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feedback: Sign trade supplies
Sign trade supplies, of maidstone, for royally cocking up my week,
individuals have done their best, but somewhere it’s going very wrong.
story so far…
phoned them last week, monday i believe, to see if they’ll price match a 4.6m x .6m lightbox with 5mm clear acrylic panels and all electrics, they could, and they could get it done in a few days for me, "no worries i say, so long as i have it for friday, the shop opens tuesday". "ok" they say.
thursday i phone at lunchtime to see how progress is coming along, no return call.
friday i finally remember they didn’t call back and call them, apparently they’re waiting for one part for the sign and they’ll deliver tuesday now. asked about maybe delivering the gold etch and other stuff today, but i’d’ve been charged another carriage anyways so left it.
my customer then says the glass is ready to be frosted and he’s dropping it around…. too late to order more, and no-one within about 30miles has any, so i decide that monday am i’ll go up to the supplier, get the etch and acrylic panels so i can at least cut the fascia vinyls and have it ready to go when the sign arrives.
6.30am i set of on monday am for maidstone, about 40miles+ and near two hours later, in i go and guess what… the one part they’re waiting for on the sign, actually turns out to be the gold etch and the acrylic panels.
the panels will be in tues am and they’ll get it to me asap.
i get a call tues to say that the wrong acrylic came in (?????) and that it’ll now be weds am for the acrylic and they’ll deliver wed’s, so i ask if they’ll switch the route the driver does and get the sign to me first delivery, rather than late o’clock, normally it’s not a prob, but i don’t really wanna be up til 3am making the facias up.
the vans don’t go out til midday and i’m usually last on the drop list, so rarely see anything much before 4-5pm, sometimes later but, hopefully they’ll deliver to me first, and be here by 2pm…. so i sit here, twiddling my thumbs, running a few local errands, do a site survey on another local job, fit a new wash basin in the new bathroom, re-seal all the joins on the kitchen worktops and around the bathroom tiles, etc, you get the picture… still no sign.
i figured i’d give until 4.45 before calling them, as i know they’re often later in the afternoon, i phoned at 4:51pm, and the bloody out of office message (ie, we’re going home in ten… feck you message) is already switched on, if only it took messages (hot) (hot) (hot) (hot). not even the decency to phone me..
i’m absolutely spitting feathers here now, my customer, luckily a long standing loyal one, is not impressed, but will accept a temporary sign, so long as it’s not banner, which is now coming outta my pocket.
sooo,
three failed delivery deadlines,
several wasted days waiting in or very local,
a 90mile round trip, costing 5hrs and about £20 in gas,
half the night tonight, no doubt, making a temp dibond sign with about £100 of materials from my pocket,
the promise of an evening cutting vinyl into the night because they deliver so late in the day, and no, i don’t want to cut the vinyl until i know the exact size of the panels.
So, from the bottom of my lower intestine, thank you Sign Trade, thank you for nothing.
I was gonna put this in the private uksg area of the forum, but i can’t be bothered now, I’ll also be looking for a new supplier of dibond etc next week.
grrrrr.
Hugh -
28 Replies
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Sorry to hear about this Hugh, are they your usual supplier? or did you place the order purely on price?
Some suppliers are cutting prices to get the work and saying yes to any deliveries, I think there is a lot of nervous peeps out there. In my experience 7 out of 10 trade suppliers do not give a monkeys
It seems they are following the way everything in this country is going
🙁
vote with your feet hugh and never use them again
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I use them for a number of things, and to be honest, they’ve not let me down before, i often even get same day delivery. it comes at a premium price, but means i can simply get on with my work.
this is a one off, but in future i’ll go with the company i got the original cheaper quote from, they said 5-6day lead time max, my local said quicker without me even asking.
i think the general reason they’ve given is that it’s the beginning of the month aand they’re waiting for stock to come in, maybe i’ve always been lucky in the past!
cheers.
Hugh -
You’d think in this climate companies would be bringing their A game. I once had this happen to me also going with the more expensive supplier only to be screwed in the rear end.
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feel for you hugh fire the sods.
bought a wheelcover from new supplier it arrived and i was not happy with it, they did say sorry and sent another, with no hassle.
the new one was just the same crap.
bought else where and all fine, so got 2 crap ones for the price of one to get rid of.
chris
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funny this comes up after our earlier discussion (gordgeko)
I phoned Fabricut on Friday morning asking them if they could deliver a lot of mirror dibond cut raised letters to me by Wednesday morning delivery so I could fit that same day. (Job was 3300mm wide by 900 deep with lots of letters) The problem was I was I waiting for the deposit to arrive before I placed the order, the deposit arrived at about 2pm and I emailed him the artwork at about 3pm, he replied to me on Saturday telling me no problem for delivery date request. On Monday I got another email from him telling me the delivery was sent and I received on Tuesday.
Best Price
Best Service
Same qualitysign maker and trade supplier, for me I don’t care and they deserve the business.
Don’t knock them until you’ve tried them.
Sorry to hear about your problems Hugh but just wanted to put all this in to context.
Good luck getting it sorted mate.
Cheers
Warren
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So Warren, what you are telling me is that when you left work on Friday you had had no reply from your supplier confirming you could have delivery?
What if you didn’t work Saturday?
It would be Monday before you could confirm with your client and more importantly too late to go elsewhere.
Oh and by the way, I have tried them and a good many of the others with varying degrees of success, but you are starting to sound like their salesman 🙂
I wish you good luck with whoever you choose to use, thats your perogative. But I think you have hijacked Hugh’s thread somewhat
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Well i’ll second what Warren says about Fabricut, i think the difference with them is that they are a sign shop too & understand the fact that sometimes we are all working to tight deadlines. Paul does go out of his way to do call backs, checking with you if he feels the artwork as a problem etc best service i have had from a CNC supplier. As to getting the call on a Saturday i would say that’s a bonus because most of the other trade suppliers i’ve used are strictly Mon – Friday
Kev
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with respect, if fabricut offer a great service, i’m unsure of it’s relevance in this thread 😮
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sorry if this sounds lie a hijack but it’s my opinion as well as my advice. It does not help Hugh with this job but I’m sure he might appreciate the fact that there might be another company out there than can offer him a better service. If he does not want to take my advice then fine but don’t keep moaning whenthe same problems arrive with the same supplier.
As for Fabricut I recommended them as a supplier and you (gordgeko) said don’t use them as they are a sign shop. Paul called me on Saturday as he told me he would be out the rest of Friday and would get back to me then to confirm if I would get the job on Tuesday or Wednesday morning as requested, it was simply a follow up courtesy call from him to let me know when I was getting it. Like Kevin said, what other supplier does than?
Hugh I’m sorry this has now become a bit of a hi-jack but my initial intentions were to give you another option for future work after somebody suggested "voting with your feet" and seeing as there was a new thread about this I thought appropriate to reiterate my opinion.
and as for the relevance of the thread, the thread was about bad service so wouldn’t you want to know who gives good service?
sorry and good luck.
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[/quote] with respect, if fabricut offer a great service, i’m unsure of it’s relevance in this thread
quote :I’d like to praise the services of Greggs the Baker. :lol1:Everytime I’ve placed an order, whether its for a pasty, pie or sandwich they’ve always come through ontime – everytime. :lol1: They even do Coffee now too! :lol1:
Me coats on and i’m out the door!
Heading towards Greggs
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cheers Warren, just wasn’t clear of the relevence from your first post, but thank you, i’ll consider them for the next time.
as i said, this company has not let me down before, well ok, only on the odd order and the van isn’t in my area that day, but otherwise no probs, difference on this occasion, is that the job really matters, i don’t have the luxury of several weeks to play, planning took longer than expected and we only got permission on friday, week before last.
anyways, thanks for the heads up on fabri-cut, do they do all sign fabrication, such as light boxes, or just cut letters?
cheers mate.
Hugh -
No Hugh, they don’t seem to make light boxes, just all types of lettering, flat, built and illuminated.
The sign company side may do them, but only probably the same way as you would, by buying in etc
There Warrens favourites 🙂
but hey, we all have our favourites
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Hi Hugh,
I too use this supplier all of the time, I only order my sheet materials and colour coded screws from them, but they have been pretty good so far. I did have an issue with some sheet material, dibond in a bronze/copper metallic finish, when you pulled off the protective film it left marks all over it, they tried more in the workshop which did the same, so they offered me a roll of vinyl in nearest colour to floodcoat it in. Not toooo bad.
I have just had a similar problem with a company i use for my flat cut letters. The brushed stainless letters i ordered which they gave me about a 4-5 day delivery time, didnt turn up for 2 weeks, when i rang them the second time about them they said their watercut machine was in bits as they had aproblem with it. Which i thought ok fair enough, not really their fault, stick with it but…. when i rang the third time to see where they are a few days after they were meant to be here again, they said they had a big job on and the watercut machine was in full operation on that job. Which i thought was a terrible way to operate, as theyd taken my money 2 weeks ago and told me theyd be here in 4-5days.
I wouldnt have minded if he had just said they would have been two weeks, at least i could have told my customer, who isnt due to open for another week from now so still plenty of time. Just dont like being fed a load of lies.
grrrrrr
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Matt, for letters give brimark a go 0151 652 6842, on steel they cut with a laser, so delivery is 5 days or so and finish is fantastic, the cut some steel letters for me recently 6mm high!!!
Nothing worse than being used as a cash flow supplier whilst being lied to
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quote gordgeko:Matt, for letters give brimark a go 0151 652 6842, on steel they cut with a laser, so delivery is 5 days or so and finish is fantastic, the cut some steel letters for me recently 6mm high!!!Nothing worse than being used as a cash flow supplier whilst being lied to
Your Favorites then, gordgeko?
you are starting to sound like their salesman 😉Peter
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quote Matt Hards:Hi Hugh,
I too use this supplier all of the time, I only order my sheet materials and colour coded screws from them, but they have been pretty good so far. I did have an issue with some sheet material, dibond in a bronze/copper metallic finish, when you pulled off the protective film it left marks all over it, they tried more in the workshop which did the same, so they offered me a roll of vinyl in nearest colour to floodcoat it in. Not toooo bad.
I have just had a similar problem with a company i use for my flat cut letters. The brushed stainless letters i ordered which they gave me about a 4-5 day delivery time, didnt turn up for 2 weeks, when i rang them the second time about them they said their watercut machine was in bits as they had aproblem with it. Which i thought ok fair enough, not really their fault, stick with it but…. when i rang the third time to see where they are a few days after they were meant to be here again, they said they had a big job on and the watercut machine was in full operation on that job. Which i thought was a terrible way to operate, as theyd taken my money 2 weeks ago and told me theyd be here in 4-5days.
I wouldnt have minded if he had just said they would have been two weeks, at least i could have told my customer, who isnt due to open for another week from now so still plenty of time. Just dont like being fed a load of lies.
grrrrrr
HI Matt,
like i said, usually pretty good and no issues. just emailed them (restricting the sarcasm and grumpyness to a minimum) asking them what time they’re gonna call me to avoid me spending all day yesterday waiting for them. #
who is the water jet firm? had one in crowborough contacting me recently, was gonna give them a try if their prices were ok. isn’t there another in eastbourne? seem to recall!
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[quote="Peter Normington"][quote="gordgeko"]Matt, for letters give brimark a go 0151 652 6842, on steel they cut with a laser, so delivery is 5 days or so and finish is fantastic, the cut some steel letters for me recently 6mm high!!!
Nothing worse than being used as a cash flow supplier whilst being lied to[/quote]
Your Favorites then, gordgeko?
you are starting to sound like their salesman 😉Peter[/quote]
Sorry Peter, just having a bit of fun with Warren 🙂
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the firm i use for my letters hugh is smart group. Have always had good results from them, although a local supplier will be good, will they have the right materials though if they are not specifically for the signtrade?
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quote Matt Hards:the firm i use for my letters hugh is smart group. Have always had good results from them, although a local supplier will be good, will they have the right materials though if they are not specifically for the signtrade?
not sure mate, they’ll cut any material you want to give them i guess, if i recall, steel up to 4 or 6" thick if you want some letters the chavs can’t carry away.. jeez, that’d need some set of locators!
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Hi hugh
Dam m8 thats a nightmare, like you I use signtrade, handy as im up n down the motorway but expensive as you say. After a while I decided to go over to account with them but they refused me saying they couldn’t get insurance against me (hot) so Ive put a lot of my business elsewhere and getting better prices just a little more inconvenient.
quote :I was gonna put this in the private uksg area of the forum, but i can’t be bothered now, I’ll also be looking for a new supplier of dibond etc next week.grrrrr.
Hughtry europoint or blackburn metals for dibond both deliver blackburn are in Weterham I think, call me if you need contact details.
john 😀
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thank you John,
not sure why i don’t use europoint for panels, bit stupid of me i suppose! do they cut them? that’s one benefit of STS as they’ll cut to size, rarely with an extra charge.just had an email back (in reply to my slightly off tone / sarcastic email sent this am) telling me my box is on it’s way and will be here asap.
i never thought to ask if a 5m box would be in two pieces though, will have to leave it on the car roof all night if it’s one piece, it’s longer than my workshop!
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Blackburn in Edenbridge Kent
Rich
sorry Hugh remember talking to you when you were on your way back is it all sorted now? -
apparently the box is on it’s way mate, will know if it’s any kind of priority for then in the next hour i guess.
cheers.
Hugh -
well, the sign arrived at 3.30pm, i had it in my head it was two piece, but it was single, no bother, it’s too long at 5m to go in the workshop so it’s now behind the front door… thru the living room and into the kitchen with about 8" to spare 😮 mrs P wasn’t overly chuffed!
literally just finished applying all the vinyl, cutting some more gold etch and making an open/closed sign with the magic touch CL printable vinyl on some 3mm foamex, prepared the invoices, sorted out all the tools and fixings for the morning and done a quick job for the mrs work too,
now all i gotta do is get to the house, have a shower, a well deserved cuppa, get to bed and start all over at 7am to load the car & get to the job for 8am,
phew!
oh yeah, to make registration easier i used an old roll of clear app tape, which i rarely ever use, worked fine but……
tip of the week…
an even better use for clear app tape is to use it for protecting the vinyl and acrylic by flood coating each side of the sign with it.. sorted!Hugh
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Moved to a new thread.
Dave
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Hugh, do you know the website address for Sign Trade Supplies? Im sure its the company who I ordered a projecting sign off over 2 month ago just for my workshop and never heard anything back.
Luckily I never paid.
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quote Paul Humble:Hugh, do you know the website address for Sign Trade Supplies? Im sure its the company who I ordered a projecting sign off over 2 month ago just for my workshop and never heard anything back.Luckily I never paid.
Dont think they have one Paul, its never been quoted on any paper work
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quote Adrian Yeo:quote Paul Humble:Hugh, do you know the website address for Sign Trade Supplies? Im sure its the company who I ordered a projecting sign off over 2 month ago just for my workshop and never heard anything back.
Luckily I never paid.
Dont think they have one Paul, its never been quoted on any paper work
Just checked through my work PC and I was thinking of Smart Group.
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