Rendez Vous

While the gallery has good collections of arts, I would not recommend making purchases there, it’s a dishonest business. Browsing — yes, buying — think twice.
I have great fondness for Rene Lemay’s arts, one particular piece I adored very much but was not in the size I needed. I asked James at the gallery about commissioning it in the size I needed. James quoted me $ 7500. Living in the US, I’m used to process money in USD, so I automatically assumed it was $ 7500 USD. I had a budget of $ 6K for a new large painting, so I countered $ 7K USD for the commission work.
Instead of showing integrity and correcting my misunderstanding, James gladly accepted my counteroffer of $ 7K which would’ve converted into C$ 8750.
Because I was actively looking for new pieces of arts for the house I’m moving into and getting quotes from other Canadian galleries as well as a French gallery in Paris, every single quote I received was in their local currency: Canadian dollar and euro. Then I realized that the quote from Rendez-​Vous Art Gallery was in Canadian and I was a fool for offering $ 7K USD when they offered me $ 6K USD (C$ 7500/1.25). So I contacted James about it, James insisted the original quote of $ 7500 was in USD and not Canadian dollar, and said commission work costed extra. But he agreed to drop the price down to $ 6K USD to keep the business.
Somehow I didn’t feel at ease, so I contacted two galleries in Eastern Canada who also carry Lemay’s work, asking quote for the exact same commission work, I was quoted C$ 6200 Canadian, and both told me there was NO extra charge for commission work.
If he did quote me in US dollars the first time at $ 7500, he was going to charge me C$ 3000 more than the other gallery for the exact same work. If he quoted me C$ 7500 Canadian which I believe that’s what he did, he was going to take advantage of my mistake of thinking it was in US dollars. Either way Rendez-​Vous Art Gallery is a dishonest business.