-
Fed up and annoyed
I’m annoyed!
Gave a guy a really good price on a van, cos he was skint, and mocked it up accordingly ( didnt put much design time into it , kept it in the side panels etc.) – £90 + VAT for the job. Simple but neat and effective, and he liked the design.
Anyway hes gone to the window tint place down the road, who’ve said they’ll do it for £80 cash ( no vat )!…
"Sorry mate!" he said, unapologetically.
You just know the colour graphics wont be laminated, and that the design will be exactly the same as the one i mocked up… even though i plastered copyright all over it.!
All for the sake of a tiny amount of money that he wouldn’t think twice about pis*ing up the wall on Friday afternoon when he finishes at mid-day!!
rant rant rant!
D
Attachments:
-
21 Replies
-
It sounds like a punch in someone’s face is in order.
That’s what I’d do.
You can’t do favours for some people. At 90 squids he should be thanking you, not nicking your idea and giving it to some tosser down the road.
Man, I hate people.
-
I agree with Andy – people are vermin 😮
-
I’m also fed up with good decent signfolks like yourself who GIVE sketches to assholes like that!!!!!!
Did you at least get a deposit before mocking it up?
I don’t care how skint he is. If he was serious he’d have given you a deposit.
Can you or I go into a restaurant and order a custom dinner for free?
Will they show us the broccoli and steak before they cook it up?
Odd analogy I know, but you GAVE your ideas to the guy and the window-tinter,
and he in turn lowballed you.
It’s OK to give a rough sketch out after a deposit. Then who cares where he goes.
Think before you design for free.
Sorry for the rant, prentend you are reading this in your Mum’s voice.
(except the asshole part)
love….Jill -
£90 😮 😮 I think you should be charging more
if you had got a bit of a deposit beforehand then he was fucked as you would have had some money and the £10 he was saving doesnt come into the equation
another thought if you were doing it cheap and they undercut for the hell of it they really aint going to be making a fat lot
punch in the face still sounds like a good idea
just my 10 bobs worth
George
-
quote Andy Gorman:It sounds like a punch in someone’s face is in order.:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: … as we would only expect!!! :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
it’s true, you’re guy wont think twice about pi**ing that tenner plus more away on a friday night. Not too worry when his van looks like sh*t when it’s faded…. you can laugh and say ‘told you so’.
I had the opposite last week. Was doing a job out at a customers premises and the guy who owned the garage next door asked if I could put his name and telephone number along his bumper. Plain text 45mm high, one wee line. How much he asked. …… 2p worth of vinyl what was I thinking. So I told him £40 to cover me for my time to drive over and stick it on and drive back….. he nearly died and said ‘I can’t pay you as little as that’ ….. he gave me £60 cash!!! 😮 😀hope he needs more done! 😉
-
jills right of course … dammit!
I got caught a few times before I saw the light.
No designs now for tyre kickers. I’d suggest his window tinter was always going to get the job….
I put a big sign in my entrance years ago, said something to the effect ‘as a result of previous potential customers stealing my designs and ideas without paying for my efforts, no artwork will commence without a deposit’
I know one guy localy that turns on a stop watch in front of the client when he starts a design, and tells hem it is $35 per half hour for a design, and the money charged will be deducted from the final bill if they proceed. It is the same as asking for a deposit, but people tend to baulk at giving a deposit, but this way he has never had a refusal, or they usually limit his time to 1/2 to keep the costs down.
-
Yes, and you were too cheap too.
That’s about $180 for a whole van…I get more than that for two truck doors.
(not bragging…in LA they probably get $500)
But anyway….I have a devious idea.
Let’s all get that jagoff’s phone number from the sketch you posted.
Ask him if he does free estimates.
Say we have a big job for him with the potential of more to come.
After he shows up and puts in his bid, say
"Sorry mate, but the bloke doen the street can do it for a tenner less."
Let him waste his gas and time driving all over the UK.
Hell, I’ll call him too!
😀
Sound like fun?
Love….Jill -
great idea Jill !!!! 😀
-
quote Marcella:quote Andy Gorman:It sounds like a punch in someone’s face is in order.
:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: … as we would only expect!!! :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
it’s true, you’re guy wont think twice about pi**ing that tenner plus more away on a friday night. Not too worry when his van looks like sh*t when it’s faded…. you can laugh and say ‘told you so’.
I had the opposite last week. Was doing a job out at a customers premises and the guy who owned the garage next door asked if I could put his name and telephone number along his bumper. Plain text 45mm high, one wee line. How much he asked. …… 2p worth of vinyl what was I thinking. So I told him £40 to cover me for my time to drive over and stick it on and drive back….. he nearly died and said ‘I can’t pay you as little as that’ ….. he gave me £60 cash!!! 😮 😀hope he needs more done! 😉
I have a bus company here that I’ve been looking after for years, only a little company with 4 or 5 coaches, but he always leaves signage to the last minute, always rings me ‘looking for a favour’. I’ve learnt to look after him because he’ll always pay 20% or more than my bill as a sign of appreciation for helping him out.
Even if I don’t have to rush, he’ll always round the cheque up to the nearest $50.00
-
Ive had that before. Very annoying! Last time it happened though, I sent a bill for £50.00 round for design fees, & they grumbled but paid up, so it cost them more in the end.
If you have put copyright on your drawing, then you are perfectly entiltled to either bill them for design work, or breach of copyright should the van come out the same as your design above.
And for the record, that job should have been at LEAST £150 +VAT!!!
Cheers,
Gwaredd.
-
Shane, that’s a VERY good customer! We usually find the cheques are lower than the invoice….damn retention!
Our family tinting business is now doing graphics (via me) but only cut vinyl. I’ve never stolen artwork though….I’ve reproduced existing work to replace accident damaged vinyl where body repair has been needed, but I wouldn’t dream of nicking someone elses designs from the draft! Even if I did, it wouldn’t look the same!
Sorry to hear of you losing work to an eejit, who’s probably a cowboy tinter too at those prices! I hear of them all the time….window tint fades… Customer ends up going to the decent guy to pay up all over again….
As my Mum says, "Things that go around…..come around…"
Adam
-
If someone came to me (and I hazzard a guess anyone on here)with obvious computer drawn artwork regarless whether it has copyright on it or not I would ask many q’s as to origin of the artwork.
I often get rough sketches on a scrap of paper which I doub’t is from another designer 😀
As for payment a customer of mine whom was also a member of a small club I used to be in wanted something fairly easy for his car. So as a mates rate I charged him £20(materials were about £3) and he still insisted on writing a cheque for £25.00
-
Yeah Adam, I look after him, on the down side I have an Indian customer who always writes a cheque down to the nearest dollar, and never includes the cent component at all. A $97.50 bill always gets a cheque for $95.00. I just keep a running statement, and include amount not paid in the next bill, but it is a total nuisance. Gives me a lot of steady work tho and never complains about the price. I just put him down as an eccentric really.
I had a former good client come and see me last weekend. I used to do heaps of work for him but he was always trying to screw my price. Ended up telling him he should find someone else because I couldn’t maintain the prices he wanted to pay.
Came back the other day with a computer printout, complete with the other guys price printed on it, and wanted to know if I’d replicate it at a cheaper price. 😕
Told him I didn’t like the design, but was not happy to copy the other guys stuff anyway, and would rather do my own. 😉
I sent a rough of my design and cheaper price off, but he was not happy, never heard from him again. He did tell me when I submitted my designs tho that the other design was copyrighted, but he didn’t care. 😮
It is a pity other local sign shops don’t show me the same courtesy. 😕
-
hmmm kate and danny ….i really feel sorry for ya this thing happens time and time again . ive fallen into this trap far to many times ……..they want it emailed to them to show the business partner …fine a deposit please for the time ive spent on it …….eh can you print it out for me ?….eh deposit please ….i hate doing it ….im not a hard businessman if i was id have loads of cash!!!…its your work and youve put the effort in …you deserve payment for it
Brian
-
I think we have all had it happen to us at one time or another. After reading your post my first thought was get everyone to ring him for a quote as Jill said…
Just say to him that’s fine, but if you use my artwork you will have to pay a design fee, (£30-40 what ever) then write to the other company and notify them that if they use your artwork they are in breach of copy write law and you will take legal action against them or they can pay the fee to use it..
And I’d say £90=VAT is well cheap, that’s a lovely design
Simon
-
I bet the other company wont do the digi print on it. And for 90 quid for that he should have bit your hand off, could have easily been double.
-
He probably said "If you can beat this price you’ve got the job……."
Ask for £140 and he may have got it done for £130??I think £90 is too cheap as well, a plumber wants £40 for call out [and the rest]
I would forget about it and do nothing except up my prices and see what happens 😀 😀
-
thing is … good carpenters do earn good money!!!!!!!!!!!
i wonder if you see the design on a van one day and while no-one is about put vinyl text over it "This design was stolen from website.com"
-
Danny I feel for you M8
One thing I have found the cheaper you are the more idiots you attract, personaaly I wouldnt get out of bed for £90 on a vehicle these days and for what you provided there id say £250 + vat of anyones money.
Quote higher but do less work, but give sensible clients top service! – once theyve paid their deposit of course 😉
be lucky – John
-
Life is sometimes tough,and in business, its dog eat dog. This has happened to everyone on the boards I’m sure. But it also applies to most trades.
None of us would take the first quote given for some building work, even though the guy may have spent hours measuring, explaining the use and purpose of different materials etc., You may then ask the next guy to quote, based on the info the first one gave. So if you can get your head round that, and treat all quotes as part of the process to win a customer, and this one got away, then you will not get that annoyed and angry feeling for a few quids worth of work.
Ok so you feel your design was "stolen" but at the end of the day, its only a bit of your time. the design is not going to be used on hundreds of vans,if it were, then you would have reason to be angry.
But , and I mean this seriously, you must never feel sorry for the "poor customer" always quote the proper rate, and if the customer cant afford it, its not your problem.
Now take a deep breath, forget your anger, learn a lesson and move on…..xxx
Peter
-
quote Kate and Danny:Anyway hes gone to the window tint place down the road, who’ve said they’ll do it for £80 cash ( no vat )!…I think the big question is….. are the Window Tinting Company VAT Registered?
If so, I’d be placing an anonymous call to HMCE saying that you believe they are doing "cash jobs", that would give them a bit of grief!!!
Log in to reply.
