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Honestly – The cheek of some people
Last week I quoted to supply and fit window graphics for a company. It wasn’t straightforward, one of the logos had a graduated tint so everything would have to be printed.
A few days later I was asked if I could send them a breakdown of my costs – indvidual prices for each logo and a separate fitting charge. (I had quoted an all in price). I duly obliged and sent out a revised quotation for the same amount but itemising everything.
I was asked today to meet with the "MD" to finalise a few details. It turns out he reckoned he could get all the logos much cheaper on line (It’s just a few bits of vinyl after all was his words) so could I revise my prices accordingly?
I explained he wasn’t just buying a few bits of vinyl from me he was paying for a service which included my expertise and time. I also explained that the logos would need to be printed and couldn’t be done as cut vinyl alone. Consequently I was not prepared to go any lower.
He then told me he thought I was being arrogant!
At this point I realised this wasn’t going to go any further, so calmly explained that I needed to ensure I charged enough to cover my time to enable me to run a viable business, and that I wasn’t prepared to match any "on line" pricing as what I was offering was a much more complete service.
He also said he could buy the logos "on line" and get me to fit them- at which point I politely declined and left ..
I honestly hope he buys them on line and discovers they’re not what he was expecting.
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32 Replies
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Yup, wait until he sends them a 72dpi jpg, set to the wrong size and he okays the artwork (it looks fine on my phone innit!) and ends up with pixels the size of his head . . . .
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It certainly isn’t always about the price. Good for you!
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Phil, don’t you get this all the time lol
We do….
Them. How much to wrap a t5 bonnet?
Us. £140
Them. I can get 5 metres of carbon from eBay for £25
Us. We get 3m for £45 pm
Them, if I get the vinyl cany Ou fit, my friend says it looks easy on you tube -
Yup I get that too, but always refuse to fit anything produced by someone else.
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Yes, I totally agree with you.
And I think we have all had the ‘ I can get that done for £x’s cheaper down the road’ card waved at us.
I used to help a friend who had a sign business (which is where I started to learn about the job) and he was always far too forgiving and always trying to match these ‘down the road’ prices he was being quoted.
He was good at what he did, very honest and very diligent in his work. But he still had to close down because he couldn’t make ends meet.And unfortunately, this was one of the biggest lessons I learned from him. If they say they can get it cheaper elsewhere, let them go there.
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100% Pete.
Our main business is garment printing. January and February are the worst. The phone calls normally go"Hi there I’d like to place an order for 100 hoodies with this this and this on them"
"No problem they will be £17 each"
"Aww well I can get em for £6 each"
"Well we can’t even buy them for that"
"Aww.. right well I really wanted you guys to do them"
"Well they will be £17 each then"
9 times out of 10 they always come in 2-3 weeks later and say "am just gunna order 5 for now"
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Far too polite Phil, he would have been told to f off very early in the conversation, I have zero tolerance for this sort of thing, 2 or 3 times I’ve been in a similar situation and I wasn’t long telling them,
We don’t run our own businesses to be talked to like something a dog may leave behind, best feeling is when they come back and u have enough work on as tell them " no thanks you would be better buying that online" 😆
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quote Chris Wilson:” 9 times out of 10 they always come in 2-3 weeks later “Exactly. I’ve had a lot of this, this week in particular. One guy wanted me to sign an entire fiesta van for £70 and I’m thinking if someone else will do that for you – good luck to you mate.
They always come back when they realise they can’t get the price they wanted or someone else has botched up the job.
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There are some aspects of working that I miss since I retired, dealing with w-nkers like that is not one of them :smiles:
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Its just the way of the world nowadays, helped along by that cockney out for nowt merchant Dominic Littlejohn (names have been changed to protect the innocent!) no doubt.
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Or you get told ‘your competitor down the road will do it for £x’
Their face is a great when you tell them they are not competition, and they’re more than welcome to go there. :thumbsup:
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Gordon Bennett! Phill!
You’ve just taught me a lesson in patience and keeping your cool
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And he wasted your time making you go and see him though…
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quote Phill Fenton:I was asked today to meet with the “MD” to finalise a few details. It turns out he reckoned he could get all the logos much cheaper on line (It’s just a few bits of vinyl after all was his words) so could I revise my prices accordingly?Just those words is like waving a red flag to a bull 👿
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Thankfully we don’t get too much of that.
The ones we tend to get are… "hey! Here are 20 documents (up to 200 pages per document) and somewhere in that lot is some signage we want for the new building".
IF you spend the time to find it, the limited information is inevitably along the lines of "sign for front of building", "fire exit signs", "way finding signs" and oh you’ll need to supply samples, and a proof of every sign.Needless to say, we rarely even bother with these.
Its also amazing how many people in need of a quote for van graphics are just about to purchase 2 or 3 other vans which they might need doing….
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Today.
C: ‘Oh that a little higher than we wanted to send, you know we can buy them for £xx amount lower online’
Us: ‘Really? wow – can we have the details as that’s below cost!’
C: ‘Ahhh… forgot the website….’:rollseyes:
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About 2 months back, just as Spring sprung we saw not the first daffodil but the first of the ‘travellers’.
We did a load of work a few years back (stupidly) – some were utter gems to deal with, others more than made up for that by just reinforcing any stereotypes (intimidation, adding bits on after price set, theft, driving off without paying (2) – actually one grabbed the keys off my desk, legged it down the stairs & wheel-spun out of the car park).
This one wanted the obligatory "HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE" across the back of his van.
Easy stuff – £25 fitted. OK.
Make it then starts the fun & games.
I’ll fit it myself – OK £15
I don’t know how to fit it will you give me a hand – OK, £25
Nah, you said £15 – No, now I’m fitting it £25
I don’t like the yellow you used, you’ll take £10 (I’m getting annoyed and just want him gone) – £20 fitted or it goes in the bin
Nah, you’ll not do that – £10 and I’ll help fit it (lost it…torn the job in half (£2 worth of vinyl) and walked off)
There no need to be like that – you’re a bad man!MAJOR blessing in disguise – we must be on the "don’t go there list" – not seen another for months!
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It’s hard not to stereotype when you have more bad experiences than good. My heart sinks when they walk through the door.
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In the 7 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve refunded 1 customer, because they were so obnoxious and arrogant.
99.9% of customers are happy when we say, it’ll be done a few days, we’ll drop you an e-mail or call when they’re done. Not this guy, I wasn’t specific enough. He didn’t respond to the proof we sent. He didn’t like paying in advance. He was just a PITA, and trying to intimidate us into doing what he wanted.
That crap doesn’t wash with me, and I drew the line. Refunded his card payment in full, and told him to find someone else to do his really urgent 250x100mm foam PVC sign.
He was quite taken back, and we’ve not heard from them since :thumbsup:
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Yes, one major advantage of running your own business, you can tell certain types to f-off
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I know this is a very sweeping statement & it goes against my ‘everyone gets a fair crack of the whip’ principal but when I hear that fake Irish accent, I’m suddenly fully booked for the next 3 weeks. I can put my feet on the desk & earn nothing, I don’t need the guessing games they play, are they going to pick fault, do a runner or nick something from the workshop. A classic ploy is the diversion tactic, one keeps you talking while the others scatter like meerkats having a good look round to see if there’s anything worth coming back for later when we’ve closed. Word soon gets around that you don’t need their £25
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Incidentally, before I offend anybody across the pond, I am of Irish descent & know the game they play. These people pick the accent up around a campfire & have never been to Ireland.
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Ah! The Irish…….. :rollseyes:
I’ve had my life threatened on many an occasions, had a few not pay and when you go to collect the money there are about 15 of them there and very intimidating. Had them all come into the workshop and scan over everything, so I’m afraid as soon as I hear the lovely Irish accent my prices go up by 300% and it’s cash up front :shocked: don’t see them again. -
Exactly, this is the damage they’ve done to the Irish, we judge them all on their track record which I’m sorry to say is appalling. Never even bother to go outside to look at the vehicle anymore, (it’s going to be a new leased transit custom or a land rover anyway) I just say sorry, nobody jumps the queue, 3 weeks is the earliest possible slot & the disappear, simple.
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quote Phill Fenton:Last week I quoted to supply and fit window graphics for a company. It wasn’t straightforward, one of the logos had a graduated tint so everything would have to be printed.
A few days later I was asked if I could send them a breakdown of my costs – indvidual prices for each logo and a separate fitting charge. (I had quoted an all in price). I duly obliged and sent out a revised quotation for the same amount but itemising everything.
I was asked today to meet with the “MD” to finalise a few details. It turns out he reckoned he could get all the logos much cheaper on line (It’s just a few bits of vinyl after all was his words) so could I revise my prices accordingly?
I explained he wasn’t just buying a few bits of vinyl from me he was paying for a service which included my expertise and time. I also explained that the logos would need to be printed and couldn’t be done as cut vinyl alone. Consequently I was not prepared to go any lower.
He then told me he thought I was being arrogant!
At this point I realised this wasn’t going to go any further, so calmly explained that I needed to ensure I charged enough to cover my time to enable me to run a viable business, and that I wasn’t prepared to match any “on line” pricing as what I was offering was a much more complete service.
He also said he could buy the logos “on line” and get me to fit them- at which point I politely declined and left ..
I honestly hope he buys them on line and discovers they’re not what he was expecting.
I was out for a drive earlier and out of curiosity I thought I would drive by and see if any window graphics had been done. I was not in the least bit surprised to see that had all been done in cut vinyl. Worse still, the colours were quite dark causing the logos to merge with the background of the glass exactly as I had cautioned they would. Had I done this they would have been printed allowing the graduated tint to be accurately reproduced and would have featured either a white background or white pinstriping around the lettering to create much greater contrast allowing the logos to pop.
Looks like he completely ignored all my well meaning advice and bought them cheaply on line. There was about 20 windows altogether and if he decides to get them done properly he’s going to have to pay extra to get all the old ones removed :tongue:
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Looks like he got what he paid for.
Havent got a clue what his business does from looking at the image.
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Driving home we had to stop at some traffic lights. Turned to my left to see a hair salon had bought wheely bin numbers and sellotape dt gem to the inside of the window for their telephone number….. Un believable
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Ive recently had a customer who placed and order for some flyers with me I designed and emailed them to him. He approved them and I sent them to the printing house. 7-9 business day turn around on economy pricing. Order placed on the Monday he calls me on wednesday to say that the flyers need to be edited I called the printer had them stop the order luckily they weren’t printed and made changes sent back the printer on Friday after approval of customer told customer their would be a fee to express the job for arrival on original date we expected. I paid said fee from pocket when customer comes to collect doesn’t want to pay extra funds. Giving the I could’ve gotten it cheaper elsewhere excuse I simply hold on to the prints till he coughs up my money. I will never work for that customer again without upfront payment in full no deposits
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The sad thing about this Phill is that the customer probably believes that he has done as good a job as you would have done & has saved himself some money so to him it is a win win, after all it’s just a few bits of vinyl stuck on the window 😆 😆 😆
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To those in the know, it’s amusing, and can see what’s wrong with it.
As Martin said, he’ll think he’s got a bargain, think Phil’s tried to rip him off, when in reality he’s wasted a couple of quid on some stickers nobody can see, he’d have been better taking his money to the local pub.
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Completely agree, pearls before swine & all that. Customers who cannot see the value in what you do but only see the cost, they’re really not worth your time.
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Had a cracking one today.
Couple came into the shop, placed a box of business cards on the counter. He’d had them done elsewhere, but thought the telephone number didn’t stand out enough, which it didn’t tbh.
Can I either make it bigger!!!!!!!
Or can I print a sticker with a bigger text on it to cover it!!!!!!!
Or can I print on the rear, which was blank?????
After a brief conversation on how it’s important to look the part and all options would make the wrong impression….
How much did they pay for the cards? £15 FFS you tight buggers, just buy some bloody more
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