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Im having a whingey rant …..
*huff puff* 👿
Steve received a call from one of our customers today, been dealing with them for two years now, bit of a pain in the backside but a paying customer none the less … …… *grrrrrr* anyway, we did some work for another of their new set-ups over a month ago and he called today to inform us that one of the signs we made is wrong 😮 he wanted it a landscape version, we made it portrait ….. – proofs of sizes etc were given before going ahead.
Anyway wanting to get to the bottom of the issue we went and collected the sign only to find that they have been using it in a window to display their products and even allowed a sign company who are a couple of doors away from him to put their name to the sign and logo design etc that we did (label with signs by …. ) (hot) (hot) (hot) and they had even added a couple of lines of vinyl text to it …. sign not even paid for yet either!!!!
Told the customer not to come back again, want paying for remaining signage and we wont be returning the sign that was picked up today. Also contacted the company who obviously likes our work so much they want it as their own aswell…… her only reply to every question and anything we had to say was: The customer told us we could put our name on it”!!!! :yikes:
Actually sort of having a bit of a laugh at the moment as I can’t beleive the cheek of them all!!!!
Anyway thats off my chest now .. thanks for listening!!!
Carrie :dance1:
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16 Replies
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Perhaps the next sales slogan needs to be…..
“OUR SIGNS ARE SO GOOD EVEN OUR COMPETITORS ARE TRYING TO PUT THERE NAMES TO THEM!”
the cheek of some people (:)
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quote Vivid:Perhaps the next sales slogan needs to be…..“OUR SIGNS ARE SO GOOD EVEN OUR COMPETITORS ARE TRYING TO PUT THERE NAMES TO THEM!”
the cheek of some people (:)
😆 good one 😉
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Wow Carrie!
I have been in the biz for 19 years now and that has to be the rudest & worst customer behavior EVER!
It’s a good thing I’m all the way over here, because I ain’t so cute when I’m MAD. I’d clean the respective clocks of both that customer and the helpful “sign” person who added the label. I’d show her where to put that label!
:wedgey:
love…Jill -
Come on, we all know the customer is always right, not !!!!!
Customers, who needs em’ anyway !!! -
I find it amazing that ppl have that type of gall and still sleep easy at night – sheesh!!!
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At least you’ve got it off your chest
Its great when you can share it on the board (chat.)
You don’t feel all alone then
As the others have said you can take a positive from this
that the plagiarists were happy to stick their name to your designJohn
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Thanks for lending your ears …..or should I say eyes 😆
John your right ….. this is why we love being part of a sign community, you get to share everything, get things off your chest be it large or small and know that everyone is going to more or less understand.
Jill I’m the same as you; push my wrong button and you’ve had it …. Steve dealt with them today, bless him, he has a much much much longer calmer fuse than me.
Poke in the eyes I say …. with a kick in the shin …. and a twist of the nose …. before you run 😆
Thank you all …… from a less moaning Carrie 😉
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One that sticks in my mind was a few years back.
The customer had 3 black vans & wanted mirror prismatic foil on it.
I told him it could not be used for vehicles but he didn’t care… he just said you have it on show & I would like it… cut it short he got the 3 vans done in it… 2 month later comes back in saying “you don’t have any of that stuff spare do you, bits are coming away here and there with the pressure washer”
I went out and looked… it was in bad condition and it wasn’t going to be any better with the odd touch up..
I told him this and he said… well tell you what, I am getting 3 new vans in a month soon after that we will be getting rid of these for more.. How about you design something real nice… using reflectives etc & you can do the lot!
BUT…in the mean time could you tart up the ones I have that’s damaged. We did and did it free of charge…
For the next 4 weeks the guy would pop in around 5pm when “he” finished and sat till 7pm changing this and that… looking at colours etc etc … weeks down the line he decided to go with the final design.. He loved it. Huge graphics with reflective here and there… it did look pretty smart… books the vans in for one week later. I had 1 van made up waiting on his return. He didn’t show… stopped answering mobile… then when we did get him he said he changed his mind and was going to leave his vans blank.
This annoyed me as we had spent so long chopping and changing the design.
On top of that we had just fixed the text on his 3 old vans after advising him in first place not to use the film…
Anyway… next day I am driving up the street and there was 3 brand new vans all lettered up with my design sitting outside his shop, same colours etc not only that the 3 old vans were found to be done too a few days later.
After calling saying this and that, his reply was I loved your designs and ideas, just not your price! When I said I hadn’t been asked for a quote yet he said… em yeh but your last ones were a bit pricey, so I knew these ones would be worse!What do you do… knee the guys groin or get on with things?
I learned a lesson back then.. get it signed or make them pay for the design and deduct the design cost from van price when completed. 😉 -
It’s a hard lesson that most of us have learned.
I have a sign in my shop that says
“Clients taking longer than a half hour for discussion will be charged a consultation fee”
It lets them know that my time is money.
If I had that jagoff in my shop each evening discussing design for free,
I think I might have killed him after I saw his vans with MY designs.
I also make people sign a contract and I NEVER let a sketch leave my shop with a customer.
Grrrrrr! (:)
love…Jill
Did I hear you say a long fuse Carrie? No wonder you’re smiling! 😉 -
just had same happen to me Robert, quoted a guy to do a van and said how about some graphics to make it stand out from the crowd, “show me what you have in mind and a price for it”. Few weeks later I rang him to see if he had made a decision, “haven’t decided yet but the other company are £30 cheaper for the standard text job”. Met him last week he had decided to go with the other company, and made a wee joke of my graphics. End of the week, the van is done with my graphics and layout on it, cheek on it (hot) .
You live and learn ehh.
Dave
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Im sure he wont be our last pain in the bum customer!! Can imagine you were really pi**ed off at the time Rob 😮
Thats the annoying thing about this customer; trying to explain to them that before work was undertaken they agreed by email that designs sizes / etc were all ok …… he requested incorrect measurements and signed off the proof with the measurements givn to us by him.
Oh well its happened now, was annoyed earlier, but business moves on and we have more respectful customers to look after instead of worrying about that plonker.
Carrie
:poke: …. in the eyes 😆
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Got to love customers ! I recently had someone who wanted some logos doing for a new product range he’s making – said ‘can you design me a logo – you have complete free range with it’ – only stipulation being that it had to be perfect and exactly what he had in his mind ( without giving me any clues as to what sort of logo he wanted or even product pictures so I could go from that ).
Basically he wanted a couple of thousands worth of graphic design doing for nothing !
What I often do now is get a pic of the product from them, turn it into a blank lineart and tell them to go away and sketch something similar to what they want so I can work fom it – pointing out this will save them loads of money in going back and forth with ideas usually helps.
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carrie,
Maybe you should name and shame the other sign company! 👿 (:)I know I would!
Johnny
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Don’t you people put a copyright statement on all art given to customers?
That little bit of writing isn’t just there for show.
It’s a legal statement that you are the owner of that design. If the customer uses it…BILL THEM FOR YOUR TIME AND FOR THE DESIGN. ANDBILL THE OTHER SIGN COMPANY AS WELL .
We’re just about to do a letter of engagement for prospective clients which will lay out everything expected by us from them. It’s a standard kind of thing that accountants and lawyers do for new clients. If they don’t aggree with your terms…Let them walk.
I can hear everyone going…”I need the work”. Well I need the work too. I just don’t like the thought of someone pinching our hard work. We’re doing it a bit hard at the moment, but I can tell you I’d rather lose a potential customer than doing hours of consults plus art only to lose it.
This subject really gets my goat…I’d love to come over there Carrie and break their jaws..Grrr
I need a lie down.
Lee
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Leeroy,
we put a copyright statement on every design proof we do .. also stating that if reproduced etc without permsiion fee of such and such is payable bla bla bla.
The other sign company didnt even re-produce the logo or make a new sign …. they just decided to stick their name and details on the base of the sign that we actually physically designed & made. They obviously felt it was ok seeing as they had applied a tiny bit of additional vinyl text to it …… :yikes: Grrrrr
Carrie :pink:
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Sorry I got on my high horse for a bit 😳 .
I just know how you feel.
See what happens if you send them an invoice. Chances are the customer’s burnt where you’re concerned so go for them. Issue an invoice, when they don’t pay it after so many months, have them listed with a credit control agency as a bad payer. Here we can use Dunn & Bradstreet or Credit corp. If you get listed here, you’ll want to get it cleared up quicksmart.
Failing that, issue the sign co and the customer with invoices and if they don’t pay, take them to Court. Won’t cost you too much. If you win (which I’m sure you will), they’ll have to pay you costs anyway.
If that doesn’t work…Just go round and give them a smack. 😆
Stick up for yourself…If you’re right then you’re right
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