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Losing the will to live…
I am fast losing the will to live..
This morning I emailed a customer reminding them that they hadn’t yet paid their bill for a pavement sign I supplied them with last month. The email back said they were going to pay on Friday.. but the wind blew it over and it is now damaged (photo enclosed) so could I now fix it so that they could then arrange to pay me? 🙄 (I told them to bring the sign in so I could look at what needed to be done to fix it, but meanwhile please arrange to settle the invoice. I also suggested that it was generally not a good idea to put a pavement sign out during severe weather conditions).
Went to an appointment this afternoon to be told by the client they had very little money to buy signs so needed this as cheap as possible. It took all my reserves of patience and lip biting to avoid blurting out "why are you wasting my time asking me to come and see you if you have no money to spend!!!"
And why does everyone nowadays think word (docx) files is suitable artwork?
Please shoot me someone and put me out of my misery (:) 😕
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34 Replies
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Your next BOOK
"2000 reasons to not become a signmaker " 😀 -
That is ridiculous! Not sure how people think it’s ok that they can just expect work for free? I’m sure they would have a problem if they didn’t get paid for work done.
This one takes the cake though and it’s something I’ve never seen before in my near 20 years of doing graphics. Last week I had a client send me some reference drawings of signs they drew in Microsoft Excel!
My mind has now totally been melted.
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i wouldnt let the sign leave unless they paid!
when i paint cars etc for people the shutter door doesnt go up and tyhe keys are in my pocket till the pay. not always possible to work like that but you have to look after yourself. worlds full of chancers.
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quote David Mitchell:i wouldnt let the sign leave unless they paid!when i paint cars etc for people the shutter door doesnt go up and tyhe keys are in my pocket till the pay. not always possible to work like that but you have to look after yourself. worlds full of chancers.
Exactly what I do when I complete a full wrap on a car,
however sign making is a completely different ball game, lol
anyway time to watch "cant pay, we’ll take it away", haha
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I rang a hearing centre who has an outstanding invoice for £50 for over 4 months today.
We are looking to pay that next month was the reply when I asked about it
Talk about falling on deaf ears lol
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A local insurance broker has currently taken 6 weeks to pay a pro-forma invoice, every Monday since raising it I get an email chasing goods. Have now been told it is getting paid start of April. Not sure they understand how pro-forma works
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Best thing we did was sign up with a debt collection company. Feee credit checks, they chase any debts and the debtor foots the bill.
Currently one debt from December, apparently one jobs print was terrible but kept ordering from us for a further 3 months. Only told us once the debt company started proceedings.
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We have a card payment machine and nothing will leave until it is paid for apart from stuff for a small number of very trusted customers. Every company has a credit/debit card so there is no reason for them not to pay upon completion.
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I feel your pain I’m very sorry to say. I hear this nonsense every day, I now don’t feel embarrassed to ask the available budget at the first point of contact just to help filter out hours of design & suggestions, far easier to pitch a suggestion when you know the amount they have in mind. Mind you, the budget I was given to work with on Friday from a new client, I was forced to tell them it wasn’t enough to borrow one of my old brushes & do it themselves
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Last Monday we lettered transit for a local UPC window fitter. He wanted a photo of a man behind a misted window, as he replaced glass that had broken seals and misted up etc.
He collected and was thrilled.
Tuesday he rang and said he had doubts about the photo used, it looked like the man had a birth markdown his face and the photo looked pixelated.
Bearing in mind he had been sent artwork before and approved it.
He left it saying he’ll pop down later to see what we can do.
I discussed the job with my stepson, who thought it strange, showed me the artwork, it turns out the man had a beard that was the birthmark!
The pixel comment was the filter/effect given to the image it make it look like the man was behind a glass panel which the seal was gone, so the glass was misted. I thought there was nothing wrong with the design.
Anyway the man popped down, comes into the shop. We explain the facts to him, he remarks that he feels the print does’nt work, then in the same breath tells us he’s had 2 jobs in where people seeing his van… So it clearly works! We said
He couldn’t really argue with that. He left saying it was just him being unsure about things…
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Had a very similar incident with a guy selling posh coffee on a smart car.
Spent hours designing a high res coffee cup in the foreground with a pile of coffee beans in the background in soft focus. He had it for a week until he had the "dog poo" comment. All of a sudden it was my fault I hadn’t seen the similarity!
I did taste the coffee beforehand & I think the comparison was probably on the money -
Phil, try some inner peace…yoga and breath out all your woes as yoga Dan teaches…
try these moves when it all gets too much…(this deserves a caption eh?)
oooooom
Cheryl
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Thanks Cheryl, I’ll give that a go 😕
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quote Phill Fenton:Thanks Cheryl, I’ll give that a go 😕
Get the Mrs to take a photo LOL
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Apparently asking for a deposit now is unprofessional. 😕
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quote Karl Williams:Apparently asking for a deposit now is unprofessional. 😕I’ve had that recently too!
also – "you’re charging for the amendments to the proofs?" from one customer who was on drastic change No5 – after the usual, "this is our logo but we don’t know what we want" scenario.
as much as I hate boring designs on vans etc. today I had a guy come in, want’s a simple name and number on the side of the van, 10mins on the pc with the customer, 4mtr of vinyl and an hour to fit, "£120" I said.. "when can you do it" he said.
I’d take ten customers a week like that over the majority of my jobs!
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Welcome to my world.
I have been ready to blow my head off since about 2002 or so.I got an inquiry (complete with a 5MG word doc) about two banners.
I quoted for the sizes they listed. The next day they replied, they said that they had actually ran out of time for the one banner (which turns out was an over-the-road banner, which was never mentioned and is about $300 more than what I quoted) and could I merely change the dates on their existing banner (another 2MG doc attachment)My slippery cousin texted me about lettering the backs of two old signs for his new business. I quoted, never heard from him. That was about two weeks ago. And even slippier sign acquaintance just called me, that cousin was shopping out to him to see if that guy could do it cheaper.
I hate 98% of most people. There are very few good ones out there.
That being said, I did sell a logo this week and even got $100 tip from another client.
Love….Jill -
Have to tell you all this one…..
Making a shop sign next week, approx. 600mm x 2700mm, one piece ACM panel.
Customer: Will sign be finished by middle of next week
Me: Yes Sir, that our aim, and we’ll fit it Thursday all being well.Customer: Oh don’t worry about fitting it.
Me: Ok, but why’s that Sir.Customer: We have a event at local Town Hall and thought we could use the sign instead of buying the banner you also quoted, then afterwards, we’ll fit it to the shop in such a way that we could remove it, when we have more events… 😛
I was lost for words……
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quote Colin Crabb:Have to tell you all this one…..Making a shop sign next week, approx. 600mm x 2700mm, one piece ACM panel.
Customer: Will sign be finished by middle of next week
Me: Yes Sir, that our aim, and we’ll fit it Thursday all being well.Customer: Oh don’t worry about fitting it.
Me: Ok, but why’s that Sir.Customer: We have a event at local Town Hall and thought we could use the sign instead of buying the banner you also quoted, then afterwards, we’ll fit it to the shop in such a way that we could remove it, when we have more events… 😛
I was lost for words……
😀 😀 😀
I blame Kirsty Allsop on C4! 🙂
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I once had a customer who on realising that when the vinyl is weeded we effectively remove a "negative" of all the lettering. So he asked me to save all the weeded vinyl from the sign I was making for him and give it to him to use elsewhere… :hung:
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Not the worst example, but a good customer asked if I could call in to look at a new leaflet…
Saw new leaflet, asked if I could take it away, no its the only one, but we do have a pdf we could have emailed you…
The penny dropped… 🙂
Anyway open up the pdf and its just a scan of the leaflet, converted to a pdf…
Still we charged extra to design the new one 🙂
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Quote a customer for 1000 210x210mm folded leaflets.
Quotation says 1 working week turnaround time.
Customer orders leaflets yesterday and then tells us he needs them for weekend! (:)
We printed, creased and folded them all ourselves in house, finishing around lunch time, at 16:40 they’re still sat in a box waiting to be collected 🙄
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quote Jill Marie Welsh:Welcome to my world.
I have been ready to blow my head off since about 2002 or so.I hate 98% of most people. There are very few good ones out there.
….Jill
Im a bit like Jill, time for a holiday before I kill…the Yoga doesn’t work for me either…
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We have a customer who has his leaflets without folding, he then gets his staff to fold them…. He saves £30
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I like the clients who come in and have no idea what they want..
You spend ten minutes coming up with a solution fore them to then say ‘oh that’s expensive’! – ten minutes ago, you didn’t even know what the fuck you wanted, so how the hell do you know how much it should cost??
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Had a charity order some signage last week, quite a bit of stuff.
The person collected it and walked out of the workshop without asking if they owed me anything, just walked away! 😀I was going to doing it for free anyway but being asked if I was owed anything would have been nice and mannerly! 😀
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quote :Had a charity order some signage last week, quite a bit of stuff.
The person collected it and walked out of the workshop without asking if they owed me anything, just walked away!Yup had that one 👿
Quoted for a local pantomime posters and banners – was told that its to expensive (they made them themselves… ’nuff said)
BUT came to see me a few days before the pantomime opened and asked for a raffle prize…….. 🙄
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Had a belter this morning.
"I’ve got 10 cars I need wrapping" he says
I hear "I’ve got one car I want wrapping, as cheaply as possible, and by saying I have 10 you will give me a cheaper price"
I take a look at the gents BMW, with sun roof, black gloss wrapped mirrors, and tacky ‘sponsorship’ logo’s all over the skirt.
Not being particular interested in the job as we’re mad busy and the strong stench on Bull sh!t, I quoted £150 to wrap the roof.
The poor bloke explodes "Why you double the price everyone else quoting £75!"
He then asks how much to wrap the mirrors, I make sure it’s just the mirrors, on their own. £50 to wrap just the mirrors.
"I pay £25.00 for both, you to dear, you too expensive"
To which my answer was very calm and professional as always…
Well if whoever did you’re mirrors is so cheap and awesome why are you shopping round for prices, and I suggest you hop back into your car and toddle off back to them. 👿
I returned to the window frosting I was weeding on my bench, made sure the 20 sponsorship boards I am printing were OK, and that the plotter was cutting the 300 labels OK. :lol1:
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Phonecall yesterday asking me to call around to discuss a rebranding of some business premises. I offered to call in at 11am this morning and asked if that was ok? Yes that’s fine, I’ll be in all morning he says. Turned up at 11 – was he there? was he fuck 🙄
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Phone call last week, asking for someone to call at a local takeaway for a new sign. I asked what time and day would be convenient?
9 o’clock tomorrow he said. Not a proble,. The stepson was there 9 on the dot, and was he there, was he boot. He stayed there for ten minutes then came back to the shop. The following morning we open up and listen to the phone messages.
There’s a message from the irate takeaway owner saying its now 9.30pm and you haven’t showed up yet!!!!
Yes he wanted us to come out at 9 at night lol
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At least he turned up 😕
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Denise welcome to the 24 hour a day world we live in, nothing surprises me any more, there does not seem to be a 9-5 day anymore 🙁
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I have had a client talking to me all day ammending a design that he agreed for production yesterday.
The icing on the cake was he rang me tonight while i was having dinner with the family so i let the call go to answerphone and would have called him back about 10 mins later when i had finished my dinner not bad service for 7.45 at night !!
However this was obviously not good enough as he continued to call me another 6 times before he finally realised that i wasnt going to answer. When i rang him back it was to tell me that he wants the street number on the sign !!! -
130am my mobile went off and a fellow from the local indian take away asking if I could pop round and quote him for a banner he got both barrels 👿
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