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Problem Client – How would you handle this?
Evening all,
I was asked by a small van sales company to do some vehicle graphics for a van they had just sold.
It was to have dead bolts fitted. Really wasn’t fussed about doing the job but said I would help them out if I could fit the graphics before the locks were fitted. They advised me the areas they would be fitted so designed the artwork around this so as to avoid them.
Approved the artwork with the client, all good.
Now as soon as this job came to me the first thing I thought about was flood fill the panels. The logo has 4 different colours and also the accreditation to the rear side would look bad just floating as printed sticker.
Fitted the job, really happy with it. Left, invoiced them. Paid, all good.
So they pick the van up and instantly start complaining the panels are flood filled instead of cut vinyl. "It looks awful" The vinyl is whiter than the dull, weathered paint of the second hand van they have just bought. The one thing I can agree on is the dead bolt has been placed through there web address. Although not my fault as was advised this would be 6 inches up the recess panel, I can sympathise with them.
Cut a long story short they want the graphics removed and done all in cut vinyl :yikes:
My first thought is to offer to re-do the rear free of charge but still flood fill the rear panel and adjust the web address.
2nd option remove all graphics and refund their money. I’m not doing this in cut vinyl
They are also not close about an hour away
What do you think?
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16 Replies
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It’s a hard call James. To be honest if it’s was us we’d have printed it all with a cut line round all the elements with a bit of bleed added to them, laminated it then put it through the cutter to make it into cut graphics. The only time we’d flood fill a panel is if it was a totally different colour to the vehicle. Like you say there can be a massive difference in colour / finish between the two. For the value of it we’d strip it off and redo it as the customer asked. Would be a real pain though if you had to make it up from layers of different coloured vinyls. By refunding it in full you’ve lost the money for the original graphics whereas if you redo it and keep their money you might still make a few quid and keep a potential future customer.
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If its a white van, I always use clear to flood the panels. You’re not in the wrong mate but trying to explain it to these complainy types will have you going round in circles, you can’t educate pork. If the garage who employed you is a good punter, change it & make it clear that you’re doing them a massive favour. Add a few quid to everything else you do for them in future, they keep their customer happy & hopefully reassure the garage that you’re a bloke that solves their problems. Digging your heels in might win the battle but you will lose the war. Catch more flies with honey than vinegar & all that
(The bloke who put the locks in is a prat) -
Cheers Guys, food for thought there. Think I’ll re do if they can bring the van to me.
Must remember these cleaning types generally suffer from OCD!
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quote James Boden:Cheers Guys, food for thought there. Think I’ll re do if they can bring the van to me.Must remember these cleaning types generally suffer from OCD!
The good ones do anyway…. :smiles:
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As much as it would pain me, I’d re-do it but, on the caveat that they bring it to me. It’s an act of good will, not of obligation.
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It’s a tricky one – and I believe you have been caught up in a dispute between the dealer and the van buyer. The buyer is not happy with the van so starts looking for faults. I suspect if it wasn’t for the deadlock there probably wouldn’t have been an issue but the deadlock triggered a need to find other faults to reinforce his case.
I was caught up in something similar only last year where I had been asked to re-create the graphic on a vehicle after a crash repair. Almost all the graphics had been removed and all I had to work from was some photos of the vehicle prior to stripping the graphics off. Based on what information I had been given I did a pretty amazing job to re-create what was seen in the photos but for some reason the end customer started nit picking and came up with some astonishing reasons why the graphics I had done were wrong. When I asked the dealer what they wanted me to do to fix the problem I was told they wanted it re-done at which point I pointed out that given the only artwork I had was that which I had re-created then the end result would be exactly the same.
Long story short, I reluctantly agreed to a refund but only after I was shown evidence that the graphics I had made up had been removed. I wasn’t going to give away my work for free.
There were no winners in that instance – but a lesson learned to ensure the customers expectations were properly managed
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As Phil says, your obligation is with your client, the dealer.
The dealer should be dealing with the buyer.
Offer it them at cost. There’s nothing wrong with what you’ve done, however we would do the same, print and cut, same as David, it’s my pet hate flooding white panels, just looks lazy in my opinion.
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have to say i would not have flood coated the panel new or old van unless a colour change the carpet logo is only a bit of cyan in a black text lay out
the multi greens would have been printed and cut individually no white showing if i had not got a similar pinky colour would have printed and cut that with suitable reg marks etc would have slotted together quickly. and save probably 1 and half mts of print and laminate. -
I’d have used cut vinyl, or at the most printed the logo on clear with a close cut path and cut for the rest.
Steve
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James, go back to your customer with a price comparison to show that it’s cheaper on printed panels than vinyl cut – which it would be in time alone, and tell them you printed it as it’s cheaper for them. You can offer to remove it and re-do in vinyl if they are willing to pay the difference, which they would have had to pay if it was done in vinyl anyway.
Just inflate the figure to cover your basic costs, the labour to remove and re-fit would be done at your own cost more or less anyway.
Even if it wasn’t the best way to have done that job, it’s always more expensive to do fiddly stuff in vinyl by comparison so it’s a valid way to approach this. What would be unacceptable to me, is to re-do it but using a more expensive method, for no extra money!
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I can’t see what’s fiddly on the livery?
Print & Plot the green logo & SM logo’s, all the text cut from vinyl, with and the light blue bit.
No trimming round panels, or using knifeless tape, the time saving’s negligible, material costs much cheaper using CAD film, over a decent Poly and laminate.
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I would be more concerned that no one could read the contact details with big white blocks covering them. Although I can still make out the number but you really made me work for it [emoji16]
I’m with everyone else here, print the graphics and use the plotter to cut around the parts, no issues with the white not matching. I do like Kev’s idea with doing it in clear, I might try that.
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I would have printed those side panels on clear poly all day long. Both sides would go into under 3 metres of 1370mm material, no weeding, no taping, less chance of being blown off with an over zealous jet washer, or picked at by boneheads, zero time to fit, only plotter job would be the doors. Personal preference I guess
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quote Kevin Mahoney:I would have printed those side panels on clear poly all day long. Both sides would go into under 3 metres of 1370mm material, no weeding, no taping, less chance of being blown off with an over zealous jet washer, or picked at by boneheads, zero time to fit, only plotter job would be the doors. Personal preference I guess
Knifeless tape or have you made a template?
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Freehand for me, knifeless tape for my lad
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I’ve booked them in to have this re-fitted. A lesson learned, nothing worse than doing a job twice, but hey.
I guess this post highlights there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Will be flood filling with clear in future Kev :thumbsup:
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