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How much should I pay for this much printing?
Hi all. I did a prestigious job recently & got my printers to print & laminate 50 metres on white vinyl. Print was run off on 8 pass quality instead of 4 pass, but I’ve been charged £47.00 per metre – exactly the same as I get charged if I have 1 or 5 metres. Is this about the industry standard price, & am I wrong to have assumed a healthy discount would’ve been applied? Prints were no wider than 1250mm. End customer will pick up the bill, but I think it’s a bit steep – but then I have no idea what the norm is.
Any input greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Gwaredd.
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14 Replies
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print time is twice as long
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I appreciate that, but is that reflected in the price, or does it still sound too much? IMO, I should be charged £47pm for 1 – 10 metres, subsequent discounts thereafter depending on quantity.
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twice the print speed and they are also charging for lamination. i charge more for a square metre unlaminated.
i dont know how big your trade suppliers are, but if its simply a sign firm with a printer then your getting a fair price. -
Cheers for that. I only ask as, like I say, I have no idea what the norm is, so when I submit my bill to the customer, they can’t turn round & say ‘we can get it for £35.00 down the road" etc
Best to have my bases covered when the bill hits the mat 😮
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quote Steele Signs:I appreciate that, but is that reflected in the price, or does it still sound too much? IMO, I should be charged £47pm for 1 – 10 metres, subsequent discounts thereafter depending on quantity.Surely it’s up to the supplier if he offers a discount for larger quantity? why did you not ask the question or have a haggle before hand? Can’t really blame them if they have a per/m charge & that’s what they have billed. I don’t think there is a normal price, you see advertisements as low as £15 p/sm wouldn’t like to guess on the quality of those prints. On the other hand I am sure you will find a good quality printer that will Print & Laminate 50 Meters for less than £47 a metre. Nice little order for somebody. 😎
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I never asked for a quote because my customer never asked me for one, so was kinda irrelevant really 😛
Just wanted to check I wasn’t getting shafted.
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quote Brian Hays – Impact:you see advertisements as low as £15 p/sm wouldn’t like to guess on the quality of those prints. On the other hand I am sure you will find a good quality printer that will Print & Laminate 50 Meters for less than £47 a metre.
that’s just it mate, some sign makers look at this as a guide to what they should be charging for their versacamm prints and bang! the value of our trade comes down over night. they don’t know that the price of £15 a metre is run on super fast, super wide machines with pixels the size of stamps, that they buy letre’s of ink for next to nothing and spit it out on the cheapest media they can get.
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quote Steele Signs:I never asked for a quote because my customer never asked me for one, so was kinda irrelevant really 😛Just wanted to check I wasn’t getting shafted.
But it’s not irrelevant, even if I am told "just do it" by a customer who knows I won’t shaft them, I still want to know how much I’m paying so I can work out my expenditure prior to being paid for the job, especially if they ‘think’ it’ll be, say £100 and it costs them £300…amy well sour a good working relationship…I’d had problems in the past with a supplier…one price for ages…and I price accordingly, then WHAM! I’m selling it for LESS (pre-quoted) than it cost me so marked was the cost increase (about 300%)…did I have an option to complain – yes, and I did. "Should’ve got a quote" was the expected reply…and so I should have.
As far as you paying over the odds – in MY opinion, it’s a little steep for the 50m quantity. But as said, it varies…and if the quality is GOOD, both of material & print.
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quote Steele Signs:I never asked for a quote because my customer never asked me for one, so was kinda irrelevant really 😛
Just wanted to check I wasn’t getting shafted.
If you are worried about your customer going elsewhere then surely it is relevant?
If it was me I would have wanted to haggle a good price to increase my margin regardless of the customer anyway.
Have you had a word with your supplier about some discount on bigger orders? I am sure he would like a few more jobs like the one you have given him.
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quote David Rogers:in MY opinion, it’s a little steep for the 50m quantity. But as said, it varies…and if the quality is GOOD, both of material & print.
the thing is dave, if he was paying £47 a metre before for 4 passes and now requires 8 passes, print time is now double. depending on his printer width and speed, that could be be a jump from 1.5 days too 3 days printing and laminating. if the quality/passes has increased then so is the ink used. so much more costs incurred for the supplier, just because of the print quality change.
as i said, if this is not a large trade supplier and is simply a sign or print company doing a bit of trade work then i think they are giving a realistic price. -
I think the price sounds fair if it is for 8 pass instead of 4 when you factor in all the extra time, ink etc…
It would also depend how busy the supplier is, if they are going to have to tie up their only printer for 3 days on one job, and put everything else back, then I doubt they will give a big discount ( I’m sure most of us make more money on 20 small jobs than one large job that covers the same area ).
I dont generally do anything like 50m jobs, but when I price for larger jobs I generally work in a small discount, but can give larger ones if the customer is prepared to wait longer as I will make up their order in batches between other work. If the customer is in a rush and it means I have to work overtime to get their order out, then they dont get any discount.
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Cheers for the replies guys. No, I’m not concerned about the customer going elsewhere, but I am expecting them to gulp at the price, as they were initially going to print it themselves onto sticky backed paper on their Kodak machine unlaminated. Cost to them? Probably £7- 10 per metre. They quickly realised that A) the job was too big for them in the timescale, & B) the material they use is utter bobbins for sign work. They called me in at the 11th hour & simply told me to get it done. All very well at the time, but after the dust has settled & the bills start rolling in, I’m sure they will question some things.
End of the day, the deadline for this job was very tight & I & the printers bent over backwards to get it all done. Like I said before, just checking the price out as I’m not up to speed on large quantities of print & wanted to make sure I was getting a fair deal. If you all came back to me saying Woah! You should be paying £30.00 pm MAX, then I would have a word with my supplier (& possibly fall out spectacularly) but as it is, I’m happy to accept that £47.00 pm is fair. It’s all a learning curve, no matter how long you’ve been doing this job!
As an aside, it annoys me that we have to ask printers to put it on high quality 8 pass. In my experience, most scrunch their face up, whilst some even refuse to. Why are we not given a list of prices, such as:
4 pass low quality £20.00pm
4 pass high quality £27.00pm
8 pass low quality £40.00pm
8 pass high quality £47.00pm
etc etc.
If you guys already do this, fair play, but in my admittedly limited experience, no-one has yet.
The job in question was the newly opened visitor centre at Wadworths brewery in Devizes. If anyone is passing, pop in & let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Gwaredd.
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if you call a large trade supplier you will find this is stated if you are looking for quality. the ones that plain refuse, are normally the trade printers with only the BIG machines that cannot print hi resolution work. hence my comment on giving you prints at £15 per metre with pixels the size of stamps. :lol1:
whilst others have various machines offering different qualities, you will get the option should you begin to stipulate the quality must be high. -
…just be thankfull you didn’t ask for it at 32 or 64 pass!!
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