Let them know that you know what you are looking at and want to see. I have been relatively pleased with all my mounts, but I did spend an extra 50 bucks or so.

Out of all the taxidermists in my state, there are only a single handful that I would take my trophy to. Shop around.

If I was the customer I would say what I felt before any payment.

As the taxidermist:
Thankfully I havnt encountered this problem and I would expect clients to speak up if they wernt happy with thier mount. I am meticulous with details when the job is booked in. Custom & altered mounts are photographed every major step and ok'd by the client as I go.
However, if someone didnt like what they saw I would do my best to rectify it IF it appeared different from the job/contract sheet. Its your reputation that will suffer if you dont at least try.
If its just the clients view on, say, what colour an inner ear is or how much lip should show or that he thought 'wall eyes', (alot of the white in the front of both eyes showing), on deer was standard,I wouldnt be too worried and would maybe go through some refrence pictures with him.
(i hope all that made sense?)

There's good advice here, you should have interviewed your taxidermist before dropping it off. You should look at thier "commericial" work and not just thier competition work to get an idea of what youll be getting back.

I own a small shop and regularly get in customers that went to the "big" shop cause it was the "big" shop. Sadly, the "big" shop did a bad job on the work and now they bring it to me to "fix" the problem.

Ask for references, also ask to see their reference pictures(pictures of live animals that they use when mounting). Compare the live reference photos with the mounts and look at how close they come to each other.

Before you say that you don't like the way the work looks, you need to make sure your "right". Ive had several clients tell me that the "color" of a mouth is "wrong" cause it doesn't match the one they have at home. I bring out the reference pictures and show them what it "really" looks like. Then they suddently realize the thing at home is wrong.

I would suggest you take a pic of your mount and post it here. There are enough pro taxidermists on here that can give you an honest(hope you have a thick skin) opinion on the mount.

Hugh

If something doesn't look right, yes by all means ASK! You paid for it and it needs to be done right. Compare what you got with reference Photo's (live) of that species. You may not know exactly what is wrong but your eye will tell you if something looks out of place. Can't hurt to ask, better than going away bitter and the taxidermist left thinking everything was great. Sometimes there are issues with a particular animal than may prevent a certain look such as slip spots, scars, rub marks that were removed etc. But most can be discussed with the client and rectified.