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I love my Customer When…
When they want to shorten delivery by 11DAYS!
"We got the wrong date for the show…." 👿 -
39 Replies
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When they ask a delivery date when first enquiring… Then take a week deciding upon what to have and still expect the original delivery date
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When they spend a month getting me to do updates on a design for a wrap for one car, then change the car, completely change the theme of the design, then act all surprised when I add the original car design (4 hours) to the bill for the second car!
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…they have completely fantastical ideas of what something will cost:
3.5 x 0.4m fascia with 14x 3D built-up illuminated letters.
To quote from the email I got back after asking for a working budget as i have a sense for those with no money…
"But its not a big sign or complicated sign, so maybe around the £200 mark for a lit one I am hoping "
and no, that wasn’t a typo for £2k 😕
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I love my Customer When….
they asked for a quoute on a lot of label work, wasn’t due to start til the following week and a cheque for the full amount came in post the next day…….. 😀 ..bliss
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i was always suspicious if we are sent a cheque that fast before work is due to start as im had my fair share of rubber cheques lol, Hence why we rarely take cheque payments now its card payments or Bacs
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…. when they come in to ask you to price up a load of canvas shoppers, mugs, magets etc, then tell you how much they can get them for from some vistaprint type trade supplier… off you toddle!
…. We’re a charity and manned by volunteers so need to pay as little as possible … I’m not – off you toddle.
… I’ll supply you the composite and the vinyl as I can get it from my mate…. tell your mate to make it then – off you toddle!
^all in the same day. I’m going home!
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New one today…
…..When the proof copy of new shop sign appears in local newspaper (distorted! 😮 ) as their new advert
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quote Colin Crabb:New one today…
…..When the proof copy of new shop sign appears in local newspaper (distorted! 😮 ) as their new advert
now that has got to be taking the p*ss surely?
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quote Colin Crabb:New one today…
…..When the proof copy of new shop sign appears in local newspaper (distorted! 😮 ) as their new advert
I had one guy have me do a new design for a restaurant, mock-up on the screen / building, prices and they take a photo of my monitor.
It appeared later that night on facebook…and then hawked round several other signmakers as we were ‘too expensive’. Shame for him that he asked the guys that buy from us (as we’d be making it for them).
Fell through anyway…hmmm, schadenfreude…is it REALLY that wrong?
Did a subby today for a new client (we do a fair few) – and to say that the request bore little relation to the actual job would be generous. "Fit posters" was part of the job…what they wanted was a double sided, illuminated, cable suspended poster system installed and wired up to non-existent electrics.
Grrr.
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quote Colin Crabb:New one today……..When the proof copy of new shop sign appears in local newspaper (distorted! 😮 ) as their new advert
😀 😀
I love it when a customer offers sexual favours in return for work.
*well that’s what they told me would happen when I bought the cutter. 🙁
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quote Harry Cleary:I love it when a customer offers sexual favours in return for work.well that’s what they told me would happen when I bought the cutter. 🙁
But if they’d explained it was mostly 6" 3′ men stinking of chip shop oil you probably wouldn’t have bought it.. or would you? 😕
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quote shane binding:i was always suspicious if we are sent a cheque that fast before work is due to start as im had my fair share of rubber cheques lol, Hence why we rarely take cheque payments now its card payments or Bacs
true, however this was from a good customer who I have been dealing with for a while…just nice when it happens rather than having to chase the money.
I think this is the last customer I have who still pays by cheque,
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quote Phill Fenton:But if they’d explained it was mostly 6″ 3′ men stinking of chip shop oil you probably wouldn’t have bought it.. or would you? 😕
Hmmmm…Depends on whether there was salt and vinegar on them. 😀
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Oh I really do loooove my customers……
Working on a van today – a Saturday as a ‘favour 4 a friend’..
Hand a accident which resulted in 9 stitches to my hand, wife called customer and said ‘Sorry vans unfinished, but can collect it, husbands gone to hospital’
Customer: Oh I don’t need van till Monday, keep it overnight & finish it Sunday, that’s fine… 😕
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Love mine, majority years in business, , never haggle, almost all pay by cheques as soon as job is finished and never bounce. Lot to be said for being a lifetime in this business
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quote KevinGaffney:Love mine, majority years in business, , never haggle, almost all pay by cheques as soon as job is finished and never bounce. Lot to be said for being a lifetime in this business
I’m with you Kev.
Without customers we are just mugs with paintbrushes!😕
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DOCTORS SURGERY – We need a brass plaque removing urgently please
US – Well OK we can get up there this afternoon, which one would you like us to remove?
DOCTORS SURGERY – The one that says ‘Dr Harold Shipman’
😮 😮 😮
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This really makes my blood boil, had this happen a few times over the years
Customer given an extremely accurate proof of sign super imposed onto building – nigh on perfect scale to the fraction of a millimetre, rendered with any shadows / lighting etc. etc. – effectively a photo of the finished sign. They approve it and sign it off to go.
Then we get "yes I know it looks exactly like the visual but It’s not what I expected", or "I know its exactly as shown in the artwork but its the wrong size and I imagined it would be bigger", or my favourite "I agree its identical to the artwork but you cant really tell until its up" !!!!!!!!!!!!
New policy – Instead of doing pro-production artwork for customers to sign off, we’ll make them a sign, install it, then keep taking it down and changing it until they are happy. Oh and if they then decide to go elsewhere we’ll just take the sign down and bin it
Cheers
Macky -
Total end of spectrum today – good customer sent me a luxury hamper, as they heard I had injured myself!
Chuffed 😀
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I love it when one of our trade customers asks us to do two vans for one of their customers. We do all the work, they invoice the customer.
Their customer doesn’t know what they want but something different to what they have with no budget. We suggest a budget of 250-350 for a partial wrap.
Send the design to our trade customer who surprised me. "I like the design, but it doesn’t look like £350 worth"
I explain its due to the materials, using cast is more expensive.
"But the customer didn’t ask for cast!"
Ahhhh! The customer doesn’t need to know the science of materials, but trust our experience and knowledge!
A builder quotes on the correct material not what the customer thinks they need!
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I had a guy who came in and asked if I did motorbikes….I said yes…he didn’t know what he wanted but waved his arms around and says’just give me a ball park figure’…I said £200 to £400…he had a sharp intake of breath and says….oh…thats a ball park figure?
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I love it when the customer points me to a website that sells feather flags and says that where he got them from last time…. And that supplier is your trade supplier.
Or a week after me buying £450 worth of items from a so called friend, he says he won’t have those t shirts as he can save £30 by going on the internet
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Love it when someone emails me at 11pm last night. "what’s your timescale for making me a sign if i send you my business card can you copy it"?
ive to telepathically know what Kind of sign, size etc. -
when the client agrees the design for a catering van then when they bring it in there is an electrical socket added afterwards right where the graphic is due to go and they didnt think to tell me – Grrr 👿
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When you client is an architect and he doesn’t know what a tape measure is let alone how to use it (hot) (hot) (hot)
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Architect: Head in Clouds, feet in sh*t
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When a graphic designer suppliers a print ready PDF full of transparencies, that the rip cannot process correctly and is too busy to fix it. 😮
Finally learning preflight in acrobat!
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And today’s award goes to:
The customer who wants us to replicate EXACTLY the vehicle graphics from their Early Berlingo van onto a new shape Berlingo and Nemo van without moving a thing. (hot)
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quote Colin Crabb:Total end of spectrum today – good customer sent me a luxury hamper, as they heard I had injured myself!Chuffed 😀
you seem to be a bit accident prone there fella 😉
reading the above posts, I thought it was just us almost every one of the above scenarios seems to happen to (oh apart from that accident prone fella ) 😀
one that always boils my p**s is when a customer brings you some artwork they have ‘designed’ themselves, only to find its from another sign company with their logo either tippexed out or the companies name is embedded in the PDF
We never use this artwork out of courtesy
oh and the one where they tell you its a certain vehicle say a Ford Transit, you do a design, send them a proof and they sign it off the day of install arrives, and its a Ford Connect! or worse a citroen berlingo!
makes you sometimes wonder why we do this 😀 😀
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quote :you seem to be a bit accident prone there fella
In 22 years never had one accident… till this year, 9 stitches in my hand 🙁
I did a Ford Connect van, they were so happy with it, decided to have there other van done – ‘just make it look the same’, it turn out to be a Hi-Top, Longwheel base VW Crafter……
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Colin, how did you do that?
I am fuming as our customer is a commercial printer who should know better, and understand what they are asking is damn near impossible!
Think its time to fire a customer!
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Customer had to agree to a compromise in the end after a long battle, lots of ‘It Ain’t Gonna Work’ 😮 – and plenty of ‘No it will not just stretch out and cover the van’ 🙄
Just sent a lot of illustrator proofs and photoshopped pictures.
Hate VW crafters, just to much space…..
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Yep I’ve explained "it ain’t going to work" and "that’s going to cost much more than we quoted" :lol1:
Even explaining why (cast vs polymeric) to which I got "they didn’t ask for that material" (chat.)
Ahh well, there’s always tomorrow
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Yeah sounds very familiar 🙁
Being printers I’m quite surprised! Tell them if you asked for a 4pp booklet and then sent artwork for a 48pp perfect bound book they’d not be happy and wouldn’t stick with quote !
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quote David Hammond:And today’s award goes to:
The customer who wants us to replicate EXACTLY the vehicle graphics from their Early Berlingo van onto a new shape Berlingo and Nemo van without moving a thing. (hot)
In this day and age when everyone is fighting for every scrap of business out there, it’s important to listen carefully to our customers and then go the extra mile to meet their needs.
The answer in this case is relatively easy. You just require a little ingenuity. Simply cut a template of the old style berlingo into 9mm plywood and attach these to the new berlingo and nemo before applying the signs.
If you don’t do it – the customer will simply go elsewhere to someone that will (puppy-eyes)
You know it makes sense 😕
Attachments:
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quote Phill Fenton:quote David Hammond:And today’s award goes to:
The customer who wants us to replicate EXACTLY the vehicle graphics from their Early Berlingo van onto a new shape Berlingo and Nemo van without moving a thing. (hot)
In this day and age when everyone is fighting for every scrap of business out there, it’s important to listen carefully to our customers and then go the extra mile to meet their needs.
The answer in this case is relatively easy. You just require a little ingenuity. Simply cut a template of the old style berlingo into 9mm plywood and attach these to the new berlingo and nemo before applying the signs.
If you don’t do it – the customer will simply go elsewhere to someone that will (puppy-eyes)
You know it makes sense 😕
Now thats just plain silly everyone knows it should be ACM and NOT plywood 😀
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quote :Phill Fenton wrote:
David Hammond wrote:
And today’s award goes to:The customer who wants us to replicate EXACTLY the vehicle graphics from their Early Berlingo van onto a new shape Berlingo and Nemo van without moving a thing.
In this day and age when everyone is fighting for every scrap of business out there, it’s important to listen carefully to our customers and then go the extra mile to meet their needs.
The answer in this case is relatively easy. You just require a little ingenuity. Simply cut a template of the old style berlingo into 9mm plywood and attach these to the new berlingo and nemo before applying the signs.
If you don’t do it – the customer will simply go elsewhere to someone that will
You know it makes sense
Now thats just plain silly everyone knows it should be ACM and NOT plywood
Woodn’t ( 🙄 ) ACM cause an MOT failure due to sharp edges?
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Phil I must go away and read your book again! How come I didn’t think of doing that! :praise1: :praise1:
I do agree ACM would be like a razor blade strapped to the side!
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When a customer has a job done, and you have arranged to collect payment from them when the job is installed and finished as they don’t have a credit account and you go to collect the payment and they say "oops I don’t have my cheque book (or any money), I will send it to you tomorrow" and then don’t for weeks!
we run a pretty tight ship when it comes to this, yet they still manage to sneak through and the excuses have all been heard before! I find it unbelievable that they don’t even seem the slightest bit embarrassed.
Do they do this when the get to the checkout at Sainsburys? (other supermarket stores are available) 😀
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