We are a commercial printer that dabbles in large format for a few clients. We rarely do installs, mostly just print and give to businesses who install themselves. We had a University ask us for a quote on replacing a 6x7 foot map screwed to their wall. The previous map was on some type of semi-rigid material, such as a 3/16" board with a nice gloss finish. The only thing that looked kind of bad was that they had screwed it to the wall and the screws were at an angle and not flush, but black screws in a black border weren't too noticeable. They also used two pieces and had a seam in the middle butted together.
I told them we recommended replacing with a new printed board, but noted that we could also just print a decal to apply over it. I did this knowing that since it was bid out, someone else may do this. They jumped on this idea and we printed 6 mil adhesive vinyl and applied it. Of course there were bulges over the screws in the corners and the seam wasn't perfect since we were working with adhesive vinyl and not a direct printed rigid material. The old map we were applying too also flexed a lot during the install as it was only secured at the edge and would bow out from the wall when applying the decal. Overall I thought it looked OK, but of course it had the screws showing and the seam was about a 32nd of an inch. At the time of install the woman whose desk was by it said it looked great.
Two days later I get a call from the purchasing agent saying the woman who said it was great had her boss see it and she flipped out saying it looked hideous. I showed her the email where I had suggested replacing the board, but that she had wanted the cheapest option. She admitted it was a lack of communication between their organization internally, where once of them was worried about price and the other wanted quality above all else. She finally said she didn't really blame us, but wanted to to call and vent. lol I asked what would make her happy at this point and she said she was fine, but didn't know if anything would satisfy her co-worker. She expressed that her co-worker was new and didn't know anything about ordering signs and just figured we would take care of making sure it looked good.
I told her we wouldn't be billing her, as we do other work that they have never complained about, but for different departments and didn't want to jeopardize that. Essentially it seemed she wanted someone to blame and I fit the bill. Regardless it made me feel bad, but didn't really have any option to fix the situation.
I told them we recommended replacing with a new printed board, but noted that we could also just print a decal to apply over it. I did this knowing that since it was bid out, someone else may do this. They jumped on this idea and we printed 6 mil adhesive vinyl and applied it. Of course there were bulges over the screws in the corners and the seam wasn't perfect since we were working with adhesive vinyl and not a direct printed rigid material. The old map we were applying too also flexed a lot during the install as it was only secured at the edge and would bow out from the wall when applying the decal. Overall I thought it looked OK, but of course it had the screws showing and the seam was about a 32nd of an inch. At the time of install the woman whose desk was by it said it looked great.
Two days later I get a call from the purchasing agent saying the woman who said it was great had her boss see it and she flipped out saying it looked hideous. I showed her the email where I had suggested replacing the board, but that she had wanted the cheapest option. She admitted it was a lack of communication between their organization internally, where once of them was worried about price and the other wanted quality above all else. She finally said she didn't really blame us, but wanted to to call and vent. lol I asked what would make her happy at this point and she said she was fine, but didn't know if anything would satisfy her co-worker. She expressed that her co-worker was new and didn't know anything about ordering signs and just figured we would take care of making sure it looked good.
I told her we wouldn't be billing her, as we do other work that they have never complained about, but for different departments and didn't want to jeopardize that. Essentially it seemed she wanted someone to blame and I fit the bill. Regardless it made me feel bad, but didn't really have any option to fix the situation.
