Aaron Brothers

Angela was great. Helped find things. Offered great suggestions. Friendly. Great service.

So these stars are all for Jason who has been working for Aaron Brothers for 7 years. I mention this tidbit because he knows his stuff. He has a designers eye and got me in and out in the blink of an eye and I had 10 prints to frame. I’m a snot and a perfectionist and his suggestions to frames and matting were better than mine! He was so friendly and professional. He considered things that wouldn’t have crossed my mind and he didn’t try to over sell me stuff I didn’t need. Great personality too!!!

Aaron Brothers have been around FOREVER and I have been a customers for over 10 years at the Berkeley location. The service I have receive was good from Omar. He was detail oriented with my picture matts plus the manager gave him good insight with the matts for my pictures. I was picking up an order that I had placed that was completed. Aaron Brothers in Berkeley have always had outstanding customer service and excellent frames and more… The price is pricey. but we are talking about precious memories that deserve the best. Go to Aaron Brothers were they provide fabulous frames, picture restorations service that will last for generations to come. Great investment with quality work.

Just called these guys to ask if they sell picture rail hooks. Justin’s response (with a rather rude inflection): «Nope», and he hangs up on me.

Best prices and selection in town! Options include custom framing, readymade frames, readymade mats, you can even buy a frame off the rack and pay to have the glass and backing upgraded!
The employees there have allot knowledge on custom options dry mount, floating mount, mat color suggestions, etc.
I’ve got 30+ frames on my walls from them and I’m very happy with all of them.
The one time they did make a mistake on my order the manager, Jason I believe, was very helpful and they made it right.

I have been taking my artwork to be framed here over the years. I come in with my treasure and walk out a week or so later with a real show piece, something I could never do on my own. I don’t know how they manage to do it with all the colors and styles available. Yes it’s pricey but check around you’ll find that you end up paying about half that of other professional framers. It is unfortunate that they don’t hire someone just to help people who want items other than professional framing. You are pretty much on your own in this regard. That’s why I didn’t give 5 stars but it doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere else.

This is the worst Aaron Brothers I have ever been to. The service is not worth shopping at this location. There is one male clerk in particular-​guy with buzzed hair and freckles, that is very condescending to customers. Both times I visited this location, I needed to purchase frames. I did not need custom framing, which seemed to annoy him. The first time I visited, I had a piece of art from Upper Playground that needed to be measured so I could buy the frame. He begrudgingly did this, all the while making rude comments on the art we were getting framed. The second time I visited (just last weekend), I needed a smaller frame so I waited patiently in line behind a woman who was being helped by him. He stopped what he was doing to look at me and say «um, is there something I can help you with?» OF COURSE there is something you can help me with, I’m standing at a counter waiting to be helped. Then he says «well, I’m busy right now on a custom order, you’ll have to wait». He said it as if I was not already patiently waiting my turn to have my picture measured. I much prefer the Concord or Emeryville locations as their team members are much more helpful.

Tatyana is hard working and very professional. She has great eye for design and makes a simple art pop, just by picking the right frame and mat. She works with your budget to ensure satisfaction.

I have given this place multiple chances. Every time, the customer service is consistently terrible. Perhaps they have too much merchandise for a store with 1 – 2 employees, so that they are too distracted to help the customer. Perhaps they just don’t care unless you’re spending big on framing.
Their student discount card is a joke. You can’t use it when you get it because you have to set it up online– which they cannot do, but that is irrelevant because they usually can’t find the actual cards! They’re prices are kind of ridiculous but some items are reasonably priced.
Overall, they do carry a lot of merchandise so I wish the customer service wasn’t so intolerable. However, after multiple trips there I can safely say the customer service is so consistently terrible that I will not go back.

I bought a nice painting from them a couple of years ago, and the staff has been nice, so I won’t give just one star, but I went in yesterday to buy a standard frame for a piece I just bought. I found 3 or 4 styles that would work for my purpose, but every single instance of each style had a scratch or ding. EVERY ONE! The staff person gave us some excuse like it was to be expected that there would be these kinds of problems. Ridiculous.

If you want rude and confused service, you’ve come to the right place.

My fiancé avoids this store (the Emeryville location to be exact), because of the attitude the workers here seem to have. This was confirmed tonight by A.B. workers at the Berkeley location!
Tonight there were 2 employees working in the store, a female manager, and a younger, male clerk. When I walked in the manager was helping an older couple with their purchase, while the male was assisting a woman with her custom framing questions (mostly aesthetically related, i.e. which color blue matting should i use to match this picture? what size matting? what size frame would look best?). When the manager finished helping the older couple, i turned to her for my transaction (a digital mat return because it was not the right size). She replied, «Let me help this other lady first, since she’s been waiting for 30 minutes.»
This was fine with me — fair really. However, the male clerk was helping this lady up until this point — so I wondered why he couldn’t either help her OR me. «What are YOU doing?» I asked him as I watch him standing there, while not helping anyone.
I quote his response: «NOTHING» (laughs).
I understand the «manager» is the only one authorized to do a return, but it is terrible service to admit you are doing NOTHING while making someone wait for the manager to come around. Also, couldn’t he help the other lady with her mostly aesthetic questions? Does this require managerial authorization?
A solid 25 minutes later the manger returns to help me, looks at my item again, then says, «I can’t return this item, it has been opened.»
To which I respond «Of course it’s opened, I told you I needed to return it because it doesn’t fit.»
She REFUSES to return the mat, acknowledging «I know it is not listed on the receipt we will not return an open item, but I cannot, my manager won’t let me» (brimming with attitude).
Did she not just tell me she was the only manager in the store, authorized to make returns? Then make me wait 25 minutes after she had looked over my item to be returned, only to tell me that she cannot return it upon second glance? While another store clerk stood there and offered no help, and admitted he was doing «NOTHING»?
I filed a complaint with corporate tonight but needed to vent elsewhere. AVOID!!!

In the fall of 2012 I was tasked with getting a frame and cut mat boards for a picture to match what is already in our lobby, which was all purchased at Aaron Brothers.
First, I brought in one of the set ups from our lobby in case it was needed for measurements and to match the frame and mat board colors. When I go to the store I’m trying to tell the clerk that we have ordered these items I need before from this store, and that all our project details should be in the system. However, I can’t get the clerk to even check to humor me, and as he’s measuring the example set up I brought in he literally says he’ll check the computer when he’s done! Does he not get I’m trying to save him the trouble, and me some time. I finally get him to stop and look in the computer system. We’re not there. In hindsight I’m not surprised, but fine, at least due diligence has been done, and I feel listened to.
After taking all my measurements, he starts to input them in the computer. Part way through, the system freezes! Of course… So he takes my info by hand.
Anyway, they have neither of the mat boards in stock, so have to order them. They tell me they will call me when it’s done, but that it will take 1 week to get the mat board, and 1 week to send it out to have customs cuts made. (The custom cuts are just standard windows for the picture to show through). Seems long, but maybe that’s standard for the industry. (spoiler alert: turns out its not, Aaron bros is just terrible)
After 2 weeks goes by with no phone call I call and wait on hold as they scramble to even find my order. Am I still not in the computer system? Eventually someone finds it and is able to determine that their distributor will no longer order one of the mat board colors I need, even though the manufacturer still makes it, and that they still haven’t ordered the one their distributor does carry. I tell them not to order either, that I’ll get them somewhere else and have them do the cutting. I end up ordering them from Joanne’s. They arrive at Joanne’s in a day and a half by the way.
I take the boards back to Aarons to be cut, and again am told it will be a week for them to send them out for the cutting. A week goes by and no call again. I call and go through waiting for them to track down the order again, and am told it got missed but am told it will get taken care of this time for sure (we’re starting to get to know each other at this point). Another week and I decide I need to go in person. When I get there the custom cutting ship out order turned out to be imputed as a custom framing in-​store order, so it hadn’t even been sent out. Not that it’s what I wanted, but It hadn’t been framed either for the record. I guess they just like to let things sit there.
Anyway, at this point, I’m very frustrated, an on top of that it’s now x-​mas season, and they still only have the same 2 clerks on staff from the fall, while the store is bustling with customers. These two were running back and forth from the register to the customer framing counter like crazy people while exasperated customers pile up.
I take my mat boards to The Framers Workshop (also in Berkeley) late in the day, and low and behold, they have the custom cuts done ON SITE the very next morning.
Between Joanne’s and The Framers Workshop this was a 1 – 3 day job. To Aarons its at least a 2 week job, and in my case, turned into several months.

This is just a review for Aaron Brother’s custom framing services. I am perfectly happy with their ready-​made frames.
I brought in a print to have custom-​framed. With a friendly, helpful sales associate, I spent at least ½ hour selecting the frame, mat, and liner. Paid in advance, and left satisfied with my decision.
Fast forward 1 month– I have not heard from Aaron Brothers about my framing job. They say they are having trouble locating the specific liner I chose. They are a nation-​wide franchise, right? Hm. I get a call a few days later and scoot over to pick up. But it’s the wrong liner.
Fast forward another month– I have still not heard from Aaron Brothers, so I call. They promise a speedy response. I get a call the next morning that my framing is ready. I once again drive over to pick up my piece. It’s wrong, Again!
I ask for my money back, and as the clerk is ringing up the return, I spy a ready-​made frame on the shelves that is –exactly– what I was looking for. And it’s $ 30 instead of $ 200. While apologetic for the trouble caused by this unfortunate situation, the manager didn’t even offer me a discount on the replacement purchase. A missed customer service opportunity, for sure. For all my trouble, I ended up with a great frame, but will NEVER take my work to Aaron Brothers for custom framing ever again…

I finally got in gear and framed two posters yesterday. They’re very helpful in the framing department and gave me a few different options to consider because I don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on posters. I have a total of six so this is going to be an ongoing project done in stages. Framing is always more expensive than you think it’s going to be. It’s $ 40 just for a mat job, $ 80 if you want them to put it all together for you. I can’t remember if that is mat + having them put it all together but I decided against that option and got one mat job for one of the posters. But tragedy struck when I was home assembling it myself. One of those metal tabs on the frame got caught under the cardboard backing and the artwork, etc. and somehow cracked the glass. I hadn’t been home for an hour before ruining everything. I called them and was prepared to take responsibility and just pay for new glass but the person who answered (not even the one who helped me with my posters) told me to bring it back and they would replace it. He put a new piece glass in himself at no charge. I don’t know if this is typical but I was thrilled with the service and care I received at this Aaron Brothers. I will definitely be bringing all of my framing projects back in the future.
I will add that I’ve never come here just to buy merchandise from the store, but I can understand the frustration of having to wait for one of the employees to finish up with an indecisive customer in need of custom framing. It took me 25 minutes just for one poster. I don’t get the impression that this store is set up for people in a hurry.

The prices and selection of frames are excellent. They seem to always be having their penny sale (2^nd frame for 1 cent)… or maybe I’ve just got good timing. Their mirror selection is great too!
As with other reviewers, the only beef I have with them is that they usually are understaffed. They don’t appear to have a cashier on duty so I typically have to go to the staff working in the framing department for questions and purchasing things. If they are busy discussing a framing job with someone, and you just want to buy something quickly, you might as well leave and come back another time.
However, their store hours are long (I think they close at 8:00 p.m. on the weekdays?) and I’ve had better luck when I go after work rather than during 9 – 5 hours… maybe that’s when artistic people are doing their thing?

I stopped here few days ago to get my sister a frame as a gift for her graduation. Although it wasn’t my first time been to this store, it was the first time I purchased a frame there, and the customer service was fantastic, i paid $ 12.86 for a cupcake frame!!!

I’ve never had work framed, so this review doesn’t address that aspect of their business directly.
Aaron brothers isn’t the best in terms of art supply stores. They sell art supplies, but their prices are never that great — this one looks particularly pricey when you compare it to the Artist and Craftsman shop just a block down the road. all the same, if you check in now and then you can get a good deal — they frequently have pretty nifty things on clearance, paints, pads of paper, you know, things. So once in a blue moon you find the exact item you want for cheap. And they sell more items which I guess art stores dismiss as ‘too crafty’, maybe? Ink and stamping material, embossing stuff, things like that which are a lot less common at Utrecht or Blick.
But the problem I ran into is that their store is understaffed. They had two employees working and both were at the framing table talking to customers. Fair enough. But they were talking to these same customers for easily fifteen to twenty minutes, and meanwhile I had no way to check out and pay for my selections. All I wanted was some stamp ink, dudes! You could have taken thirty seconds to walk over and ring me up. I KNOW you saw me — I’m six foot eight, you could see me over the top of shelves.
Maybe that’s against store policy or something, I don’t know. I’m not trying to gripe about the employees. I just wish there were more than TWO so that customers doing anything besides framing don’t get left standing around by the counter for ten minutes. I got impatient and left.
selection not so great, prices not so great, sales sometimes great, under-​average as far as a place to get art supplies.

They are currently having their one penny sale — a great time to buy frames. I am an artist and primarily buy wholesale but occasionally I need something faster so come here if I can’t make it to S.F. to go to Cheap Pete’s.
Their selection is good but they do not have many precut mats in stock and those are quite pricey. Luckily I have my own «in-​house» mat cutter.
Their selection of art supplies isn’t very thorough but would be fine for a common item if you are in the neighborhood.

I’ve been back to this store several times over the past 6 years and I can’t quite understand the disdain for this establishment from many of the reviewers. They have framed several valuable prints for me over the years and all of the works were of very good quality and price. From shopping for art supplies, gifts, or simply decorating our home with affordable pieces, I have been thrilled with the quality, affordability and accommodating business hours Aaron Brothers offer.
I’ve always found the staff to be pleasant but not overly helpful. Exactly what I would expect of a budget priced framing business.
You get what you pay for.