-
Fun and games with wrap obstacles. Would you charge extra for this?
This is the first of eleven control vehicles for the fire department that are being built here in town.
As they build them I will wrap them blue, followed by various reflective logos, chevrons, sponsors etc.
Unfortunately, while the sponsors, fire department, other interested parties and I were playing email tag with designs, placements etc, the builders went ahead and installed all the lights, hinges, fittings, awnings, using glue, silicone, and screws, and they are now impossible to remove, so now I have to wrap around them, cut them out, and still make it look good.
What was a nice earning job on this first one has turned into a bit of a mission. My limited wrapping skills have been stretched to the utmost, and this job has gone from a few days to a couple of weeks.
The client is aware of the issues, but since there are many vehicles to do, and I am charging top money (before the lights issue appeared) I am not sure if I should raise my price for this first one, or just let it lie and the cost will average out over the eleven or so I will do over the next few months.What would you all do? Charge extra, or let it lie?
And If I am charging, do I bill the builders who f***ed up, or the clients, who took so long to decide?
There are certainly some alpha males in the sign business who dont take any cr*p and will demand their money. Im just not sure if I am one of them.🤣
-
10 Replies
-
You really must say something now, rather than later, mate.
If I price a job, it’s based on what I am told or shown what is required at the time.
If I give a competitive price based on volume, as you have, and I turn up on the job and they have made the job more difficult and slower, for whatever reason, you must re-price the job accordingly.I have wrapped thousands of trucks over the years. Solid colour wraps are much easier on box trucks because the alignment of the panels is not a big deal. But the truck’s rear normally has door latches, hinges, rollers, indicator lights and more. Now I was really fast due to how much I had done them, but they still took time, cutting around everything. It’s the same with side doors on box trucks, it just slows down the full process.
Over and above everything, the finish is not going to be as good because of having to cut around everything. I think you need to ask to speak to someone and make them aware of the problem.
Maybe do one and time yourself and guesstimate how long it would have taken without the extra work.Then go and speak with your customer and explain that you are:
(1) Not happy with the overall finish of the graphics due to the cutting around obstacles.
(2) Cannot justify your initial quote due to the extra time incurred with the extra labour.It might be that your customer speaks to the Bodyshop and tells them to give you the next truck “before the hardware is fitted”. so you keep going ahead of them installing the graphics.
Then you can revert to the initial ones and bill them only for the extras on those vehicles.
No matter what happens, you cannot just add X-amount of hours onto each truck because of a breakdown in their communication with the bodyshop.
-
Nothing unscrewed, not even those small lights. They were all glued on or siliconed on.
There were fittings behind preventing the big hinges from unscrewing – I had thought I could take them off one by one, leaving two in place on each big door. Alas not to happen.
I did cut everything close, although I now see the logic in cutting away from them all…your post came too late to do anything about it. In a few places i had a bit of white show through so I cut out snug fitting vinyl “sleeves” to go around all the shapes, which are invisible against the blue.
And that high intensity reflective had to have clear strips cut out to waterproof all round the edges – its not like you can buy a sealed pattern like you can with standard vehicles in the UK.
-
-
🙂 yup they are all aware.
The price has gone up.
This one done.
Next one coming january.
-
Thats a hefty job. Nice earner 👍
-
-
That’s a very tidy job 👏
A bonus you were able to charge more, some customers could be quite difficult about it.
-
Simon, you have done a great job mate, well done. Perseverance is everything! 👍😎
-
Amongst many other styles, the truck picture attached is the style of a truck I would do repeatedly, every week for years on end.
The rear triple doors, with latches and locking poles, are a wrapper’s nightmare. not just for the obstacles to cut around, but trying to align photo-printed vinyl.I remember standing waiting for a truck to arrive for me to wrap and one that I had done about a month prior was parked next to me. On inspection of the rear doors, the vinyl that I had spent ages on trimming around the hinges perfectly, was now a mess in comparison!
- The trimmed vinyl edges looked like they had been crushed back slightly.
- There was a lot of dirt and grime caught in the adhesive and crushed vinyl edges.
But why?
Basically, the flexing of the hinges holding these very heavy doors was pushing back the neat, tight vinyl applied snugly to the hinges.
Next comes the rain landing on the roof of the truck and running down the back and around the hinges. All the time those tiny bits of crushed sticky-backed vinyl are picking up the dirt and grime from the roads. My view was that this could only get worse over time and simply cutting back a few millimetres from the hinges and framework would help prevent this. Which is what I have done, ever since.When I kitted out the UKSB Wrap Training Truck, I purposely put a section in it to show how I installed the vinyl around hinges and locking poles on trucks.
I wouldn’t be so concerned over this with your vehicle, Simon. Most of your obstacles are not load-bearing latches or moving parts. i.e. lights and locks.
-
That’s great Simon. 👍
It is a nice feature for your website and social media sites. -
that looks like a very difficult job to cover in vinyl simon. too many lumps and bumps all over the place for my liking. 🤣
it does look great, you must be happy with the finished result. especially seeing it on tv. ❤👍
Log in to reply.
